When I asked Filippo to dig up the memories of a life in the Army, he proved a bit skeptical but then he called me back saying: "I thought about it during the night and she was a good adviser: many episodes are a bit foggy, but I remember someone a little particular, since I was the architect".
Homo faber suae quisque fortunatee (everyone is the architect of his own destiny)
“I was on exercise in the Berici Hills in Veneto, camped at the top of the hill on land where there was a retirement home. In a 'nodal centre' the most tiring and intense work is the first two/three days, because there are usually many connections and it takes time to get them by wiring all the telephone lines.
Among these connections there was a teletype that connected the third army corps with the third army of Padua which did not work, the signal did not pass. The section in 'Ponte Radio' worked, but the teleprinters did not line up.
This connection was the most important, so until it worked we all had to stand for the various alignments”.
The story continues and seems to be an effective inspiration for a coffee advertisement.
“At three in the morning I felt like drinking a coffee, I called a soldier and told him to make coffee for everyone with the 6 coffee pot. After two minutes the boy came back telling me that in the camping cylinder we used for this purpose there was out of gas, so no coffee. I was so hungry for coffee that I could smell it in the air.
All sad, I went out of the shelter and lit a cigarette while observing the generator set in operation due to the activity of the communication equipment. I saw that the exhaust muffler of the motor generator was all red from the heat and I immediately had the idea of exploiting its temperature.
I asked the transmitter to find two stones and to prepare the coffee pot. I took a lamp to illuminate the group, put the two stones in front of the muffler and above the moka pot.
Trust me, within 10 seconds coffee came out and filled the coffee pot. What a pleasure that night!
From that evening on, the coffee at the nodal center of 'Pippo' was made with a muffler. How many laughs did the commanders and colleagues who came to see me... I don't deny that while I was writing these lines I still felt like laughing”.
Photo: author
