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19850
Mr. Roaldus Richmond
Assistant Director
Federal Writers' Project
SUNDAY aFTERNOOF -T M -RS. GERBATI'S
The Sunday afternoon session at Mrs. Gerbati's was in
full swine. In the kitchen the talking was mostly in Italian.
The old grandmother who sat in the corner by the stove spoke
nothing else. Her face was deeply wrinkled, her eyes dull,
and her shawled shoulders were thin and bent under the weight
of years. She was untroubled by the confusion and din, with-
drawn far into memory or oblivion. and no one paid her any
attention.
Gerbati, the old lady's daughter, was a vigorous
buxom woman, deep -breasted and strong -limbed. Middle age
had not grayed her sleek black hair or dulled the flash of
her black eyes. :Tow she was busy pouring drinks to answer
the raucous orders from the inner rooms. Her own daughters,
darkly ilandsome and well -formed, hurried about serving the
drinks ale, beer, red wine, grappa, whisky. Rough mas-
culine voices joked and jibed at the two youiv girls, but
they parried the thrusts with sharp tongues and good-natured
sarcasm. There was no coarse language, no vulgarity, and
no male hands were groeing... Mrs. Gerbati's was a res-
pectable place, her daughters were nice girls. If anyone
cot fresh there he did not remain long. Mrs. Gerbati
aroused was a formidablefigure; and the girls were quite
able to take care of themselves.
The long table in the
Italians, Swedes, Yankees,
resounded from the walls.
dining room was crowded with men,
Scotsmen, elbow to elbow. Laughter
From the parlor cane the music of
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a piano and the roar of singing voices. A Dartmouth graduate
was playing; the singers included two stonecutters, a saloon-
keeper, a lawyer, a dentist, a service station worker, an in-
surance agent, a town loafer. There were no barriers of
caste in Mrs. Gerbati's where good drinking men from all
walks of life gathered in defiance of the Sunday Blue Laws.
All nationalities and all fields were represented.
The old grandmother and her husband had come to Barre
with the first of the Italian immigrants. He was already
well -experienced and skilled in cutting stone. But he did,
not live long in this country. The enclosed sheds were not
like the open-air sheds in Italy. The dust was worse and
ten years of intensive working in it killed htm. By then
the daughter had grown to full-blown womadhood and married
another stonecutters Rodrigo Gerbati, a sturdy sensible
young man from their native province of Siena.
They were happy and prosperous. Gerbati did not waste
money as so many did. They took care of the old lady, bought
this fine large house, and raised two daughters. But the
fear was in the old grandmother, and Mrs. Gerbati caught it
when her husband began to cough. A terrible sound, that
coughing.
I wasn't afraid until then, said Mrs. Gerbati. Not even
when my mother talked and warned and shook her head. And be
wasn't either, I know he wasn't. Until that coughing started
and kept getting worse. One day I said it was too bad we
didn't have a son. My mother said at least the girls wouldn't
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have to cut stone. And Rodrigo nodded his head after think-
ing a long way off, and he said: "That is right." Then I
knew.
I thought that big strike might save him, you know.
That was 1921 or '22. Rodrigo didn't go back to work after
that. But it was too late... I think he got hurt too one
night when they had a fight. He never told me anything
about it, but he came home that night with marks on his face
and hands and his clothes torn. After that he seemed worse,
the cough was worse, and the life had gone out of him, he
wasn't the same man.
The girls were still young when he went, just babies
really, not old enough to understand. We had this house
all paid for and a little money left, not much. I was still
young myself, I could have married again... But I didn't
want to. There was no other man for me, I guess. The Nonna
used to tell me to take another man. She said don't be a
fool, you're young and pretty and healthy, you got two girls
to bring up. Don't be a fool and waste your life. Your
blood is still warm and there is room in a young heart for
another man. You need a man, she told me... But I didn't
want one. After him there wasn't one, that's all. So I
never married.
But I had to do something. The money was running out,
the girls needed more things as they got older, there was
taxes to pay and all that. I had to do something... My
mother didn't like it when first I took stonecutters in to
room and board. She said it was disgraceful. Then when I
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started selling liquor she almost died, She said she'd
rather die than see that. Now she don't care any more about
anything, she's too ad.
At first I just sold to the men who stayed here, you
see. Just a few drinks with their meals, you know, maybe
a few in the evening. Then they started bringing in a few
friends for drinks. It was all quiet and decent. They were
good men, some of them had worked with Rodrigo* been his
friends. They were good to the girls, to all of us. But
naturally more and more kept coming, you know how it is.
Their friends brought other friends and I sold more drinks.
Pretty quick it got to be quite a business.
They come for Italian food too, parties that order in
advance. I am a good cook if I do say it. Everybody knows
my cooking. Some say my ravioli and spaghetti is the best
in Barre, and they rave about my minestrone and my antipasto
But it's not been too easy, it has tade a lot of hard work
for me. Anyway it keeps me from thirgring too much about
things...
I had to do it. I had to take care of my mother and I
put the girls through high school. Now they both work out-
side when they can and that helps too. One of them is in
the Five -and -Ten, Voolworth's, now. The other waits on
table some in a restaurant. They're good girls, nice girls.
They were brought up that way, just like I was.
No, I am not ashamed of it. I have worked hard and al-
ways kept a respectable place. It was something I had to do
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and I'd do it again. I get tired and nervous sometimes.
Today they are noisy here, and a little drunk. But you
don't see any trouble, do you? No bad talk, no fights,
nothing out of the way. They know I wouldn't stand for
it, and they know my girls wouldn't stand for any funny
business around them'. Not those girls.
I am not ashamed of it one bit. You say I shouldn't
be, I should be proud of it? Well, I guess maybe I am,
maybe I am proud of it... I didn't like to say it myself
but I am proud.