``You delegate it and the people don't do the walk the way I want it done," he explained. ``I feel I can do a better job."
He's been doing a better job at just about everything since his family arrived from Italy in 1938, fleeing the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. ``I was 14 when we came to Boston," he said. ``I couldn't speak a word of English."
Arthur and his twin brother, Henry, started hawking newspapers for the Daily Record and the Boston American. ``The first words that I learned were, `Two cents, Mister,' the price of the paper. I hoped they'd give me a nickel and say keep the change."
The two eventually wandered from the North End to Dorchester to Fenway Park. ``We saw these crowds," D'Angelo said. ``We didn't know what baseball was. We snuck into the ballpark. The game started at 2 p.m. and we thought, `What are these idiots doing with a baseball bat?' But then it caught on and we loved the game. Why not capitalize on it?"
They did. Big-time.
D'Angelo says The Souvenir Store, run by Twins Enterprises Inc., is the largest of its kind. Most locals refer to it as ``Twins" even though Henry died in 1987. It features thousands of Red Sox items, ranging from Ted Williams-signed photographs to bras, dog collars, pool tables, and even a pizza cutter in which Sox radio announcer Jerry Trupiano calls a grand slam.
But their specialty is caps.
``We sell more caps than anybody in the world," said D'Angelo, who along with his four sons runs Twins Enterprises Inc. ``We probably make 40 million hats a year. We supply every ballpark. We make them for all the major league teams.
``We also have licensing for 200 colleges. Hockey, basketball in Europe, world soccer. I used to have to go to the factory in Canton, China, seven times a year. It's a good, sizable business."
How good?
``I don't want to get into the numbers," D'Angelo said, flashing a smile. ``Let me tell you something, I always thought I was gonna be successful, and I tell you something, I spend less money now than ever. I just wanted to accomplish something in life. That was always my goal."
D'Angelo added that ``anything stamped `Red Sox' sells."
Well, almost anything.
