(written by Salvatore Reggio, according to a report of Prof. Mario Mancini)

Sometimes things were not as they should have been. The feeling that that night and for that family the visit and the dinner detection would have had some difficulties was guessed already during the visit at lunchtime.

"Pensu 'ca stasira non ci simu" (I think that tonight we will not be home) or "Stasira non pensu' ca mangiamu" (I do not think we will eat tonight) said the housewives to the assistants during the preparations of the meal. That refrain "pensu" was prophetic. It was not the solely I think, present indicative of philosophical thinking, and did not express neither a tangible indeterminacy of a person or a group of people who would think that way. No! "Pensu" was a mysterious term that gave the communication an ancestral sense of a supernatural message that, even if it was not shared, one had to accept because it came from on high or even beyond. If fate had thought so it was not by Christians to disobey the divine will.

That evening, thus, just as we approached the house, our doubts took more consistency.

At the entrance to the road that took us to the family a noise of quick step or ride anticipated us and aroused our curiosity. Then we heard the sound of a door that, dragging, shut down. Someone had to post to warn of our arrival.

By then we were prepared to these attitudes, to the manifestations of resistance of some families maybe for shyness or maybe not to let us discover the state of poverty.

When we were at the door, just knocked by the fist of your hand, the door opened just enough to glimpse the interlocutor's face and hear his word, most of the times a woman.

"Mangiammu già. Picchi non veniti dumani"(We have already eaten, by now. Why not come tomorrow?) we were told.

It was, however, good and simple people therefore as long as we insisted a little bit to get the data for the detection the door opened across and we were welcome, yes, with embarrassment but always so kind, and in a hurry and agitation the chairs were set to sit at the table.

The doctor and an assistant engaged the parents in the discussion by showing interest in knowing what had happened during the day.

Another assistant went with the children to know the truth that we had suspected.

The adults told of eating better and better "pasta with meat sauce, meat of choice, fresh fish, vegetables and fruit" (we were missing only the cake to make that meal equal to that of the feasts).

Everybody stayed in the same room. The table - like all council houses - was at the centre. On it you ate and ironed, turned to "tavula" for coffee with friends or to offer guests a liqueur, served as "u tavulu" to study and for conversations with friends and relatives. It had a control function of the entire environment and its place created to their respective corners of the room, two private areas where you could talk without being heard by the other and also because the head of the table and the two people sitting at the sides acted as a wall.