Believe me I know, my family came over from Italy. It was during a time when the head of your family came here first, worked his rump off, saved every penny and then sent for the rest of his family to make the journey here. My grandparents came from families with 13, 12, 10 siblings and they slept 4 to a bed and sometimes 8 in one room. I know they were tough times and what they went through was something that was instilled in me because they wanted to make sure I was grateful for everything I have, even if it's not much. I myself grew up on the first floor of a three family home and in just 4 rooms. My grandparents upstairs and my aunt and uncle above them. And yes, it's not a stereotype that Italians make their basements nicer than their own apt. We had that type of basement and every Italian family on my block had the same. It was dug out daily by everyone in the family when they came home from work. Then who ever had carpentry skills took care of building, masonry skills took care of the brick work etc etc. I was just making making lite of how people aren't really smiling too much in older pictures.