The magical phone booth - the Gettone "phone booth coin"

Aaah, the "Gettone" (the coin used at one time in the magical Italian phone booth...it was like going into a time machine, or being on a stage, where I would feel transported to another land. The Gettone coin is brass color, with a slot in the middle of it. There is no other coin like it in the world. I still kept mine, along with the last set of Italian money, before things changed...The phone booths now take a schieda (a type of credit card) used in place of the Gettone to get the magical phone booth to function...

"Back in the day", when I was a child, going to Italy with Mamma every other year, we had the liberty of picking up the phone book in the bar, tabaccheria (smoke shop where they have just about anything, including bus tickets)... or if there happened to be a phone book in the phone booth, even better.

We would of course use the book to look up one of the many family members or friends to call. This "thing" we did, I now know bought my Mamma some free time to keep me busy :)...and it made me so happy just to call people we knew over there. It was comical at times...although Mamma and the family went along with it. It was always a treasure to "find" a Gettone in Nonno's BIG jacket pockets. I mean, you could only visit Mrs. Anna at the local Bar so many times to play Pac Man and Mario, before we needed something else to do... so Nonno had these magical coins, the Gettone also. Wow.

Thinking back, I usually didn't need to look at the phone book very much. My cousins thought it was the oddest thing, that I have some type of photographic memory. There was a time when I knew each of their home addresses by heart, and their home phone numbers. There are still a few phone numbers and addresses I remember in Italy, by heart...to this day.

Literally, I could thumb through the "white pages" of the Italian Phone Book phone book, just for fun... even though I already knew the answer to the "test"...as you would thumb through your cell phone now, and wonder who I was going to call for the day...to say hello, to ask if I can come over for a visit, to ask if I could come over for dinner, or to play with their children.

Being Italian-American: The American side of me doesn't know any better, and I can be pretty "intrusive", at times, especially when I was younger....unfortunately I can still be "rude" in being so forward, and I don't even know it until I hear from my Mamma that I was. I sure need to give out a few apologies to my family when I see them later this year! For example: I would ask "can I stay with you and your family", or "can I have dinner at your place?", or worse "can you come and pick me up at this store". I truly didn't understand 1) my family was very busy and under a lot of pressure with work and family commitments, and 2) in the Italian culture, they rarely say no...so for years I frequently and lovingly inconvenienced them. 

I guess, now at 45 years old I can drive in Italy with an international driver's license, and I know the bus system and train system very well (since age 10), so I won't need to ask for a ride from anyone...I enjoy "finding my own way" home. 

(For those that know me, this picture of me with two strange men in Italy is seriously a joke! I'm such a hermit when I'm at home with family and friends, I could stay home all day, or be a lone all day and really be happy).

When I was really little, the magical phone booth became a habit, when mom was busy with my Nonni, my Italian grandparents, I would pick a Gettone coin out of Nonno's BIG pocked of change, and I would "call someone" from the magical phone booth. Oh my, it was the greatest time ever. I felt invincible, that I could call anyone in the family and they would just pick up the phone, and "show up" for me, regardless of what they were doing. Anytime Mamma wanted to call someone, I would insist that I be the one to put the Gettone in the magical phone booth...even the ring tone of the phone is different in Italy vs America!

Looking back now, I'm really grateful for the constant generosity and patience of my family and friends. Even though my family may consider me as an arrogant American at times, I'm all heart, even though I lack the Italian nose, unfortunately.

I look forward to "being one of them" when I come back. Yes, I have a lot to learn!

I thought I'd start with our local scholars to educate me on European history, then culture and tradition, then finally grammar and language (I speak Italian, although I've never studied it properly).

Back to the Gettone coin, it was one of the few things I kept from my Nonno's apartment, after he passed away 3 July 1983. It reminds me, no matter how much time goes by, I can always "call home", come home, be home, feel at home. I used to keep the Gettone in my wallet and show it off, although now I hear they're in museums, so I am more careful with the last Gettone I own.

It means so much to me to have this privilege to always have family and friends that are there for me in Italy no matter what. I try to reciprocate when I can, although it will never measure their immense generosity...

As far as the family and friends, 

- Some have died...who will always be in my heart, and surround me in protection when I am out too late in the wrong part of town, but still want to venture...When I visit the cemetery - I bring flowers to my grandparents, aunts, and uncles there now, it's a 3 hour trip at the cemetery. I do this each time I arrive and I always go the day before I leave back to America. I go alone, but it fills me with bitter-sweetness, we all need to remember that more will die, so we need to seize moments while we can. 

- Some family are now distant (either angry, or living far away), 

- Some family and friends are closer now... 

It's like the ocean, things come and go. Although the ocean is always there.... 

Difficult to put into words...the family, our four generations of stories, family, and friendships.

(If I cry at one more family dinner, I know there goes another cousin's husband rolling his eyes).

Thank you to my Mamma, my Dad, my family and our friends for always being there for me and my family now...and most of all thank you for always allowing me to "call home"... whenever needed.

The Gettone coin and the magical phone booth - there will never be another coin, another set of unforgettable experiences like those for me, personally. 

Grazie a tutti. 

TVB

Elisabetta