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Residue Riehwed
%0141..1:1044"- 9 aillto
I '71WSLIA.d
Recorded in
W-iters' Section files
OkOG (J
DITE: ________
SJ AieTI:Ar,a AT IFS. ARLATIIS
The Sundey afternoon oossion at Urs. aerbatics 'es in full owing. In
the kitohen the talk was mostly in Italian. The ola gremnrther leo eat in
the corner by the stove spoke nothing else. Uor face was deeply wrinkled.
She see untroubled by the onnfusion and din, and no one pad her amy
attention.
aerbati, the old lades daughter. IMA 11. vigorous woman, deep.
breasted and strong.limbed. kiddie age bed not grayed her sleek bleak
hair or dulled the flash of her eyes. low ehe ems busy pouring drinks in
answer to the roams orders free the inner rooms. Fier daughters5 darkly
handsome and well.formed, hurried *bout serving the drinks ale, beer,
red wind, grams, whilky. hough masouline voices joked at that,* young
girls, but they parried the thrusts with sharp tongues and good.natured
sarcasm. Mrs. aerbatics was a respectable plops, her daneAters were nitre
cirls. If anyone cot fresh there he did not remain longs 4rs. aerbati
aroused vas a formidable azure, and the girls were cit.ite able to take
oars of themselves.
Tbe long table in the dinIng mums crowded with men, Italians,
Swedes, Yankees, booteLen, elbow to elbow. ?rem the parlor ease the
music of a piano and the roar of sloe% vices. In ;Os. aerbstics geod
drinkIng men from all walks of life lathered in defianee of the Sunday Blue
Laws. All nationalities and all fields wore represented.
The old grandurther, her husband and their daughter hod ooze to Barre
with the first of the Italian immigrants. HO wax ulreaey experieneed and
skilled in cutting stone. But he did not live long in this oountry. The
4.
enolosed sheds were not like the open-air sheds in Italy. .41111 dust was
worse and ten years of intensive errkin in it killed him. by then the
daughter had married another stonecutter, aodrizo -'ilarbati, a sturdy sensible
young man from their native province of Liens.
They were happy. Gerhati did not vista avAey as so asny diC. lhey
took oare of the old lad', bow :ht this fine large house, clad raised two
dauchters. but the fear we in the old grandmeth4r, and 1.irse Gerbati
caught it when her husband been to coull. .a terrible sound, that cowghis
In
"1 wasn't afraid until then," said Urs. Gerbati. "ot even when my
upthor turiAlod and warned and shock her head. And he wasn tteither, I know
he wasn't. bntil that coughing started and kept gottinc worse. day
said it ercs too bad we didn't have a son. mother salc at least the L,irle
wouldn't have to cut atone. id i4,driIp nodded his head after thihkinc
long way off, and he saids 'That is rljlt.' Than 1 kciew.)
thouight that bl strike mi.jlt save him. Met was 1921 or '22.
Rodriso didn't ce back to work after that. L-ut it wee too late. 1 think
fot hurt too one al:ht wt ,la th-y had a rijt. he never .--(11L anythir„;
about it, but he came htme thit niht wAh marks on his face and hands, and
his clothes torn. ilter that trouble he seemed worse, the :;ruh was worse,
find the life had (7.11t ol• him. he waan't the same wan.
"The -iris 'were still youn w.n he went, not old enouji to uneerstand.
Ve had this house am', a ittLid font -07 left, not much. 1 vat still yrunc my-
self, I cold have married a7ain... but I didn't went to. Alere was no
other man for me, 1 uses. :he Lonna used to tell me to take caxther man.
She said don't be a fool, you're yrunz and healthy, TA; ot two ,irls to
brinj up. lon't be a fo,-..1 and 'vats your life, there is room in a young
heart or another can. You need a man, she told me. ut I didn't want
-ne. After him therelpssn't one, that's 11. o I never married.
"Wit I had to do somethinL. The urney was rdm.ninz out, the cirle need-
ed pore this as thoy 7ot older, there was taxes to pay and all Lhat. I
lad to do somethin:. 4 mother didn't like it when first I tot* stone..
cutters in to room and board. he said it vas diszracetul. arm when I
started sellinc liquor she almrst died. he said she'd rather die than see
that. Low she don't oaro any rave ab-ut anythin4, she's boo old.
"At first I just sold to thuf men who stayed here, you see. Just a
few drinks wih th.,'Ir meals, you know, maybe a few in the evenin4. :hen they
started brini In a few friends for drinks. It was all quiet and deoent.
Ihey vier food men, some of th-m had worked with i.todrif,74 been his friends.
'it167 were Iv -L. to the ,irls, to L11 of us. but naturally more and mere kept
coxiinz, you know how it is. 2licir friends brou.ht oiher friends and L sold
.ore drinks. iiret4 quick it ot to be quite a business.
"That blonde fellow who rleys the iimo is a ....artmoutt cpaduate. A
quiet fel_ow. Ls worlds ac, the ;:ltate Li -use in Lbntpelier. Every
Sunday he a-mes for a ravioli (inAor. fterwurds, when the oroed shoes up
he drinks with them, and playa. ose two T1 behinc him are stone-
cutters. The short mie has to mad here since my husband died. its girl,
pretty 0-+otoh wruldn't trrry him unless he cult the sheds. he didn't
cult." 4s. erbst1 shru,ye still. sin6le. The two talkinz at the
end of the table um a. lawyer d Censist. OO ores, Loo. i.aybe hey -ot
w.lon_ey and u: e
It clqn hoses, but th.4 li to coce here. he thin
fellow In a mackInnw Iiator. to th-m is the tovn loafdr. A smart town
loafer. The say he (Lots T,ociay he must be broke. cm tell, sot hii
act like this before. le will emit until there i a LifIerence of coinion
between the lawyer and the 6,0c:tars then he will stick uo cr Clt.t3 of thota.
That way he will f..At two or threw rotalds of vine freo. that youno red—
headed fellow he sire to loud works in the I illi station at be corner.
A fent tilos* he has one r.))..t with ..•y olcest dauohter. lit Sundays he comes
here to drink twc have lun with thc con, he ayo woocial attention to her.
That's the way I like it.
'rho oustowers core :or 1t.1 Ln food toot ovxtios that order in advance.
ema 000d cook if .1) s y it. c..verybody knows rib, cookioo. :›03/10 say ray
ravioli and aps.ohotti 5 tio bust in barrel, and they rave about iv mine«
strong, and r.zy arrtipaste. out lit s not been too *QV. 1. 1' made a lot of
hard work for me.
"I haci to do it. I .ad to take oarc ofmy mother end I i.ut the iris
o
throu'h school. Now they both rork outtide oan and that helps
too. c'ne of thou' is in the ,ive—et n row. The rthor waits on tshlo
some in a restaurant. They'ro 000 iri, nto irls. Thy worc 'Orruolit
up that wc...y, lust litho I Imc.
"so, I am not asliaord of it. I %eve workoa hard and always •et a
reaoctle plaee. it was 5o in; 1 had to do and do it toos...o,
zost tired and oarvous stvieti es. lo -day they are noisy hero, and a little
drunk. ..ut you don't see any trouble, do you': :,othino out of the way.
Thf..7 know I wouldn't atom._ fr it, and. thry know my -iris wouldn't stone.
for any funny business arounic thom. T.ot those
"I am not ashatrod r`l. bit. You say I should:2.ot be shoold be
proud of meztx coo, I didn't liOo to soy it rvself
*out I am pr000,"