The school had a playing field with proper goal posts and football was the mania of the day. We were so fanatical that collections in card form of Italian teams such as Milan, Juventus, Napoli and so on, were gambled with by everyone at the school. The most exciting gift that a visiting parent could give was a complete set of cards of a team. Although all the teams were my favourite, Juventus, was my favourites, favourite. In May 1949 the Torino FC team returning from a friendly match in Portugal, crashed into a Church Steeple in Turin and all of the team perished, it was a national tragedy, Italy went into mourning, I remember going to a special memorial service at the school. Both my favourite players, the goalkeeper Bacigalupo and the left wing Mazzola were in the team. It was a very sad time for all in Italy. One day in mid-1948, my mother came to visit with Adam. That was a treat, as he rarely left the farm and village, but what was really exciting was that he gave me a gift of three sets of football cards. I hugged and thanked him and I could see that he was slightly embarrassed at my hugging. I was permitted to go out for the afternoon and that’s when I was told that Adam had been approached by an Italian building company, owned by a Mr Cosani in South Africa, to join many other Italians in emigrating, as there was much work for them there. Post war Italy was in a mess and he felt that he had to take this opportunity. Plans were made and Adam left in 1948 with a few of his friends and immediately started arrangements in South Africa, for the three of us to follow within a year. A few months later, Adam married my mother by proxy; the wedding was celebrated in South Africa by Adam and his friends and in Italy by my mother and new in laws, at their farmhouse in Osoppo. It was a memorable occasion as many people of the town were invited; brought gifts, food and the celebrations went on well past our bedtime. There were so many well-wishers all giving my mother advice and with looks on their faces of ‘God I wish we were going as well’ bade us good luck and farewell. Emigrating to South Africa I was ten years old and the excitement was overwhelming. When the teacher knew about our plans to emigrate, she gave special time in class discussing Africa for my benefit. I learnt about black people in the jungle, lions, elephants that walked in the streets of the cities. As time was drawing nearer and nearer to our departure I went on a run around in Osoppo to all the places I knew so well and bid them ‘last touch’ and goodbye, I visited the cemetery and kissed Giovanna’s photograph and bade her farewell. The day of departure arrived too soon. Saying goodbye to Noe’ and Zia, not knowing when we would see them again, if ever, was heart sore and with promises of seeing them very soon, we set off for Venice by train with everything we owned. My mother, relied on the government war pension that she received monthly, to buy as much linen as possible, as that was very important to her, we then boarded our ship, the ‘Jerusalem’. The date was early July 1949. On the trip down, the ship stopped at all ports, Pescara, Brindisi, Taranto. I remember the entrance to the Suez canal and the ship going very slowly, then stopping at Massawa, Aden, Dar es Salaam, Mogadishu, were small rowing boats would come close to our moored ship. Small children would dive into the water to retrieve coins that were thrown to them. They were amazing, they could stay under water for long periods and my mother when watching would get very anxious about them, but they always popped up laughing. We bought fresh fruit of types unknown to us, Mangoes, Pawpaws, Avacodo pears. The bananas were huge and Bob and I got sick of eating so many of them. Most of us suffered from sea sickness and we would lie on our backs on the deck of the ship, this was also the case when moored in Massawa at night, it was so hot that we could not sleep in the cabin. Unlike today, there was no air conditioning in the cabins and we just layed on the deck hoping for relief. That came when Bob, who had befriended many of the crew members, would bring bottles of ice cold water for all of us to drink, the relief was immediate. Nothing tasted nicer than that cold water. When sailing in good weather, the captain would treat all the passengers to the showing of films at night, we looked forward to that and as this took place on the deck we all helped with the placing of chairs and tables for the snacks which were served half way through the film. If the film was a comedy there would be so much laughter and so much to talk about later in the dormitory cabins. If the film was sad, there would be no laughter and it would still be talked about with sadness. We were all so entranced by the magic of films that the memories that were created lingered on for ever. I vividly remember a film that was made in the late thirties of a young Hedy Lamar of Samson and Delilah fame running naked in a forest, this had quite an effect on me and the mystery of girls became even more mysterious. I’m sure that it helped me in the excitement and infatuation derived from my ability to daydream and desire. Oh yes.... even in those young days the thought of being close to a girl was mostly no way, but that did not erase completely all thoughts and fantasies about girls. The food on the ship was excellent, very often the mothers would spend time in the kitchens and applied their expertise with the cooking, I’m sure that the Chef was delighted and Im sure he learnt much from them. Eventually the Captain regarded the passengers and crew as one big family and he said as much during a speech he made congratulating the mothers about the wonderful food that they helped organize and produce. We arrived in Durban on the twenty ninth of July 1949; the journey had taken close to a month. Adam, who by now could speak broken English, was there to meet us. There was also someone from the local newspaper, who interviewed my mother via Adam and took photographs of us. We walked around the Victoria Embankment with its palm trees and high rise buildings,buses and cars which we had never seen before, sailing boats like the ones on Rhodes. This was a different world for us; we were amazed at the tropical beauty of Durban. We lunched at a Greek café where my mother was able to communicate with the owner and who eventually sent us the photograph and news clipping that was in the evening newspaper. Later that afternoon we boarded the train to Johannesburg. Sleeping on the train was another great experience, whenever the train came to a halt I would wake up and listen to all the sounds that take place in a station, the opening of carriage doors, people getting off and walking past our window, the hissing sound of steam as the train prepares to leave, the final slamming shut of the door when the signal man has given the all clear and jumps on, and then the jerk as the train starts moving forward and gathers speed, finally, the warm smell of burning coal that temporarily hangs in the air until the train disappears in the distance. We arrived the next morning and someone from Adams work fetched us in a truck as there was much luggage. Adam had rented a house in Terrace Rd, Judith Paarl and my mother prettied it the way she knew best. It was comfortable; it had a large entrance hall which served as a dining room as well, a large sitting room, three bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen with a coal and electric stove; what a difference to the single large room in Osoppo, my mother walked around sighing with happiness, admiring and smiling. Suddenly we were rich. On the first Sunday in South Africa, a feast of food and drinks was prepared, Adam invited a couple of friends from Osoppo who like him, worked for Mr Cosani. There was eating, singing, till late afternoon and we all went for a walk along Terrace Rd to see all the different homes and hopefully meet some of the people. Well, apart from a Lebanese family, the Shams, the rest were all indoors and we hardly saw anyone for a long time. This was not like Italy where people, especially on Sundays would be strolling along the streets of the town stopping and greeting others as we made our way to Church or the tearoom for tea and pastries. Adam had in the meantime enrolled Bob and I at a local school, which was three blocks away from our house, this meant that we would get to school in ten minutes, my mother was happy. We all were. There were two close friends of Adam that used to visit regularly, Pagnusin and Gervasio. Pagnusin owned a Renault motorcar that looked like a tortoise. He would fetch us on Sundays; we would squeeze in to his car, and then go for a picnic either at the Zoo or Zoo Lake, Florida lake or the Italian farm where he lived in Craighall. In 1949 that area was farm land and getting there was a long drive. We looked forward to those outings no matter where we went. On the top of Northcliff ridge, the highest point around Johannesburg, was a restaurant come coffee house called the Crystal Palace where we went to for lunch or in the afternoon for tea and pastries, from there the view was unbelievable, you could see the country side for miles, all the way to Pretoria. There was no smog then and the Monument was very visible.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 08:47:56 +0000
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