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The Life of Marco Eugenio Deprezzio
In 1935 he made a smart move, some would say, in throwing himself into the cause of Mussolini and becoming a recruitment officer for Italy's youth. His life during the WWII, in North Africa apparently, was rewarding enough until taken prisoner by the British and sent to England. Thought to be a politically confused individual rather than a dangerous warmonger, he was placed at the POW camp at Pattishall, Northamptonshire where he evidently enjoyed life to the full; working on farms particularly in Blisworth and befriending many villagers - particularly the younger girls. Upon his release he somewhat 'went to ground' in an old barn near The Lowndes. He joined a local cricket club from which he derived much entertainment. He derived a meagre income from his skill in exterior plaster work, or pargetting as decorative cement-based rendering is sometimes known, whilst he cleverly evaded authorities - which was fairly easy in the 1950s. By 1955 Gene had left Blisworth for Suffolk following the demand for his trade. Indeed he probably fled the area for his nefarious activities with the women were becoming embarrassing. He claimed many Blisworth offspring - 17 sons and 5 daughters, 'for no marriages', preferring to think of his life as a protracted cricket score; 22 not out! In Saffron Walden his pargetting business benefited from the new start and became well known. He nominated for himself the title "El Duc di Stuccatore" and became nicknamed Gene the Genius in the local listed-buildings circuit. His love of cricket continued although his athleticism was beginning to suffer from a rare disease borne from the lime of his trade, analogous to kidney or gall stones but developing instead in his joints; called lithicarthritis or "Stone Leg". In the post-WWII boom years, he did well but his genes ultimately could not combat the assault on his joints. By 1984 he had retired to Southwold being the nearest he had managed to drift towards Felixstowe. He had dreams of stowing on a container ship bound for Italy and thereby returning to his roots in northern Italy. Perhaps he wanted to compare 'cricket scores', his score being, by then, 47 - declared on account of incapacity, with the count including a healthy crop of grand and great-grand children. To pass the time he got a job setting up displays at a Southwold garden centre and managed to annoy most of his fellow workers except for one old gardener whom he befriended. He said once that he was concerned for his roots - his "Mio Moldo" - but his friend never really understood what he was mumbling about. Gene's diseased body increasingly failed in his old age. The deposition of a cement-like crust on all parts was accelerating and, one evening, whilst staring out across the North Sea he stiffened and seemingly solidified. In a short time, he had virtually crystallised and become locked in place at the edge of a floral display before he could clock off. It was eight days later that some ambitious garden assistant, who apparently never liked Gene's cricket bragging, pushed the anemone narcissiflora aside and hung a £19.99 price ticket over his head. Gene's life had then become a still silence interrupted by the occasional visitors to the garden centre who tried to talk to him. Mrs. King from Blisworth blew in one day in 2000 and took an immediate liking to Gene in his garden environment. Gene overheard Mrs. King saying she was from Blisworth and willed as hard as he could to go with her. He grabbed a bunch of anemones to give her but, with his arms frozen, he could only hold them behind his back. Anyway, his charm and sense of appeal to women did not fail him when it mattered most - he was duly stowed in a boot, suitably bubble-wrapped and bound for Blisworth once the £19.99 was transacted; he would pursue his quest for roots in Blisworth (and its environs, of course - where have we heard that before?) instead of in Italy. By an uncanny coincidence, weeks later, Gene was dubbed "Mister Depressio" by a friend of Mrs. King's. Immediately following this event there was a strain in the air and a thin voice mumbled "You English just cannot do the zzs, can you? Out OUT!". ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And now the truth: Those of you with an inkling regarding the possible whereabouts of Mister Depressio's cement mould, the cricket umpire, or the source of his family, ie. the creator of a garden cricket team, please contact us. [some have . . . *] In looking everywhere we have had some luck in finding some of his relatives in Devon. They were all playing cricket and the umpire looked just like him, his exact double. Yet realising a mould was involved, the double could be a brother - the -/+ 33rd. brother - or what you will. We were told the group were originally found in Totnes some ten years before but the trail went cold for a year - then we discovered the whole team (see below) at "TorStone", Clarks Village, Somerset and also, in a new internet search, discovered that a whole lorry load of en-delivery statues had gone missing (no doubt some of Depressio's mafia friends were responsible) and that police in Northumbria were curious about a garden-full of statues that were heisted in May 2011. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This piece of faux-history was written as a 5th Anniversary Joke for the Blisworth Archive Website. Following an established trend, Mr. Depressio was nominated the blisworth.org.uk website mascot. With his Vaderesque countenance and incisiveness he will doubtless parry any onslaught from heretic or coven alike, confident in the knowledge he has already turned to stone. Please see the photo gallery below. Tony Marsh - June 20, 2010 \/ \/ \/ \/
Responses: Sept 28th 2010 - "helleo there, i know sum one who has a set of those cricket men here in new zealand. i have looked every where for a set for my self but nothing. if you could tell me where i could get some moulds for these i would be ever so gratefull, thank you."
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Born April 4th, 1911, Gene Deprezzio, grew up the
son of an agricultural worker in north Italy, near Fellonica on the River
Po, according to his account that he gradually disclosed to a friendly gardener
rather late-on in his life. The family business was a labour-intensive
form of wine making in which Gene showed absolutely no interest. A pity
really because his father willed the business to Gene's brother who later
made a fortune in California's Napa Valley. Gene mentioned the
business name as Gallo; we perhaps ought to ignore the show-off. Gene
found some scant income in the building trade and, in due course,
also from his efforts in public service first as a tax inspector
(apparently he was the scourge, maybe a jealous one, of errant wine makers in the area) and later as a political
secretary to the mayor: an ardent member of the Communist Party
too.