L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano S ome things are d e f i n i t e l y b e s t left in the past, l i k e s h o u l d e r pads. Well, this is my opinion, at least. But t h e r e a r e o t h e r s w e s t i l l think of fondly: mixed tapes, rotary phones, buying a CD i n a s t o r e o r t h e t h r i l l o f picking up movies at Block- busters for a night in with pizza and friends. Don't get me wrong, today's alterna- tives are just as good but, perhaps, it's the sweet taste of youth we miss from those days, more than anything else. But I don't want to get all soppy, rather, I'd like to take a walk down Italy's memory lane and reminisce with you about a bunch of things Italy had and no longer has, stuff we all loved and knew, at some stage of our lives, but n o w o n l y s u r v i v e i n o u r sepia toned (or should I say 80s neon?) memory snaps. Let's begin with… Cabine telefoniche The old, trusty p h o n e booth was a staple across t h e c o u n t r y . I a m o l d e n o u g h t o r e m e m b e r t h e y e l l o w o n e s , w h e n o u r national telephone company was still called SIP. Later, sometimes in the late 80s, when SIP became Telecom, t h e y t u r n e d r e d . I f y o u w a n t e d t o u s e t h e m , o f course, you needed plenty of change or the trusted get- t o n i , t h i c k c o p p e r c o i n s with a telephone on them, that were worth 200 liras, that is, about 60 US cents. Or, in alternative, you had to have a … Scheda telefonica Phone cards, of course, were a better option, espe- c i a l l y i f y o u u s e d p h o n e b o o t h s a l o t , o r i f y o u planned to make a pretty long phone call. We all had one in our wallet: they were, just like everywhere else, the size of a regular bank card, with a magnetic band, but m u c h t h i n n e r . T h a t w a s s o m e t i m e s a p r o b l e m , because they stopped work- ing if you accidentally bent them (and honestly, it didn't take long for that to hap- pen). You could buy them at the newsagent's or the drug- store's, and they most com- monly came in 5.000 and 1 0 . 0 0 0 l i r e v a l u e , w h i c h would be around 3 and 6 USD of today. They had a corner you needed to snap off to use them: I mention this because it is important, and you'll soon understand why. Originally, they were blue, white and gray, but s o o n S I P / T e l e c o m b e g a n making different ones, often dedicated to special events, festivities, artists, a bit like it happens still today with stamps: it was the beginning o f a c o l l e c t i n g c r a z e t h a t some carry on still today, l o o k i n g f o r t h e m a t y a r d s a l e s . O f c o u r s e , n o t a l l p h o n e c a r d s w e r e b o r n equal, but you could rest assured that those whose corner hadn't been snapped were worth more than the others: just like with action figures, unused was best! Postcards I m e n t i o n e d s t a m p s above and truth is, who still uses them? When I was a child and a teen, I would always have stamps in my room: we used to have pen pals back then, and letters w e r e s e n t t h r o u g h p o s t , r a t h e r t h a n o u r e m a i l provider. And then, we had postcards. O f c o u r s e , p o s t c a r d s w e r e n ' t a n e x c l u s i v e l y Italian thing, I know, and y o u c a n s t i l l f i n d t h e m a r o u n d . I t ' s t h e w h o l e "sending postcards when you go on holiday" that is no longer there. Being Italy a touristic destination, we've a l w a y s b e e n b i g o n p o s t - cards here. If you were on a school trip, you'd make your postcard list on the bus and it'd be always a competition to see who'd send the most: h o m e , g r a n d p a r e n t s , friends… But the best came with the summer holidays, of course, when postcards w o u l d b e c o m e l e t t e r s t o f r i e n d s , t r a v e l l o g s , l o v e diaries. Today, you may still f i n d p o s t c a r d s h e r e a n d there, of course, but no one sends them anymore. They are a sort of collector item, something you bring home to remind you of a trip, if you are that type of person, but the magic of sitting at the beach writing lines and l i n e s o f a d v e n t u r e s a n d dreams to your friends back home is no longer there. Il Ciao and Il Fifty Top When you think of mope- ds in Italy, Vespa immedi- a t e l y c o m e s t o m i n d , b u t teens from the 70s to the 9 0 s a l s o h a d C i a o a n d F i f t y T o p . Il Ciao was a s o r t o f h y b r i d b e t w e e n a moped and a bike: you start- ed it with its pedal, it was light and slender, just like bikes. It was launched in 1967 and 2006 was its last y e a r o f p r o d u c t i o n : i n between, decades of love. It was the moped of teenagers and today, it's collected and cared for just like Vespas and Cinquecentos, just per- h a p s , i t ' s a b i t m o r e o f a niche thing. Same story for the Fifty Top, produced between 1974 and 1997, it was faster, more m o t o r c y c l e - l i k e t h a n t h e Ciao. It was very popular, too, especially among kids in t h e S o u t h o f I t a l y , w h o ' d often ride it in twos (some things in Italy never change, eh!). Il Festivalbar Our last entry is not an o b j e c t , i t ' s a s h o w . I l F e s t i v a l b a r w a s a s y n - onym for summer from 1964 to 2007. It was an itinerant music competition where fans would vote the sum- mer's most popular song, crowning the tormentone d e l l ' e s t a t e , o r t h e t u n e radios played the most, and you were more likely to hear on the beach. Festivalbar w o u l d s t a r t s o m e t i m e s between the end of may and the beginning of june, each w e e k s h o w c a s i n g a n e w I t a l i a n c i t y o r t o w n : o n stage, Italy and the world's most famous singers. If you liked pop music, a ticket to the Festivalbar was a cool thing to get, but you could enjoy it also from home, as it was televised, too. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was on Tuesday nights. The final show on each edition would a l w a y s t a k e p l a c e i n t h e Arena di Verona. CHIARA D'ALESSIO C'era una volta… five things Italy left in the past LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE If you are Italian and over 40, you definitely used one of these to call a friend when you were a teen! (Photo: Alessandro Mascheroni/Dreamstime)

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