Interview with our grandparents Class 3B - 2015/2016

    Interview with my grandmother

The forties and fifties were two for Italy very important decades , because the war had ended and the Republic started.

Last month I interviewed my grandmother and I asked her a lot of questions about those years.

During my interview she showed me some photos about when she was young and I was very happy and interested to see the photos.

Q. I started to asked her: What positive events happened in the decade 1940-1950?

A. In those decades there were a lot of important and positive events. I think the most important is the ending of the Second World War, because then we were finally free to live our life.

Q. Were there any difficult or tragic events?

A. Over the War I remember a few tragic events, but I remember the initial  difficulties to live in a Republic, because policy was different than under the dictatorship.

Q. What were the most memorable events? Why?

A. I think the most memorable event was the first vote of women in Italy. It was in 1946 and I remember that moment as if it were yesterday. We were all happy for this novelty because we finally had the possibily to have our say.

Q. What music and films were popular?

A. In Italy songs of Claudio Villa were popular  . While, I think, one of the most popular  films was “Roma città aperta”.

Q. What were the fashions like?

A. I love those years because women finally started to use to have short hair and we also could wear pants.

Q. What new inventions changed the world?

A. I think the most important was the TV, because it was something revolutionary for that time when we had only the radio to stay in touch with the world.

Q. Thanks for your time granmother.

A. Nothing. I’m very happy to have helped you to understand how things were when I was as young as you.

Author: Luca V. 

My grands are all dead, so I have no one that can tell me about the 1900s. But my dad is luckily here, so, because he was born in 1953, I asked him about how it was to be young in the 1960s. This is what he said :

“I was born in 1953 and, considering that The Second World War had finished since short, there was only hunger, poverty, desperation and nothing more. There was no work, and you had to search to go on with those agricultural resources that we had at our disposal. Pork and a barrel of wine were the only wintry resources . It was cold, and the draughts from doors and windows made your flesh creep. I usually squatted between my grandfather’s legs  to warm myself. In the evening, when the sky had got dark, all of us used to gather in our homes, near the fireplace, our only source of heat. We, for example, used to sit and select the broom’s threads, that would be used in spring for the kitchen garden and for the vineyard. The only source of light that we had was a little candle that we used to move from one room to the other according to the need.

The positive things that I can highlight aren’t many, but certainly the families were more united, joint and biggerl than the ones’ of today. One of the most unforgettable events, in my opinion, was the opening of the Ecumenical Vatican Council II, because it had sanctioned a little gleam of opening from the Choir. Instead, an event that was one of the most tragic events of the time was the death of Pope Giovanni XXIII.

In the afternoons, when we got home from school, we used to stop to play with glassmarbles and to kick anything we succeeded to find such as a ball or a …?, but it was difficult to find something.

If we wanted to know what was happening in the world, or also listen to   the hits of the moment (that, at our times, were song like “I ragazzi di  Via Gluck” and “Pregherò”), we had to have a radio, also because there wasn’t the television, and the cinema was a luxury where not many people could go. The first time I put my feet in a movie theater, “Serafino”, with Adriano Celentano and Ottavia Piccolo was projected. Instead, who first bought a television had to bear us, especially when the progamme “Sulle vie del West” was transmitted “

We attended with anxiety the winter’s end, that was one of the saddest moments. But at the arrival of the spring and with the nature’s awakening (which was also ours) we had already started getting dressed in a different way, starting to leave out the traditional plus-fours, and replacing them with the trousers that are worn again today flaring trousers, in Italian we call them “elephant’s paw”, while the girls had daring,  breathtaking miniskirts, inspiring the boys. . The things that have changed from that ages to today are a lot, but some of the biggest inventions that I believe have revolutionized the communication are Internet, and with it the social network such as Facebook, but because I don’t understand anything about these things, I don’t know if there are more evolved things.”

It was very fascinating listening to him talking, for an instant I wanted to be in his time, only to touch with my hands and see with my eyes what he was talking about.     

Author: Erika M. 

Today we are used to having everything we want but, how was life in the past? I've interviewed my grandmother about her life when she was a teenager.

-Where there any difficult or tragic events?

Surely, I lived the Second World War and my life wasn't easy in that time. My family left house and properties to find a shelter not far from Montecassino!

-What were the most memorable events? Why?

I remeber very well when German soldiers entered in our home and wanted my dad and my uncle. My father had a brilliant idea: feign to be hurt in bed with bandages all around his head. Soldiers  saw him in this conditions and left him there. I remember this event very well because the other members of our  family, all women, were worried to be alone.

-What music or film were popular?

Oh, I remember some songs as "Calamita d'oro" by Sergio Bruni or "Sul mare luccica" sung by Enrico Gentile. About films I can't tell you anything because we didn’t have a television and we didn't go to the cinema.

-What were the fashions like?

During the war everybody put on what they had in the wardrobe, but after the war many things changed for women:† large skirts, coloured belts and coloured foulards around the neck became popular.

-What new inventions changed the world?

In my life the best invention was the radio, because when I had one I could listen to news and music, but the radio entered in my family's life later as the black and white television that I could  watch when I was twenty.

I hope have helped you.

-Thank you grandma.

Author: Giacomo B. 

Premessa: Non avendo nessun nonno che sia ancora vivo o che abiti vicino a me (uno c’è ma non sta bene) ho fatto questo testo da un’intervista fatta ad una signora nata intorno gli anni ’50.

It was the year 1956, but for her and for the inhabitants of a small remote village of the Apennine area it seemed the era of the Middle Ages.

There was no water in the houses, there was no electricity and, for the bathroom, the choice ranged from a smelly and repulsive latrine, a field outdoors behind a bush or the stable, where cows, if necessary, could have the same “urgence”. The barn, however, remained the last choice but there was a serious privacy issue because anyone could enter at any time embarrassing both.

To the next question : “How could a human live without water and electricity?” she answered: “As they had done for thousands of years all those who came before us.”

The kitchen had a not very deep and wide sink, on which was placed a bucket that was filled with water from the fountain. A bottle of glass, instead, was filled a little quantity before lunch directly from the source, because the water was cooler. This task, in general, was for the children of the family:

"Va a tor l’acqua c’a magnom!" (Go to fetch water, we are eating!). This was the command that she always heard from her grandfather that knew, in the family, only the imperative. And, with her nice big bottle in hand, she went to the source, which was not really close, every day / mealtime and it took her half an hour to go and return.

To wash, they filled the basin with water. During the winter months in the stove, always on from morning to night, there was a container of water of about 5 liters, so at least in the cold months there was always hot water available.

Only on Saturday there was the ceremony of the bath, in a large vat, which was placed in the warmest room (the kitchen) and everyone washed there in turn. However, after two baths, water was changed.

Author: Matteo S. 

 I talked to my grandmother about life in the fifties. As my grandmother was born in those years, I decided to ask her to talk also about what her parents and so my great-grandparents,  told her how life was when they were young.

My great-grandparents were born in 1917 or so, while my grandparents in the  1950s. All my grandparents are the latest in a number of siblings ranging from four to seven children. Unlike today's families they were much more numerous.

The other week I saw for the first time the wedding album of my grandmother and it was strange to see those photographs in black and white and also those clothes with dull and dark colors, which strangely are back in fashion. They used to wear bell-bottoms and platform boots. My grandmother is very happy that fashion which she used to wear is coming back again. She told me how hard  life for her  parents was, especially being born in the midst of World War I and then review it due to young people and combat it. Twenty years later my grandmother was born. She told me that she still remembers when she was a child and her mother took her with her to dance in a big dance hall, and how beautiful she was with those weird hairstyles and big large skirts, and how, despite all, they were happy.

What changed when she became a girl, for example, is the music: first she listened to classical music, jazz, while in the sixties and seventies they used to hear more rock n 'roll music, which the parents didn’t like because it did become the sons rebels.  For my grandmother it wasn’t possible to listen to it and in fact nowadays she is more a lover of classical music and not of that we're used to: busy and hectic.

My grandmother's family was very strict, with strict rules that had to be respected. School education was very important to them, since being four sisters, they had the opportunity to study something that at the time of my great-grandmother hadn’t been possible, so she demanded that they would do well at school to take advantage of that right that she couldn’t have . In fact all four eventually became teachers. My grandmother was married at age 24, after finishing her studies, but generally they got married earlier, even at 17, as had happened to my great-grandmother. The future husband was free to choose without being forced by the family, but once he brought home a girl, it meant that it was an official engagement.  Often this happens to the countries of the south.

At the end of our long talk my grandmother told me to be nostalgic for those days, because she was young and because life was easier, it was all quiet and not hectic as today, partly because they thought about fewer things. It is a pity that we have lost the traditions that they had created or those costumes as hairstyles, fashion and even the relationships in the family and respect. She thinks that today we are all spoiled kids. I told her that I don’t feel spoilt, but she insisted saying that in her time you couldn’d say I want or wish, what you had was to be kept without being envious of others or desiring the same thing as another teen. She is especially disappointed by the behaviour that we have towards our parents how we treat them. Basically she doesn’t have a point, in fact I think that living in those times and see this radical change mustn’t have been easy.

Author: Beatrice B.

Last week I talked to my gran about life  in the 1950s, when she was a teen. I asked her many questions about life in that period and I also saw some testimonials such as photos, documents, gadgets…

The first question was how the days in 1950s  were and she answered me that in that time there was the Second World War, so people couldn’t do many things: men went to war or  worked in the fields, while women still didn’t have the same rights which they have  today. They took care of their home, only the girls of the families who had an economic business could go to school. She said that The Second World War was the worst moment of her life: you couldn’t go out because it was very dangerous, many people were killed wrongly, for this poverty increased.

The best day was the Sunday because the whole family met to stay together and it was the only day when you could eat well.

Then I asked her when she got married and she said when she was twenty because the average life expectation was about fifty/fifty-five years (maybe even less) before and people had already clearer ideas about the future than today.

She talked to me also about the games of that time, for example they played at “the play saucers” that is with metal plugs, or at” hide and seek” , or  with the ball, the cards. Therefore despite there was the war children amused themselves somehow .

Finally we talked about the new generation and she thinks that today many teenagers are spoilt, they don´t have ideas for the future, they want only  to play with electronic gadgets or go out with their friends so they want to have “a good life” and in this way they will never be independent.

Probably  in many things she is right, but I disagree that all teens are spoilt, because now fortunately we live in a modern society  and there are things which there weren’t one time but there is an important difference: some people  take advantage from this situation, while others use technology in moderation and for social or economic advantage.

Author: Fabrizio C.