Grand mother thought me that I had a good angel on my left side (the heart side) and a devil angel on the other side. She used to tell me. "When somebody want you to do something bad the devil angel will push you to do it, but, the good angel will smile at you and tell you. Don't do it. You always have to listen to the good angel, never to the devil angel. Grand mother descripton of good and bad impressed very deeply at my young age.
We listened to melodies, soft music, we learned poems and lyrics and recited them to each other. We always wanted to outdo each other learning something new, be it creating or combining the new with the old. If a piece of jewelry broke we would take the broken pieces and create a new design; from a bracelet we would make dangler earrings, from a beautiful mother of pearl button we would a make a scarf-pin. We took the old, wool soldier's uniforms apart and made coats to keep us warm in the winter.
Grand mother used the dead soldier's helmets and used them to put water in the chicken's coops. Nothing was ever thrown away. Left over food went to the animals, what was left over from the animals went into the compost pile to enrich the ground. We, as young people, were punished if we threw even a candy wrap on the ground. We were thought to respect ourselveves, our family, our neighbors and the grounds we lived on.
Our clothing were determned by the seasons, so were the colors. In the fall we wore mostly dark greens, browns and blacks. In the summer we wore bright colors. We were not allowed to wear white shoes in the winter or boots in the summer.
Church was not a social gathering. Church was a place of warship and again, as a sign of respect to the Lord and others we had to cover our heads; sleveless dresses were not allowed in church. We went to pray the Lord to give us strenght in life and thank Him for his blessings. The church was not used as an hide out from our own sins as it is today.
A good christian was not a church goer but a nice soul who was always ready to help, even if just lending a smile in a time of crisis. Friendship was respected and honored just like the members of the family.
Every birthday grand parents and parents would admonish us that we were one year older and they expected more help from us, they said it and gave us new chores to carry on.
At my graduation I did not have a party or a special vacation. My father told me "You did your duty" and I was proud of it.
Our first duty was respect. Our second duty was work, we could never stop learning because our elderly had a lesson to teach us every day. Our third duty was to create and study. And last, but not least it was time to play.
At my golden age today seems like everything that I was thought and helped me grow in honesty, sincerity, creativity, niceness, and happiness has been reversed.
Criminals can write a book and become famous. Sex (we could not even say that word) is on everyone's mouth, seems like it has become today's password.
Family. What is family? People live together without marrying. I hear couples talking about my kids, her or his kids and our kids. I can only imagine how confusing it must be for a child's mind have brothers and siters with different fathers.
We were happy as children, we hopped and skipped and laughed, we rode bikes, walked miles telling each other fantasy stories. We collected bugs, we were out with mother nature all around us. We were not afraid to pick up a snake or a frog; for to us everything in nature was harmless. We did not have any fears in our hearts because of our solid roots and also because we knew inside ourselves we would never betray the teachings of our family. We were strong trees ready to weather the storms of life with a smile, thanks to our upbringing.
I was only a child during WWII and things were not pleasant. Everything was distroyed in Italy. There was no water, a lot of sickness. We took a bath only once a week, to do so grand mother used the large metal container she used to mix the hog's slop. She filled it with the well water up to the brim and sat it in the sun shine to warm it up. In the winter we wore home made wool undershirt. They itched so bad that we scratched for a whole week. They had to chase us to bathe us again the week after because we hated to fight another week of constant pure wool itch. We were happy.
