John Basilone's Last Survivng Classmate from St. Bernard's Parochial School Class of 1932, Vicky Biasin Melitsky will (again) be Featured in This Year's Parade
	Vicky rides in the 2006 Basilone Parade with Mary Kowal. Mary passed away earlier this year.
Vicky, the last surviving classmate, sits in the same location in 2006. That's 74 years after the black and white photo was taken in 1932.
St. Bernard's Parochial School was open 1887-1938. It was located on Somerset Street where the Italian Bakery and Nail Art are today.
	Vicky grew up in Raritan living at 52 First Avenue. In 1950 she moved to Gaston Avenue where she still lives today.
Passage from Raritan's Hero - The John Basilone Story In school, the catholic school discipline of the time was too much for energetic John. Teacher punishments were quite different from today’s detention or letter’s sent home to one’s parents. St. Bernard’s Parochial School graduate Angelo Bernabe (this year's grand marshall) remembers receiving discipline by having to hold out his hand and getting whacked on the knuckles with the nun’s wooden pointing stick. One newspaper (The Sunday Daily News) described John’s school days, “Conduct was always his lowest mark, and it was low, hovering with nice consistency around the zero mark.” Classmate Vicky Melitsky, who still lives in Raritan on Gaston Avenue, remembers John’s antics well. Often the nuns would threaten misbehaving kids by saying that they were going to “take ten points off” their school grade for that week. John Basilone’s favorite expression in response to the nuns threat was to say back “take them all off” .
The above page is from the 1932 Yearbook for the St. Bernard's Parochial School