The "peasant" lifestyle -- hard to break..?

[MarcuccioV]

My maternal grandmother (as well as grandfather) came from families of "contadini". It seemed that no one in either of their families held trades or were literate.

They both attended school in Italy and could read/write. Both arrived in the US at the age of 19 (albeit 12 years apart). Whereas my grandfather quickly "Americanized", learning to read/write English, getting his citizenship (which included a stint in the US Army) and a career in the automobile assembly industry in Michigan, my grandmother (albeit a housewife) continued with a 'peasant' lifestyle throughout her life (she died at 95).

My grandfather always dressed appropriately for his work and wore nice clothes (he could afford them) at all other times. The only societal "modernity" that he never attempted was learning to drive, despite the fact that he built cars for a living between about 1913 and 1956. He even modified his name of Agostino to 'August'.

My grandmother never seemed to catch on to the American way of life. Although by no means slow-witted, she always spoke broken English & "Italianized" many English words. She only dressed up for special occasions, and normally wore only a plain skirt and knit top, usually blue or gray.

My cousins (who grew up 2 blocks from her) used to call her the "country girl".

She was always very thrifty & hated to spend money. She always referred to herself as "povera", despite a normal middle-class American status. She was always jealous of friends who were successful or owned/ran businesses.

After she had passed it was found that she was hoarding cash (taped under drawers, etc) that she was hiding from my grandfather & apparently forgot about. She would also send cash to her relatives in Italy who were actually more well-off than she was. But through it all, she never had a desire to better herself despite the ability to do so.

Anybody else run into a similar scenario with an emigrated relative..?

[joetucciarone]

Hi Mark,

My great-grandmother from Colobraro was a lot like your grandmother. She came to the U.S. at age 16 but I remember that she spoke only broken English up to her death at age 95. I heard she was frugal, but raising nine children on a farm explains that. They grew almost everything they ate.

I don't know if she ever taped money to drawers!

[darkerhorse]

I see a similar gender gap in Americanizing among current immigrants, especially Asians, like Indians and Pakistanis.

[MarcuccioV]

It just seems interesting where my grandfather 'embraced' the American lifestyle, my grandmother never really fully adjusted. She only spoke fondly of the birthplace she knew less than 20 years (which was at the time a mostly rural hamlet, albeit a little larger than most).

She took my uncle once on a brief visit back. He was very unimpressed. In his opinion, compared to his own upbringing, they were somewhat "backward" and "antiquated".

Perhaps she preferred that and had no desire to adapt to better circumstances, but kept the mindset of being 'poor' for some reason (she wasn't one for sympathy, so I can't quite reason it all out in my head)...