Z1205/218

Female. Italian immigrant b. 24.05.1932 Original interview in Italian. English translation by Carmela Semeraro. SIDE A (00 mins)Born in Busso, Campobasso Province. 3 brothers and one sister. Three generations lived together in the one house. Did housework in place of mother from the age of 12. Mother, brothers and grandmother worked on the land. Live with her father's parents. Cooked in large earthenware pot. Had smallholding, so chickens, sheep and cows (oxen?) for ploughing. Harvested and cut hay using scythe and sickle. Wine sold to clothe family. Sufficient wheat for family and to sell some to pay taxes. (05 mins)Two milking cow' two for ploughing. Father died aged 41 years in a tree-felling accident and left 8 in the family. Grandfather then died. The interviewee was then 12. They also had a horse and two donkeys. (10 mins)Busso is at the top of a mountain. Snow in winter cut them off. Cheeses sold at market on Saturdays in the town square. Locals sold their surplus eggs, fruit and vegetables there. Shoes and clothes were sold by those from other towns. During Mussolini's period of dictatorship, there were Saturday displays of gymnastics by uniformed children. (15 mins) A time of sacrifice. They all had to work in the family. Grandparents called them to wake very early in the morning. There was harvest time and potato picking. Every month there was work to do and they, as children, had to do it. (20 mins)She stayed at home to make the bread (from age 10). Breakfast was bread and milk. Home-made pasta was produced everyday. All cut by hand. Past and beans was popular, then vegetable soup. On Sunday they killed a chicken. A pig was killed every November to make sausages and hams. Nothing was thrown away - all parts were used. (25 mins)Sausage-making process explained. Mother also made salted lard. (32 mins) End of Side A SIDE B (00 mins)they had electricity in the house but no water. Water was collected in buckets from a well. Washing of clothes was done by the river. In winter women did washing in the town in 2 large cauldrons (?). In summer, clothes were dried on bushes by the river. They used home-made soap. They did not have many clothes. (05 mins)Washing clothes was a communal activity for women. Children also swam in the river. There was no sewerage. They had a shack with a large bucket and the contents were used as manure on the fields. Sewerage was put in around 1950 in the town. (10 mins)To wash in the house, a jug and bowl was used on a stand. They had no money. They cooked with wood until portable gas caskets arrived around 1950. They sang and played music to entertain each other. They finished work when it went dark at night. From November there was no work to be done on the land until April the following year. Father went to the countryside to feed the animals each day. Women made and embroidered clothes. They had vineyard to make wine. (20 mins)They kept yellow marrows (zucca) for winter. There was more time to cook and rest in winter. In the summer they were too tired to eat - it was too hot. Winter dances on Saturday nights to the accordion music. Carnival ended at Lent. They used to sing as they worked the land. Two brothers migrated. She married. The land was abandoned. Mother ended life alone, struggling on a pension. (25 mins)She has returned to her home town to visit. Few people now live in the town. Most have migrated to England, Australia or America. She has a brother in Venezuela. The migration started after the First World War but stopped when Mussolini came to power in the 1930s. It resumed after the Second World War. (32 mins)End of Side B Side A (00 mins)Have always danced. Grew up with traditional dances. Carnival time - from January to beginning of Lent - in Busso, but all the year round there were festas. Dancing, singing - the main entertainment. Description of "Pignata (pott) Festa"- newly married couples - references to being broken (losing virginity). (05 mins)Danced three times a week, never on a Sunday. Nearly everyone in town used to take part. Children learned quadrille as first dance. Costumes worn for special occasions. Always worn when asked to visit other towns or villages. Bands took part. Lessons 2 or 3 times a week. Accordions and ancient musical instruments. (10 mins)Regional differences in costumes. She makes the costumes for those Italians still dancing in Bedford. She and her husband first met as children at the fountain where they went to collect water. Parents very strict. (15 mins)Her husband came to Bedfordshire to work for London Brick Co. in 1954. They'd married in 1952. He stayed in a hostel here. She joined him (in Aug 1954) and they rented a flat in a house in Bedford, with other Italian families. Later bought house in Maitland Street, with her brother. First child born in 1959. (20 mins)She worked at Meltis, making sweets. There was an Italian interpreter. They planned, like many immigrants, to stay for 5 or so years and return to Italy but never did. Decided in 1966, when children of school age, to stay in England rather than return to Italy. Husband died tragically of a thrombosis. She was then working for Texas Instruments and decided to stay in Bedford. Her mother in law came to live with her. (25 mins)Only one brother left in Italy. In 1974 (1984?), she set up an Italian dance group was formed in Bedford. They danced at the John Bunyan Centre, in costume, more than 25 men and women. They raised the money for the costumes. (32 mins)End of Side A Side B (00 mins)Most of the dancers were from Busso, so they knew the dances. The group lasted from 1984 to 1998. used to go to Italian dances in London. People eventually lost interest. She is limited in what she can do by looking after her elderly, housebound mother in law. (10 mins)END OF INTERVIEW Original Interview 100 mins.

25 March 2003

From: 1930 To: 2003

English. + Italian

item

Mussolini,
London Brick Company,
Meltis Limited,
Texas Instruments Limited

agricultural land, farm worker, Italians, farm animals, wine, DEATH, snow, markets, gymnastics, harvesting, food, pork, water supply, washerwoman, sewerage, pollution, dancing, singing, MUSIC, MIGRATION, lodging houses, John Bunyan Upper School, brick worker, Busso, STEWARTBY