It would be nice to take a snapshot of the future lives of these boys posing for the fateful class photo in 1948 at the Mazzini School in Via Volsinio. To recognise, perhaps, someone who towards the end of the 1950s, having become an adult, opened a restaurant, a newsagent, a shop in the heart of the Trieste-Salario district. Or was a teacher in the same school he attended as a child.
The beautiful photo taken from the Antonio Ercoli Archive and published in Typimedia Editore’s volume “Come eravamo Trieste-Salario” does not work as a time machine. We do not know what lives those boys must have had, standing still in the pose. Perhaps, now, some of them will be reading these lines and will smile with some emotion. If they did, if someone recognised themselves in this image, it would be nice if they let us know. Tell us about those aprons with the big bow, those eyes wide open to the future. The impression we get, for example, is that those two sitting in the front row on the right, one with the jacket and one with the apron, were a nice couple of troublemakers. What matters is that they had happy lives. And that today, looking at the photo, they can exclaim: those were great years. Without paying attention to a small tear running down their face.
(Daniele Magrini)
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