|
Page 20 - Continued |
|
|
|
|
About the Paternoster Family and our
occupying their attic rooms, we did not board with them. We took
our meals at the officer's mess, which was in a community center building,
which also housed the theater and Officer's Club. I think there was a
NCO Club and enlisted men's mess in another section of the same
complex. Our briefing rooms were also in this complex. All four squadrons operated off the one
steel matting landing strip. I don't know how the maintenance crews
were able to keep our birds in flying condition under such primitive
circumstances. I suppose after N. Africa and Sicily, Central Italy
conditions were heavenly. ---------------ADD------------------- The billeting officer of the 35th
Squadron did in fact rap on the Paternoster door with a bayonet but there was
never a feeling of victors taking over from the vanquished. We were
treated as guests from the very first day. There was no speaking of us paying
rent. Mama Paternoster offered to have her housemaid who came in once a
week do our laundry. We accepted and upon completion we paid the lady
about what we would have paid in the states to have that much laundry done, a
dollar or two. No! No! said Mama Paternoster, " If you pay her
that much she will never come to work for me! I will do your
laundry." After that she did our laundry and we paid her about two
dollars. What we didn't realize at first was that $2 was 200 Lira
for them. We tried to pay our own way by making sure that there was
toilet paper in the bathroom and occasionally giving them a carton of
cigarettes. I’ve already mentioned the pair of shoes I bought at the PX
for thirteen-year-old Giovanni. We kept in touch for a few years but
gradually lost contact with the Paternosters. In the summer of 1949,
Josephine Skelton, whom I had dated during the previous school year at the
University of Kansas, and her former roommate spent four or five months
touring Europe. They visited Rosignano and the Paternoster
family. They were still most gracious to them and to us. Jo and I
were married in Sept. 1950. In early 1945, the Italian
people were either fascists or communists. The American soldier
showed them that they didn't have to be one or the other. I believe
that by the time the Americans left, most Italians would have been willing to
become the 49th state in the USA. I have now lost the ability to write in
Italian or even speak Italian. I would yet like to revisit
Rosignano and see if I could End of Story |
|