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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HICKSVILLE VIETNAM WAR ERA MEMORIAL - PROJECT UPDATE

Fund Raising: $210 was received in October from two new donors and two repeat donors! This was a slight gain over September. Total donations have now reached $17,326.85, a little over 69% of our $25,000 goal.

The total number of donors is now 165, still a very small percentage of the nearly 2,000 readers of HixNews.

With donations still below 10% of HixNews readership, if many of you who have yet to donate will spare as little as $10 for this worthy cause, we can achieve our needed goal very soon.

Remember, your donations are tax deductible. Just follow the simple instructions below. Your generosity will be very much appreciated.

Donation checks should be made out to:

Hicksville Vietnam Era Memorial Project

And should be mailed to:

Hicksville Vietnam Era Memorial Project
c/o William Walden
245 West 9th Street
Deer Park , NY 11729

An alphabetical list of current donors appears at the end of this monthly update.

Two new names were added in October and the Confirmed List is now at 1,910 names. We still need missing data additions for many names, so we continue to need help from all our readers here!!

As a HixNews reader, please help us by reviewing both lists when you select the "click here" options near the bottom of this update. To save you time, just look for names from your class year and other years you may be familiar with, as a reference and see if you have a new name or some missing data on existing names to email to us. Class years, where known, are specifically shown and missing data is marked in red, to make it easy for you to see what's needed.

The Unconfirmed List was created to specifically insure we don't leave anyone behind from earlier class years (the 1940s and 50s) who served during the Vietnam War Era and deserve recognition. Please see if you can help us establish if these folks served during the Vietnam Era (Vietnam Era dates are shown in the "Memorial Qualifications" section below).

Memorial Qualifications: Overall Qualifications for the Memorial were displayed monthly in this report for a long time and have not changed. If you are a new reader, please check a January, 2015 or earlier issue of HixNews for qualifications.

Here's what we continue to need from each person reading this to do:

Please click on the following link to review the Confirmed List of Names: Click here.

Please click on the following link to review the UNCONFIRMED List of Names: Click here.

If you know of someone who is not listed, or if you have information we are still missing, please email what you have to Joe Carfora at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please use the information contained on the current list as a guide for the data needed to complete a names listing.

A hearty Thank You to all of our donors!! As noted earlier, 165 donors have enabled us to achieve a total of $17,326.85. Following is the list of donors, as of the end of October 2016:

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

Hicksville High School Dinner Dance
November 19, 2016

The HHS Alumni Foundation appeals to anyone who cares about Hicksville , past or present. All proceeds from our upcoming November 19, 2016 DINNER DANCE. will be donated back to senior scholarships and support of high school related needs and wishes. This dinner dance while sponsored by the alumni foundation is open to all individuals who care about our beloved high school and the Hicksville community. In the past, proceeds from events sponsored by the alumni foundation went to the high school robotics team and the Hicksville Vietnam Veterans Era Memorial. We appeal to all to support this upcoming dinner dance. We are also looking for donation of gifts and prizes for a raffle to be done during this fund raising event on November 19th.

This upcoming dinner dance will be held on Saturday evening, November 19, 2016 from 7pm to 11pm at the Joseph Barry Knights of Columbus hall, 45 Heitz Place , Hicksville . Live music will be provided by the five member Blue Angel band under the direction of Ms. Fran Gippi. There will be music from the 1960s through the present day.

In addition to almost four hours of live entertainment, a wide range of delicious food will be available buffet style plus beer, wine and soda. A cash bar will be available for mixed drinks. The evening will end with coffee and cake served.

Tickets are reasonably priced at $70 per person up until November 1st. After that date has passed, the ticket price rises to $ 75 per person. Mail your check payable the HHS Alumni Foundation, Inc. to John Maniec, 260-12 74th Avenue , Glen Oaks, New York 11004. For further information, either call John at (917) 750-7842 or email him at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Newsletter

Photo Gallery

A 10 x 15-foot wooden shed where the Harley-Davidson Motor
Company started out in 1903

Testing football helmets in 1912

A bar in New York City , the night before prohibition began, 1920

Mount Rushmore Before Carving, 1920

Traffic Jam in New York City, 1923

World economic crisis, 1929

Central Park New York, 1930

Last four couples standing at a Chicago dance marathon, ca. 1930

Meeting of the Mickey Mouse Club, early 1930s

Confederate and Union soldiers shake hands across the wall at the 1938 reunion for the Veterans of the Battle of Gettysburg

When they realized women were using their sacks to make clothes for their children,

flour mills of the 30s started using flowered fabric for their sacks, 1939

Coney Island, 1940

The thirty-six men needed to fly and service a B-17E in 1942

Three young women wash their clothes in Central Park during a water shortage. New York, 1949

An abandoned baby sleeps peacefully in a drawer at the Los Angeles Police Station, 1971

Robert De Niro's cab driver license. In order to get into character for the film Taxi Driver, he obtained his own hack license and would pick-up/drive customers around New York City .

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Memory Lane

The Black Telephone

Thanks to Art Lembke Class of 1949 for the following...

Those of us old enough to remember when the phone was wired to the wall, usually in the kitchen, can relate to this story. I loved this read.

When I was a young boy, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember the polished, old case fastened to the wall.

The shiny black receiver hung on the side of the box.. I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother talked to it.

Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person. Her name was "Information Please" and there was nothing she did not know. Information Please could supply anyone's number and the correct time.

My personal experience with the genie-in-a-bottle came one day while my mother was visiting a neighbor.

Amusing myself at the tool bench in the basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer, the pain was terrible, but there seemed no point in crying because there was no one home to give sympathy. I walked around the house sucking my throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway. The telephone!

Quickly, I ran for the footstool in the parlor and dragged it to the landing. Climbing up, I unhooked the receiver in the parlor and held it to my ear.

"Information, please," I said into the mouthpiece just above my head.

A click or two and a small clear voice spoke into my ear. "Information."

"I hurt my finger..." I wailed into the phone, the tears came readily enough now that I had an audience..

"Isn't your mother home?" came the question.

"Nobody's home but me," I blubbered.

"Are you bleeding?" the voice asked.

"No, "I replied. "I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts."

"Can you open the icebox?" she asked.

I said I could.

"Then chip off a little bit of ice and hold it to your finger," said the voice.

After that, I called "Information Please" for everything. I asked her for help with my geography, and she told me where Philadelphia was. She helped me with my math.

She told me my pet chipmunk that I had caught in the park just the day before, would eat fruit and nuts.

Then, there was the time Petey, our pet canary, died. I called, "Information Please," and told her the sad story. She listened, and then said things grown-ups say to soothe a child. But I was not consoled. I asked her, "Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring joy to all families, only to end up as a heap of feathers on the bottom of a cage?"

She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, "Wayne, always remember that there are other worlds to sing in."

Somehow I felt better.

Another day I was on the telephone, "Information Please."

"Information," said in the now familiar voice.

"How do I spell fix?" I asked.

All this took place in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. When I was nine years old, we moved across the country to Boston. I missed my friend very much.

"Information Please" belonged in that old wooden box back home and I somehow never thought of trying the shiny new phone that sat on the table in the hall. As I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood conversations never really left me.

Often, in moments of doubt and perplexity I would recall the serene sense of security I had then. I appreciated now how patient, understanding, and kind she was to have spent her time on a little boy.

A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put down in Seattle. I had about a half-hour or so between planes. I spent 15 minutes or so on the phone with my sister, who lived there now. Then without thinking what I was doing, I dialed my hometown operator and said, "Information Please."

Miraculously, I heard the small, clear voice I knew so well.

"Information."

I hadn't planned this, but I heard myself saying,

"Could you please tell me how to spell fix?"

There was a long pause. Then came the soft spoken answer, "I guess your finger must have healed by now."

I laughed, "So it's really you," I said. "I wonder if you have any idea how much you meant to me during that time?"

"I wonder," she said, "if you know how much your calls meant to me. I never had any children and I used to look forward to your calls."

I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and I asked if I could call her again when I came back to visit my sister.

"Please do," she said. "Just ask for Sally."

Three months later I was back in Seattle. A different voice answered, "Information."

I asked for Sally. "Are you a friend?" she said.

"Yes, a very old friend," I answered.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this," She said. "Sally had been working part time the last few years because she was sick. She died five weeks ago."

Before I could hang up, she said, "Wait a minute, did you say your name was Wayne ?"

"Yes." I answered.

"Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down in case you called. Let me read it to you."

The note said, "Tell him there are other worlds to sing in. He'll know what I mean."

I thanked her and hung up. I knew what Sally meant.
Never underestimate the impression you may make on others. Whose life have you touched today?

Lifting you on eagle's wings.

May you find the joy and peace you long for.

Life is a journey... NOT a guided tour.

I loved this story and just had to pass it on.. I hope you find it lovable too.

Life is short; drink the good wine first.

Casale's Corner

Wisdom

Will Rogers, who died in a 1935 plane crash in Alaska with bush pilot, Wiley Post, was one of the greatest political country/cowboy sages this country has ever known.

Some of his sayings:

1. Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.
2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.
3. There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither works.
4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.
5. Always drink upstream from the herd. 
6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back into your pocket.
8. There are three kinds of men:  
   • The ones that learn by reading.
   • The few who learn by observation.
   • The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.
9. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
10. If you're riding' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.
11. Letting the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n than puttin' it back in.
12. Never Squat With Your Spurs On!
13. After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring.  He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. 

The moral:  When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

ABOUT GROWING OLDER

First ~ Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.  

Second ~ The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Third ~ Some people try to turn back their odometers.  Not me.  I want people to know 'why' I look this way. I've traveled a long way, and some of the roads weren't paved.

Fourth ~ When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to your youth, think of algebra! 

Fifth ~ You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

Sixth ~ I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top. 

Seventh ~ One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it's such a nice change from being young.

Eighth ~ One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Ninth ~  Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable and relaxed. 

Tenth ~ Long ago, when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft.  Today it's called golf. 

 Finally ~ If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you're old.