Newsletter for the Alumni and Friends of
Hicksville High School Hicksville, New York

The Editors:
Buffalo Bob Casale '61	Linda (Piccerelli) Hayden '60
Pat (Koziuk) Driscoll '56	Bob (Gleason) Wesley '61

Contributing Editors: Bob Gillette & Walter Schmidt

Webmaster: Roger Whitaker

To contact the editors, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Something quite magical happened the weekend of October 12th at the Holiday Inn in Plainview. What began as a gathering of high school classmates, separated by 50 years and countless miles, became something much greater. No, it wasn't the venue, or the food, or the music. There was something else going on there. Friends who were close more than 50 years ago picked up their relationships in an instant with seemingly no lapse in time. It didn't stop there. Classmates who were mere casual acquaintances in high school, and with little in common 50 years ago, were bonding with each other as long lost comrades. Everyone was exchanging phone numbers and email addresses. And, at the end of the celebration, no one wanted to leave! The Hicksville High School Class of 1963 50-year Reunion was a complete success and is now history. But for me, the memories will linger forever. Thanks to everyone who attended for making the magic happen.

Best,
Elliot Gorlin

HixNews is delighted to announce the induction of Ed and Mary Osborne into the Hicksville Newsletter Hall of Fame. There are none more worthy of the honor of joining others inducted over the years.

Thanks
The Editors

The Glass Menagerie Choir Presents

The date: Saturday, December 14, 2013 at 8:00 PM
The program: "J. S. Bach's Magnificat in D" except where there are space limitations, then "Bach's Magnificat" or "J. S. Bach's Magnificat"

"Shout for Joy, a suite of Christmas spirituals by Robert DeCormier" or "Robert DeCormier's Shout for Joy, a suite of Christmas spirituals"

Our soloists:

• Naomi Katz Cohen, Soprano
• Elizabeth Kennedy, Soprano
• Toby Newman, Alto
• Patrick Miller, Tenor
• Dennis Blackwell, Bass

Our Baroque chamber ensemble: Young artists from The Juilliard School
The venue: "The Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral".

If you've never been here, you owe to yourself to check out this historic church. It's at the corner of Prince and Mott Streets in SOHO, New York.

Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GlassMenagerieChorus 
Our Website: http://www.glassmenagerie.org

Folks, this is going to be a great concert. If you are going to be in the New York City area on Dec. 14th of this year, do try to come. And don't forget, our famous holiday sing-along.

Admission is $20.00 at the door and all seating is general.

Hicksville Vietnam War Era Memorial - PROJECT UPDATE

October was another good month, with 7 new names added to the Confirmed List, for a new total of 1,865!

Last month we announced the inclusion of Reserve and National Guard members as part of the Memorial, provided they served during the Vietnam War Era and meet all other qualification requirements.  We are in the process of adding these names to the Confirmed List, so if you previously submitted your name, or the name of a friend, who under the old rules was turned down, please help us by resubmitting that name for reconsideration.

To see the full report on the Memorial's status, please see this month's update by clicking on the Honoring Our Veterans page of this newsletter.  Clicking on the two links near the bottom of this report will bring you to the complete Confirmed and Unconfirmed List of Names as of the end of October.   

On behalf of the Project Team,
Joe Carfora, HHS '62

The Newsletter

Photo Gallery

Thanks to Sherrie Proffe Davis for this very interesting bit of history. I had no idea this existed so many years ago - the editors

 Every so often, usually in the vast deserts of the American Southwest, a hiker or a backpacker will run across something puzzling: a ginormous concrete arrow, as much as seventy feet in length, just sitting in the middle of scrub-covered nowhere.

 What are these giant arrows? Some kind of surveying mark? Landing beacons for flying saucers? Earth's turn signals?

 Nope. They are actually arrows marking ......

The Transcontinental Air Mail Route ! 

On August 20, 1920, the United States opened its first coast-to-coast airmail delivery route, just 60 years after the Pony Express closed up shop. There were no good aviation charts in those days, so pilots had to eyeball their way across the country using landmarks. This meant that flying in bad weather was difficult, and night flying was just about impossible. 

 The Postal Service solved the problem with the world's first ground-based civilian navigation system: a series of lit beacons that would extend from New York to San Francisco . Every ten miles, pilots would pass a bright yellow concrete arrow. Each arrow would be surmounted by a 51-foot steel tower and lit by a million-candlepower rotating beacon.

 (A generator shed at the tail of each arrow powered the beacon.) Now mail could get from the Atlantic to the Pacific not in a matter of weeks, but in just 30 hours or so.

Even the dumbest of air mail pilots, it seems, could follow a series of bright yellow arrows straight out of a Tex Avery cartoon. By 1924, just a year after Congress funded it, the line of giant concrete markers stretched from Rock Springs , Wyoming to Cleveland , Ohio . The next summer, it reached all the way to New York , and by 1929 it spanned the continent uninterrupted, the envy of postal systems worldwide. 

 Radio and radar are, of course, infinitely less cool than a concrete Yellow Brick Road from sea to shining sea, but I think we all know how this story ends. New advances in communication and navigation technology made the big arrows obsolete, and the Commerce Department decommissioned the beacons in the 1940s.

The steel towers were torn down and went to the war effort. But the hundreds of arrows remain. Their yellow paint is gone, their concrete cracks a little more with every winter frost, and no one crosses their path much, except for coyotes and tumbleweeds. But they're still out there.

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Casale's Corner

GREAT STUFF ABOUT "LONG ISLAND" - ENJOY!!

Long Island Fun Facts

• Mastic was the home of William Floyd, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
• Long Island 's first two settlements were Southold and Southampton ... in 1640.
• Deep Hollow Ranch in Montauk is the site of the oldest cattle ranch in America , built in 1658, and birthplace of the American cowboy.
• The Lighthouse at Montauk became NY's first coastal beacon in 1796.
• The first radio transmission, by wireless inventor Guglielmo Marconi, was in 1901 on Fire Island Avenue in Babylon .
• In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field, as he embarked on the first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean .
• America 's first supermarket, King Kullen, started on Long Island in 1930.
• Levittown, the first suburbia in the U.S. , was built on Long Island in 1947.
• The Lunar Module which landed men on the moon in 1969, was built on Long Island by the Grumman Corp.
• Long Island is the largest island among the 48 contiguous states.
• The only working water mill and windmill in the US are located in the Long Island community of Water Mill.
• Richard Nixon's deceased dog Checkers is buried at Long Island's Bide-a-Wee Pet Cemetery .
• When the Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883, it became the first land-transport route between Long Island and mainland USA . Before that, the only way to travel between the two was by boat.
• Long Island was sculpted by melted glaciers, which is why there is a clear difference between the hilly North Shore and the flat South Shore of Long Island.
• Long Island is the most populated island in the United States and the 17th most populated island in the world. Interesting fact: Long Island is more populated than the entire country of Jamaica and of Ireland ! If Long Island was its own state, it would rank 12th in terms of population. The North Shore is known for its large mansions, exclusive vacationing, and rich history of its affluent citizens and architecture. The South Shore also has some exclusive estates but is more laid back and hosts more entertainment and sports venues.
• The largest industrial park in the US is located on Long Island - The Hauppauge Industrial Park which houses 1,300 companies and employs more than 55,000 people. Interesting Facts about Nassau and Suffolk Counties in New York
• Together Nassau and Suffolk counties nearly 180 fire agencies possess more fire trucks than New York City and Los Angeles County combined. Suffolk County is the leading agricultural county in New York State based on the wholesale value of its farm products.
• More 7-Eleven coffee is purchased on Long Island than in all of California .
• Long Island has hosted seven U.S. golf open tournaments...
  ~ Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton hosted the U.S. Women's Golf Open in 2013.
  ~ Shinnecock Hills in Southampton hosted the U.S. Men's Golf Open four times in three different centuries.
  ~ Bethpage Black Course hosted the U.S. Golf Men's Open twice in recent years ... 2002 and 2009.

Nassau County/Suffolk County

Population: 1.35 million/1.48 million

Area: 287 sq. miles/911 sq. miles

County Seat: Mineola/Riverhead