The Gondola is the name of the souvenir graduation program from
PS 83 June 1942. I was looking through
it out of curiosity and noticed some things I thought you would find
interesting.
This program cover has your mother's name (Regina Coffarelli) in the upper right hand
corner, written in her hand. The graphic is obviously hand drawn. The
signature of the artist indicates she was one of your mother's
classmates. Regina Coffarelli and Bob Dalpiaz were about 14 at the time, so I'm presuming
this is an 8th grade graduation program. The first thing I noticed with
interest was that the agenda for the event seemed to have a strong
ethnic flavor. Perhaps there was a South American/Hispanic theme?
What a sweet thought that the President of the Mother's Club presents
the medals and awards! Somehow I find that comforting. There is an
extended list of patrons and patronesses (I'm guessing this program was
some kind of fund raising effort). That list contained several familiar
surnames including Dalpiaz, Coffarelli, Manzelli, Sapienza, Miglietta,
Petro, Restivo, Jozwicki--Must have been every single grandparent,
aunt, uncle and parent of each graduate considering how many there are
on that list!
It appears great effort was made to include everyone in the contents of
the program. I find that very similar to today's efforts. Also in line
with today, I noted there seem to be a small number of "over-achievers"
--those whose names you see on every other page in the yearbook. You
remember those people from your own yearbook, right? Anyhow, when I
realized that I might find familiar names, the search was on.
The program opens with a poem that appears to include all graduates:
As Others See Us. Lucky for me these were alphabetical.
Finding Mary Sapienza's (Aunt Mary's) contribution was a big bonus!
Your mother Regina apparently enjoyed the Drama Club writing and portraying Mother Csorba (?!)
and your father the Shop Club (surprise!)
Regina and Mary find themselves commended for school spirit (along with a number of those afore-mentioned over-achievers)
Robert, Regina and Mary were "On the Alert for Defense"--written in a very patriotic tone:
You'll note that someone marked your mother in the picture with a plus sign!
Not surprisingly, the patriotic tone is heavy. This is only a few
months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many of the students had
obviously been affected by the war.
You've probably seen this picture of the graduates--this is not too far
from the size of our own high school graduating class this year.
Aren't they cute? Then they enter high school..........
