Bob…We
recently traded emails regarding the submission of a narrative on what
it was like to grow up in Hicksville and you suggested that it seemed
like a good idea. There are a lot of memories so deciding what to say
was a difficult job. I suppose the best place for me to start is in the
beginning when we moved to Hicksville. The following is my story… Growing
up in Hicksville in the 1950’s and early 1960’s was an idyllic time
compared to our world today. It may not have been pure bliss but with
our selective memories, we fondly remember what it was like. Here is
part of my story from the earliest years. We moved
to Hicksville on Labor Day Weekend, September 4, 1956. That was just in
time for me to start the fourth grade at Dutch Lane School. It was
practically across the street from our 1951 Levitt Ranch at
27 Ball
Park Lane in what was known as the “B” section of the Levitt
development that extended into the southern part of Hicksville.
Ball
Park Lane terminated at Newbridge Road to the east where there was a
potato field on the opposite side.
In 1956
it had recently been harvested so we roamed through it picking up some
of the culls. Several years later a Catholic high school was built
there. The main
entrance on Newbridge Road
The
football field viewing from Cherry Lane Our
street was appropriately named as there were four baseball diamonds and
a football field (with goal posts only) right across from our house. The
reason we knew the height of the fence had to do with playing stickball
at the school. There was a portable wooden classroom building for the
fifth and sixth grade classes that had recently been added to the main
building in order to accommodate us early boomers. The end of the
building was our backstop and we used chalk to draw a strike zone on it.
We then
took a long tape measure and determined that the fenced courts were 225
feet straight away to “center field” with the left and right corner
posts being used as foul poles. One of us had to climb up to the top of
the fence holding the end of the tape measure that determined that it
was eleven feet from the ground. These facilities provided a
never-ending opportunity to play outside with our friends. North of
the school and athletic fields was Levittown Hall that was used as a
meeting place for various events.
Next to
it was one of the community pools Levitt built in that area.
We spent
many summer days playing ball, hide and seek, riding our bikes all over
the area and swimming until we were too tired to do anything else. Back
then parents not only allowed us to play outside unsupervised, but we
were ordered out of the house regardless of the season. At dinner time
the call went out and we had to scoot home. I firmly
believe that our family structure and respect for authority that we were
taught gave us a firm foundation to build on that helped most of us to
grow up to be responsible citizens who were generally successful in life
despite the rough spots in the road. Then
came the mid 1960’s and America would undergo significant changes once
again that would have far reaching effects. That can be addressed in a
future narrative. Bob Dean
Class of 1965
|