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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The Newsletter

Photo Gallery

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Memory Lane

F L A S H B A C K

Class of 1951

• Unemployment 5.3%
• Cost of a First Class Stamp is 3 cents
• President is Harry Truman
• Vice President is Alben Barkley
• Population...154,877,889

Headlines:

• February 27, 1951:The 22^nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting the number of terms a president may serve is ratified.
• March 29, 1951: Yul Brynner makes his first appearance as the king of Siam in Rodgers and Hammerstein's the King and I. Gertrude Lawrence is Brynner's costar.
• April 5, 1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Convicted of passing US atomic secrets to the Soviet Union are sentenced to death (executed in 1953).
• May, 1951: UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), the first business computer to handle both numeric and alphabetic data, is introduced.
• July, 1951: Color television is first introduced in the United States .
• October, 1951: New York Yankees defeat the New York giants 4 games to 2 in the World Series!!!

Many of the teachers shown above were still teaching school 10 years later and even beyond 1961. Who did you have teach you and what Year???

Casale's Corner

Heartwarming Stories

• Hawkeye's Best Friend
• The Jesse Owens Story

Casale's Corner - Hawkeye's Best Friend

The photos below yanked at the heart-strings of millions of Americans in August 2011, as images of a grieving labrador retriever graced the pages of newspapers across the country. At the funeral of Navy SEAL Jon Tumilson, attendees could see his faithful companion Hawkeye lying by the casket. In front of 1,500 mourners at the beginning of the service, Hawkeye ambled up to the front of the room and laid down next to his master, showing his loyalty until the end.

Nikki Virgilio, a friend of Mr Tumilson - known as J.T. - was at the funeral last week and said Hawkeye was a personal pet rather than a military dog. 'I can happily report to you that Hawkeye was willed to one of J.T.'s good friends, the same one that took care of him whenever J.T. was deployed overseas,' she wrote on Facebook. 'J.T. was going to be a Navy SEAL come hell or high water,' Mr Nichols said. 'J.T. was not afraid to die. He was afraid of losing his parents.'

Concerned members of the public who have seen the heart-wrenching photos will be pleased to hear that there is a happy ending for Hawkeye. He will be staying with Scott Nichols, who had previously looked after him while J.T. was away on duty overseas. Family members had followed Hawkeye into the funeral.

Casale's Corner - The Jesse Owens Story

The 1936 Olympics was held in Berlin , Germany . Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party had risen to power three years earlier and were already to spread their evil beliefs of racism and hate. Hitler believed that the "perfect" person was from an Aryan race...a blue-eyed, blond haired, the perfect physique without any blemishes or handicaps.

Hitler saw the Games as an opportunity to promote his government and ideals of racial supremacy to the world. The official Nazi party newspaper wrote in the strongest terms that Jews and Black people should not be allowed to participate in the Games. However, when threatened with a boycott of the Games by other nations, Hitler relented and allowed Black people and Jews to participate.

After much deliberation and debate whether or not to boycott the Olympics, the United States and other nations decided to participate in the Games.

One of the American athletes was a Track and Field star named Jesse Owens and he was black. Jesse Owens seemed sure to win the long jump at the 1936 games. The year before he had jumped 26 feet, 8 1/4 inches -- a record that would stand for 25 years.

As he walked to the long-jump pit, however, Owens saw a tall, blue eyed, blond German taking practice jumps in the 26-foot range. Owens felt nervous. He was acutely aware of the Nazis' desire to prove "Aryan superiority," especially over blacks. At this point, the tall German introduced himself as Luz Long. "You should be able to qualify with your eyes closed!" he said to Owens, referring to his two jumps. For the next few moments the black son of a sharecropper and the white model of Nazi manhood chatted. Then Long made a suggestion. Since the qualifying distance was only 23 feet, 5 1/2 inches, why not make a mark several inches before the takeoff board and jump from there, just to play it safe? Owens did and qualified easily. In the finals Owens set an Olympic record and earned the second of four gold medals.

The first person to congratulate him was Luz Long -- in full view of Adolf Hitler. Hitler was furious and embarrassed. Owens never again saw Long, who was sent out to the front lines and was killed in World War II. "You could melt down all the medals and cups I have," Owens later wrote, "and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24-carat friendship I felt for Luz Long."