Every family has a story from the past that tells how it became a family. When They Were Young is about the lives of Gina Rosaia and John Turnbull, two orphans raised in separate parts of San Francisco in the 1920s and 1930s. Gina grew up in North Beach, which was the area where mostly Italian families lived and was often called "Little Italy. John was raised in Butchertown. A tuff neighborhood along the bay. It was home to several slaughterhouses and a mixed bag of nationalities. The city, as San Franciscans call it, was still small enough that everyone was somehow connected. You can follow both Gina and John as they grow up while experiencing the start of organized crime, the Great Depression, and the unionization of workers in the city

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