By Nonna, January 25, 2019 — When I was a child I grew up on a farm in Caserta [Italy], it was very different back then. Me and my sister never worked on the farm, we just helped our father by taking care of the chickens and pigs. My mother and father wanted us to learn something useful so they sent us to school for embroidery, we learned to sew, embroider, knit, and crochet. At that time my mother made all of our clothes herself and after my sister and I were good at sewing, we helped my mother make clothes.
At that time, there was not much to do as kids besides help on the farm, play on the farm, and go to school. But on the different Saint’s days, feasts were held in the city. We would go with friends, sing, dance in the piazza, listen to music, and watch the different parade processions. Then, we had fun doing “nothing.” We did not need much to keep us occupied. Spending time with family and friends on the farm was the most fun.
As I got older, around 25 or 26 I would get letters from [my husband] when he came to the United States. He would tell me how beautiful the U.S. was, he was working 3 jobs and dedicated to make a life here. He begged that I come to the U.S., but I said “no.” But then I thought about how much I wanted to start a family and being in the United States would give us so much opportunity, so I changed my mind and said “yes.”[He] came back to Caserta and we got married, then I came to the U.S. with him and that is where we started our lives together in the U.S.
