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Maria di Pronio Milbeck
mil-beck@execpc.com
Folk Song from La Rocca
I was born in Roccamorice and I lived there for 14 years before moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. One of the songs that we sang as young kids is the following. I hope whoever is from La Rocca will remember this song as well as I do. I know it is something that I will never forget:
"La Rocca e la chiu bella ti tutte le regioni, pecche ce la maiella, pecche la gente e bona.
Pecche ce lu Gran Sasso lu mare celestino, pecche ce la muntagna rimposta a la cullina.
Si tu lu vu sape e lu paese me."
Bonnie Rulli
rocolana@netrover.com
My Father-in-Law from Roccamorice
My father-in-law, Antonio Rulli, was born on October 22, 1915 at Fonte Arcione in Roccamorice, the son of Domenico Antonio Rulli and Maria Lucia Pietrangelo. He had an older brother, Giuseppe, and an older sister, Marietta. His father was a farmer and a soldier in the Italian army. His father was mistakenly shot to death in World War I in 1916. Antonio's brother Giuseppe went to school at a house near their home. Antonio himself had little formal education, as most children at that time did not go to school. He spent his childhood looking after the small lambs and picking feed for the animals for the winter. They picked a plant (chiard) similar to burdock which was kept and cooked for the animals in the winter.
In 1935 Antonio married Angiolina di Paolo of San Giorgio, Roccamorice, and in 1936 he went to Teramo to join the Italian army. He was sent to Bologna, where he remained for a year. In 1937 Antonio retuned home to farm and work the land by hand. In 1938 he was working at the asphalt rock quarry in the San Giorgio section of Roccamorice. The excavated rocks were "cooked" in ovens to extract oil for the making of asphalt, and the rocks themselves were ground up to make cement.
In 1939 Antonio was called back to the army in Rome for 2 months. In 1940 World War II began, and he was sent to Albania and Croatia to fight. By 1942 they were supposed to go to the Russian front to fight, but Angiolina went to the quarry where Antonio worked and applied for him to come home.
During the war, while most of the men of Roccamorice were away fighting, the women would work at the asphalt quarry, "cooking" the rocks. Antonio's step-grandmother, Maria Ferrante, worked at the quarry, taking donkeys loaded with the extracted oil to Scafa. The asphalt that was made was used for roads and for roof tiles.
The German army occupied the area, and they would sometimes search for escaped prisoners of war, primarily English soldiers they had captured. The villagers would hide so that they would not have to tell the Germans where the escapees were--many of them were hidden at Fonte de Larasel near Roccamorice. They also hid because the Germans would make them carry ammunition up to Blockhaus; the Germans were still fighting against the English from down the mountain.
By 1959, Antonio and his wife had four children, all sons. That year the family decided to emigrate to Canada, where Antonio's brother had already settled. They arrived in Canada on May 6, 1959.
Costantino Conte
village29@webtv.net
Family Recollections of World War II
My relatives have told me stories about the German occupation of the Lettomanoppello area during World War II, and from what they have told me, the villagers were well-treated by the Germans in many ways. My mother's sister, "Mamucci" (Grandma) as everyone called her, cooked for the Germans; they called her Mamucci as well and treated her with respect. They told the people in the town that as long as they followed orders, nothing would happen to them, and nothing did. When the Germans were there the people had plenty of food, but later food was very scarce, and money was no good because there was no food to buy.
Bonnie Rulli
rocalana@netrover.com
The Grass Was Greener in Lu Lette ;o)
One of our Rulli relatives married a Cesidio di Pietrantonio, nicknamed "Lombazzo," who was a foreman at the asphalt quarry in Roccamorice. The quarry was toward the Lettomanoppello side, and eventually the quarry owners bought Cesidio's house in Roccamorice and moved him to Lettomanoppello. One of Cesidio's sons, Fonze di Pietrantonio, grew up to become a Forest Ranger in Lettomanoppello, probably in the 1950s. There had been trees planted by both towns on the slopes between Lu Lette and La Rocca; they were called "pianta givane," dialect for young trees. Fonze' job was to take care of the pianta givane, to make sure that nothing happened to them, like animals eating them or people cutting them down.
Well, a lot of people in Roccamorice had sheep. Farmers would pool their animals, and each day they took turns taking the flock to graze between La Rocca and Lu Lette. (The milk and the cheese made from the milk would be apportioned among the farmers according to how many animals each had, and this practice is carried on to this day.) Some of the farmers in Roccamorice thought that the grass on the Lettomanoppello side was always greener, so they would cross the flock over to the Lu Lette side to graze, but if they heard Fonze coming, they would have to retreat back to the La Rocca side in a big hurry to avoid getting into trouble!
Blaise di Pronio
d_pronio@execpc.com
Friendly Rivalry, from La Rocca ;o)
Us roccolanis always make disparaging remarks about i lettesi. WE use the expression "u pazzu du lu letto" to say that someone is a bit of a goof!
Mark Guillory
mjohn726@webtv.net
Those Snails and My Grandfather's Nickname
I have a story that makes much more sense now that I have seen the snails. {Mark is referring to the photo of the big land snails on La Rocca page 2 of this website.} My grandfather's nickname was "ciata macone" (I'm not sure of the spelling). As the story goes, when he was a small child he fell down a flight of stairs. But he fell so slowly that they say he looked like a large snail slowly rolling down the stairs. The nickname stayed with him all of his life. I could never really picture the large snail rolling down the stairs until now.
NOTE: We believe that the Roccolano dialect name for these snails, which are found around La Rocca and Lu Lette, is "cia Marucon."
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