We spent Clovis’s Fulbright year in Italy, from September 1958, to late Summer 1959. Catherine was born and Clovis was received into the Catholic Church shortly before we left for Italy. I was trying to get everything together, I had to find everything we had to take to Italy for a new baby, and everything Clovis had to have, to do his project in Rome. “Curvilinear Forms in Architecture” was his thesis topic. He brought the camera in order to photograph the buildings. We were involved in the architectural history of everything around us. Clovis had taken Italian classes at the New School, and I picked up a lot of Italian just by being there. When first went over on the ship, everyone spoke English, and when we arrived in Rome we met more people who spoke English, so it was not a problem.
It was after the Second World War, and Italy was still recovering from the occupation . Very few people spoke English, and the University of Rome lectures were all in Italian. We were talking about visual things so we knew what the lecture was talking about. There were two couples we got to know very well, who were also Fulbright scholars, and who also went to the lectures. As for the other people attending the lectures, I have no idea who they were. I’m trying to remember the names of the couples – Byron and somebody, and I can’t remember the last name, they became our very best friends in Rome. They were from Missouri. I have the name written down somewhere.
This is the Volkswagen beetle that we drove around Europe We shipped it back, from Rotterdam to New York and then when we arrived in New York the car was waiting for us and we picked it up at the pier and got in the car and drove it to my parents’ house in Munsie Park in Manhasset. When we first got back it was September and Jack and Virgie were still in our Henry Street apartment, so we stayed a few days with my parents. Then Jack and Virgie visited Texas and we moved back into our apartment while they were away. They returned soon and moved into their new second floor, beautiful town house, across the street from us. And all that is for the next chapter.
Maryann holding the two babies in the park in Rome. (Find the picture)
Mary Elizabeth holding Catherine in her lap, with Amalia, a woman who helped us. She got Sundays and Thursday afternoons off.
The house we rented had a really beautiful garden.
Mary Elizabeth in the garden, with Amalia giving her a glass of juice.
Mary Elizabeth with the little girl from upstairs.
Clovis holding Mary Elizabeth and Catherine, looking at them.
The porta-crib, that you could unwrap and tie onto the mattress of the bed, so you could turn a bed into a baby crib.
The photo from the Mademoiselle article, which shows us in the back yard of our home in Rome.
We visited Amalia and met her family South of Rome on her day off, Sunday. Amalia is holding Catherine and her daughter is holding Mary Elizabeth.
