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The Education of an American Dreamer: HOW A SON OF GREEK IMMIGRANTS LEARNED HIS WAY FROM A NEBRASKA DINER TO WASHINGTON, WALL STREET, AND BEYOND
WHILE MANY YOUNG boys grow up wanting to be sports legends, doctors, lawyers or policemen, Pete Peterson grew up wanting to be an American. His parents had immigrated to the United States from a poor village in the hills of Southern Greece almost fifteen years before his birth. George and Veneria Peterson could speak no English, yet saw America as a prosperous land where they could leave memories of raising chickens and sleeping on straw mattresses in the distant past. Long after the Petersons had settled in Kearney, Nebraska, they were still struggling to make it. Perhaps this was because they clung to their Greek culture and old-world values of hard work, savings and "economia? George opened a diner that operated around the clock, seven days per week, and often earned only a few dollars in profit. He saved every dollar he earned and sent any extra back to his poor relatives in Greece. Outside the diner, cost cutting was the first priority for the family: everyone shared the same bathwater, the house was kept cold during the winter to conserve heating fuel and the entire neighborhood shared the same telephone. The Petersons were part of a "Greek community that was an isolated island in the American sea of Nebraska." They only associated with other Greeks and had their children celebrate Greek holidays and honor Greek traditions. Pete Peterson and his brother wore traditional Greek outfits to school, and any non-Greek girls they brought home were subject to disdain and prejudice from their parents. In young Peter's eyes, his parents had failed to embrace what it meant to be American. Their failure to assimilate chagrined him so much that he resolved to show his parents what being "American" was all about. In his autobiography, The Education of an American Dreamer, Peterson recounts his cultural tug-of-war and efforts to live the American Dream.
At many points in the book, Peterson recalls his father humming or singing "God Bless America," something Peterson could never understand, given the fact he had worked so hard for so little - what could his father...