Waldensians

[susandennis]

Not long ago hlee made a passing reference to Waldensians in his journal. I blinked about 3 times to make sure I was reading it correctly. There are a whole lotta people who have never heard of Waldensians - I'll bet many reading this will be a little distressed that I have now removed them from the majority... Sorry.

In my life I have gotten close to a couple of obscure things - the other being Court Tennis, but that's another entry...

Anyway... Waldensians. In the early 70's my Dad was hired as the CEO of a small textile mill. His mission was to come in, fix the problems, turn it around and then move on. I'm guessing everyone expected the gig to go a couple of years. But he got sucked in by the Waldensians and didn't leave for nearly 20.

The mill was in a town at the foothills of the North Carolina mountains. Valdese, at that time had about 3,000 people and most of them worked for the mill. The town had been settled years ago by immigrants who had come from a section of Northern Italy very near the French boarder. They were Presbyterian and they spoke a patois of French and Italian and ate Italian. They did beautiful needlework and had a very rich history. By the time Mother and Daddy got there, some of the younger generations no longer spoke French but the rest was the same. There were about 5 last names in the bunch so the town was filled with Big Louis and Short Gerard and Bakery John, etc. They had wonderful sausages and salami and pretty kitchens that reminded me of Germany.

They were very accepting of my parents who joined the church and came to love their food and their customs. My Dad loved little old ladies. Always. He found a town full in Valdese and he courted every one of them. He'd go visit and sit in their kitchen and drink their Waldensian wine with their cheese and hard Italian salami and they loved him as much as he loved them.

Many of the people in the town had never been to the homeland. Some had not been back since they came over as small children. Daddy, who could reorganize ants in the basement for fun, organized a trip home for them. He found Waldensians back in Italy and connected with some of the same families that settled Valdese. He planned everything to bits. In the end, I think about 60 folks made the trip. I never could get the entire story from Daddy because whenever he'd start to tell about people connecting with relatives they hadn't seen in 50, 60, 70 years, he'd get all chocked up and had to stop.

But they all had a wonderful, marvelous time and I'm sure many are still talking about it today. Even though none of us kids were still at home when Mom and Dad lived there, our family was definitely Waldensianized. They are a special group of wonderful people.

Comments

lovely

[hlee.livejournal.com]

thanks for writing down your memories of this.