Dear
Grandbaby,
I really enjoy telling you about Careri in the form of a story and
I'm particularly thrilled because is the story of my life albeit my
first one the one I too find amusing to hear stories told to myself by
myself (does it make any sense to you? I know it may not but it
makesperfect sense to me). Now I'm going to take you back to Laguardia,
I'm going to sit on the wall ad look at the distance. I'm now next to
Ancuni the home of the rich man I told you about previously. There is a
vast hilly area arid and forbidding(that is how I remember it).
The town of Careri owned this land and in the late forties the town
council decided to parcel it in five acres lots and hold a lottery to
give it away to the residents that applied for it( my father was one of
them). I dont recall going to bed hungry one day ion my early life but
it was'nt because we were rich but rather because my dad would do
anything to put food on the table. At the lottery my dad won his parcel
not at the worst location but very close.For days on end my dad would
go in the morning with me and the donkey (I would ride it most of the
way) untill all the land was dug up. He would then plant wheat and hope
that the rain would be enough and timely to make it grow and give us a
good harvest.I can vaguely remember the first year but watever was the
case I really had a ball.My father at the conclusion of weeks of hard
work planted the wheat and prayed that the rain would help.The rain did
help and by spring had a green field ofwheat that would look so
beautyfull and waved when the wind caressed it.At that point my mother
and her lady friends would based on an elaborate exchange agreement go
in rotation to each other wheat field form a line and would weed the
field(walking through the field pull the weeds). While working they
would sing folkloristic songs with a melody I can clearly and with
sadness remember.
I'll tell you about the rest of the season and the entire process till
it became bread on the table.
Now I have to tell you that Nonna&melooooooooooooooove U