Calabria, Italy, 1951

“My God, where the hell did you find these?” the Australian owner of this super cool salvage shop asked me when I produced a pile of curled black and white photos I’d dug out of a basket in the back of the shop. Why did I dig up these photos? Because one word scrawled in sloppy penmanship on a Post-It note caught my eye: Calabria.

According to labels on some of the photos, this pile of photos, many stuck together, were taken in 1951 in the Sila and Crotone areas of Calabria, Italy. My great grandfather was born in Calabria (albeit, not Sila or Crotone). Some of the photos were taken on the occasion of the first electric light being inaugurated in the town. In 1951.

Some show the local women working at a loom. While researching my family in Calabria, many of the women were employed as spinners and weavers. Although the people in these photos aren’t my relatives, and they were taken about 50 years after my great grandfather left Italy, I like to think they are representative of what life and Italy might have looked like for my ancestors.

I ended up buying 5 of the photos for a buck each.

I guess the saying about one person’s trash being another’s treasure is true.