Re: Silly ideas

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

In AD8-0022 Nicky Avery writes:

"The idea that Italian workers drink a *bottle* of wine and then operate
machinery is silly. In Europe you are not considered (a) drunk if you have a
*glass* of wine with your meal at lunchtime."

 Among my Alfa souvenirs are several aluminum (aluminium in English, alluminio
in the luvliest language) disks, 28 mm diameter and 1 mm thick, with the Alfa
Romeo badge anodized in red on the aluminum ground, but with the word "MENSA"
where "MILANO" used to be on the full badge; these were given to me by two
people, one of whom had served his Alfa apprenticeship at Portello and the
other his Alfa apprenticeship in Udine at Carlo Chiti's Autodelta before it
was formally absorbed into Alfa Romeo. The word "mensa" is table or board, or
(as in the military) the mess-hall. What were these tokens for?  Wrote the
first sharing kindred spirit:

 "They are no longer used, but at one time, when I first spent a few months in
Portello, I used to eat lunch in the mensa with the factory workers.  This is
a wine bottle deposit token. Return your empty wine bottle, you get a token.
Next day you give the token and 50 lire and you gets a new full botiglia, red
or white, your choice.  All of the factory workers carried their own eating
utensils and napkin from home, I didn't think to bring mine from the States,
so each day I'd have to borrow a huge tablespoon, a fork and a knife, leaving
my passport as a deposit.  Seems I was the only person borrowing utensils.
The meal was gratis, the wine 50 lire, and the tools cost a passport.  - - -
When Portello was being torn down I did get some of the silverware and the
wine tokens from the rubble pile. Arese was modernized and used an employee
credit card for wine, no deposit as nobody stole the bottles anyway.  Food, in
both cases was very simple, but of gourmet quality.  Everything minutes fresh,
they even made their own cheese daily. These are the good memories, but they
are not worth the price."

 Don't know how it is in Turin - Don't much care, either.

 John H.

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