TAMPA, Fla. — Picking up your graduation cap and gown is not an unusual circumstance this time of year.
But if you're picking up your diploma 76 years after you graduated high school ... well, that's unusual.
Joe Perricone was to walk across the stage of Hillsborough High School in 1942, but he was drafted before he could get his diploma.
He said he tried to get a deferment, but "My draft board said, 'You go serve your country and be a big boy.'"
His diploma was mailed to him, so he never got to walk across the stage.
That will change Saturday when he will walk with the Class of 2019.
He picked up his cap and gown Wednesday.
"I'm not sorry I went in," Perricone said. "I think it was real hard to find one guy who didn't want to be there."
What other people are reading right now:
- Video appears to show somebody taking a bath in the kitchen sink at a Florida Wendy's
- City trying to force RV lot to take down giant US flag
- Florida mom finds her baby girl dead in a daycare van
- Accused St. Pete Beach wedding crasher caught on camera
- 154 people arrested in human trafficking, prostitution sting in Polk County
►Have a news tip? Email desk@wtsp.com, or visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.