The Way We Were

Nocera Inferiore

School: Secondary School Low Grade

Creators: Enjoy your Town 1

Teachers: Nicoletta Despalj and Marica Benevento

Model: Building Up Our Stories

The Way We Were

We attend the school “Angelo e Francesco Solimena” that now is called “1° Istituto Comprensivo di Nocera Inferiore”. This school is one of the most ancient schools in town. It was made in 1886, but it wasn’t a Secondary School Low Grade back then. It was born as a Municipal Technical School.

Right now, we are doing a project about Nocera’s history, “The Way We Were”, and we are the “Enjoy Your Town 1” group.
This project aims to make remember how our city was and how different it is right now.
The students didn’t work on this project only in the school’s building, but they got out to work on the territory too. They took pictures around the city, learning their history and their beauty. They made sure to have lots of fun, too.

In this project we will talk about:
-Monuments and Places around Nocera;

-Saint Prisco: Our Patron;
-The Old Lost Jobs.

We all hope you’ll enjoy our work.

The Bell Tower

In Vescovado Street, we have Saint Prisco’s Church with the Bell Tower. This Bell Tower was sorrounded by dirt, but now it has a school on its right and the palaces on the left.

The Marble Fountain

Inside the Saint Prisco’s Church there is The Marble Fountain, a fountain that was brought in Nocera in the Romanic Age. Years ago, the fountain was inside the Regina Mundi school, but it was brought inside the church because of security problems.

Introduction-Old Lost Jobs

In the past there were some jobs that now don’t exist anymore. For example there were the trumpeteer, the hot pears sellers, the shoe-shine, the lamplighter, the sharpener, the employees of the old tomato industry exc.

The Trumpeteer

The trumpeteer’s job is to make butcher, fishmonger and celleler’s news popular. He used to wear black clothes with a top hat. He used an old trumpet. He didn’t use any sheets for what he said, he used to remember everything.

The Hot Pears Seller

The hot pears seller was a man who walked around the streets with a bucket full of hot pears. He used to go out in winter because accourding to the tradition the pears with sugar kept warm. In summer, when they couldn’t sell the pears, they worked in tomato’s industries.

The shoe-shine

The shoe-shine was a man who used to clean the walkers’ shoes. He was easily found on the streets. Nocera
Inferiore had its own shoe-shine: Domenico Ravelli, also known as “Minicuccio”. Minicuccio was a shoe-shine who
worked really hard everyday. He was so calm and nice that everybody knew him. He used to work in Saint Monica
Square with his wooden tables between the plants. He waited for the people arriving because he was genuanely
happy to make them relax. It was worth it, because for a few coins you could have such a good time while reading
the “Mattino” or “Roma”, Southern most famous newspapers. Those were Minicuccio’s golden years. Then the
Square changed: Minicuccio wasn’t really fond of the change, but he loved his spot too much, so he stayed anyway
and eventually, he became an abusive attendant. He died in 1968.

The Puppeteer

Lo Spasaro

“O’ spasaro” was a man who made wooden baskets. He made knots with the strings. He was usually found in Vescovado Street.

The shoemaker

There was also the shoemaker around there. The shoemaker was a man who used to make and to repair shoes. Years ago, a lot of people couldn’t afford another pair of shoes, but they could afford to pay someone for repair them. Rich people called the shoemaker in their mansion instead, who took their foot’s shape. He also made them choose the skin’s quality.

The Tailor

The tailor (‘u mastu cusitùru) was a man that teached to people how to make clothes. He made very good clothes for rich people and daily clothes for common people. The important tailors had a shop with lots of people who wanted to learn his job, while the common sailors worked at home and teached the job to very young girls. There was one right in Cucci Street.