Dino M.

by Camilla M.

I was born in Villaperuccio (Sardinia) in 1950 into a fairly large family. I'm the fifth of nine children. I was born in the middle, "in medio stat virtus".
I spent my youth with my mother until the age of school, if she went to the river, I played at the river with the other little friends. But never with my brothers, I never played with them. There was a kind of convention for which brothers didn't play with each other. My mother was a housewife, but we had a grocery store and she was illiterate, she couldn't read or write. But she could count to pounds, ounces and even ounces and pounds. My father worked in the mine and when he came home he kept on working. The house, for example, he built it with his labour.

I have always lived in Villaperuccio, I did primary school in Villaperuccio, middle school in Santadi. I then did a professional course in Carbonia as blacksmith/ironworker and mechanic. Later I did a course as a bricklayer in Milan. When I was sixteen I made a selection to enter the Air Force, but I was not enlisted. When I was eighteen I went to Germany and worked at the truck factory "MAN" as a machine tool operator (cutters, drills, etc.). I worked to collect savings to use the following year, to cover my expenses during my military service and not have to ask my father for money. My mother died when I was twelve, my father was a widower and remarried.
When I finished my military service I worked in Portovesme in a small company. I did eight months, but they didn't pay me because they considered me an apprentice, although I had other workers in my employ. So I decided to stop working and I stayed a year without work. In the end, when I was 22 years old, I left for Germany. During the first months of my new German experience I learned that I had passed a competition at ENEL and so I returned to Sardinia.
From 24 December 1973 until 31 January 2009 I worked at ENEL. During my professional experience I did many refresher courses in various cities of Italy.

Among my passions there is the garden and painting. I have always liked literature, in particular American literature. I use the computer every day, I use it to write, inform myself, make payments online. I have a good relationship with technology. I really like to look at how others see us and so I usually try to read the headlines and articles in the foreign press. I also often actively intervene in the comments of readers of foreign newspapers, using Google Translator for translation. As a retiree I took two English courses, with the regional program "Sardegna Speaks English".
Being now a pensioner for many and having to launch a message about the role of the elderly in society, I believe that everyone should fight to be respected. At one time my philosophy was "don't do to others what you don't want to be done to you". Later I developed another philosophy, which became "Don't let others do what you don't want to do to others".
It is important to stand up and be respected, respect from others is acquired by the development of one's personality. Life is so short that you have to enjoy it as if every day were one more day. My motto is "Live in the moment."