Giorgos Zoumboulakis was born in 1938 in Sykia, Laconia, and grew up during the hardships of wartime Greece, shaped by the stories of relatives who had emigrated to the United States. At the age of 13, he moved to Athens, where he worked various jobs before eventually becoming director of the Athens Golf Club House. Always energetic and seeking new adventures, he went to sea on an Onassis tanker and twice jumped ship in the United States in search of opportunity, before being detained in Brownsville, Texas, and deported back to Greece. In 1959, he entered a correspondence marriage and immigrated to Toronto, where he became an active member of the Greek community, participating in the Orfeas Choir.
[00:00:33] His family and childhood
[00:03:40] Family’s emigration to the US
[00:06:05] Receiving boxes from relatives in the US
[00:09:12] His memories from the war decade
[00:14:52] Migrating to Athens and working various jobs
[00:19:36] Amphitryon Hotel in Nafplion and learning English
[00:21:40] Working as an interpreter
[00:23:58] Director in the Athens Golf Club House
[00:30:02] Joining an Onassis’ tanker and jumping his ship
[00:37:57] Finding his relatives in New Jersey and Minnesota
[00:41:01] Going to sea again and his journeys
[00:44:09] Giorgos Vamvakaris: His spiritual father
[00:49:10] His poems
[00:56:16] Jumping his ship again, detained, and deported
[01:00:40] Back to Amphitryon, and meeting celebrities
[01:05:52] Becoming a “picture groom” and arriving in Canada
[01:10:33] His marriage, becoming a hairdresser and waiter
[01:18:50] Joining Orfeas Choir and the Greeks of Toronto
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