Interview with Adelina Rismondo (nee Marchioro) [sound recording] Interviewer: Madeleine Regan, Part 3 of 4
Adelina (Lina) Rismondo shares memories of growing up in an Italo-Australian family who became maket gardeners in Findon and Lockleys. Lina was born in Hindley Street in the city of Adelaide in 1927. Her parents (Francesco and Margherita Marchioro) had arrived the year before from the Province of Vicenza in the Veneto Region of Italy. Lina speaks about her memories of growing up in an Italo-Australian market gardening family; on Frogmore Road, Kidman Park, with her sisters Maria or Mary or Connie; and later in Lockleys; her father's untimely death; her training as a dressmaker; early working life and opening up a dressmaking shop at Prospect, dressmaking with a friend; her marriage to Ruggero and trips to Italy to meet her relatives. The second interview commences with a survey of photos of life on Frogmore Road with the camera that Lina had received for her 12th birthday. Lina speaks about different families; her role as interpreter for a neighbouring Italian family; her uncles' internment at Loveday during the war; internment of another Italian man; social life of families; American soldiers in Lockleys during the war. The third interview provides further detail of Lina's experience of growing up in the western suburbs of Adelaide in the 1940s. Themes include: memories of visits to Loveday internment camp; her mother's role in running the market gardens after her father's death; assisting her mother; her friendship with Teresa, a young woman and neighbour, from a Calabrian family whose parents arranged her marriage; social life as a young woman, including listening to favourite radio programs. The final interview sees Lina recalling social gatherings, singing, sharing wine, and the sense of community amoun the first generation of migrants who arrived in 1927, both before and after the men were joined by their wives from Italy in the 1930s. Other themes include: school life; playing with other children on Frogmore Road, her parents' social life; weddings; locations of Italians from different regions living in Adelaide in the 1930s and 1940s; Churches that were important for northern Italians in the western suburbs; children of the first Italian market gardeners who returned to live in the same area; friendships.
Recording length4 hours 35 minCopies may be made for research and study. Publication only with written permission from the State Library





