Sep 1, 2008 By Ron Paglia For The 7 min read

It isn’t often that someone can celebrate a 50th anniversary three times within one year. Emilio R. (Junior) and Marlene DiCola are exceptions. “This is the first one,” DiCola said at the 50-year reunion of the Brownsville High School Class of 1958 at Frank Ricco Lodge 731 Sons of Italy. “Next year will be (Marlene’s) turn and also our 50th wedding anniversary. So, yes, 50 is a special number for us.”

The DiColas were among the nearly 150 classmates and guests savoring the festive mood of the Class of ’58 gathering. While Junior graduated with that group, his wife, the former Marlene Marshall of Allison, graduated in 1959. They now live in Fairfax Station, Va.

“We’ve been (in Virginia) since 1962, but we always look forward to coming back home,” DiCola, a retired profes-sional firefighter, said. “It’s great seeing longtime friends and recalling the proverbial good old days. We have so many fond memories of (Brownsville).”

They also remember their wedding as if it were yesterday.

“It was Aug. 6, 1959,” DiCola smiled while emphasizing the significance of the date to the BHS reunion, which was held on Aug. 6. “So we’re celebrating our 49th anniversary here.”

DiCola and his bride-to-be, the daughter of the late Cloyd “Bucky” and Rosella Burnell Marshall of Allison, eloped on that warm summer day 49 years ago.

“It was Kennywood Day for Brownsville and the surrounding communities, so everyone in town was headed for the traditional picnic at the park – everyone except us,” DiCola recalled poignantly. “We went the opposite direction, taking Route 40 to Cumberland, Md., where we were married at Saints Peter and Paul Monestary.”

The DiColas were high school sweethearts, and Junior took advantage of his skills as a drummer with the BHS band to spend more time with Marlene. She and her twin sister, Dr. Darlene McNulty of Iowa City, Iowa, were majorettes.

“Marlene and I saw each other in school, of course, and anytime the band was performing,” DiCola said. “But the majorettes often had special practices for their marching routines and they always needed a drummer. Guess who volunteered?”

The DiColas initially lived in Alexandria when they moved to Virginia in 1962. Junior took a job as a meat cutter in a super market.

“I had worked as a meat cutter at Kotcella’s for a few years before we left,” DiCola said in reference to the former Brownsville food store. “In fact, Albert (Dascenzo) and I both worked there. Marlene and I felt we needed to move for better job opportunities, so we headed for Virginia.”

Dascenzo served as co-chair of the Class ’58 reunion with Kenny and Carol Caputo Lippencott.

DiCola later worked 25 years as a city firefighter in Fairfax Station and also owned and operated a Dairy Queen in that area.

His wife, a registered nurse, worked in the health care profession for some 15 years and also owned and operated two businesses for 25 years. DiCola’s brother, the late Albert DiCola, also was a longtime firefighter, and his son and son-in-law are following in those footsteps as a professional firefighter.

The DiColas have four children, 15 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

“They keep us busy, that’s for sure, but it’s wonderful,” DiCola said of the children.

Their ties to the area are solidified by Junior’s sister, Lena Shashura of Hiller, and Marlene’s cousins, Barbara Sassano and her husband, Tony, of Allison and Starr Smalley and her husband, George, of Scenery Hill. Marlene’s brother, Barry Marshall, and his wife, Pam, live in Perrysburg, Ohio.

Another BHS Class of ’58 graduate with ties to the high school band is Bob Thomas, who lives in Palm Springs, Calif.

“That’s me,” Thomas, an exceptionally gregarious man, said as he pointed to one of several pictures of the Brownsville band on a display board at the reunion.

Thomas was the band’s drum major.

“Wow, that was a lot of fun,” he said. “I loved music, going to football games and sock hops, so (being the drum major) was a natural outlet for me.”

He also taught baton twirling at Ernie Ruggiero’s dance school.

Thomas, who has lived in Palm Springs since 2002, left Brownsville in 1960 “with no regrets.”

“I wouldn’t say I was a party animal, but I enjoyed having a good time,” he said with a knowing smile. “They closed the streets here very early and there wasn’t a lot to do. So I said, ‘I’m out of here.’ I had a ’52 Chevy and $150 in my pocket and hit the road.”

Thomas worked for a freight company in California for 32 years before retiring. He now enjoys traveling and is looking forward to a trip to Brazil later this year.

Dolores Mastowski Kocis, a ’58 graduate now living in Connellsville, didn’t travel as far as Thomas or the DiColas – less than 25 miles via Routes 119 and 40, but she arrived in style in a 1958 Chevrolet Impala convertible.

“We bought (the car) in 1965 and completely restored it,” Kocis said of her late husband, John Kocis, a Connellsville High School graduate, as the Impala drew compliments galore from classmates.

“It’s like we’ve turned back time,” a neighbor of the area said as she admired the vintage automobile.

“There used to be a lot of ’58 Chevys, and other cars, parked in front (of the Sons of Italy) when (disc jockey) Leon Sykes ran the record hops here. Those were such great times.”

Like Kocis, Ron Peters made a rather short trip for the reunion. He lives in Bethel Park.

“This is the first class reunion I’ve attended,” Peters said. “There was always something else going on with work or the family. I haven’t seen some of these people since we graduated and I’m really glad to be here.”

Peters is a U.S. Air Force veteran who served four years in counter-intelligence in such foreign posts as Libya, Greece and Germany.

“I had a feeling I was going to be drafted, so I enlisted,” Peters, who finished his military service at Strategic Air Command headquarters in Omaha, Neb., said. “It was a great experience.”

He worked for Western Union before taking a job with Allegheny Airlines.

He continued in that profession with US Airways and worked as a shipping specialist before retiring with 49 years of service. His passion for flying continues today as a licensed sport pilot and owner of a plane based at Finleyville Airport.

“It’s so much fun being up there,” Peters said of flying. “I come up this way a lot and love to fly over the area, remembering what it looked like years ago.”

Peters, who also has experience as a commercial pilot, also returns to Brownsville by car on a regular basis to visit his mother, Violet Peters, and his sister, Pat Peters Adamson.

While the graduates at the reunion reveled in recounting their youth and lives over the past 50 years, Albert Dascenzo and committee member Brenda Mitchell Vail conducted a solemn ceremony in honor and memory of 58 deceased classmates.

“We’ll mourn their passing but we celebrate their lives, the joy and love they brought to so many others,” Dacenzo, who also served as treasurer of the reunion committee, said.

As Dascenzo read the names of the deceased, Vail lit a candle for each. A lone chair was

in place at the table holding the candles.

“There is only one chair but it symbolizes all who are no longer with us and is a reminder that they will always will be with us,” Dascenzo said. “The table is small but is emphasizes that there is room for everyone. The white tablecloth is a symbol of the purity of their spirit.”

Other members of the planning committee were secretary Edith Stiles Fudala, P. Gary Thomas, Lenora Byrd, Leslie Faulk, Nancy Shaffer Cwialkala, Paula Funk Drake, Ed “Woody” Nicholson and Connie Franks McClelland.

Richard Majernik, a longtime teacher at Brownsville High School who is now retired, spoke briefly, and Keith Vail pronounced invocation.

Dancing to the music of disc jockey Paul McGrady capped the nostalgic evening.