Memories

Even though I have lived in the USA for many years, old memories come to mind often for a lot of different reasons. One memory that comes back nearly every day is the simple but tasty food of Ciociaria.

At times I close my eyes and a picture of this old pastry shop near the high school I attended pops up with memories of rushing out of school to buy a pastry before they closed. I can still smell the sweet fragrance of freshly baked goods that would make anyone salivate even on a full stomach.

The Vegetables

In the spring time the vegetable garden would boom with different kinds of vegetables beginning with potatoes planted sometime in February. Our vegetable garden used to be in a large area, along with what seemed everyone else's garden in town, because of a small creek from a natural spring about a half mile further ahead.

In the old times everyone inherited a small piece of land in that area because this was the only place where they could irrigate their vegetables when no other irigation was avialable.

As a result the whole area used to look spectacular. Everywhere you looked there were so many different varieties of the vegetable plants all spring and summer long; the vegetables produced, in so many different sizes, shapes, colors, and the fragrances from the different spices.....MMMMMM.

The People

Gli Orti Pirella was a very popular place most afternoons. You could always count on having plenty of company when you went to work there. People, mostly related, would catch up on just about everything, tell jokes or funny stories, and -- of course -- gossip!

Italians are notorious for gossip, and in small towns people are so much more prone to it because everyone knows everyone else.