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.

---

HICKSVILLE VIETNAM WAR ERA MEMORIAL - PROJECT UPDATE

January donations of $755 enabled us to finally top the $10,000 mark, with a new donation total of $10,337 toward our needed goal of $25,000 to build and maintain the Memorial. 

Six new donors, brings our total list of donors to 92 individuals, couples and organizations.  If each HixNewsreader can contribute as little as $10, we will achieve our goal.  Donations have steadily improved since November, so please help us continue this new found momentum in 2016 by sending us a contribution to enable the Memorial to become reality!!

Please remember, all donations are tax deductibile.  An alphabetical list of donors through January, along with details you will need to mail in your donation, can be viewed in this month's MEMORIAL UPDATE in theHonoring Our Veterans section of the newsletter.

The Confirmed List of Names in January increased to 1,904 names and missing data was again added.  The Unconfirmed List remains unchanged.  We continue to need the help of all readers to fill in missing data on the Confirmed List and to help us qualify the names shown on the Unconfirmed List.

As in the past, when you visit this month's detailed UPDATE in The Honoring Our Veterans section of this newsletter, please remember that clicking on the two links near the bottom of the page will bring you to the complete Confirmed and Unconfirmed Lists of Names as of the end of January.  And, If you have any new information to send us, please email it to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

On behalf of the Project Team,
Joe Carfora, Project Coordinator, HHS 1962

Robert Edward Gleason Wesley, 1943-2010

Five years ago, February of 2010, was when the music stopped for Bob Wesley. An accomplished musician, Bob had a radio show in Dannemora, New York that aired weekly. Along with a co-host, Frank, the duo made music that the community really enjoyed. He loved music and travelled to local hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities and performed for the residents free of charge.

His passing saddened many. Bob "partied hard" over the years and realized his activities would tell its toll eventually. He survived open heart surgery only to find himself spending time in the hospital for a string of illnesses that did eventually cut his life short, too short.

I remember fondly the time he travelled from Dannemora to Long Island to visit me. What would be the last time, this visit included us making a trip to New Jersey to visit with Linda Piccerelli who along with Pat Koziuk were the original editors of HixNews. Bob was instrumental in taking the Hicksville High Newsletter from ancient times into the new world. The website he established exists today and many can thank Bob for his vision of what future issues of the newsletter should be.

His daughter, Heather and granddaughter, Rebecca remember Bob as a warm, wonderful person who they miss every day.

Buffalo Bob Casale

Home of the Comets
Class of 1966 Fifty Year Reunion

Hello Hicksville High School Alumni,

The Class of 1966 is celebrating our 50th reunion the weekend of June 18, 2016.
From: 6:00-11:00pm
Cost: $50.00 per person Includes free valet parking

ANTUN'S CATERERS, 244 West Old Country Road, Hicksville , New York 11801
ANTUN'S CATERERSAppetizers FullDinner
Entertainment provided by Disc Jockey/Musician & Co-Founder of the Brooklyn Bridge, Tom Sullivan Class (class of 1963)
The Worst That Could Happen (1969) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ErNvnpMaE4

Contact Information:
Stephen Goldstein
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

CLASS OF 1971 SAVE THE DATE FOR OUR 45^th ReunionJuly 8-10, 2016

We hope you will be able to attend. We arranged hotel accommodations at the Historic Roosevelt Hotel in the heart of midtown Manhattan at Madison Ave. and 45th St.

www.theroosevelthotel.com

Details:

• Rate: $189 per night + tax/single or double occupancy (a really great rate for NYC!)You may extend your stay 1 day before or after the weekend for the same low rate
• Includes free WIFI and complimentary entrance to 24 hour health club
• To make your reservation call 1-888-833-3989. Please mention The Hicksville High School Class of 1971 Reunionin order to get this discounted rate. Your credit card will not be charged until your stay. PLEASE NOTE: Cancellations will be accepted no later than 24 hours before July 8th (or 7th if you're planning to come in early), otherwise your credit card will be charged.
• Please reserve your room by Nov. 2, 2015
• We are in the midst of planning the entire fabulous weekend (because 45 years is a long time to catch up with one another in just 1 night). We're also looking for assistance with planning our event weekend.

For questions about the reunion or to volunteer for the planning committee, please email us:

• Carol (Greenstein) Epstein: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Arlene Gottesman: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Looking forward to seeing you in New York City in July 2016.

Your classmates,
Carol Epstein and Arlene Gottesman
415-846-6907

The Newsletter

Photo Gallery

The first photograph upon discovery of Machu Picchu, 1912

Einstein's desk photographed a day after his death -- Read

 Abandoned boy holding a stuffed toy animal amid ruins following German aerial bombing of London, 1940

The orginal prototype of Mt. Rushmore in 1941- this was before funding ran out.

Notice the prototype was from the waist up but the finished product shows only Faces.

George Washington * Thomas Jefferson * Teddy Roosevelt * Abraham Lincoln 

 

JFK and LBJ during the Cuban Missle Crisis (1962). The crisis brought the US within an eyelash of World War III

A German soldier in WWII buries an unknown English soldier that was killed in air combat in the Egyptian desert.

Soviet soldiers stand dumfounded at a large pile of human ashes found at the
Majdanek concentration camp in 1944

This man jumped into the water of Rabaul Harbor on the island of New Britain in the country of Papua, New Guinea to rescue a badly burned Marine pilot who was shot down while bombing the Japanese held fortress of Rabaul.  He stripped naked as clothes and boots would have impeded his ability to swim. All the while, Japanese coastal defense guns were firing at the plane while it was in the water during take-off.  This brave guy, after rescuing the pilot, manned his position as machine gunner without taking time to put on his clothes.  The man, Horace Bristol, photographed right after he completed his heroic act and got back to work.  Naked. Sweet!!!

 

Smiling on death row: This 1928 photo provided by the Franklin County
Historic Preservation Society in Benton, Ill., shows bootlegging gangster
Charlie Birger, center, on the gallows just before his public hanging in Benton

The last person to be publicly executed, by hanging or otherwise, in the United States was Rainey Bethea in 1936

The remains of the astronaut Vladimir Komarov, a man who fell from space, 1967

Ambrose Burnside Civil War General who coined the term 'sideburn')

Millions of Bison skulls- hunted to near extinction in 1870

Testing of a hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Memory Lane

Canine Soldiers

(click for full size and descriptions)

Casale's Corner

THINGS TO KNOW...

 In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb...Hence we have 'the rule of thumb.'

 Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled 'Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden'.. ...And thus, the word GOLF entered into the English language.

 The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

 Coca-Cola was originally green (so says Mean Joe Green).

 The first novel ever written on a typewriter was Tom Sawyer.

Each King in a deck of playing cards represents a great King from history:

Spades - King David... 

Hearts - Charlemagne... 

Clubs -Alexander the Great... 

 Diamonds - Julius Caesar... 

• It is impossible to lick your elbow.
• The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: about $15,000.00
• 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
• For a statue in the park of a person on a horse:
  • If the horse has both front legs in the air the person died in battle.
  • If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died because of wounds received in battle.
  • If the horse has all four legs on the ground the person died of natural causes.
• Q..... If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter 'A'?
  A... One thousand
• Q.... What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers have in common?
  A... All were invented by women.
• Q... What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
  A... Honey
• In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on...Hence the phrase...'Goodnight , sleep tight'
• It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's Father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.
• In English pubs, Ale is ordered by pints and quarts....So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them 'Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down. It's where we get the phrase: 'Mind your P's and Q's.'
• Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. ''Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.
• At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow!

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2015 when...

• You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave.
• You haven't played Solitare with real cards in years.
• You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.
• You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
• Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.
• You pull up in your own driveway and use your mobile phone, to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries...
• Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
• Leaving the house without your mobile phone, which you didn't even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic, and you turn around to go and get it.
• You get up in the morning and go on line, before getting your coffee.
• You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )
• You're reading this and nodding, and laughing.
• Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.