Lou Picarazzi

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Photos

Lou with NYS Senator Pat Fahy and one of his famous handmade American flags.

All in the family, Warner’s Lake, 1965.

Lou with children Lori, Rick and Lisa, all in their Sunday best. Spring of 1964, Selkirk.

Selkirk Post Office party at Lou’s house, late 1960s. Lou was appointed postmaster in 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson.

Louis J. Picarazzi

Selkirk, NY

1931

Interviewed on January 9, 2024 at BPL, by Eric Bryant w/ Bill Ketzer & Tim Beebe present.

At 92 years old, Lou Picarazzi remains one of the most recognizable personalities in town, buzzing around at fundraisers, farmers markets, and town functions. A prolific woodworker, his folk-art American flags can be found in scores of Bethlehem homes and public spaces, the passion of a man on the move.

Lou’s family settled in Selkirk around 1930 from the Lazio region of Italy (about 40 miles Southeast of Rome) and he was the first of their children to be born in the United States. His parents, Domenick and Maria, raised nine kids supported by a New York Central Railroad income. After high school, Lou also joined NYCRR until duty called during the Korean War, where he served from 1951-1955 as a staff sergeant in the U.S Air Force. His VFW Post 3185 tribute banner can be seen near Main Square on Delaware Avenue.

In 1964, Lou was appointed by President Johnson as U.S. Postmaster for the Selkirk Post Office – a position he held for almost 30 years. In that era – when Selkirk was mostly farmland and had few neighborhoods – the old post office on Maple Avenue was a social hub (“Most people didn’t even have mailboxes,” he recalls) and the only contact with government most people had. Lou’s comprehensive history of this post office, which dates back to 1883, is available in our town archive and includes familiar Bethlehem names like Soop, Selkirk, Vrooman and Winnie.

The conversation covers growing up in the 1940s, the impact of the Thruway on area farms, Selkirk’s “bar-to-hardware” business ratio (it was 12:1), Bethlehem Grange, Security Supply and Lou’s 75 years at the Selkirk Fire Department, which he joined when he was only 18 years old. An incredible life of service!

Photos

Lou’s father, Domenico Picarazzi. 1950s.

US Air Force Staff Sergeant Louis Picarazzi, Korean War. Served 1951-1955.

Lou’s maternal grandparents, Giovanni and Anna Domenica Lisi. Villa Sant’Angelo, L’Aquila, Italy. Date unknown, possibly 1920s.

Lou with wife Marilyn, 1970s. Marilyn was a Houghtaling and descended from some of Albany’s earliest settlers. Her brother Bob married Marcia Slingerland, whose family was in America (and ultimately Bethlehem) as early as the mid-17th century.

Lou’s mother Maria Picarazzi, Selkirk, early 1960s.

Our narrator holding an original photograph of his paternal grandparents Antonio and Vittoria Picarazzi c. 1900, during a trip to Italy in 2019. He never met them, as his mother was pregnant with him when his parents came to the US in 1931. A lifelong dream of his, he found the family home, and one of his cousins still living next door.