Today I met an Italian while sitting on a bench at the mall. This old man came to sit on the same bench as me because he liked the bench that leaned against the wall. I offered to switch my seat with him because I had more of the wall behind me but he politely declined. Afterwards, we started an interesting and long conversation.
He started by explaining that he was waiting for his wife to finish shopping and I told him that I was waiting for my late friend. (Haha, we were both waiting for someone.)
Then we talked, mostly him talking actually, about how there’s fewer people at this mall today because of Black Friday. He told me that he comes here every Sunday to walk around with his wife but he gets tired easily because he’s getting old.
Somehow we managed to talk about his family, (how his wife is from the Philippines) and he even showed me a picture of his daughter. (Very beautiful woman I say.) She’s married now and around the same age as my mother. When his daughter travels, he says that he still pays for it because he said that when you die, you can’t take money with you so he might as well split it among his children while he still can. He also has three sons who are taking over his business in Canada.
Then, he went on talking about his almost 50 year old business. He told me that he builds apartment ventilation systems, furnace, and all the nitty gritty mechanisms behind building walls. He currently has over hundreds of men employed in his company and mentions that there are two hard working Chinese men who help build the stuff. He added that many of his Italian workers marry Chinese women because they were found to be ‘compatible.’ (I think he mentions this because I looked Chinese to him. Haha) He said that he almost sold his company once because he wanted to go back to Italy, but he’s now glad he didn’t because he would have been broke today if he did. His company is called ‘York Sheet Metal Ltd” and he tole me to look it up online when I have time. (I had no wifi connection at the moment.) He started his business in 1965 (He remembers dates very well) and came to Canada when he was about 17 years old. His first partner was a Scottish man. The Scottish man couldn’t pronounce his Italian name properly, ‘Vincenzo’, so he nicknamed him Jimmy instead and now everyone calls him Jimmy. Haha, he said that he should have be nicknamed Vincent instead because it’s more similar, but he says he’s fine with Jimmy now because it’s easy for people to remember. (Haha, he was quite funny.)
Our conversation was a bit choppy because we jumped from topic to topic, when filling the pauses in between, but he was nice enough to fill in the gaps with continuous conversation subjects.
He then taught me some basic Italian words such as ‘ciao’ for hi/bye, ‘buon giomo’ for good morning, ‘buon pomeriggio’ for good afternoon, ‘buona sera’ for good night, & ‘grazie’ for thank you. He even gave me some Italian chocolates with the word ‘baci’ on them, meaning ‘kiss’ in Italian. He says he carries them around to distribute to the nice people at the glasses shop he frequents. He had an extra one today so he gave it to me because he finds me nice too. (He’s such a sweet old man.) The chocolate had a quote inside: “Then, what is a kiss? ‘Tis a secret told to the mouth. -E. Rostand- #38” such a romantic. haha
Then we talked about his life in Italy. He said that Italy is shaped like a boot and that he lives right near the tip at the bottom of that boot. His house is by the ocean and he owns a boat there. He’s planning on going back to Italy in two weeks to celebrate Christmas there because the weather’s nicer, he finds.
After this nice long chat, his wife finished shopping for her makeup and came to pick him up. She said that she couldn’t find the foundation she wanted so they’ll have to go somewhere else. She thanked me for chatting with him but I say no need because it was fun talking to him. As he was about to leave, he turned and said jokingly that if we ever meet again then I can say that I have made an Italian boyfriend. (he’s such a flirt. Haha)
All in all, we had a very nice and long conversation going. I found him very sweet, nice and friendly, but a bit of a flirt too. Haha, but I learn a lot today; about Italy, him, his business and life. I find that you can always learn something new from everyone you meet in life. So yea, there you have it; my pleasant and interesting encounter with an Italian old man on a Sunday afternoon.
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