Introduction
Don Larsen 1977During my first year in high school, which was ’74-’75, a new teacher joined the music department. His name was Don Larsen. Don quickly integrated into the department activities, supporting the marching band and working with the concert band. It was a match made in heaven. Don quickly became one of the outstanding music teachers that Hicksville had. Don benefitted from working with music department veterans including J. David Abt (Symphonic Wind Ensemble), Thomas Buttice (Orchestra), and Chuck Arnold (Choral groups). Don was asked to conduct the Concert Band and took over the running of the marching band, with David Abt’s support. Don became a Hicksville institution, ultimately working with a number of grade levels during his career. Although now long retired from Hicksville, he has 
Don Larsen 1980become a source of institutional memory for many of the years from the mid 1970s to the end of 2006, when he retired.
Top- Tom Daly, Wendy Girnis, Hope Dagan, Bottom-Jeanne Dagna, Don Larsen, Deborah Elkis-AbuhoffRecently, several Hicksville High School alums had the privilege of joining Don in a Zoom call. In addition to Don, the call included Wendy Elkis-Girnis (’77), Jeanne Dagna (’77), and Tom Daly (’77). Hope Cedar Dagan (’80) and Deborah Elkis-Abuhoff (’80) also participated in the call. As we started our conversation Mr. Larsen remarked that out of five attending participants of our call, there were only two people that were actually in his classes (Jeannie, flute and Deborah flute and French horn). Tom (trumpet) had been part of the Wind Ensemble during those years, but got to know Don as drum major for the marching band, which Don ran. All of the participants of the call had one thing in common. We all marched in the marching band. Wendy, as mentioned earlier, played glockenspiel, while Hope, who played the viola in orchestra, proudly carried the Hicksville banner at the front of the group during our St. Patrick’s Day parade outing in Manhattan. Our Zoom call quickly turned to reminiscences about Tom’s unique entrance onto the field as our drum major for Hicksville’s halftime shows. Instead of simply marching onto the field, Mr. Larsen, for reasons unknown, had him “prance” (the technical term was “strut”), similar to what collegiate drum majors were required to do during that era. We thought he looked like a Lipizzaner stallion. Tom took a lot of teasing for his entrance, but it did give our marching band an air of professionalism. During our conversation with Don, we learned that after we graduated, the band later on upped its game when it reverted to the direction of Mr. Abt, who started entering the marching band in High School Band competitions each year that were held on Long Island. We also spoke about the odd band formations that Don dreamed up for us to make during halftime shows. The most famous was the time we formed both a mayonnaise jar and a ketchup bottle, which came together to make Russian Dressing. Unfortunately, we couldn’t remember what Russian song we played as we generated Russian dressing. But such was Don’s creativity!
We were surprised to learn that Don was only at the High School for another 6 years after we graduated. As student enrollment dropped in the 1980s, it became harder to maintain all of the musical organizations that existed during the peak of the baby boom.
