21 Comments
Mar 13, 2023Liked by Silvio Castelletti

I feel that rereading this is now a happy memory of mine. Such a delight reading a first-hand account of a friend that lived a national World Cup Championship, and all that it entailed before. Maybe we can even practice happy memories from others? So glad you lived through all these memories and now you tell us about them, Silvio!

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Ah these are good memories Silvo and I'm sure many will relate to them.

For me watching Landon Donovan score the extra time winner in South Africa, 2010 was a happy memory. A friend of mine there vowed he would name his first born son after Landon. And now here we are 13 years later, my friend has a son who bears the name Landon and I get a bit of joy every time I think about that.

Though I wish I had a friend named Afro!

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Ah, such a beautiful story Silvio! I love football related memories, as they are some of my happiest ones as well.

Funnily enough, one of my favorite soccer memories was the 2006 semi-final between Italy and Germany (yep). It was one of the most riveting matches I've ever seen. I cheered at Grosso's extra time goal, and I remember crying when Del Piero put the final dagger a couple of minutes later. To this day, I don't understand why I cried, or why I was rooting for Italy so fervently. But I think that's part of the beauty of football–it inhabits our being with unexplainable sensations from unforgettable events.

I loved this piece. Bravo!

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This is such a lovely piece that takes us through your memory highlight reel. You've inspired me to start journaling & reliving my favorite memories more often

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Mar 9, 2023Liked by Silvio Castelletti

Ah Silvo! How do you manage to be so detailed, convincing, vivid, and meanwhile, humorous at the same time?! I'm a soccer fan and every match between Germany and Italy in the world cup is one for the history books, and your passages just brought me right into the middle of your family late night gathering for the match and your watch party at Afro's. This is sheer pleasure to read. Thank you for another wonderful piece!

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Mar 9, 2023Liked by Silvio Castelletti

Good memories are our second chance of happiness, and for me, they're also healthy carriers of melancholy.( Very nice yellow striped tshirt and blue jeans)..

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Mar 9, 2023Liked by Silvio Castelletti

Silvio, an excellent piece blending your personal memories into the role they play in wellbeing. Such a curious thing memories are.

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I was 8 in 1982, so slightly older than you back when you had that very first memory. I do remember well the gathering of many families around the TV in my granpa’s family home, how hot it was, the fact that probably (I’m not sure) the TV was on a piano so that everybody could watch it and that was the olnly suitable place. I didn’t understand the game but I felt the atmosphere, the temperature, the tension. It was the first time I saw someone (everybody, actually) shouting and partying on the streets all night long. Weird and beautiful.

Reading your memory, my thoughts were different, or rather: it’s a different deployment of memory. I mean: some decades later I came to know that a person - you - had this memory of the same night and that’s the same person that I knew many years later. We should call them shared memories I suppose, and it happens when everybody is having the same “social” experience. It’s like elevating a personal memory to the next level, then it becomes a collective memory. We met later in life but things like the World Cup Final bring us together as one. You know they say same something like that about comraderie: when people experience the same thing, then there’s a bond between them. We are social animals, after all.

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