Vico Canale {Tuesdays with Tina, part 4}

Tuesdays With Tina

• I Nonni {Tuesdays with Tina, part 1}
• Vincenzo Migliaro, famous painter {Tuesdays with Tina, part 2}
• {Tuesdays with Tina, part 3}
• Vico Canale {Tuesdays with Tina, part 4}
• It’s a girl! {Tuesdays with Tina, part 5}
• Working with the Americans {Tuesdays with Tina, part 6}
• Anna’s story {Tuesdays with Tina, part 7}
• School and Work {Tuesdays with Tina, part 8}
• Life in the Tailor Shop {Tuesdays with Tina, part 9}
• Life before television {Tuesdays with Tina, part 10}
• Sickness and health {Tuesdays with Tina}
• Celebrating Holidays {Tuesdays with Tina, part 12}
• Life in Naples in the Late 50s, Early 60s {Tuesdays with Tina, part 13}
• Celebrating New Year’s in Naples {Tuesdays with Tina, part 14}
• Meeting my dad {Tuesdays with Tina, part 15 }
• Meeting dad continued {Tuesdays with Tina, part 16}
• Going on Dates {Tuesdays with Tina, part 17}
• Going to the Chapel…{Tuesdays with Tina, part 18}
• The Honeymoon! {Tuesdays with Tina, part 19}
• Honeymoon in Germany, continued {Tuesdays with Tina, Part 20}
• First Comes Love; Then Comes Marriage; Then Comes… {Tuesdays with Tina, Part 21}
• Then comes baby! {Tuesdays with Tina, Part 22}

If you are new to this series, catch up first and then come back and read.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Tina: I found out from Uncle Tonino that the single aunts favored the two nieces by letting my father think that the Maestro didn’t want him…and they made him believe that he had to eat hidden away…they didn’t want the Maestro to get close to my father so that later, the two nieces would have more inheritance. Even if he was the son of the brother… When the Maestro found out about all this he asked, “What’s going on here? Why is he eating alone?” So then he invited my father to eat with the family. He cared for him and took care of him.”

My parents got to know each other because they lived in the same neighborhood. My mother was 16 years old and my father 17. He used the excuse of needing a handkerchief so he asked my mother, who was a seamstress and could embroider, to do it. She said yes, so that’s how they started speaking. They were engaged for 5 years.

Me: Do you know anything about the wedding? Was her father still alive at this point?

Tina: My mother’s father, yes. He was still alive.

Me: So tell me about them after they got married. Did they go live in Vico Canale?

Tina: No, no. They went to live in another road and that is where they got know this other family who became godparents to us children. They were good friends, very tight. Rosalba and Gianni grew up with these people, like aunts and uncles. Then after 10 years they went to live in Fuorigrotta and our family went to live in Vico Canale where I, Anna and Tonino were born. I was born during the war and Rosalba used to tell me that the family would meet up with the godparents in the underground where everyone took shelter to get away from the bombing. Rosalba was 10 years old when I was born. She would grab her little seat and run. They had an agreed on place where they would meet underground. 

Our family traveled to Italy last year (2014) and we got to visit several places that were significant to my mom, including the underground where she was born!

To be continued…next week you’ll get to hear the exciting story of Tina’s birth!