festeggiamo la famiglia alla farma

The last time I can remember being at the farm was in 1994 and it was to watch a World Cup game (you know, the game that went into penalty kicks that didn’t fair so well for Italy). After more than a 10 year separation, it was only fitting that a family reunion of sorts would bring me back. The promise of BBQ and homemade wine and crazy relatives didn’t hurt either. Try as I might, I can never keep my mom’s side of the family straight – there are 3 ladies named Tonina, and one is her aunt (by marriage on nonna’s side), but also her cousin (by birth on nonno’s side). The thing is, we usually only see all my grandparents’ siblings at funerals or weddings so making sense of the family tree is not the easiest thing. Mind you, my dad’s side is even worse with all of the first born from his generation being named Michael or Carmela.

Anyway, it was a great day to be outside on the farm cooking in the open air and drinking and laughing. By far my favourite thing was listening to two of my mom’s uncles (Marcello and Alfredo) recount stories from their youth, and watching my nonno smile and laugh as he reminisced with them. Fuelled by a few beers too many the two of them kept the stories coming all afternoon and even though I could only make out half of what they said I did not want to leave.

As I was helping Alfredo dish out the peaches from his garden that he had been soaking in booze all day, he leans in and says to me, “do you know why we do these things here on the farm?” Before I can respond he nods over to his teenaged granddaughter and asks if I know her. When I tell him I recognize her name, but that I haven’t seen her since she was a little kid he looks me straight in the eye and says, “That is why we do this. You need to know your family, without family you have nothing.” He is one smart man.