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Astoria Characters The SewingMachine Savior

Eleven. That’s the number that forever altered Sakis Karagiannakis’ life.
That’s how old he was when his father died, paving the way for his becoming the prime provider for his mother and two sisters.
OK, he did get to finish grammar school and his older sister did get hired out, too, but by 13, he was working full time repairing bicycles and motorcycles.
“I always wanted to be an airplane mechanic, but I never got to go to school,” says Sakis, owner of SK, the neighborhood’s only sewing machine fix-it shop and supplier of stitchery supplies like foot pedals, feed dogs and throat plates. “But that job gave me the chance of a life because my boss told me to go to technical school (continue reading…)