The articles in this category were submitted by Hixnews.com members. Neither Hixnews.com, its affiliates, nor HostM webhosting endorses any of the content contained herein.
Submitted by Hope Cedar Dagan, Class of 1980
Hicksville has its share of celebrities, including the “Long Island Medium” Theresa Caputo! I have been watching her TV shows since they started in 2011, and I have become a fan. In fact, I may have done a little stalking of her house on my last trip back to Hicksville in 2018.
Chapter 1 of Tales from the Cage: Growing Up in 60s Suburbia
by, John Ebbecke, Class of 1972
Editor's Note: Thank you to John Ebbecke, Class of 1972, for granting us to permission to publish Chapter 1 of his book, "Tales from the Cage", about growing up near Woodland Avenue. The book talks of his lessons learned from the schoolyard cage where he spent a good amount of time. The book is available on Amazon or B&N Digital.
Click here to continue reading Chapter 1 of Tales from the Cage: Growing Up in 60s Suburbia
Could Every Town Be Like Hicksville?
by, Neal Platt, Class of 1971
Editor's Note: Neal Platt gave HixNews permission to use his article, which was written in 2012. You may find some of the figures dated, but they certainly don't take away from the content. Enjoy!
When I was a kid in the ‘60's, Hicksville was a middle-class town that was still in the process of being built. Parts of town were giant fields of grass where we could play touch football all day long, and no one would tell us to take ourselves to the public schoolyard. A couple of times, when I was mowing the lawn or having a catch in our sideyard, I nearly tripped over some old horseshoe that had rusted there since the town consisted of nothing but potato farms.
Click here to continue reading Could Every Town Be Like Hicksville?
Grumman and the Lunar Module
by, Wendy Elkis Girnis, HHS Class of 1977
If you asked your friends where their fathers worked back in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, chances are that they would say one of the aerospace companies on Long Island. Companies like Astrosystems, Hazeltine, Gould, Lambda, Harris, Eaton, Fairchild/Republic, and others employed over 100,000 people. Grumman had the largest workforce of all of them.
Senior Trip Memories
Editors' Note: Last month, we published a story by Ron Wencer about Senior Trips to Washington, D.C., via airplane in the 1950s and we included pictures from the 1956 Comet Yearbook. We asked for more submissions. What follows are those submissions. It's not too late to send more as we can continue this feature into the future if there is interest.
Scott Schutzman, Class of 1977
On the Riverboat I was playing cards [for money] with my crew. Mr. O'Daugherty approached us and asked "who is the best poker player of you degenerates?" He then shuffled the cards for a few minutes and dealt two hands in 5 card draw. I was dealt Kings over 10s, a full house. He drew three cards and was holding 4 aces. We didn't stop talking about that for the rest of the trip. He definitely taught us a lesson. I miss him.
Karl Schweitzer, HHS Class of 1981
The Hicksville community has had its share of celebrities, actors, musicians and others over the years. The most famous of our residents of course is the world-renowned rock star Billy Joel. Then, there is Al Pitrelli, a guitarist who has played with the rock band Alice Cooper and most recently with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra; Denny Dias, the lead guitarist from rock band Steely Dan; The Long Island Medium, Theresa Caputo; A true funnyman, Comedian, Jackie “The Joke-Man” Martling; Professional Football player, Larry Eisenhauer from the Boston Patriots (AFL); and from the Hicksville High School Class of 1972 actor Lorraine Bracco who starred in Goodfellas, The Sopranos, and Rizzoli & Isles.