A class of 28 former students of third year of middle school of 1964 of the Eugenio De Carlo state middle school vernol last June 26th she made an appointment. Same school, same class, graduated in 1964, met again in 2024. It is a class, III A made up of only boys, who on the idea of Fausto Rizzo (one of the former students) decided to see each other again, in the name of that unbreakable friendship. Among them the presence of Pantaleo Corvinosports director of Leccea piece of Italian football history.
The boys at the time attended school in Vernole, but came from nearby towns. The whole class met right in what used to be the school, in their classroom, where there is now the headquarters of an association. The pole was still in the garden.
“For us, friendship is something sacred – explains Fausto, now a teacher – and with this spirit we wanted to see each other again, dedicating a thought to those who are no longer with us. We broke up in 1964 and now we are men, retired or fulfilled, some have become doctors, some bank managers and so much more. Of course we will never be able to forget those beautiful years, in our time classes were divided by sex, we males had to wear shirts and ties. Those were the times when even though we didn’t have much, we had fun. Vernole was the only town where there were middle schools and we traveled by bus, so before entering the classroom we played a game with a cloth ball”.
In short, the class of 1964 was running on the tracks of the future, whose only common denominator was the thread of friendship. And how many memories: from the games in the courtyard to the youngest teacher who had gotten his driving license and bought a car, but who, not knowing how to reverse, drove all the way around the block to get home. Or someone still remembers how copying a homework assignment was a reminder to improve, because the original was worse than the copied one. After spending some time together, the whole class then moved to a restaurant to share lunch, where they were joined by Monsignor Mauro Carlino for the blessing. “We met again – says one of the participants – after more than half a century and as if by magic we started vibrating again, with friendship, complicity and brotherhood that marked the days. We must be proud of having lived our lives so far always keeping the bar straight and of having transmitted those values that, as Pantaleo Corvino recalled, have accompanied our lives and that we have transmitted to our children, who grew up like us”. So emotions upon emotions that ended with an honorary certificate for each student of the third class, section A, who obtained their middle school diploma on June 30, 1964 and after sixty years instead receives the degree of “Friend Forever”.
The participants were: Cerri Carlo, De Vitis Donato and De Mattia Domenico of Pisignano, Cocciolo Donato, Sciolti Raffaele Strudà, Mancino Evaristo Acaya, Corvino Pantaleo, Doria Silverio, Pascali Michele and Potenza Romualdo Vernole, Fausto Rizzo Melendugno. Innocenzo Riccardo, Piero Saracino Borgagne.
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