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a space in back where women came to wash clothes which they carried on their heads in "canestri" (a sort of wicker baskets).

There were also other springs of potable water. Near "Fumbrat" there was "Lacariell", a beautiful spring, where women also washed clothes on smooth, slanted stones on the edge of the stream . Many other springs were located in the countryside and provided water to the workers in the neighboring fields. The "trufl" was the traditional clay
container in which water was carried and kept cool in the fields. Parcels of land located near and downhill from these springs were considered highly valuable because of their use as vegetable gardens. The running water could be diverted into these gardens to irrigate them. These gardens produced a great yield of tomatoes, lettuce, beans, cabbages, mustard greens, peppers, and squash..

 
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CHAPTER SECOND

- An old fairy tale -

Before WW II the people in Fallo lived a simple and peaceful life. The cycle of village life had repeated itself for years. The young men went to the cities ( Naples, Palermo, Rome and a few other cities in Italy, many in America, and some in other countries ) to work mostly as chefs, cooks, headwaiters and waiters. In the XIX century some of these men also worked as carriage drivers, horse grooms and private cooks for noble families in the big cities. The men usually worked in the cities until their forties to earn some money to buy whatever their families, which often included parents and grandparents, could not grow at home. The money also was used to pay for the little taxes on their property, to buy the few things that may have been needed, and occasionally to purchase land or houses. The men working in the cities periodically revisited Fallo, married in Fallo, left their wives and children in Fallo. They retired in Fallo when their children were ready to start this cycle again. The women, the children and the retired men worked in the fields. These fields were not highly fertile, but provided the necessary food for the household: wheat, corn, potatoes, beans, other dry legumes such as chickpeas, peas, lentils, as well as oil, fruit, and wine. The villagers also collected and stocked firewood for the fireplace. Each family raised a pig which was killed in the winter and which provided salt pork, hams and