Once uppon a time... in Oak Park, Illinois... I was raised.  I was one of 7 siblings, who's mom and dad were part owners of a cutlery store that started a long, long time ago.  My grandpa had started a business that catered to barbers.  He made razor strops, sharpened razors and sold barber supplies.  Then in 1905 he founded D. Corrado, Inc.  in the heart of downtown Chicago.

        My earliest memories are of the late sixties, I was in 7th or 8th grade, my dad started taking me downtown on Saturday's to "work" at the store.  By then there were two stores, 26 N Clark St. and 33 E Adams St.  My dad ran the main store, and my Uncle Vic ran the branch store on Adams St.

        Carmen Corrado, my dad, was a well educated, big, strong man.  He had survived horrors at The Battle of the Bulge, and was now focusing his efforts on supporting a large family.  He involved all us kids in the store.  He laid out artwork with my sister Mary for catalogs, and became one of the first mail order cutlery establishments in the US.  He went to Germany, Italy and France to maintain relations with the cutlery manufacturers.  We were importing from all the major manufacturers, many of them were even stamping D. Corrado, Inc. ;  Corrado Cutlery;  or Shield Brand along side their own logo's.