# Book 4: Chaos Pins Cobram

- Link: https://italiajoe.com/whilst-chaos-simmered/
- Published: 2024-05-17T05:36:58+00:00
- Author: Joseph Simonetti

_For Julie, Mary, and Christine__
 
Puppy love did lift the spirits of a little 
boy searching for relevancy,
 
& Kathleen, I should have known.

Chaos surfaces from Michele and Pietro making life decisions without considering
the effects on their families. Isolation from family coalesces into a range of social
issues, impacting wives and children left behind for many years. Such life stuff
unfortunately brings newborns into a precarious future. Joe’s loneliness becomes
evident whilst he tags along at workplaces and pub sessions with grownups in Mossman
and Cobram, towns barely out of the pioneer stage. At nine years of age, Joe is 
still unable to write coherent sentences, expression was a matter of cobbling phonetics
and ‘_Italglishisms’_ in-class writing exercises. When Michele goes to Gundagai 
for the asparagus harvests, Joe is billeted out to Italian families. Migraines begin
to affect his quality of life. For want of a mother, Joe finds escapism in ‘puppy
love’ for ‘les petit femmes.’ Scholarly arithmetic lifts his confidence. After five
years Maria Concetta decides that the family reunite in Australia. The catch was
that she had lost a child, but in 1961 gains a teenager; adjustments would have 
to be made. After 1962, High School gives Joe the advantage and by ’65, ponders 
whether there is something better than that bleak existence.