Charles Dicola:  

Life I'm the guy who almost broke his neck (and also narrowly escaped castration!) when I dressed up as Santa on the last day before Christmas vacation in 1966. It was all part of a scheme we (Stan Greanias, Jim Cozzolino, Gary Pemberton, Ken Russo, and other knuckleheads) cooked up in the cafeteria one day. I volunteered to wear the costume (supplied by Stan, but when the big day arrived, and we hadn't staged a dress rehearsal for fear of being found out by "the authorities," I was petrified to go through with the stunt. The rest, as they say, is history - as I almost fell down the ladder from the gym roof BEFORE I grabbed the rope we had stashed and simply stepped off the roof above the hallway leading from the cafeteria to the gym. After I crashed through the window and dangled helplessly upside down, Jimmy Coz came out the cafeteria door to the the courtyard and said "Santa, are you okay?" I yelled, "HELP," which he did. Later, after I had to miss my final in government - after Coach Moore had laughed his head off at the sight of me on the roof and later sending me out of class when the bandage Mrs. Budding applied wasn't enough to stop the bleeding in my upper leg - my mother took me to Little Company for stitches. That night Dr. Storkle, my next door neighbor, came over with what he said was a bill for the broken glass! I was allowed to go to the sock hop at school that night to soak up the adulation of my friends, so I guess the who...Expand for more