Betty and Angelo Schianni Oral History | Italian Gardens (00:55)
![Black and white illustration of a 1900s phonograph with a large horn and a crank.](https://www.communitystories.ca/v2/fernie-community_communaute-fernie/wp-content/uploads/sites/48/2016/11/Gramaphone-Graphic.jpg)
Fernie Museum | Elk Valley Italian Oral History Project | 1998
They had a garden where the Tom Uphill Home sits right now. The Coal Company owned that land and I remember they’d take $1 a year off his pay cheque for the rental. And all the water they could use because they brought their own hoses. The men would get together down there; Mr. Cree, Mr. Servello… All those Italians would come over there that had gardens and sat on a mound of rocks and shot the breeze, you know? Maybe once in a while they’d bring a bottle of beer and drink it down there. And wine, but my dad liked his beer. I’ll always remember that. They’d shoot the breeze and just have a gay time talking about working, their families, and stuff like that.