ItalianoOld-time stories
Marisa:
I was 9 years old, the war had just ended... it was 1944. We were playing soldiers and young ladies, at Carola's house.
We were 10 girls, dressed in the rags we had managed to find.
Pasquina, the oldest among us, dressed up like a German, while we, the younger ones, played the part of the young ladies.
To look more like a German soldier, Pasquina took Beppe Cristo’s rifle that was hanging on the wall and pretended to shoot us, but a real bulled fired from the rifle, through the window and, thank goodness, right into the wild chestnut tree in the Countess’s garden.
The carabinieri, who at the time had their headquarters in Castelnuovo, came at once.
There were no parents around. Carola, Cristo’s daughter (Cristo, or Christ, was his nickname... He looked like Christ, thin, with a long face!) was looking after Dusi Benocci’s children... as if she had none of her own!
So many memories... When my sister was 6, in November she used to go to the olive oil mill to fetch some hot embers to keep warm, and she would bring them home in a bucket...
