In 1980 CAMPANIA a region in the south of Italy was rocked by two earthquakes, these events changed my course of life forever. The first earthquake hit the region on the 23rd of November 1980 at approximately 7.30pm.
The earthquake centered on the town of Conza della Campania (commonly shortened to Conza) in the province of Avellino at an altitude of 594 meters, about 120 km east of Naples, and about 103 from Marigliano. Most buildings toppled down the mountainside of Conza. The ones that remained on the hill were left partially or totally destroyed.
This Irpinia quake measured 6.9 on the modern seismic scale and 10 on the Mercalli scale. It killed 2,914 people. Towns in the province of Avellino were devastated. I remember the quake and exactly what I was doing when it hit. The quake hit at about 7.33 in the evening, and almost everyone fled out onto the streets. Many of them stayed out there all night, indeed for some nights after the quake. There were also a considerable number of aftershocks.
It was a Sunday night like any other, play basketball for the mini league at the local school then go and watch my beloved A.B. Marigliano a basketball team in second division.
The game was played early because of other team commitments so Stefano my best friend to this day, even though we are miles away and I found ourselves going to the local bar to play that demonic and out of this world game, Space invaders. It was 1980.
Stefano as usual clocked the machine so we were given the daily prize of 200 lire. So we kept playing on.
When my turn finally came around I was extremely excited, it was my calling to kill them all, I wanted to show Stefano that I had payed attention and could also clock the machine, so I could have my name in bright lights. Within a minute or two of starting, the big space invaders machine started to sway left to right and back again.
My first reaction was to swear and get jacked off at the boys sorrounding the game because they were trying to put me off because I was doing so well, but then the lights went out and loud banging, crashing and screams of fear could be heard echoing outside and inside the bar.
People were screaming “o’ terramot” “o’ terramot” it’s an earthquake.
Being the crazy kids we were. We made a dash for home, but bricks and large columns were falling from buildings in front and behind us, we were so scared we threw ourselves under a car and we were there for about 30 seconds before a big façade of a building hit the roof of the car and I got so scared I was in shock. As this happened we looked at each other and decided to take our chances and run home. Stefano got inside his house porch and I ran for home, we did not live far from each other but it seemed like an eternity. As I was running and nearing home, I could hear my dad calling my name amongst other names being called but I could not see him amongst all the chaos, dust and falling debris. About 10 metres from reaching my dad part of a building fell and hit me on the back of my shoe, chopping the back of it right off.
Dad grabbed me as I was hopping and asked if I was ok. I asked if everybody else was safe and he replied yes with a paternal sigh of relief.
Nonno was the only person that dad didn’t throw in the mini van, He would follow us with the Lambretta. The objective was to drive us away from collapsing buildings, like us every body else converged to open areas, We stayed in this square where we as a family slept in the mini van for 2 days. These episodes of tragedy changed my life forever and here I am today writing this book to tell you all about my crazy life and the happenings that have turned a simple person into the luckiest man alive.
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