安东尼Scairretto, 约翰Donato, 约翰Paone, 约瑟夫Salice, Pat Costa and the other boys from South Philly see each other year round and gather with their extended families for an annual holiday party. 他们于1965年在腾讯分分彩平台官网分校相遇.
阿宾顿,爸爸. — From 1965 through 1967, 12 young men ventured out of South Philadelphia each day. 他们乘坐电车, 然后他们下了地铁, 在最后一站, they took the steps back up to Broad Street and hopped on a bus. Finally, they walked a half-mile down a suburban street without sidewalks in all kinds of weather. 他们的目的地? 宾州州立大学的奥贡兹，现在被称为 宾州州立大学阿宾顿分校.
“It took two hours each way to get there, but it was well worth it. It opened our eyes and gave us a view of a new world,” 约翰Paone, class of 1969, said.
Their two years at 阿宾顿 built lifelong bonds among the men, 谁庆祝他们的“爱情故事”,正如帕恩所说, at an annual pull-out-all-the-stops holiday party with multiple generations of their families.
“它太大了，我们在其中一家赌场举办了它, 但我们从南费城的餐馆开始, 这就是我们在2023年要做的事情. 我们有娱乐节目、歌手和舞者. The parties are a big deal with gifts, and Santa Claus makes an appearance,他说.
超越节日狂欢, they meet frequently for casual lunches and dinners and they travel and celebrate weddings, bar mitzvahs and other landmark occasions with their families.
“I’m closer with my college friends than with a lot of other people. 他们是我的大家庭. We’ve all gone different ways, but we are always together,” Paone, who has served on the 阿宾顿 校园顾问委员会 将近二十年了，他说.
去阿宾顿对我们来说意义重大. We met people from different nationalities and cultures and the trees! In South Philly, the trees were telephone poles and grass grew between the cracks.——约翰·帕恩，宾州州立大学1969届毕业生
两人因为共同追求教育而相遇, but their roots in the heart of South Philly sustained them through sometimes difficult adjustments of leaving the neighborhood, 在阿宾顿取得成功, and eventually moving to University Park to complete their degrees.
“我们不熟悉自己的环境，不熟悉我们的社区. 我们本可以在火星上的. Going to Penn State was a different world in a strange land to us, 但我们很快就建立了联系,帕恩说。.
“Prior to this we never left the neighborhood — Third to Broad to Washington to Oregon. 你想要的一切都在那附近. 我们非常狭隘. We dated women from the neighborhood and married girls from down the street,” he recalled fondly.
Most were sons of Italian immigrants who didn’t speak English and didn't have much formal education.
“第一天上班, I walked into the student rec room where everyone congregated, 还有一群从南费城来的家伙, 我们看起来都一样. We wore leather jackets and pushed-back hair,帕恩说。.
“去阿宾顿对我们来说意义重大. We met people from different nationalities and cultures and the trees! In South Philly, the trees were telephone poles and grass grew between the cracks,他说.
While attending classes at 阿宾顿 alongside students from suburban school districts, Paone and his friends felt their K-12 education was lacking.
“这是一个差距，但我们赶上了. 关键在于敬业的教职员工. They understood that we were kids from city, and they paid attention to us and worked with us. They recognized early on that we needed more attention,他说.
Paone and his friends “loved every minute” of their time at 阿宾顿, 他们经常回忆在鸭塘边放松的时光, 参加体育运动, 周末参加舞会, 他们中的一些人在校园里遇到了未来的配偶.
帕恩说，他们的妻子对这些故事熟记于心.
“一个艺术教授带来了一个裸体模特. 消息传开了, and kids were standing outside on ladders and chairs and on each others shoulders outside of the Springhouse to try to see something. There was also a gas station up the street with an inflatable dinosaur mascot. Someone stole it and put it into the duck pond,” he laughed.
These stories, he added, hold them together despite life's inevitable challenges.
“Our experience at Oz [Ogontz] and Penn State made us grow up. 我们有社会化和教育, 我们的生活受到了积极的影响,他说, noting that some of their grandchildren attend Penn State.
今天, 来自南费城的男孩们支持腾讯分分彩平台官网分校, 哪个学校仍然欢迎各种各样的学生, including those who are the first in their families to attend college and the children of immigrants alongside those from suburban and international schools.
Students today know about the group thanks to plaques in two classrooms: Room 209 Sutherland is dedicated to the “Boys from South Philly,” and a Woodland Building classroom honors the fathers who inspired them.
“事后看来，我们很感激，这就是我们回报的原因. We were a bunch of kids out of South Philly who went to a magical little place called Oz. 它就像一个‘旅’，”帕恩说.
关于宾大阿宾顿
腾讯分分彩平台官网分校提供了一个负担得起的, accessible and high-impact education resulting in the success of a diverse student body. It is committed to student success through innovative approaches to 21st-century public higher education within a world-class research university. 有3个以上,100名学生, 宾州州立大学阿宾顿分校 is a residential campus that offers baccalaureate degrees in 25 majors, 速成硕士学位, 本科研究, 施赖尔荣誉学院, NCAA三级田径和更多.
