This anthology, Secrets of The Embassy, pulls back the curtain to reveal the richness of an impoverished childhood through the eyes of a gifted young boy. The author’s long and prismatic life placed him in many parts of the world where he faced all kinds of obstacles; financial, political, romantic, physical, and educational. Reflections collected here, his childhood experiences growing up in a unique Upstate New York home—the cherished fountainhead he called The Embassy—helped him meet those life challenges with an amazing degree of happiness and success. Come in and experience The Embassy for yourself.Esta antología, Secretos de La Embajada, levanta el telón para descubrir la riqueza de una infancia precarizada a través de los ojos de un dotado jovencito. La vida larga y prismática del autor lo ha colocado en muchas partes del mundo donde ha enfrentado todo tipo de obstáculos: financieros, políticos, románticos, físicos y educativos. Las reflexiones recogidas aquí, sus experiencias de infancia mientras crecía en un hogar único al norte del estado de Nueva York —el preciado manantial que él llama La Embajada—, le ayudaron a afrontar esos retos vitales con un admirable grado de felicidad y éxito. Entra y experimenta La Embajada por cuenta propia. "A dozen charming, insightful, and entertainingly-written reminiscences about coming of age in a working-class neighborhood in the halcyon days just before The Music Died. Stefano Buonocore-Knothe offers compact and utterly joyful moral reflections about what constituted appropriate Roman Catholic behavior in the small and historic upstate New York city where he spent his childhood with a multicultural extended family. The tales are so rich with detail that it is easy to imagine oneself right there alongside him as he grows up. This memoir is a thoroughly enjoyable and rare combination of nostalgia and education." — P. Thomas Carroll, American cultural historian "It has been said that the past is a foreign country and that is certainly evident in these recollections. It seems to me a reminder of how quickly customs and communities can evolve and change. After all, these events took place not so long ago. Narratives like this have value in recording daily life of times past in less familiar places and circumstances and the author is a genial guide. In that manner, he clearly comes across as a 'buonocore'—a reliable, good-hearted person." —James F. Turk, Ph.D., educator and historian Stefano Buonocore-Knothe, a lifelong learner, has experienced the world with open arms. His favorite locations are South Korea, France, and Oaxaca, Mexico. He is proud of his accomplishments, varied jobs and careers along the way. Stefano loves people; he has a warm smile and is always ready for a hearty laugh. He holds an M.S. from The State University of New York and studied for his doctorate at NYU in New York and France. He has lived and worked among the indigenous people of Oaxaca, Mexico for ten years. The author continues to study, write, and travel while currently living in New York. The readers of The Embassy series have shown such a love of this endeavor, that I wanted to satisfy their deepening curiosity about The Embassy "behind the scenes." Pulling back the curtain, this book will tell the reader (in more or less chronological order) factual events which occurred during those eventful years of the 1950s and 1960s . . . while factual, still very interesting and ENTERTAINING! For new readers of The Embassy, please keep in mind that The Embassy was NOT a real governmental embassy, but rather a poor, private two-family home in a lower, middle class working neighborhood in the Upstate New York city of Troy during the second half of the Twentieth Century. It was always thought of and referred to by me since childhood as "The Embassy" because of the many national backgrounds, the many languages spoken there, and the many religions practiced there during my childhood years in residence. It seemed like a world unto itself. After all, an embassy is legally a foreign land within a bigger host country. It should also be emphasized to the new reader that the Buonocore-Knothe family who lived in The Embassy was very cash poor, and although all were good and intelligent individuals, for the most part they were not particularly typical of the more stereotyped American families of the time. This was due to the recent arrival of a young post World War II war bride from Italy (my mother) and her very aged in-laws (my paternal grandparents) who, being born in the 1890s, had very old-fashioned ways of running The Embassy which they had bought in the 1930s. And unlike the nuclear families of many post WWII homes, The Embassy was a prime example of "the extended family" of an earlier generation of Americans; so there were all kinds of interesting family members who lived there. This book is a real walk back in time to a special era that no longer exists. This anthology, Secrets of The Emb