The Greek Heritage chapters.

WELCOME TO MENFRANCO GENERAL BLOG. Today we will talk about the Greek heritage chapter from my life story articles. Since nothing important to report has happened. 

Anyhow, allow we to post some of my favorite links and other blogs:

http://manneedsgod.blogspot.com,http://ifyoubelieveingod.blogspot.com/,

https://sites.google.com/site/prayersofreconciliation/,https://sites.google.com/site/godintheuniverse/,
https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/, www.catholic.org/,www.catholic.org.au/, www.catholic.org/bible/, www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html,

http://diybrickwork.com, http://manneedsgod.co.uk, http://frankmenchise.com 

This blog can also be found at this link, The heritage chapter. 

This is called La Cavallina fountain, the large round pond is used to water the horses and other large animals, in the back ground is the fountain with several spout of water, and behind it there are washing facilities, so there is plenty of water running continually.   

The Greek Heritage chapters.   

Welcome to my article, The heritage chapter.

Dear readers, in this article we want to talk about the history of Genzano di Lucania, and the heritage that the ancient people that lived there left us.   

In Genzano di Lucania, there is a chasm called the Greek chasm, this Greek chasm, is the other chasm on the western side of the old town of Genzano; you see, the old town of Genzano was built between two chasms and in our last article we have talked about Saint Antony chasm, this is a chasm on the eastern side of the old town of Genzano where most of the inhabitant of Genzano make wine in the caves dug in the walls of the chasm below the town, but today we are going to talk about what the local call the Greek chasm, which is on the other side of the town below the fountain called La Cavallina.

Anyhow, some writers that have written about Genzano history believe that a long time ago the Greek were living here in this part of southern Italy, in the chasm that we are talking about, and that is the reason why it is called the Greek chasm even today from the elders of Genzano.

There are reasons to believe that it is so, if one keeps in mind how the human race migrated from the Middle East to Europe; and also history tells us that 700 BC or there about Greece had colonies in southern Italy, which have lasted until the Romans took over. So, let us assume that the Greeks were there, because what is going to follow, is going to reinforce this assumption. We are going to tell you about, The Madonna story in our future articles, we can only say here that this Madonna effigy is very much like the effigies that the Greek people were making about the Roman times.

----------------------------

The town history and heritage. 

Looking at old history books, we must admit that there is not much written about Genzano di Lucania town history. However the myth says that Genzano is very old and it was named from a legend that tells us that a young guy called Jens (yens) fell in love and eloped with a young princes called San, they went to live in the caves in the chasm, which today are below the town of Genzano, and then, they started to build a small castle, where the old town of Genzano is now, the name is virtually the two name of the lovers put together Iens-san (yensan, or jenzan) I am saying this because I know that in strict dialect of the town even today it is pronounced Yenzan with no G at the beginning and no O at the end.

(For those people that can read Italian, I am going to paste here a couple of links that modern writers have written about the history of Genzano di Lucania: One of this is Ettore Lorito, and here is a link that may get you to see his writing works,Scrittori e poeti, another writer has these two link, here,Arch. Pietrapertosa - Storia e dintorni - Genzano di Lucania, this writer has two links and both are very interesting,

http://ass-gentius.blogspot.it/ , let us hope they work)

Now let us talk about more recent history discovered in the archive of Potenza; this writer is Ettore Lorito and he said; the first time that Genzano is mentioned in the archives is that of two brothers Secondo and Donato who were Christian martyr in the year 258 AD, as they were beheaded in Genzano ordered from council Valeriano, which I guess was a Roman council for that part of Italy. This seems to be the oldest written record found written about Genzano history and not much else; so, let us go back to the Greek chasm story.

Anyhow, we want to describe the chasm of Genzano that we call the Greek chasm, we have to say that this chasm starts about fifty meter from the fountain Cavallina, or perhaps I should say that at the beginning of the Greek chasm is where the fountain Cavallina is, then suddenly the chasm becomes very deep and a real chasm that is impossible to go in, and nobody goes there, unless you have to go there and know the way how to get there; anyhow this part of Genzano is called the Greek chasm, so, by this name it is understood that a very long time ago there must have been a colony of Greek people living there.

About the Greek people and what happened to them nobody knows today, as there is no trace of them and there are no records to check with. So, we are forced to assume that there was a war, or something like that and they were driven out. Or perhaps they mixed with the rest of the inhabitants of Genzano and nobody remembers, or perhaps, as time went by lots of other things happened that changed the shape of the chasm; so, it became impossible for them to live in the chasm.

Recent history of Genzano’s Greek chasm. 

We know that how time passes lots of things change, this has also happened to the Greek people and their chasm; so, nowadays the Greek chasm has been deserted from the people of Genzano for a long while, because most of the people are afraid to go into this chasm the way it is today; you see, today there is only a small part that can still be used and a track or road that can take you around to the other chasm.

This Greek chasm is dangerous because of the abrupt drops in the level of the land, it can also be unsanitary as lots of rubbish used to be dumped into this chasm, and this includes also the human excrement that used to come out at the bottom of the chasm, when there was no proper sewer laid in town; and plus most of the men that lived in the old town when they had to go, they used to go and squat on the shoulders of the chasm and do it there, to save their women folks the extra sanitary work that they had to carry out: And this unpleasant task I am going to write later, how it was done from the young women that lived in those times.

In the Greek chasm today there are a few caves that can be used, and most of the rest have been abandoned because it is impossible to get at them, since the erosion has made the chasm deeper, so, now some caves are left exposed halfway up the vertical cliff of the chasm.

I believe that the erosion became worse in this chasm because: there is the fountain Cavallina upstream at the beginning of the chasm, and because, as the town grew larger most of the town’s storm water drainage was diverted into this chasm, and together with this drainage they built also a simple and effective sewerage system for the town of those days. The dunghill masonry was built underground, except for the opening where they used to drop the dung, and it was connected through a drain which came out at the bottom of the chasm. All this may seem ridiculous today, but I am sure that in those times was seen as a great improvement.

Now at this point I want to point out to you that there are some large masonry works in this chasm, because across the chasm there are two massive masonry walls, and one of them is so massive that seems as if it wants to hold the banks of the chasm apart. These two walls have been built for several purposes in mind, and the most important one would be to prevent any landslide which would endanger this old part of the town, and to stop the erosion that could undermine this part of the town, and also to hide the drainage and sewer system. So, the only thing that can be seen of the sewer system was only a large barred opening about three feet square at ground level, which was situated a short walking distance from the town’s fountain Cavallina; and this archaic but effective old sewer system was still being used when I was young. Not from my family, because we were lucky enough, as we were connected to the modern sewer system long before I was born. But it still was used from those less fortunate people in the community, which for some reasons of their own had not been able to connect to the modern town’s sewer yet, so, they had to use the old system as it was done in the old days, this must have been the most hated job of them all that the young less fortunate women had to do during their lives, so, let me write about it even though I hate doing it, because it is so hateful and at the same time necessary, in order to explain how the people were living in the past. After all we are trying to write about Genzano history, so, let us see how the most hated job of them all was done, in those times.

-------------------------------

This must be the most hated job.  

This must have been the most hated job of them all, that the women folks of Genzano had to do; we want to point out to the modern generation to compare those times, when even the best people had to make do, to live a decent life then, as there were no other ways available.

Now looking back at the time when I was young, I still remember how the unspeakable job was done, from the women folks of those unfortunate families that were using the old sewer system; they had to do this horrible job two or three times a week, and they would feel ashamed while they were doing it, because this would expose them in a mental way about lack of privacy, so, they felt ashamed when they did this. 

Now, there is more to tell about this happening, because in those times young people sometimes were cruel, so, they would enjoy to see the funny part of it, without thinking that their actions would upset the other party; now that I am older and wiser I would have felt sorry for those women that had to use the old sewer system: But then as a young man; I and my teenager male friends thought that it was funny, when we would see in the evening before dusk, a couple of women per household come out of their houses with their own dung balanced on their head so to speak. One of them would carry this round and wide rimmed ceramic container balanced on her head, the other would be carrying a bucket and a little broom which was a sort of brush with a long handle.

They would be coming out of their houses, and they would try to go the back ways as much as they could, and try to be invisible if they could as they didn’t want to be seen. Can you imagine some teenager girls doing this low and unspeakable service, while some teenager boys were prying on them from a distance? What a shame! Those girls must have felt terrible to say the least, only because they were doing the most hated job of them all, which was to dispose of their own human excrement; but, it was necessary and inevitable.

Anyhow, when they reached the square opening of the sewer, they would help each other to bring the contains down from their heads and would throw the dung down the square hole; and then the one with the bucket would go to the fountain and bring a bucket of water to wash the ceramic container. And finally return to their homes relieved that their dirty job was done, and they would be all right for a few days.

Can you imagine any young girls that are living today to do such a shameful job, I have nothing else to say but just compare it? So, when old people say that today generations are better off and lucky to be born now and not then, they are telling us the truth, because I am pretty sure that there is no one that would volunteer to do that hateful job. Here we can say a lot more and compare the youths of today with the youths of the past and see what has changed since then, but we will refrain from doing that, as it is not my life story and I intend to continue with my life story and the history of my native town. Anyhow, you can see more if you click this link, The heritage chapter.

So, see you next time, where we are going to tell you about the Madonna story

---------------------------------------------------

Turning negative into positive

WELCOME TO MENFRANCO GENERAL BLOG. Today we are going back to write a few blogs about our lives, we will postpone our blogs about Australia economy, but we will come back soon.  

Taken from our Hub Pages article,  Turn negative into positive this is going back to my life story.

To say something soon. 

Dear readers, I have said in our previous article, I am going to turn negative happening into positive thinking; now, to turn negative happening into positive thinking, we must go through a process of many stages, I have gone through most of this process and I continue to go through.

Anyhow, I believe that this article may not be in the right place of my life story writings, because I am breaking my life story in half. Now, this article is going to be a bit jumpy, I hope that you do not mind, because in this article I will be talking about the ways that we sometimes behave, since my life experience has thought me that painful part.

Now, let me break away from my farm life story, and their negative thinking that they have left within my mind; we will return to write about that later; since this article is between the past and the present time, therefore, I want to tell you how I have felt during my life. You see, even today my inner self wants to cry out aloud and say, why this had to happen to me and my family.

But then I think that to cry over past events will not help, therefore, today I am going to express myself with the knowledge that I have painfully acquired later in my life. Because I want to throw away my shyness forever and never look back at those drawbacks that I had early in my life. Therefore, I want to break away from the past forever; I want to introduce myself to the world and say with a loud voice, what I need to say. So, I am going to turn those negative experiences into positive thinking; I am introducing myself to the world and say, “hello my world” and try to fit in with other people as well. It is going to be a bumpy ride.

-----------------------------------------------------

Introducing myself to the world

Dear readers, what I am going to write next will sound ridiculous, because this is not what happens in real life; however, this is one of my imaginary ways of how I can break free from my boring and shy life that I have lived in the past, I know that this way is going to be strange; but let us leave behind these negative thoughts and be positive; so, let me introduce myself to the world.

HELLO MY WORLD! HERE I COME TO YOU WITH OPEN ARMS.

Hello world! Hello life! Hello everybody!

Hello, to the imaginary people that I am going to talk to in this article. So, I hope that you would listen to me and be my friends, you see, I want to be friendly with you people, since we all live in this same world, you see, we are here and we try to live the best way we can, our earthly life.

So, I hope that you are willing to be my friend, since I am a lonely man; I am asking you to be my friends, because it seems to me that you are good people and look friendly to me; anyhow, I hope you are good friendly people. So, may I ask, if I can have the pleasure of your company?

I know that what I am saying may not make sense to you, because friendship just happens, and I know that I need to learn how to be friendly with people. So, I must learn how to introduce myself and other things. You see, I have lived my live in an isolated place, so, I will make mistakes, while I am trying to say something that is important.

Anyhow, I hope that you don’t mind me if I ask some questions, because they are important to me, I hope also that you don’t mind me personally, as I am keen to be your friend, so, in my own strange ways, I would like to meet you, or at least those that are thinking that they can be friend with me. Since I want to share some of my time with you, and some of my personal views.

So, you see, I am a shy man and I don’t like to be a show off or anything like that, but because today I have made up my mind to be a different man, and want to be a man of the world; I am going to make a great effort to achieve that.

Now, because this is the first time that I have met you, I would like to introduce myself and make your acquaintance personally, this is one of those things that I have learned lately, one needs to know how to introduce oneself easily; so, let us do that and let us see and practise how to introduce ourselves politely today and take a look how it was done in the bygone days, just to compare the difference.

Anyhow, we are talking to a group of imaginary people, so I say: I would like to shake your hand to each one of you, and while I am shaking your hand, I say, pleased to meet you, or “How do you do”, this is one form of introduction but there are many others. So, to Mr Y. or X. and no matter who you are; when we were introduced to other people or we introduced yourselves we said; “How do you do!” And then, in order to be polite to each and every one of us, we used to bend low and say again, “How do you do!” and “How do you do!” again. This is how it was done in the good old bygone days.

Now, let me to introduce myself in a modern and simple way.

Hello, my name is, “Francesco Menchise” and I am from Brisbane Australia; while I am doing this introduction, if I am close enough to the person that I am introducing myself I would put my right hand forward ready to shake hand it the other person accept my hand shake; here the other person is supposed to also extend his hand and accept my hand shake, while shaking hand the other person is supposed to say pleased to meet you, followed by his name (John West?) so, he is also introducing himself at the same time, and then I could say the pleasure is mine and talk about whatever is necessary.

Just to say something, I might say, my name is Francesco Menchise, but everybody here calls me Frank, and Frank sounds good and friendly to me, and it is easy to say; so, just call me Frank and let it be, as it will be easy for you and me.

Now that I have introduced myself in a modern and mannerly way, let me go back to talk as if I am talking to a group of people: May I ask you your names please? So, that you can also introduce yourself, and then we can be friends; I’d like to shake your hand to each one of you, and while I shake your hands I will say, “I am pleased to meet you!” You may answer me, “I am pleased to meet you too.” Or if you wish you may say, “The pleasure is mine.” This is how most of the introductions finish, but it is useful to do them properly. 

I believe that this blog is long enough, so we need to stop now. 

-------------------------- 

Menfranco general blog 

Turning negative into positive

IS TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with; about the introduction and other talks. 
------------------------------------ 

Other links from same author

http://manneedsgod.co.uk

http://frankmenchise.com

http://diybrickwork.com 

http://publicreligiousforum.yolasite.com

http://rentalsbrisbane.net

http://menfranconewworldorder.yolasite.com

https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/

https://sites.google.com/site/prayersofreconciliation/

https://sites.google.com/site/godintheuniverse/

See you soon in our blog About the introduction and other talks. 

My life in the farm

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG, Menfranco general blog. In addition to our own posts about, my life story, and some DIY posts, we are going to publish some world wide public issues that we are writing, about what is happening in the world today and other stuff.
-
Welcome to our blog, menfranco general blog
and this post, my life in the farm.
-
My life in the farm

-Horses are very strong and friendly farm animals, we used them to draw carts and to pull the plough when we were ploughing the fields. They sometimes seem very clever too, one is almost tempted to talk to the horses if there is nobody around.

My life in the farm

Dear readers, this post is the continuation of our last post, The human side of farming. Now, these posts we are posting, is my life story and I am writing these life story articles and publishing them in short stories, so, this article is the continuation of our previous article ‘my farm life chapter’; in this article, we are also talking about my farm life in the farms of southern Italy when I was young. Anyhow, here I would like to remind you that I am going to tell you my life story just the way that I have lived it. Now, apart that this is my life story and a true-life story, I need to point out that in those times life was very different from today; for this reason, to understand some of my points of view that I would like to make here, one should try to compare the present way of life in the farms, which people are living today, to the time when I was young.

From my life experience that I am writing here I can assure you that life in the past was much harder and boring than today. I am saying this to you dear readers, because today you are living in this new and wonderful era of electronic devices, and you can choose to listen, watch or play with these electronic devices; and in doing so you may be able to enjoy yourself, and at the same time you may be able to learn something useful from them, if you put your mind to it; which is a good thing. But in those times, there was nothing similar, in fact we could not even guess that these things were going to come up and they would help humanity live a better life. So, we lived our boring and dull life and we did not even know that it was boring, in fact we thought that we were doing all right, since everybody else was doing the same things.

Therefore, I would like to say to the youths of today wherever they are, I would like to ask you this; could you just imagine a world that has no man-made electronics devises? A world with not even a single push button devise that you could amuse yourself with. Here I am talking about what we see today everywhere we go; we see people with their mobile phones doing all sort of things, which is wonderful, if we think about it. And then, you could compare this new way of living that we are living today, with the old ways of living, while you are doing that just ask yourself, how could anyone live in a very isolated environment where silence of human voices reigns supreme days after days, except for a few phrases every now and then. I suppose all this is hard to believe today, because wherever you go there are these electronic devices that sing to you talk to you or inform you about many things that are happening in the world. I could only say that this new way of living is a lot better that is was in the past.

Anyhow, in those times there was nothing like that, because those electronic devices that we have today, they had not been invented yet, so, life was completely different then, it was very quiet and boring and that’s how my farm-life was like when I was young, and this sort of life I had to endure in my long stay in the farm during my youth. So, let me describe a bit more about this life in the small farms of Southern Italy in those days.

----------------------------------

The small farms of those days

Now, let me describe a bit more how life was then. In the small family farms of those days there was no electricity for a start, so, we had no electrical devices of any sort not even a portable radio to listen to, because those devices had not come out yet on the market, and even if there had been a portable radio on the market we would not be able to afford one, you see, there wasn’t any money around if you were farming in those days. I know that today it would be hard to believe what I am saying, that in those times, we the farmers could not afford to buy anything outside the bare things needed for surviving, but it was so, believe me and I had to live with it.

So, I had to grow up in this lonely environment mainly in the company of our farm animals, which they don’t talk back to you when you say anything to them, they just listen and everything ends there, even if there is a certain understanding between you and those animals, so, you may feel that you have some sort of friends, but these friends is as if they are not there. Therefore, as I grew up and became a teenager I started to realize that I was falling behind to the rest of the normal town community, in a social way. In order to understand what I am saying here, I need to explain that even though I was working in the farm every day, we were allowed to go to our home in town ones or twice a week in the evening and when we were not too busy in the farm we could also spend every second Sunday in town with the other members of our family that were permanently living in town, this is the way of life that every farmer had to endure all their life then, and this is how I was able to see and compare that I and the other youths that were in the same position as I was whished that we had a better life, so, I started to believe that we were all in a disadvantaged position, but at the same time, we could do nothing to improve it.

As I have said above, we were all in a disadvantaged position and becoming dull, as long as we were in that position there was no way of improving ourselves; here I mean everything at all could have helped us a bit, even the way of knowing what was happening in the community, which the other boys in town seemed to know everything and we seemed so dull when we were compared to them, also the ways of expressing our self clearly was not easy, since we were forced to live a lonely and taciturn way of life and therefore we did not speak much.

There were times that I wanted so badly to have a radio like the people in town, so that at least I could listen to a proper way of speech, or perhaps even a song or two, and I could improve my knowledge that way, but it was not possible. Therefore, I was stuck in that lonely world, where one is stuck for good with one’s own company and thoughts day and night for ages; this is how we used to live our young lives then, and there was not much that one could do to improve it, so, let me explain a bit more that situation:

In the farms of those days there were only a few people staying and working there, and they would go on about doing their farm duty. So, they didn’t care to talk to you, if you were much younger than them. So, as you can see, it was a very lonely place to be in such farms when one was young, as I was.

Those people which usually are staying in the farms don’t talk very much, since in their isolation there is nothing much to talk about; so, they are used to be taciturn, and there were days when only a few necessary phrases were exchanged between us; so, conversation was very low indeed. Therefore, this way of life that I was living then could only result about not being satisfactory for me later in life, because I was very young and my needs would have been better served, if I had been in a more sociable place to learn a more sociable way of life, and in doing so, I could have overcome some of my personal shyness that usually follows the people that don’t talk much. So, this staying in the farm when I was young became later-on a great disadvantage for me, because it only made me grow more isolated, and in the end, it made me feel even more isolated from the rest of the world; and in this isolation, I had to grow up.

There were lots of times when I was alone and nobody would be near me to say a single word, and this was happening to me many days. So in my isolation I would start thinking and learning things all by myself in my own way, anything at all that came into my mind, or things that would happen in the farm, and when you are by yourself for a very long time and think by yourself for a great length of time, you don’t need to express your thoughts in words to yourself, therefore anything that you learn may start being stored within your own mind in a different way, you still learn things, perhaps even more accurate than when you learn with words: The only drawback is that when you have to speak out, lots of times you would not know what to say; not because you don’t know it, since in your mind there is a very clear picture of what you need to say; but because you find it hard finding the right words to express yourself. So, this is one of the great disadvantages, which I and those youths who were unlucky like me, as they ended up working in their own families’ farms at a very early age. I am sorry to say it, but we had to put up with the hard consequences which have followed us for the rest of our lives. Now allow me to describe a bit more the farm life of those days.

I believe that this post is becoming too long, so I will continue with my story in our next post called, describing our farm life. See you then.

---------------------------------------------
Menfranco general blog 
My life in the farm
IS TO BE CONTINUED
Next time with, describing our farm life

The human side of farming

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG, Menfranco general blog. In addition to our own posts about, my life story, and some DIY posts, we are going to publish some world wide public issues that we are writing, about what is happening in the world today and other stuff.
-
Welcome to our blog, Menfranco general blog
and this post, the human side of farming
-

Farms are very lonely places, it may seem great for a few days, if you are living in a busy city, because they are very quiet places; but in the long run, they are too lonely for young people, if they have to live there all the time. But that is what has happened to me, when I was young.

The human side of farming

Dear readers, this post is the continuation of our last post, how the farms were run then, so, let us continue. Now let us look at the human side of farming, so, let me go back to my own life in the farm, and my experience as a young boy. If we want to understand that better, one needs to see how the ways of living had been set up, from the generations before us for their own needs for one reason or another.

Anyhow, at the time when I was young in Genzano every family had a dwelling in town, no matter to which group of people or families one belonged, we all had a home in town even if it was only a room or a few rooms that we could live-in in the town itself. But the farmers’ families not only had a home in town like everybody else, where their women folks elderly people and children lived; but most of the farmers had also a rustic farm building in the fields, where the farmer would keep his animals, and with the help of his workers if he had any workers he would work his fields from there. The farmers’ children especially those that were to become farmers one day would start working in the farm very early in life, or as soon as they would finish their compulsory schooling years, that in those times were just the primary schools.

The compulsory primary schools in Italy in those times were up to grade five; now, today it would seem that you could not learn much in five years, but in those times, we were taught to read and write, we were taught the four main math operations, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, which are the base of just about everything, we were asked to solve simple problems with them at least ones a week; we were also taught about our human history, even if it wasn’t in small details, it covered old history up to the Christian era, middle age history up to the discovery of America and modern history; it wasn’t a lot, but it gave us just enough to understand that the world changes and one Era ends and a new one begins. Anyhow, now let us go back to tell you my farm life story, because this is the real reason that I am writing this article.

Now, some of the youths whose families were better off financially would start to help in the farm only during summer for a year or two, and then as they became older they would start staying in the farm full time the whole year. But I wasn’t that lucky and at the time when I left school the first time, I was only 10 years old and I was going to be 11 years old during that year, when I had to start full time for the whole year in the farm. At that time young boys were only required to attend school up to grade 5, and I had already done so, so I went to help in our family farm full time. Then a few years later the schooling laws changed, and all the youths had to attend school up to grade 8, or be at least 14 years old to leave school. So, I and a few other boys of my same age were the last of the little educated youths. (Now just to make it clear to our readers during my life, I have read many books and every now and then whenever I have been able to I have tried to continue to study; and even though I have not been to college, I have studied and done some courses in building and quantity surveying. But now let me go back to my farm life story.)

Now you can imagine how I felt in the farm when I was young; I was perhaps the youngest boy around for miles so to speak, and I was of that age when young boys like me would start thinking and wandering about how best one could find a way into society, because one becomes aware of the need to be social and friendly with people, otherwise one would become shy and withdrawn just like I did.

Anyhow, this old way of living in the farms was very hard especially for me, because, since the great loss of my father when I was 5 years old, my family had lived mourning him and a life withdrawn from society; so, now that we were all over that period of grief that any family can have, I felt that somehow, I was a bit more withdrawn that the other boys of the same age. I needed a break more than everybody else, but it was not to be, because I was needed to help in the farm, so, I ended up working in the family farm and I became more isolated than ever, and that was no good for me socially.

My helping (working) in the family farm when I was young was no good for me socially, since there is nothing to learn socially in the farm except farm things, which in the end they might even be put to good use, but only from those persons that would be able to practice farming during their whole life timelifetime.

Farming life of those days was so hard and boring, especially for me at that particular time of my life when I was young. So, nowadays when I think about it, it makes me feel so hurt and unhappy and I ask myself why this had to happen to me, and I feel so hurt that I would like to tell you a story beginning with, ‘When I was young’ just to show you how much harder life was then compared with today’s ways of life.

Now let me add this observation here, while I am editing this article, I have come to the conclusion that no matter how hard life is for anyone of us, we should not despair as we could always try to do better, you see, today I am able to write this article even though I have not been trained to write when I was young, just because I have not given up and I have tried to improve myself whenever I could.

Now that I have explained the ways of life in the farms of those days, mentally I am going over the farm life of my ancestors, who had lived the same hard life as I did and they did not lament about it because they did not know better; and then I think about what it would be the farm life like today compared to old times; you see I want to compare all those things together, just to have a clear picture of what is happening to us. By comparing the farm life of these generations, I have come to the conclusion that I and those youths that as me ended up working in the farms when we were young, we were the last unlucky ones, because today even if a young man ends up working in the farms, they start when they are older and they cannot be as lonely as we were, because today they can have the company of electronic devices, like the radio and the mobile phones, so one can always keep in touch with the rest of the world community.

I think that I have said enough in this post, so, see you in my next post, “my life in the farm”, where I will tell you a bit more about my farm life. See you there.

----------------------------------------
Menfranco general blog 
The human side of farming
IS TO BE CONTINUED
Next time with, my life in the farms   

How farms were run

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG, Menfranco general blog. In addition to our own posts about, my life story, and some DIY posts, we are going to publish some world wide public issues that we are writing, about what is happening in the world today and other stuff.
-
Welcome to our blog, menfranco general blog
and this post, how farms were run
-
How the farms were run in the fifties
-

This harvester, was one of the machines that would help farmers collect their harvest quicker, if you compare it to when everything, had to be done by hand, by still there was a lot of work to run a farm the old ways.

How the farms were run then?

Dear readers, this post is the continuation of our last post, my farm life chapter, where we were about to explain about how farming was done the old ways. So, now let me explain how these small farms in southern Italy were run until the fifties, when things started to change a great deal, because of the new farming machine that were coming out, like the tractor and other machine that were very effective in replacing manual work; now, because these machines helped the farmers run their farms with less manual workers, the people that were employed in the farms had to find other jobs. Now, this is just one explanation, but let us describe how things were done then, to understand the whole situation and what was happening to us young would be farmers.

When I was young during the fifties, before these farming machines became affordable to the average small farmers, all the farmers used to have mixed farming, because it was necessary to have mixed farming then for many reason, today mixed farming is practiced to a much less extend, and I will try to explain the reasons, why this has happened. But to make it clear to you dear reader, I should describe the different way of how the land was (had to be) used in the old days, and how it is (would be) used today: In the old days to till the soil people used to do it all by hand, just like what we still do today in our own small home gardens, so, they would dig the soil in very small plots with a hoe, or something like that. But on normal fields in the farms the soil was tilled by ploughing the fields with horse power, or other strong animals. Therefore, there was a need for a lot of people to be fed to work the fields, and there were a lot of animals also to be fed to work the fields.

So, this need to feed so many mouths required a lot of produce, and also a variety of produce, for this reason mixed farming was required, because it was the only way to produce all this variety of foods that were required, in order to feed the animals and for other reasons as well, in the old days for this reason and also for other reasons as well, the sowing fields had to be divided into a three-year-rotation, not only to achieve these variety of foods, but it was also necessary to rotate the fields then, in order to keep them producing, otherwise the soil would become tired and produce very little, in other words if we would continue to use the fields every year they would produce next to nothing and therefore it was not worth working them, for this reason, our forbear had devised this three year rotation, which worked thus;

One year a field would be fallow land, so, it would not be used at all, or used very little growing broad beans or something like that, then the next year it would be sown with durum wheat, and the year after that the same field would be sown with oats or barley, or other light seeds, and the year after that to fallow land again. So, in realty there was only one third of the land producing durum wheat each year, which was the produce that brought in money to the farmers.

When I was young, a lot of people used to work in those farms, as I have said already, and it was hard physical work, specially at certain times of the year, and there was no much money to be made, with the exception of every now and then when we had a really good wheat harvest; but when the harvest was lean everybody would suffer, and all one could do, was to start all over again for another year, and so, one would be hoping and perhaps praying God for a better harvest next year, yes in those times people were a lot more religious than today, so, they believed in God and prayed God, and all the saints that they could think of, hoping that they could or would help them produce good harvests.

Anyhow, there were too many years of lean harvest when I was young, some average and only a very few years we had good harvests. But somehow people kept going on, and they were so used to poverty that they accepted it and seemed to be happy just the same, because they did not know of a better life. But one should keep in mind that the main harvest is only once a year, and one year is a very long time, when there is not enough money to go around, even to buy those things that were really necessary to live a modest life.

For all the work that I did in the farm in my youth, I earned almost nothing, but I was able to eat plain wholesome food, and buy a few cheap cloths to keep warm in winter, which sounds very bad these days, but then when there was nothing better that one could do, even this hard and unpleasant way of life would have to do, as long as one could live a healthy life; perhaps living a healthy life was the only thing that we could achieve easily then, because the air was healthier in the country, the life was very boring but at the same time it was not mentally stressful, compared to living in towns these days, and if there was any complain about a stench that came from the farm animals, it was something that would not harm anybody, it is only natural that all animals smell of something, we smell also of something even if we don’t notice it.

Anyhow I believe that I have said enough in this post, so, see you in our next post, where we are going to write about, the human side of farming.

See you soon.

-----------------------------------------
Menfranco general blog 

How farms were run
IS TO BE CONTINUED
Next time with, the human side of farming  

-------------------------------------
Some personal and religious links: 

http://menfranco-re.blogspot.com/

http://ifyoubelieveingod.blogspot.com/ 

My farm life chapter

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG, Menfranco general blog. In addition to our own posts about, my life story, and some DIY posts, we are going to publish some world wide public issues that we are writing, about what is happening in the world today and other stuff.
-
Welcome to our blog, Menfranco general blog
and this post, my farm life chapter
-
My farm life chapter
-

This is a wheat field about to be harvested, it looks like that it will produce plenty of wheat this season, if the entire field is the same as we see it in this photo.





-

A youth in the farm, I guess with his father, dreaming his own dreams, the picture says more land, this could also have been my dream, if I had more land, I could have stayed in the farm all my life. But in Italy, there are lots of small farms, so, land is pricy and hard to buy, for this reason, I had to leave farming.














My farm life chapter

Dear readers, this post is the continuation of our last post, farm life can be very hard, and it is a chapter of my farm life experience and views, so, here again I am going to lament about my early childhood life in the farm, which has been one of those facts of life, that to most of us could happen during our life, so, whatever I am telling you here is the story of my life and nothing else. Now we can also say, that no matter how negative a story could be, and there are plenty of negative in my life story, there must be also some positive things that would happen, and those experiences could be used from us later in life, when we can; therefore, let me tell you this other chapter of my life story, the way that I have lived it, and how I see it now.

I believe that to give you a better picture overall, of what life was like in the farms of my native town of Genzano di Lucania, when I was young, I need also to tell you about many other things as well, and the town itself, then the ways of how people used to live in those times, what was happening at the time when I was young. So, let me talk about the town and the population first.

From my memory, I believe that the town of Genzano di Lucania, early in the twentieth century had reached a population of about 7,000 inhabitants, in the forties when I was young the population had grown to about 8,000 and reached 8,389 in 1951 inhabitants, and this is the highest number of people on record that I know of. Even though some people believe that there were near 10,000 people living in Genzano, but I am not sure about that.

Anyhow, today the number of people that used to live in Genzano does not matter anymore, as we don’t attach much importance to this issue. However, let us tell you about it; in the seventies, it had shrunk to only 5,500 inhabitants or there about. The reasons for this population shrinkage, it was because lots of people had to emigrate somewhere in those times. The reasons why they had to emigrate will be fully understood, when I explain what happened to the rural community of this town including myself. Today while I am writing this article the first time, the town of Genzano has 6200 inhabitants or there about.

My native town of Genzano is known as Genzano di Lucania to distinguish it from another Italian town Genzano di Roma. Anyhow this Genzano di Lucania these days has a territory of about 21,000 Hectares of land, if I remember right, and about 80% of this land is arable land, and it is mostly used to grow wheat, especially durum wheat; the rest of the land is used to grow grapes vines or olive trees and other farm produce, and there are also reserves or grazing land; as anyone can see from what I have said here, this town owes its wealth to the rural community that produces wheat, because this town is well known to produce lots of very high quality durum wheat, which the mills that make pasta rush to buy it, when it’s harvest time. Now even if the mills rush to buy this durum wheat, the price of wheat is not high, so, the farmers make only enough money to keep going and one should think that it takes one year to produce and harvest a crop of wheat, so, it is not that good for the farmers; there are also other things that must be taken into consideration, as I will continue to explain while I am writing my life story.

Anyhow, as I have already mentioned above, there are lots of other produce from the farms, because we used to have mixed farming, but these products are used locally, and if some of them are sold out of the town, they are not a great deal to make any difference, to how wealthy this town is, and if wealth may make much difference. But let us see, how everything was set up then, because, this may make some difference, to see if it is good or not that good to be there.

At the time when I was young, there were lots of small farms in Genzano, and although the most important and the largest crop that brought in the money was durum wheat, in reality they had to practice mixed farming for their own needs, this practice was a must to do, but it would cut down on the amount of land that would produce durum wheat, anyhow, I will try to explain how the farms were run at those times when I was young, in our next post, how the farms were run then.

See you soon.

---------------------------------------------
Menfranco general blog 
My farm life chapter
IS TO BE CONTINUED
Next time with, how the farms were run at those times  

-------------------------------------
Some personal and religious links: 

http://menfranco-re.blogspot.com/

http://ifyoubelieveingod.blogspot.com/