We learn about the life of Osiseni boilermakers from Mihai Gheorghe, known as Năsturel, a 68-year-old Roma boilermaker. His story does not differ from the other accounts of the Roma who took care of this craft. He does not know where he came from, but it is certain that during the time of his parents, the Caldara Roma settled in a place only temporarily, in order to continue their nomadic or semi-nomadic journey. Only in the 60s, his parents and several other families will settle with their tents in Osica de Sus, where their houses will later be built.
Mihai Gheorghe, called Năsturel, Osica de Sus commune
Moreover, the name of this Roma family, Mihai, will prevail within the community that was formed in this locality. He learned the trade from his father as a teenager, initially working on cans so as not to waste too much material. After minimal training and experience he began to shape large tin, aluminum or copper vessels (brandy cauldrons, cauldrons for boiling food or making soap, seedling pots), using simple tools such as scissors, hammer, anvil, mandrel and leather foals of a goat ("which the dogs sometimes ate"). He accompanied his parents, crossing Oltețul, to roam the villages in the wagon with a wheelbarrow, arriving as far as Bălcești, Iancu Jianu, sometimes as far as Calafat. Never just one family left, but several, forming a small convoy of wagons, settling on the edge of the village, in the vacant places, so as not to disturb, here living in tents, often even in the cold season. They bought material for work on the road or in the areas where they stayed, obtaining it from those who came to repair the vessels. They usually brought pieces of brass or aluminum from very degraded vessels, which the boilermaker melted down and reshaped. The penny was rarely the currency of exchange for their work. Foods such as corn, flour, poultry, etc. they were the products they often received in exchange for crafted objects.
Family photo (Mihai family)
Mihai Gheorghe got married at the age of 14, and his wife, from Coșoveni (Dolj), was 13, the marriage between the two being, as is customary in the Roma nation, an agreement concluded with gold coins by their parents. In the practice of the craft, the women were also helpful, who mostly took care of "pulling" the wheels and cleaning the parts that were to be repaired. Now the craftsman Năsturel works less often, as his powers help him. He confesses to us, with a complicit smile in the corner of his mouth, that in his youth, when someone came with a pot with holes to be repaired, when that person was not careful, he would add a few more holes to the pot to be able to raise the price of the work. He talks to us without regrets about those times, which took him from one place to another, which deprived him of the comfort of a welcoming home and a carefree childhood, betraying sadness only when he confesses to us the harassment of the communist regime for the confiscation the alleged gold owned by his family. He also passed the job on to his son, but now he no longer deals with a craft that cannot provide for his family.
