Life Senior summarily described.
(not recommended for further reading)
Foreword.
Senior, a sympathetic character who is not, by conclusive evidence, have lived on this earth, he invented the following breakdown of its alleged existence: childhood, up to six years; childhood, from six to thirteen; adolescence, from thirteen to sexual maturity, youth, to maturity, maturity, old age from forty to , old age, between seventy and over.
infancy and childhood.
early childhood Senior recalls an isolated incident, unrelated to each other. When I think about the past has the impression to attend the screening of a patched up old film, which may have lost a staggering number of images and sequences.
Senior has lived in fact, since the day of birth, out of this world, but does not know where. The unknown universe where he found himself spending his days, the voices and images of the real one came to him as a distant echo and leaves no trace.
While not despising them all, please, do not ever regret the world in which he lived. In contrast, it has not disappointed since his affacciarvisi, but he never realized that and went through as a deaf-mute, or as we say today, an otherwise deaf and otherwise speaking.
He liked it, especially James, the rooster scratching in the yard of the house who lived in Fossano Avenue in Bra, a tree-lined street which then remains even today the name.
Giacomo was handled like a cat, but it possessed a virtue that felines dream: when you bring it to the balcony and threw it in the air, hovered like a glider. A Senior
liked the villa. From the avenue Bra entered the garden through a small gate, follow a path and you reach a flight of four or five steps leading to an entrance which faces to the right, two rooms and left the room.
The upper floor was occupied by two or maybe three bedrooms. The facade had two balconies, and a long balcony he walked the entire back.
On the back was a courtyard surrounded by a portico for the housing of tools, from an orchard, a vegetable garden and a vineyard.
You could also enter the courtyard through a door track, which opened onto a cart that lapped the side of the villa.
Fossano included - he was born in Magliano Alpi - during its entire existence Senior confronted with the family of origin before and after he was married, with one of its own, a score of removals, but in its fragile memory, it's still a faint trace of the many who lived in lodgings.
Fossano The house is one of three whose memory remains alive in the mind and heart. The other two are the grandparents of Dogliani, where he spent the summer holidays and the first where he met friends, vanished soon as optical illusions lost in the dust raised by the whirlwind of moving, and those of Venasca (in the country they lived in the valley Varaita three time in quick succession, one after the other), where he spent eight years of his life, from millenovecentotrentanove to forty-six.
Back to Fossano.
The Senior was very attached to his paternal grandparents: he, a hunter was always accompanied by dogs, Fritz and Bill, her elegant and a lady fond of chocolate.
His parents were at that time, enjoy the service person. Senior remembers as a young girl who had, however, unique tastes. With us boys, for example, he performed in the exercise of stealth "eaters."
do not spit from the mouth, however, the fire, as the circus, but on the other hand. Lifted her skirt, makes a twisting of the body and lit with a wooden match, the silent and compressed gas coming out from the bottom of her back. It was a beautiful blaze. Celebrating that rite lay in the woodshed, in the presence of Senior and sister, all three in a secluded area protected from prying eyes and the wind .
was a good life that Fossano spent. When you look back, Senior touches on the ridiculous, because he is crying. By that time the remaining five episodes:
• a sparrow drowned in a pond garden. That was the only time he picked up the dead in the palm of your hand. He regretted not having been able to save that down the mud. Did not attempt to restore his life, he knew even then that it is not God;
• visiting his grandfather's given asylum to announce the death of one of his dogs. He had felt the need to confide with her nephew because he knew he would have been included. That day my grandfather had a sad look, unusual. In listening the news, senior kept his gaze fixed on a window through which penetrated in the winter afternoon, a light cream color. Asylum - our modern nursery - is not any other episode, and no face;
• a plane that was flying high in the sky. Senior followed its evolution from the backyard, where he was, was exalted to the roar of the engine and imagined himself to be at the helm;
• a bright, sunny morning in, entered the bedroom through a crack of the wooden shutters . Staring at the point he saw Senior slow approach, but surely, his bed, then stop halfway and turn back. Then shining repeated the same movement, back and forth, until his mother came and did not bring the little Senior with him;
• honeymoon organized in his honor by his sister. In front of the villa, across the street Bra, stood a factory (lime, cement and plaster? Carpenter?) Unfolded in the courtyard of a dense network of narrow-gauge, very small indeed, traveled on weekdays from small wagons full of commodity that displaced workers with maneuvers push. The cars were stopped on the turntables, which allowed the resumption of racing in a new direction. Holidays In the afternoons the children master the workshop - one female and one male - and the Senior his sister were playing with the mini cars: they pushed and maneuvered trade. One day, therefore, the daughter of the owner and Senior were summarily declared husband and wife are invited to climb on the running board of a car (because of the high sides could not break into that sort of muffler tractors) and carried around in travel wedding. He experienced a preview of the adventure that would have lived many years later. Senior imagine that the event has aroused strong emotions in the heart of the girl who, with everything at the end of the rode, abandoned the roof and out of her marital life.
Senior will now review the few documents survived the sinking of his painful childhood fatua: school reports.
Who saved for him? The mother, who thanked the Senior nice thought.
I do not have the complete series for the period between the first grade, the millenovecentotrentotto, and the third high school, millenovecentocinquantadue - when it became personally responsible for the collection of papers of interest - the family are no less than five removals, and those who were victims of these tornadoes know that during their passage, documents, and not only those, take the wind.
before his eyes yellowed first grade report card, a paper launched by the Ministry of National Education seventeenth year of the Fascist Era.
On the front is dominated by a capital M, the M is visible behind a sword behind the shield and a sword behind his shield, still in transparency, the fasces. The M is black, the sword, shield and the yellow band. In the lower left reads GIL, Italian youth of Littorio.
Senior report card and opens the nock in a couple of surprises, attended a mixed class (a footnote explains that the class can be male, female or mixed) and was entered in GIL with ID No 498,784 (where it's over?).
Law reviews: Religion in was good earlier this year, improved more in good and arrived, finally, to be welcomed. The same fate befell the reading and written language exercises . No progress made in but Arithmetic and accounting in various notions , Culture in Fascist and Jobs womanly and manuals, these materials which was always good. Even in those days priests were less severe of the laity. Senior, however, was commendable in Discipline and hygiene and personal care.
Excused Absences, twelve. Under the influence? Who knows. After those first twelve days, he enjoyed uninterrupted good health until seventy-five years he played. How
cared influence in those days? Quinine with the State, ie the tablets with pink, or orange, large: it seemed in the eyes of the child.
There's still no memory of the classroom or the companions of the companions, teachers and even Anna Barbero, the teacher who signed the report card, and Chiaffredo Chiotti, the director who affixed their approval next to the words Fossano the 27.6.39, and the round stamp of the Royal Education Office.
Remember, as in a dream, the inner courtyard of the school building in the square (or on) Vittorio Veneto.
The second-grade report card - school year 1939-1940, XXVIII of the Fascist Era - is not dissimilar from the previous year. GIL card number has changed, as the new 553,549. attend a class via the Joint Schools Brossasco, a village in the valley Varaita. His father never spoke to him, but Senior believes he guessed what had happened in the family.
Besides the office of town clerk, in the years between thirty and millenovecentotrentadue / thirty-nine perhaps his father had also served as Political Secretary Fossano of the fascist party. Opposite the entrance into the war, in coincidence with the Pact of Steel May millenovecentotrentanove he did (taking on the consequences), the great refusal. it was transferred into the valley of the Alps, where he brought his mother, his wife and four children. His father had already passed away.
No further major disruption, however, in the minds of Senior. Calm; of that school year, tabula rasa.
not have been the brain child of the memory of one person, a single image or even a faint echo of the events. The lethargy continued undisturbed. Senior
keeps in mind vague images of the apartment that he lived in Brossasco: overlooked the courtyard of City Hall, where he devoted himself to games with his brother and sister.
"Can a child from birth to sleep so deeply?" Asks the senior today. Every time you put that question, feel dizzy.
few posters, if you have sufficient imagination and a sound psychological basis, to unveil the mystery event.
In the school year 1940-1941 he attended the third grade as a male asylum in Venasca.
Venasca was in those days, the most important administrative and commercial center of the valley Varaita. His father had been transferred there because it was felt that common in the presence of an experienced Secretary.
The family was quartered in a tiny apartment with the entrance in the courtyard of the barracks of the Alps.
Senior stiffened to attention and made the military salute to each pen that appeared before him. not acted in that weird way to patriotism, which he did not have yet the malice, but some wag had promised him a reward, if he behaved so , a pedal car. Senior began then, since the age of nine years, to pay the promises.
On the same yard looked too flat, Corrado, a peer with whom he befriended. During the Christmas novena would meet him, Conrad and his brother Conrad, Paul, in their home, where he swallowed with relish the statuettes of sugar in the crib. The appetite of those years was stronger than the fear of committing sacrilege.
The report was proudly displayed the new card number GIL: 619987.
Also that year the good dot the document.
From second grade on, Written exercises in the field of language not never went beyond the most good.
classmates, and classroom in which to spend his days, no memory. This is a case of early mental numbness. Regain consciousness itself later in life, to the seventy.
The report of the fourth grade has been unfortunately lost. That's not
fifth in the shape of a leaflet like its predecessors, but it is a simple card. In the school year 1942-1943, twenty-first of the Fascist Era, the Ministry of Education apparently lacked the funds.
GIL The new card, however, bore the number 561898 and Senior attending a class male Venasca.
The subjects were obviously more numerous than those of the first grade, but performance can not be said that it was improved. In the first two quarters, the report shows a lot of good, as good as it includes very few. Appear only in the third quarter of the timid commendable. No time off.
millenovecentoquaranta From the Senior forty-five lived in Venasca. Do not be deceived: this time the family successfully accomplished within the confines of the same town, a couple of moves. He covered first for the distance of a few meters across the household, in fact, the high road and occupied an apartment that offered more space and still can be seen above the cafe in the square.
again offered more room that overlooked the next, beyond a narrow alley, the high prison wall of old town hall.
About the inhabitants of the rest of the world, the senior remains flat encephalogram. Do not want him to fellow players at the time. No one can be a bad pick on that, although what has been said of him, he seems more alive than a roast turkey (seasoned with honey).
Senior makes little to describe the adventures in Venasca: are the stuff of the story "In the Valley of Emerald", which refers to their three or seven fans.
What else can add on that period of childhood? Who attended school in Saluzzo.
The report cards are now simple cards. The first, that the school year 1943/1944, still bears the inscription of the Fascist Era XXII and declares, without a shadow of a doubt that the Senior was not too mature, and earlier this year, even sufficient written Italian .
The boy was leaving for Venasca Saluzzo on a narrow gauge train. The mini train left the station the country, crossed the roadway and the bridge over the river and ran along the road until Varaita Costigliole, where he was expected to coincide with the normal-gauge train from Cuneo.
He commuted to the entire school year millenovecentoquarantatré-forty-four.
The report states that the second year, during the first school term, the boy did not attend school.
In the second school year the train had been replaced by bicycle, as almost all the bikes of the time, was not given exchange. Those were rare racing, mountain biking, even in the bosom of Abraham. With the new means of transport Senior the distance covered each day Venasca Saluzzo-passing over two-hundred meters (which, in return, were uphill).
grab the handlebars with his hands that, despite being protected by wool gloves, never made peace with the winter frost, or better, hell in the valley. It is for this reason that still considers the surface Senior easy come those who cry peace! Which is not easy to conquer. Tears flowed from his eyes and lingered on the cheeks, where they became icicles.
Because of drops that did not notice blurred vision, one fine morning, the front wheel of the bicycle was stuck in the groove of the double-track which crossed, at that point, the roadway. He fell to the ground but, unlike the jars of oil which precipitate from the shelves of a bookcase, not shattered.
From that period recalls an episode. A day of Saluzzo was market, and Senior did not notice that one of the guides on paved for cars, which moved with his bicycle, walked before him a woman. So the front wheel slipped between the legs of the lady and not anything serious happened, fortunately. They heard only the moans and complaints of the female of the boy, who claimed the right to go in peace on their own bike path.
Senior arrived in Saluzzo at seven or half past seven, well in advance about the start of classes, and took refuge in a dairy for which the operator had contracted with his father, a daily breakfast of bread and a steaming milk.
These are a few memories of infancy and childhood to a being who lived out of time and out of place.
The world did not have any benefit, apparently, when you had to enter Senior Christmas Eve of millenovecentotrentadue. They were shepherds rushed to bear gifts. Neither he brought gifts, when he had known, to his fellow asylum, of elementary and secondary schools; not even close to the bench Saluzzo of which - as contrappello Daily - remember the name: Ferrus Aldo.
not even offered anything to their parents, if you exclude the big headache. Still later, after the third age had wrought on their door, the two gray-haired couple were asking questions about him, which they could not answer.
not outstanding in any school subject, held not socially useful behavior, floated like a piece of wood. He lived on the edge of eddies of unruly mountain torrents, where the waters swirl and create eddies dangerous even for experienced swimmers, not for him .
not be a coward, however, is ready, indeed, the so-called sacrifice. Unique gift, this, that its indecipherable nature has made available to humanity, family, acquaintances and strangers.
None, however, is intended to help, he or she hands the initiative. not a philanthropist for all seasons. also because he has in mind the behavior of the Boy Scouts with granny and, more recently, that of youth with the older groups.
In spite of this, since his entrance into the world alone, he seems to have learned more than I could teach the entire faculty of the fascist school of his time, or that that today call the Soviet .
is divided into two phases.
The first - that Senior undertaken seal it in himself and the outside world - went to a new move at the same time: one to Venasca Santa Vittoria d'Alba, Roero a country where parents would spend the rest serene of their days, and final resting place. Sereni, because assisted an unrivaled and loving by his younger brother, while the Senior, his sister and another brother, they would soon leave home.
For the living conditions of the immediate postwar period - when a family consisting of two state employees and four offspring of fourteen, thirteen, eleven and seven years, barely supported himself - the senior was found accommodation at fair price if not free, a few kilometers from the village, in the college of fathers Somaschi.
In a religious institution is, of course, developed the proselytizing activities, which focus is given at least as purely educational.
Senior studies then floated on troubled waters by recurrent waves of faith.
He was so moved by a mean of which was the ' single tenant, to another, where he spent his days in the company of angels, saints and the Madonna herself.
Who has attended in his green years knows the discreet charm of the priests, their bite on youth. Completely devoid of defense, at the age of thirteen or fourteen years was captured by the Senior attentions and concerns that were addressed, and the pampering that were being offered not by his peers, but by men of God
arrogated to itself little time for the right to attend the highest personality entourage which had been co-opted: the angels, who considered the classmates, the Saints, who held it in place of qualified consultants, Mary, who brought in old sister, and, last but not least, some of the saints whose appearance body was painted on the sacred images that reproduce such pretty uri.
In the special environment the matter of venial sins interested him much, and he fought hard battles to avoid falling into temptation. In the case of a fall then resorted to every means, lawful or otherwise, to wash the conscience, for her laundry.
is inflicted corporal mortification: that of not coughing when I felt the urge , for example . With efforts almost succeeded and was the first to crack the truth of the saying: "Love, cough and smoke can not hide anyone."
Or to not drink water. Imagine a teenager who, on a hot summer afternoon, choking thirst after playing the ball!
He read edifying books: The lives of the Cenobites, hermits, ascetics, hermits of, styles, people that he admired the Legend. Above all styles intrigues him, and Senior mulled whether it would also be the case with one of them. Not fear of heights, enjoyed rather a perfect balance, he loved life in the open and he liked to contemplate the world from above.
admired the golden book (as it was defined) of the Imitation of Christ and was attracted by ' Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila. Those more interested in the two texts of the Gospel or the Bible.
Surrounded as it was by a muffled atmosphere, dreamed of the day.
then spent his childhood, childhood and early adolescence in a dream world, abstracting from real life as a spaceship moving away from Cape Canaveral .
In the vast unheated dormitory, the windows does not oppose a real resistance to drafts, and boarders fought tenaciously against the cold of winter nights. Even this involuntary exercise helped, on its own, to a dispersion of efforts, which require to be reintegrated. The gardener turned a blind eye when his father caught a Senior pawing the earth of the garden and extract the sweet, tender and rosy turnips.
As for the studies, third, fourth and fifth grades of Italian high school did not go less than seven in seven in the oral and written.
Walking With great college mates, as soon as it had seen and smelled, had discovered a fellow extra terrestrial, reached the second stage of adolescence Senior made his entry into real life.
impressions and feelings of high school (in those days was called Robert) are described in the book "A Class - III High School 1952 - Bra - During and after", sponsored by fellow student, lawyer. GB Franco and made public at the site of a classmate dr. Giovanni Ferrero, a friend of talent (http://www.giovanniferrero.it). Senior has helped to pack the book with the articles "During and after" and with those of "Voice Over".
to attend high school, the boy had returned with the family where, In the meantime, he lacked paternal grandmother. In the last year of life she had written in college these lines: "Oh Jesus, I pray I pray the Virgin that no terrorist has to take the first hint of my death, but safe and serene in faith trusting in His promises of forgiveness I welcome Jesus and the Virgin blesses those who remain in the fight. "
You must have waited for death with dread, my dear paternal grandmother!
As the Senior wait? If the brain over the years will not be crushed, the answer is, naturally. Amen.
Immediately after the war, as already mentioned, the family budget for two employees state (his father was town clerk and his mother an elementary school teacher) hung a load of eighteen, a seventeen year old, a fifteen and eleven.
The years of high school senior must have been heavy for parents: he believes that only millenovecentocinquantatré have begun to breathe, as they say, even if the air seems distributed free of charge. Senior
acquired at that time, the two vices that would accompany him for a good part of life bacco and tobacco.
barbera remember fondly when the parish priest who, in the house was consumed in carboys. Nectar that came from the cellars of the sharecropper of the theologian, Don Domenico Marolo.
At the end of each month Senior's father explained, on the shelf of the kitchen table, a page of "Domenica del Corriere", I ladled three or four packages of pipe tobacco domestic flavor and a strong scented foreign tobacco. Mix everything with your fingers to comb and distributed to major - the Senior and his wife - the portions allocated to it, accompanied by an adequate number of maps. The other brothers did not smoke or were still in black. The sister did not smoke and would never smoked.
After World War II Italians widely cultivated this habit. For boys, the first smoke was an initiation rite marking the end of adolescence early youth.
lost Senior vice suddenly when a medical officer of the Celio military hospital where he had gone for a check, diagnosed him with a fatal pulmonary emphysema.
excessive amount of drinking wine stopped, however, until the seventies. Senior suspected that the product of the vine is not exportable to heaven, much less in purgatory or hell, where it will eventually block.
His parents were at that time, enjoy the service person. Senior remembers as a young girl who had, however, unique tastes. With us boys, for example, he performed in the exercise of stealth "eaters."
do not spit from the mouth, however, the fire, as the circus, but on the other hand. Lifted her skirt, makes a twisting of the body and lit with a wooden match, the silent and compressed gas coming out from the bottom of her back. It was a beautiful blaze. Celebrating that rite lay in the woodshed, in the presence of Senior and sister, all three in a secluded area protected from prying eyes and the wind .
was a good life that Fossano spent. When you look back, Senior touches on the ridiculous, because he is crying. By that time the remaining five episodes:
• a sparrow drowned in a pond garden. That was the only time he picked up the dead in the palm of your hand. He regretted not having been able to save that down the mud. Did not attempt to restore his life, he knew even then that it is not God;
• visiting his grandfather's given asylum to announce the death of one of his dogs. He had felt the need to confide with her nephew because he knew he would have been included. That day my grandfather had a sad look, unusual. In listening the news, senior kept his gaze fixed on a window through which penetrated in the winter afternoon, a light cream color. Asylum - our modern nursery - is not any other episode, and no face;
• a plane that was flying high in the sky. Senior followed its evolution from the backyard, where he was, was exalted to the roar of the engine and imagined himself to be at the helm;
• a bright, sunny morning in, entered the bedroom through a crack of the wooden shutters . Staring at the point he saw Senior slow approach, but surely, his bed, then stop halfway and turn back. Then shining repeated the same movement, back and forth, until his mother came and did not bring the little Senior with him;
• honeymoon organized in his honor by his sister. In front of the villa, across the street Bra, stood a factory (lime, cement and plaster? Carpenter?) Unfolded in the courtyard of a dense network of narrow-gauge, very small indeed, traveled on weekdays from small wagons full of commodity that displaced workers with maneuvers push. The cars were stopped on the turntables, which allowed the resumption of racing in a new direction. Holidays In the afternoons the children master the workshop - one female and one male - and the Senior his sister were playing with the mini cars: they pushed and maneuvered trade. One day, therefore, the daughter of the owner and Senior were summarily declared husband and wife are invited to climb on the running board of a car (because of the high sides could not break into that sort of muffler tractors) and carried around in travel wedding. He experienced a preview of the adventure that would have lived many years later. Senior imagine that the event has aroused strong emotions in the heart of the girl who, with everything at the end of the rode, abandoned the roof and out of her marital life.
Senior will now review the few documents survived the sinking of his painful childhood fatua: school reports.
Who saved for him? The mother, who thanked the Senior nice thought.
I do not have the complete series for the period between the first grade, the millenovecentotrentotto, and the third high school, millenovecentocinquantadue - when it became personally responsible for the collection of papers of interest - the family are no less than five removals, and those who were victims of these tornadoes know that during their passage, documents, and not only those, take the wind.
before his eyes yellowed first grade report card, a paper launched by the Ministry of National Education seventeenth year of the Fascist Era.
On the front is dominated by a capital M, the M is visible behind a sword behind the shield and a sword behind his shield, still in transparency, the fasces. The M is black, the sword, shield and the yellow band. In the lower left reads GIL, Italian youth of Littorio.
Senior report card and opens the nock in a couple of surprises, attended a mixed class (a footnote explains that the class can be male, female or mixed) and was entered in GIL with ID No 498,784 (where it's over?).
Law reviews: Religion in was good earlier this year, improved more in good and arrived, finally, to be welcomed. The same fate befell the reading and written language exercises . No progress made in but Arithmetic and accounting in various notions , Culture in Fascist and Jobs womanly and manuals, these materials which was always good. Even in those days priests were less severe of the laity. Senior, however, was commendable in Discipline and hygiene and personal care.
Excused Absences, twelve. Under the influence? Who knows. After those first twelve days, he enjoyed uninterrupted good health until seventy-five years he played. How
cared influence in those days? Quinine with the State, ie the tablets with pink, or orange, large: it seemed in the eyes of the child.
There's still no memory of the classroom or the companions of the companions, teachers and even Anna Barbero, the teacher who signed the report card, and Chiaffredo Chiotti, the director who affixed their approval next to the words Fossano the 27.6.39, and the round stamp of the Royal Education Office.
Remember, as in a dream, the inner courtyard of the school building in the square (or on) Vittorio Veneto.
The second-grade report card - school year 1939-1940, XXVIII of the Fascist Era - is not dissimilar from the previous year. GIL card number has changed, as the new 553,549. attend a class via the Joint Schools Brossasco, a village in the valley Varaita. His father never spoke to him, but Senior believes he guessed what had happened in the family.
Besides the office of town clerk, in the years between thirty and millenovecentotrentadue / thirty-nine perhaps his father had also served as Political Secretary Fossano of the fascist party. Opposite the entrance into the war, in coincidence with the Pact of Steel May millenovecentotrentanove he did (taking on the consequences), the great refusal. it was transferred into the valley of the Alps, where he brought his mother, his wife and four children. His father had already passed away.
No further major disruption, however, in the minds of Senior. Calm; of that school year, tabula rasa.
not have been the brain child of the memory of one person, a single image or even a faint echo of the events. The lethargy continued undisturbed. Senior
keeps in mind vague images of the apartment that he lived in Brossasco: overlooked the courtyard of City Hall, where he devoted himself to games with his brother and sister.
"Can a child from birth to sleep so deeply?" Asks the senior today. Every time you put that question, feel dizzy.
few posters, if you have sufficient imagination and a sound psychological basis, to unveil the mystery event.
In the school year 1940-1941 he attended the third grade as a male asylum in Venasca.
Venasca was in those days, the most important administrative and commercial center of the valley Varaita. His father had been transferred there because it was felt that common in the presence of an experienced Secretary.
The family was quartered in a tiny apartment with the entrance in the courtyard of the barracks of the Alps.
Senior stiffened to attention and made the military salute to each pen that appeared before him. not acted in that weird way to patriotism, which he did not have yet the malice, but some wag had promised him a reward, if he behaved so , a pedal car. Senior began then, since the age of nine years, to pay the promises.
On the same yard looked too flat, Corrado, a peer with whom he befriended. During the Christmas novena would meet him, Conrad and his brother Conrad, Paul, in their home, where he swallowed with relish the statuettes of sugar in the crib. The appetite of those years was stronger than the fear of committing sacrilege.
The report was proudly displayed the new card number GIL: 619987.
Also that year the good dot the document.
From second grade on, Written exercises in the field of language not never went beyond the most good.
classmates, and classroom in which to spend his days, no memory. This is a case of early mental numbness. Regain consciousness itself later in life, to the seventy.
The report of the fourth grade has been unfortunately lost. That's not
fifth in the shape of a leaflet like its predecessors, but it is a simple card. In the school year 1942-1943, twenty-first of the Fascist Era, the Ministry of Education apparently lacked the funds.
GIL The new card, however, bore the number 561898 and Senior attending a class male Venasca.
The subjects were obviously more numerous than those of the first grade, but performance can not be said that it was improved. In the first two quarters, the report shows a lot of good, as good as it includes very few. Appear only in the third quarter of the timid commendable. No time off.
millenovecentoquaranta From the Senior forty-five lived in Venasca. Do not be deceived: this time the family successfully accomplished within the confines of the same town, a couple of moves. He covered first for the distance of a few meters across the household, in fact, the high road and occupied an apartment that offered more space and still can be seen above the cafe in the square.
again offered more room that overlooked the next, beyond a narrow alley, the high prison wall of old town hall.
About the inhabitants of the rest of the world, the senior remains flat encephalogram. Do not want him to fellow players at the time. No one can be a bad pick on that, although what has been said of him, he seems more alive than a roast turkey (seasoned with honey).
Senior makes little to describe the adventures in Venasca: are the stuff of the story "In the Valley of Emerald", which refers to their three or seven fans.
What else can add on that period of childhood? Who attended school in Saluzzo.
The report cards are now simple cards. The first, that the school year 1943/1944, still bears the inscription of the Fascist Era XXII and declares, without a shadow of a doubt that the Senior was not too mature, and earlier this year, even sufficient written Italian .
The boy was leaving for Venasca Saluzzo on a narrow gauge train. The mini train left the station the country, crossed the roadway and the bridge over the river and ran along the road until Varaita Costigliole, where he was expected to coincide with the normal-gauge train from Cuneo.
He commuted to the entire school year millenovecentoquarantatré-forty-four.
The report states that the second year, during the first school term, the boy did not attend school.
In the second school year the train had been replaced by bicycle, as almost all the bikes of the time, was not given exchange. Those were rare racing, mountain biking, even in the bosom of Abraham. With the new means of transport Senior the distance covered each day Venasca Saluzzo-passing over two-hundred meters (which, in return, were uphill).
grab the handlebars with his hands that, despite being protected by wool gloves, never made peace with the winter frost, or better, hell in the valley. It is for this reason that still considers the surface Senior easy come those who cry peace! Which is not easy to conquer. Tears flowed from his eyes and lingered on the cheeks, where they became icicles.
Because of drops that did not notice blurred vision, one fine morning, the front wheel of the bicycle was stuck in the groove of the double-track which crossed, at that point, the roadway. He fell to the ground but, unlike the jars of oil which precipitate from the shelves of a bookcase, not shattered.
From that period recalls an episode. A day of Saluzzo was market, and Senior did not notice that one of the guides on paved for cars, which moved with his bicycle, walked before him a woman. So the front wheel slipped between the legs of the lady and not anything serious happened, fortunately. They heard only the moans and complaints of the female of the boy, who claimed the right to go in peace on their own bike path.
Senior arrived in Saluzzo at seven or half past seven, well in advance about the start of classes, and took refuge in a dairy for which the operator had contracted with his father, a daily breakfast of bread and a steaming milk.
These are a few memories of infancy and childhood to a being who lived out of time and out of place.
The world did not have any benefit, apparently, when you had to enter Senior Christmas Eve of millenovecentotrentadue. They were shepherds rushed to bear gifts. Neither he brought gifts, when he had known, to his fellow asylum, of elementary and secondary schools; not even close to the bench Saluzzo of which - as contrappello Daily - remember the name: Ferrus Aldo.
not even offered anything to their parents, if you exclude the big headache. Still later, after the third age had wrought on their door, the two gray-haired couple were asking questions about him, which they could not answer.
not outstanding in any school subject, held not socially useful behavior, floated like a piece of wood. He lived on the edge of eddies of unruly mountain torrents, where the waters swirl and create eddies dangerous even for experienced swimmers, not for him .
not be a coward, however, is ready, indeed, the so-called sacrifice. Unique gift, this, that its indecipherable nature has made available to humanity, family, acquaintances and strangers.
None, however, is intended to help, he or she hands the initiative. not a philanthropist for all seasons. also because he has in mind the behavior of the Boy Scouts with granny and, more recently, that of youth with the older groups.
In spite of this, since his entrance into the world alone, he seems to have learned more than I could teach the entire faculty of the fascist school of his time, or that that today call the Soviet .
Adolescence.
is divided into two phases.
The first - that Senior undertaken seal it in himself and the outside world - went to a new move at the same time: one to Venasca Santa Vittoria d'Alba, Roero a country where parents would spend the rest serene of their days, and final resting place. Sereni, because assisted an unrivaled and loving by his younger brother, while the Senior, his sister and another brother, they would soon leave home.
For the living conditions of the immediate postwar period - when a family consisting of two state employees and four offspring of fourteen, thirteen, eleven and seven years, barely supported himself - the senior was found accommodation at fair price if not free, a few kilometers from the village, in the college of fathers Somaschi.
In a religious institution is, of course, developed the proselytizing activities, which focus is given at least as purely educational.
Senior studies then floated on troubled waters by recurrent waves of faith.
He was so moved by a mean of which was the ' single tenant, to another, where he spent his days in the company of angels, saints and the Madonna herself.
Who has attended in his green years knows the discreet charm of the priests, their bite on youth. Completely devoid of defense, at the age of thirteen or fourteen years was captured by the Senior attentions and concerns that were addressed, and the pampering that were being offered not by his peers, but by men of God
arrogated to itself little time for the right to attend the highest personality entourage which had been co-opted: the angels, who considered the classmates, the Saints, who held it in place of qualified consultants, Mary, who brought in old sister, and, last but not least, some of the saints whose appearance body was painted on the sacred images that reproduce such pretty uri.
In the special environment the matter of venial sins interested him much, and he fought hard battles to avoid falling into temptation. In the case of a fall then resorted to every means, lawful or otherwise, to wash the conscience, for her laundry.
is inflicted corporal mortification: that of not coughing when I felt the urge , for example . With efforts almost succeeded and was the first to crack the truth of the saying: "Love, cough and smoke can not hide anyone."
Or to not drink water. Imagine a teenager who, on a hot summer afternoon, choking thirst after playing the ball!
He read edifying books: The lives of the Cenobites, hermits, ascetics, hermits of, styles, people that he admired the Legend. Above all styles intrigues him, and Senior mulled whether it would also be the case with one of them. Not fear of heights, enjoyed rather a perfect balance, he loved life in the open and he liked to contemplate the world from above.
admired the golden book (as it was defined) of the Imitation of Christ and was attracted by ' Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila. Those more interested in the two texts of the Gospel or the Bible.
Surrounded as it was by a muffled atmosphere, dreamed of the day.
then spent his childhood, childhood and early adolescence in a dream world, abstracting from real life as a spaceship moving away from Cape Canaveral .
In the vast unheated dormitory, the windows does not oppose a real resistance to drafts, and boarders fought tenaciously against the cold of winter nights. Even this involuntary exercise helped, on its own, to a dispersion of efforts, which require to be reintegrated. The gardener turned a blind eye when his father caught a Senior pawing the earth of the garden and extract the sweet, tender and rosy turnips.
As for the studies, third, fourth and fifth grades of Italian high school did not go less than seven in seven in the oral and written.
Walking With great college mates, as soon as it had seen and smelled, had discovered a fellow extra terrestrial, reached the second stage of adolescence Senior made his entry into real life.
impressions and feelings of high school (in those days was called Robert) are described in the book "A Class - III High School 1952 - Bra - During and after", sponsored by fellow student, lawyer. GB Franco and made public at the site of a classmate dr. Giovanni Ferrero, a friend of talent (http://www.giovanniferrero.it). Senior has helped to pack the book with the articles "During and after" and with those of "Voice Over".
to attend high school, the boy had returned with the family where, In the meantime, he lacked paternal grandmother. In the last year of life she had written in college these lines: "Oh Jesus, I pray I pray the Virgin that no terrorist has to take the first hint of my death, but safe and serene in faith trusting in His promises of forgiveness I welcome Jesus and the Virgin blesses those who remain in the fight. "
You must have waited for death with dread, my dear paternal grandmother!
As the Senior wait? If the brain over the years will not be crushed, the answer is, naturally. Amen.
Immediately after the war, as already mentioned, the family budget for two employees state (his father was town clerk and his mother an elementary school teacher) hung a load of eighteen, a seventeen year old, a fifteen and eleven.
The years of high school senior must have been heavy for parents: he believes that only millenovecentocinquantatré have begun to breathe, as they say, even if the air seems distributed free of charge. Senior
acquired at that time, the two vices that would accompany him for a good part of life bacco and tobacco.
barbera remember fondly when the parish priest who, in the house was consumed in carboys. Nectar that came from the cellars of the sharecropper of the theologian, Don Domenico Marolo.
At the end of each month Senior's father explained, on the shelf of the kitchen table, a page of "Domenica del Corriere", I ladled three or four packages of pipe tobacco domestic flavor and a strong scented foreign tobacco. Mix everything with your fingers to comb and distributed to major - the Senior and his wife - the portions allocated to it, accompanied by an adequate number of maps. The other brothers did not smoke or were still in black. The sister did not smoke and would never smoked.
After World War II Italians widely cultivated this habit. For boys, the first smoke was an initiation rite marking the end of adolescence early youth.
lost Senior vice suddenly when a medical officer of the Celio military hospital where he had gone for a check, diagnosed him with a fatal pulmonary emphysema.
excessive amount of drinking wine stopped, however, until the seventies. Senior suspected that the product of the vine is not exportable to heaven, much less in purgatory or hell, where it will eventually block.
Youth and maturity.
At the suggestion and with the assistance of his father, n on as soon as he graduated from high school leaving certificate Senior seeking employment. He will not speak, however, events of youth and maturity, because they cover a large part of working life, which does not want to be treated.
He left then, again, from the family home, where he remained young and the only brother and bbe period starts when the parents began to breathe.
twenty-six years he chose the girl who did it for him, and the choice was a result of his fine intuition.
separations between spouses were not in those days, annoying and discounted mishaps. The lady showed patient and took advantage of a few dozen good chances to leave, going away from home with children, bag and baggage, as used today.
Good occasions were offered on a silver platter by the bad character of the person who lived by his side, who can not lead, in her defense, the occupation in which he was immersed up to his ears, day and night, three hundred sixty days a year. If they did, they would be stoned by the self-righteous that are rampant today.
His superiors (who is now retired Senior do not know, however, if the things have changed in the environment where he worked) and were demanding that their employees claimed they were supermen, no ifs, ands or buts. Senior admits, therefore, not being a good father.
In his profession reached a status that can be described as good, but also the children would have good reason to suspect strongly that the mission of its suitability for a young man who marries is responsible.
He did not know if we are to speak in statistical language, combine to fifty percent of their professional work and the task of his father.
Amazing Results however, reached the children, who have proven people, including, affectionate and considerate after all.
All their mother.
In other news, in short periods of free time was dedicated Senior , with the system of DIY , their own cultural elevation. He learned English by himself and had the satisfaction to rank, on a test, the first ... in the category of beginners.
addition to English is applied to various brain activities, which allowed him to fight the daily struggle against the numbness of mind.
Changing place of work is an exercise necessary for the sharpening of Providence, but this healthy exercise hindered the cultivation of friendships. Why live and grow the friendship requires, like a tender shoot, to be watered constantly, but he and his wife neglected to every move, their need to socialize. Waived the right to forge ties with each change of location aware that in the new town where they were landing, they would spend only a very short space of their lives.
Given the fact that removals are chanted every three years left, and calls the idea of \u200b\u200bborrowing to buy the house where they could take root.
In another it was not, however, that one of the sides of the coin of the career Senior had chosen to go.
is worth spending a word on his debut in the pension. Although he was not aware that the pension out of hand, because it would drag on for eternity, that day he showed a strong forward.
fantasy space with the outdoors, where they would be found before long time, absent-mindedly listened to the words of farewell addressed to his boss. He felt like a monk who, after having prayed for many years, dreams eventually open the doors of the hermitage and his escape.
The retirement was for him a return to youth and allowed him to turn his thoughts to his roots, examining the nature of care and attention. He
for the first time the knowledge of himself and I explored the time of his distant youth.
It was very different in nature from what he suspected. fact u n shoot is always dissimilar from the trunk, covered with mossy bark , where the weather has turned.
old age.
When he finally was persuaded that he still had to make on this earth many companies, senior warned that "tempus fugit". Told, then, that nature gave way to achieve their desires. With him he had always behaved honestly, and he did not see any reason that should change conduct suddenly. Even nature, however, does what it can: you are well aware of its limitations. Senior
When he wakes up at night and the terror attacks him, the fight against the great fear and think of the many peers who, like himself, are attacked by the same nightmares. Spiritually in solidarity with their neighbors and falls asleep.
is an illusion that the fantasy that aleggerà after his departure as an ephemeral shining path, can somehow be a witness of his passing in this world.
ascended to heaven - but hell is it high? to hell you go up? One should not get beyond the mining of coal, emeralds and uranium? over the oil fields? (Hell there are all good things!) - S pear seed bubbles that follow him, between spiders hung from wires invisible navigation to eternity.
As she writes, performs Senior seventy-six years and the past is so deep that she swallows. Now that is reaching full maturity, and therefore fears that life is getting monotonous, they like to see flashed at the bottom of a tunnel dim light ...
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