Alterations To A Life Jacket

Frank Marotta was born and raised on the mean streets of New York City in the 1950’s. Corona, Queens, was a close-knit, blue-collar, predominantly Italian neighborhood. It had the distinction of being the site of the two World’s Fairs, in 1939 and 1964. Now known as Flushing Meadows Corona Park, it’s home to the New York Mets Citi Field, the Arthur Ash Tennis Stadium, Queens Theatre in the Park, and the New York City Hall of Science. But such upscale beginnings were not the way it all started for Frank. His family of eight lived in a close-quartered, four-room apartment and experienced both abuse and dysfunction. All this lead to Frank’s instabilities-mental, emotional, and social-and to his self-purported inability to make favorable decisions in his life. But it is now time to unlock those early years of hopelessness and despair. This is his story.