First and foremost I must plea to Father Piccioni for forgiveness (wherever he is).
During the first school year (1960) at Abasabad, practically the school yard was deserted at lunch recess, the boarding school pupils stayed in the building, others went home and few stayed on campus.
It was approaching end of school year and the weather was getting warm. With three other fellows I went down to the 555 sandwich shop, we each had a sandwich then to the shop (Baghalie) on the corner and bought popsicles, while leaking the popsicle we climbed the long and steep stairs, in the high noon burning sun, back to the school yard.
By then all four of us were exhausted and hot, looking for a shady area to rest, we walked to the corner of the football field were the building had cast shadow, and father Piccioni’s black 1935 Austin was parked in the shade, windows rolled down; we sat inside the car, I took the drivers seat while finishing my popsicle.
As of today, I don’t know what urged me to insert the Popsicle stick into the ignition key slot and twist it. To my surprise the gauges on the dashboard indicated ignition ON. Without any hesitation I pushed the starter button and the engine started. The three boys became totally silent as I began driving towards the gate and out on the street, as if they did not want to believe this was happening. "Well, fellows we are going to Shemiran", I said, we reached the intersection of Abassabad and Shemiran road, across from the radio station suddenly the engine stalled, in attempting to restart, no such luck. Turned the car to roll downhill on Shemiran road and parked it at the foot of the Andisheh stairway.
I asked the boys to pledge for complete secrecy of the incident. The boys jumped out of the car and began racing up the 111 stairs. I reached the school entrance behind them just in time to see Father Piccioni standing in the middle of the yard with hand movements asking the gate keeper “Kooja masheene’”, the gatekeepers' dumbfound look was hilarious. My three riders had disappeared; I approached father Piccioni, calmly and
remorsefully told him I had seen the car on the roadside.
In the following weeks the rumor around the school told by the fathers was, the car had been stolen and with grace of God had run out of gas in the school vicinity.
View thw picture of a similar car here at the gallery:
http://andisheh-donbosco.com/index.php?option=com_ponygallery&func=detail&id=463&Itemid=56
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