however, especially women, had a great sense of compassion probably deriving from the goodness of the human heart and from the poverty and human condition we all shared.

I say all because we were all poor, we differed in the degree of poverty. Those who owned substantial areas of land (even the biggest single lot was never larger than two or three acres) and produced a lot of wheat, corn, potatoes, legumes, oil and wine were the "rich ones". These families were considered comfortable because they could always have an abundant meal on the table. Those with no properties, who scraped a mere daily existence, were the poor. At this time there were no pensions, no medical insurance; each was on his own. Charity was a tangible practice in which many of the "well-to-do" and the "less poor" indulged without fanfare every day in the most unassuming manner. A pound of flour given to someone may have enabled a poor family to have a watery dish of home made pasta or bread for dinner. No one begged for anything, a few borrowed a loaf of bread, a bowl of flour or beans now and then and the donor knew well that the borrower may never be able to give anything back. Even the dying who had no relatives received some tender care from the women of the immediate neighborhood. My early years in Fallo were really uneventful. I did very well in school. I was privileged to have a modest library at home (an interesting collection left by Don Antonio and mostly by his father who was an editor in Naples). There was a variety of literary classics,