The Ernesto
Distinguished Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2010
- Messages
- 4,106
- Reaction score
- 2,012
Nice story on the Basso tailors in North Carlton...
Last Tuesday, Jack and Gina Basso had a barbecue, just the two of them, in the yard of their North Carlton tailor shop. They ate pork ribs, potatoes and onions.
Jack, 92, had offered to take Gina to a restaurant to celebrate their 60 years in business, and 60 years of marriage, but Gina preferred something simple. ''We drank a little wine, it was nice,'' she says.
A printed note on the shop window in Rathdowne Street is the only other marker of the anniversaries. ''Thank you to all our customers and friends,'' it says.
Now it's business as usual. Tailoring has been their life since they were teenagers in the village of Camazzole, in Padua province in Italy's north.
Advertisement
Mrs Basso's mother was a friend of Mr Basso's grandmother, and in 1947, the two older women pressured Mr Basso to employ Gina, then 15, as a trainee seamstress, even though he didn't need extra staff.
Gina and Jack fell in love. After the war there was no work, and barely enough to eat, and so in 1951, Mr Basso migrated to Australia. It was two years before he saw Gina again.
The day in July 1953 that Mr Basso bought a decrepit former barber shop in Rathdowne Street was the day he married his sweetheart. But Jack wasn't at the wedding.
Gina took her vows before the priest in the Camazzole church with Jack's brother, Giovanni, as stand-in. Jack had sent consent papers from Melbourne, but didn't know the ceremony was that day.
When his bride arrived in September 1953, Mr Basso was living behind the shop, which he had rented out while working in a plastics factory. He was gravely ill with a stomach ulcer.
Mrs Basso opened the shop and started mending clothes for the local Jewish, Italian and Australian families. Mr Basso recovered, they worked seven days a week and built a life.
In 1950s Rathdowne Street, horses and carts delivered ice and milk. There was no airconditioning or heating. They would keep their front door unlocked - but the back door locked, on account of the shady SP bookie customers in the back laneway.
The worst year was 1965. The economy was bad and custom dried up. Mr Basso found work washing cars, but had two heart attacks, so Gina, who had no English, ran the shop alone.
The area was sleepy until 1985, when La Porchetta restaurant opened a few doors down. Mr Basso remembers queues down the street for pizza. Young professionals moved to Carlton, with no time to mend their own clothes.
While Mr Basso is now taking it easier, Mrs Basso, 81, won't be retiring or selling up.
Two years ago, she had breast cancer, and found that coming to work, whether picking stitches apart by hand or powering the whiz-bang new Janome machine, stopped her going mad. ''When you are working, you communicate with people. You don't worry such as, 'maybe it's coming back'. I can say to work, for me, is life, it keeps me going.''
Her studio is hung with clothes to mend and photos of her son, Robert, a teacher, and grandchildren Emily, 25, a fashion designer, and Jack, 19, a student.
And the secret to their 60-year marriage? ''It's because of me. I'm a good husband,'' Mr Basso, says, grinning.
Mrs Basso says it's patience, and advises that one person in the couple can choose to keep the peace. ''You need two people to argue,'' she says.
Jack, 92, had offered to take Gina to a restaurant to celebrate their 60 years in business, and 60 years of marriage, but Gina preferred something simple. ''We drank a little wine, it was nice,'' she says.
A printed note on the shop window in Rathdowne Street is the only other marker of the anniversaries. ''Thank you to all our customers and friends,'' it says.
Now it's business as usual. Tailoring has been their life since they were teenagers in the village of Camazzole, in Padua province in Italy's north.
Advertisement
Mrs Basso's mother was a friend of Mr Basso's grandmother, and in 1947, the two older women pressured Mr Basso to employ Gina, then 15, as a trainee seamstress, even though he didn't need extra staff.
Gina and Jack fell in love. After the war there was no work, and barely enough to eat, and so in 1951, Mr Basso migrated to Australia. It was two years before he saw Gina again.
The day in July 1953 that Mr Basso bought a decrepit former barber shop in Rathdowne Street was the day he married his sweetheart. But Jack wasn't at the wedding.
Gina took her vows before the priest in the Camazzole church with Jack's brother, Giovanni, as stand-in. Jack had sent consent papers from Melbourne, but didn't know the ceremony was that day.
When his bride arrived in September 1953, Mr Basso was living behind the shop, which he had rented out while working in a plastics factory. He was gravely ill with a stomach ulcer.
Mrs Basso opened the shop and started mending clothes for the local Jewish, Italian and Australian families. Mr Basso recovered, they worked seven days a week and built a life.
In 1950s Rathdowne Street, horses and carts delivered ice and milk. There was no airconditioning or heating. They would keep their front door unlocked - but the back door locked, on account of the shady SP bookie customers in the back laneway.
The worst year was 1965. The economy was bad and custom dried up. Mr Basso found work washing cars, but had two heart attacks, so Gina, who had no English, ran the shop alone.
The area was sleepy until 1985, when La Porchetta restaurant opened a few doors down. Mr Basso remembers queues down the street for pizza. Young professionals moved to Carlton, with no time to mend their own clothes.
While Mr Basso is now taking it easier, Mrs Basso, 81, won't be retiring or selling up.
Two years ago, she had breast cancer, and found that coming to work, whether picking stitches apart by hand or powering the whiz-bang new Janome machine, stopped her going mad. ''When you are working, you communicate with people. You don't worry such as, 'maybe it's coming back'. I can say to work, for me, is life, it keeps me going.''
Her studio is hung with clothes to mend and photos of her son, Robert, a teacher, and grandchildren Emily, 25, a fashion designer, and Jack, 19, a student.
And the secret to their 60-year marriage? ''It's because of me. I'm a good husband,'' Mr Basso, says, grinning.
Mrs Basso says it's patience, and advises that one person in the couple can choose to keep the peace. ''You need two people to argue,'' she says.
