As a self educated writer, business man, teacher, and historian, I have journeyed great distances encountering life's many pains, sorrows, joys, and happiness in my quest for knowledge. What began as a personal journey to find where I belonged in this maze of life, became in essence an education taught face to face by the many and varied peoples I met along the way. Little did I know that purpose was laced throughout these times.

My journey began long before I left home, but it was my quest to discover the meaning of life and family at eleven years of age that truly became my beginnings! Ernest Holsendolph of The Atlanta Journal/Constitution, in a front page article, described me fairly well, and I quote: "Fatherless since he was eight, he left home, first at age 11. And like a Charles Dickens character, Mr. Scarfone scrambled about on his own, making a living from odd jobs and his wits..."

Those wits were wits of a continued endeavor to find a home in which to rest my aching heart. Through out my journeys, God in fact had gifted me with a place of my own. I refused to sleep upon HIS bed of comfort, a bed that produces sleep so pure and refreshing that each awakening is new and alive with joy and revelation. I refused to welcome HIS roof of warmth and HIS walls of strength that protect us with mighty powers of dedication and perseverance. And yet HE never quit in HIS just way to educate me for my purpose with HIM.

Purpose remains the most confusing agenda which we must address each and everyday. For without spiritual purpose life is mundane and has no true meaning. When folks are faced with day to day, spiritless, mortal living, they become leaves in the wind thrust hither and dither upon this vast earth in perpetual search of answers -- answers that are often right in front of them! Often, when I speak this way, I am told: "You make it seem so easy." I always reply: "It is easy if one is motivated through God."

I have long been gifted with an ability to tell stories with energy and enthusiasm, but it took a truth -- and the pain that sometimes is truth's companion -- to learn that one can only open ears and eyes and truly gather hearts and educate minds after one comes to possess the knowledge and truth of God's love and ultimate power. With this truth, one can bestow information that one can understand and believe in. Eventually this knowledge and compassionate understanding will reach the subconscious minds of those with out the truth or the will to face their legacy, thereby removing the ragged blossoms of doubt, hate, and contempt which are planted through seeds of despair and confusion.

Allow me to assure you, Father Figure and The Oath of Alphonso is not a "Mafia" story. Father Figure and The oath Of Alphonso is a revealing and true his-story of a mother's love and compassion; of ultimate understanding through faith in God and His ever loving mercy; of a mother's son whom must come to terms with his past; a proof of the existence of a families ability to beget more than their traditions-- even a wretched curse of continuation... of hate, sorrow, pain, and poverty...Yes, one can beget good or bad, one can alter or remain, but if one allows themselves to deny, forget, and or not care for "anything but themselves and their lives", their succeeding generations will have to pay the sometimes dear and expensive price of continuation!

We will begin our 75 year his-story with a Prologue, one which will identify your narrator, introduce a main character, my mother, Jeanette DiCanio, and end with an important question, one which will follow us throughout our journey: "Is there a God and life after death?" Then we enter Book One, The Oath of Alphonso. The Oath of Alphonso is a brief, fifty page expose of the facts and background for the principal characters of Book Two, Father Figure, our primary story. You will journey back in time and discover as I did, the awesome truth of a family whom, for one generation after another, are thrust into a world where only the ruthless and conniving even dare attempt to survive. A world composing four generations of cognate men and woman whom are drawn into subterfuge, each against the other, through the curse of Alphonso: A curse that was as real as the suffering of it's victims and their ultimate sacrifice.

From these pages on, the his-story truly begins: Father Figure and The Oath of Alphonso becomes truly more then simply a story of rigid fact; it is one of gentle persuasion in the face of savage reality. A touching of minds, hearts, and souls upon a slice of time; minute and insignificant in this vast universe of reality-- yet much to many! Father Figure must be told as it was and is: a complete and fascinating revelation of life and death, and of poverty and it's legacy of continuance--with all it's good and bad. Though, I have disguised all offensive language with "asterisk speak", scenes of violence were included within it's pages. For, in order for this story to reach into your very soul, it's life had to be depicted as it occurred.

I have legions of folk to thank for the many important lessons of life which made me whom I am today. To those whom nourished me, protected me, and forgave me when I sometimes "bit the hand that fed me", I deliver my story so that you may share in the great rewards of our Creator! For you, my times of trepidation eventually became times of joy!

Yes! It is incredible that we can rejoice in memory of horrid experiences and put to voice HIS truth and justice. Can you believe that? Is it not fantastic that God gifts us with the abitity to shed the skins of so many snakes? Yes, faith and perseverance achieves all!. Just maybe, a young man, a young woman, a mother or father, lonely in spirit, hungry of mind and thirsting to belong will be swept along this journey of truth and history and discover their power through HIM; Our Lord and Savior, Our spiritual Father Figure--Jesus Christ! For, only through faith is purpose revealed! So, with much joy and purpose in life, I Praise HIM. Thus, my fears, hungers, and pains have become but a few yellowed pages of my life....

Born in New York City to Italian-American parents, Rocky began his life with an affliction of severe club feet and deformed legs, an abnormality which would consume the first five years of his childhood. At eight years of age, his father, Joseph "Joe-Pep" Baffa, a mobster/racketeer with the Mafia, was brutally murdered and his family thrust into a world of poverty, sorrow, grief, and degradation. At eleven years of age, confused and desperate for answers--he was told his father's demise was the cause of an automobile accident, yet "rumors crept the city"--he ran away from home on a quest of purpose, reason, and the cause of his predicament.

A Don Quixote and Sancho a la New York City, he and his seven year old brother, Carmine, began a journey as "Men of Respect" in a Knightly fashion -- "He in brim-feathered fedora, a too small pin-striped suite and white sneakers; Carmine in cloths over Pjs." They left a note stating they would one day return rich and famous to rescue their family!

After an exciting and entertaining journey, which took them from the NY Worlds Fair to the mountains of Pennsylvania -- where they impersonated "Junior Wiseguys From The City" -- they were returned safely to the loving, caring family, and warm, soft beds they had dreamt of.

Rocky's happiness at being home would be short lived: Unbeknown to Rocky, a group of his father's enemies lurked in the shadows--Social workers suddenly appeared on his mother's doorsteps with orders to "take Rocky in for three days of psychiatric evaluation... just to determine why he ran away." Once in Belvue Hospital, he was "accidentally" placed in an adult ward. Three days became three months and, lost in a maze of suffering, the seeds of The Curse of Alphonso--as it had for four generations-- proscribed the soul of the first born of Joe-Pep...

Upon his "release", his mind reeling in turmoil and question, Rocky returned to the streets. He was soon living in abandoned apartments and "white and black checkered hallways that dotted his lonely landscape like the craters of a cold and dusty moonscape". It was not long before he was running with a group of young "Wise Guys" in effort to survive and belong. But, even while he "hung out" with "The Crew", he found the time to teach himself to read and write, "...then read every book I could lay my hands on."

When his book and street knowledge congealed into a mass of opposing views, he filed them away in a mental file marked Accident: Personal. When the file grew too large for his immature emotions, he dug an abyss deep in his mind and threw the file in. Soon he would find himself continually teetering on it's brink. His thoughts flooding in a storm of hectic thought, inventing the answers. After numerous "street ventures" he was returned once more--this time to a reform school...

Upon his release at twelve years of age, with his small brain packed to capacity with hardship and it's loyal companions, hopes and dreams, he attempted to "become a cog in the wheel of misfortune but the road continued to be a bumpy one!" Rocky soon discover the awesome truth of his family's history: the facts of his fathers death and existence of the Curse of Alphonso! The need to overcome thoughts of his father, his Knight in Shining Armor whom wore a trench coat and carried a .45, lying in a pool of blood, his dying thoughts of his family, his hopes, his dreams, filled his soul with a mixture of sorrow, revenge, and questions: Who was responsible? Tony Black? Sally? Uncle Frank? Genovese? Gambino? The Police? All of them? And, how could these individuals go home and play with their children? How did they join their families in celebration that Easter Sunday so long ago? How could they enjoy each succeeding holiday of family solace and warmth when they had destroyed the very essence of an entire family? Oh, had he felt his agony tossed upon his mind with ferocious intensity!

Death could not be simplified and dignified, especially when there were others whom were morning that death. So many thoughts converged within his novice mind. Revenge was the traffic cop... He would get revenge. They had stolen his mothers happiness and thrust them into a world of sorrow and depravity, ending their lives before they began!

"The Family", "This Thing of Ours", had become a ravaging beast bent upon total destruction, leaving orphans of society in it's quest for life. For a mere child of the storm, it was he whom was left to pick up the pieces. Would he ever? Would he truly become the man whom revenged the dishonor and sorrow that was placed upon his family with abstract total disregard to the repercussions of this disastrous act of a continuing greed? The heroes of the theater spoke up as one... You will prevail! But, what of Sparticus? What of all those heroes whom battled injustice only to die a glorious death in the end! Was he ready for that? Like Charleston Heston in Ben Hur, would he return for the ending the hero whom rescued his family with the assistance of GOD? "Oh, Jesus, where art thou now? Come to me and deliver your power to defeat mine enemies -- they abound like a plague of locust. Send to them a shower of fire and ice! The death of the first born has occurred! Please, let my people go! This trial and tribulation has desecrated my soul, my Knight in Shining Armor is gone. Will you to take up my cause..."

Was God going to perform miracles of Faith? Those same miracles that had burst his soul with HIS power to overcome his handicap? He could not answer those self imposed questions, later maybe, but for now, the overpowering need to get even overruled any further thought: he would have to leave NY and plan his action!"

He left once more... only this time, the desire for a "real" family, a father figure, and change in his life, competed with his original plan of revenge and rescue!

Would Rocky get revenge? You will have to discover this yourself....

His story will soon demonstrate, this fierce battle between good and evil would evolve into a war in which one side would place blame and demand revenge, the other compassion and change. Through out Rocky's quest, his battles would be fought on many fields across this great nation. He would travel the country and live among American Natives in New Mexico -- discovering their faith in a God; Baptists in Georgia -- where his Catholic up-bringing clashed with new views; Agnostic hippies in California--a culture believing in free love, drugs and peace; African-Americans in Miami --falling in love with a young girl of interracial parents and discovering racial bigotry first hand.

Rocky's need to belong, his want to be part of, sometimes required him to become a part of... Yes! Sometimes he became: A drug addict; A four story kid with Jack The Cat--A mascot with The South Florida Chapter of The Out Laws Motorcycle Gang -- A junior (13) member of a '60's version of the Bonnie and Clyde Gang--A Disciple of Rah Lum Nah, a '60's California cult....

Along this difficult and vast road, through state after state and city after city, from people of the plains to folks of the south, from loving, God fearing, to hateful hurt and pain, he would experience every situation that a body could imagine: A Kidnapping; Sexual Abuse; Confinement; Religous Experience; Hunger; Death; Joy; Happiness; Love; Compassion; Friendship; God; Angels; Demons; Hate; Bigotry; Loss...

He would become a vagabond submerged in a wake of cold, hard, reality. Lost in nomadic journey upon an endless desert, burdened by a never ending avalanche of questions, Rocky's every step of hope seemed to founder in the lucid, liquid, sand-trap of continuance.

All through this incredible journey someone watched over him and guided him, rescuing him at every turn. Though sometimes he received more than a taste of his predicament, his appetite was usually satisfied in small bites. It seemed that he was allowed to feel, see, and experience only so much at each stage, until learned and ready, he would be guided through the next experience.

After a stint in the Armed Forces where he recieved his GED, Rocky attended three semesters at Miami Dade Community College where he attended an honors program in English...

Eventually, after attaining gifts of communication, knowledge, understanding, and learning of the power and faith in God, Rocky began to master the business world: A Custom Design Wood Work Company; A Mechanic Shop; A Landscape and Nursery Business; A Consulting Sales and Marketing Firm; Informercial Production; Flea Market; Boxing Gym; Pawn Shop; A Jewelers Institute; A Custom Jewelry Business...

But, Rocky never seemed to be satisfied. He was always starting a business, pouring his energy into it until it became a power house, then abandoning it to begin another venture! He was driven by a feeling that his life would cease if he became placid and content. That he had to run, run, run forward, never slowing down less he fall flat on his face and cease to exist! Something was wrong... was it his back ground? Even in his relationships, it was go, go, go! Had the Curse of Alphonso been truly broken....

Then, when his last venture--one he began with $2,500 and built in two years into an eleven-thousand, five hundred foot group of companies involving one-hundred people, featured in major news papers, TV programs, and magazines, with clients including such renown names as Sylvester Stallone, Bob Lee (Boxing Commissioner and I.B.F. President), Bob Beamon (Olympic Hero), Maynard Jackson (the Mayor of Atlanta in 1993), and many, many, more, blossomed four years in a row -- the longest he had ever remained in a single place -- and threatened him with security and happiness, he began to truly believe the Curse of Alphonso had ended and he had discovered his purpose and happiness.

A fire destroyed the business. The repercussions caused him to stop and think once more: 'Had he truly discovered his purpose in life?' 'Was his purpose some how entangled within a web spun from the many roads he had traveled -- including his most recent?' 'Was his perceived disaster just that...a disaster... or was it an ending, a destruction, a release from a cocoon that had him blinded within it's fragile, soft, and comfortable silken threads: threads pulled and refined from lies and false bravado-- threads that he had in fact woven himself in his attempt to hide the degradation, destruction, and perversion of his family through The Curse of Alphonso?'

And then, like the symbol of his new found home, Atlanta's very own Phoenix, rising from the burnt offerings of it's troubled past , purpose, it's wings of truth gracefully swept, reaching, striving, knowing it's very depth, swooped the thoughts of Rocky and he discovered his destiny!

"Questions! Questions! Questions! Always questions... Am I to begin all over?... But the void is full, it overflows it's banks with eternal sufferings! I HAVE NO ROOM FOR MORE QUESTIONS! Must I put my thumb out and travel the road in reverse? A road I know is straight and direct? One I can see ending in plain and simple truth?... Can you really ask me to substitute humility for the wall of pride I have built from all those fabricated memories?... Must I expose their truths and fears that have gathered into that vast and deep abyss?... But, compressed are they, weighted down with the pain and suffering and torment and degradation of so many before me! Am I to resurrect their faults; their mistakes; their treachery; their vice; their very secrets?... My secrets too?... Oh, Lord, is this my only means for the reparation of the souls of my many and vast ancestors and the ending of the curse?... What of Father?... What will they say?... And Mother?... Grand Mother?... Even she?... The truth?... But she lives yet! And what of Great, Great, Grandfather Alphonso?... What will become of the five generations of great and gentile ancestors I have invented and placed upon father-figured thrones of marbled thought and dream..."

MY TRUE FATHER FIGURE IN HEAVEN... JESUS CHRIST.

Mother- for all her wrongs never gave up; though she never owned more than a few house dresses, never took a vacation, never awoke to real joy or contentment, was tormented her entire life, she always stood by her children...

Nana Lou- she sacrificed in a way that only mothers and grandmothers can.

Aunt Josie- who took me in at a very troubled time in my life despite overwhelming problems of her own. She showered love and affection on my tired, lonely soul.

Angela-my sister, And most dependable and cherished friend and advisor.

Danielle and Jeanette---forever to be my princesses' and "punkins": lightening bolts that sparked change in my life. Though they would suffer through the beginnings of yet another generation of continuance, their beauty, caring hearts, perseverance and loving Irish family would win reprieve... thus, for them, ending the curse of poverty brought on us by my ancestors.

Pat- who gave so much of herself to my defense, my happiness, my world...sacrificing her own. Then to Danielle and Jeanette...

Denise- who became my concrete support column: bearing all. My vision to the real world---a world blinded by the "words": respect, tradition, honor.

Uncle Eddy Bianco-whom is characterized through "Old Man Bianco" and speaks for him self....