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

I am very happy to report that our Hicksville coordinator and project treasurer, Bill Walden, is doing very well after his recent hospitalization and surgery. Due to his situation, however, we are unable to report on our donation receipts for March, but will catch up again with the May 1 issue of HixNews.

Per our February update, which appeared in the March 1 issue of HixNews, thanks to the help and generosity of our HixNews readership, we now have sufficient funds available ($17,200) to begin Memorial construction, but still need additional help to complete construction and maintain the Memorial after it is in place. We hope to name a construction sub-committee in April and report on it in the May 1 issue.

Please continue to tap your check books for this effort. All donations can be mailed to us as follows:

Make your checks out to:

Hicksville Vietnam Era Memorial Project

And mail them to:

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

Since we cannot add to the list of donors this month due to Bill's situation and both the Confirmed and Unconfirmed Lists of Names have not changed since our March 1 update, an update has not been posted in the Honoring Our Veterans section of this issue.

Should you have any new information to report for either list, particularly in filling in the missing data blanks on the Confirmed List, please email 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

An Appeal to Friends & Graduates of Hicksville High School

From John Maniec, president, HHS Alumni Foundation, Inc.

What is the HHS Alumni Foundation & Why is it Important that you consider joining it?

• Do you have fond memories growing up in Hicksville?
• Do you care about improving the lives of Hicksville'xs current students & helping them achieve successful careers as future adults?
• Were there individuals who made a significant impact years ago on you as an adolescent & would you like to have an opportunity now to be a positive influence on the current youth of Hicksville?
• Do you have a business here in Hicksville and would like to give back to its community's youngsters?

Who is eligible to join the HHS Alumni Foundation?

• The only criteria is a desire to make a positive difference in the lives and future of the youth of the Hicksville community.
• The HHS Alumni Foundation welcomes parents of current students, recent as well as past graduates of the high school, current & retired faculty, caring business owners, and friends of our Hicksville community.

What are some of HHS Alumni Foundation's Goals?

• Assist students in meeting their educational goals through effective utilization of scholarships.
• Raise funds to support the needs of HHS clubs & district programs which can't be funded by limited tax levied money.
• Recognizing the reality of poverty growing among a segment of Hicksville families, provide funds to "dress for success" seniors going on job interviews & internships as well as providing warm clothing during winter months to insure successful studies.

Please visit: https://hhsalumnifoundation.networkforgood.com/projects. View five categories of funding needed to help us achieve our ambitious goals:

• Providing Financial Aid for Various Student Needs
• Support the General Fund: Accomplishing Our Mission
• Freedom is Never Free: Honoring Our Veterans
• Motivating HHS Students thru Alumni Adult Achievement
• Provide Graduating Honor Society Seniors with Stoles

Hicksville High School class of '67 Reunion is being planned. But this is the Big One: 50th Reunion. It will be at the Joseph Barry Knights of Columbus, Hicksville. We are starting early to give people time to make plans.

Click here to see the attached flyer for a description of what's in the offing for the weekend and the registration form.

We are asking people to register early and spread the word, Comets '67 to reunite again.

The Newsletter

Photo Gallery

Amazing supercell produces over the town of Blackhawk , South Dakota , back on June 1, 2015. Flash flooding would occur near Rapid City.

A Family Portrait from Indonesia

Indonesia -A strange way to plow

Lightning strikes Ayer's Rock in Australia

"Children with painted faces", Ethiopia , by Massimo Rumi

This picture was taken during Mt. Bromo eruption, the horse seems a little agitated due to the sound of the eruption.

"The Rolling Fields of Palouse." Often referred to as the Tuscany of America, the Palouse region of Washington State offers one of the most beautiful scenic drives in the United States

La Fournaise volcano, by Gaby Barathieu. Location: Saint-Denis , Reunion, Reunion

A first-row seat on beaches along Argentina's Valdes Peninsula brings with it an adrenaline-packed experience with Mother Nature unplugged. It is here in Patagonia where Orcas have learned the unique skill of intentionally stranding themselves on the beach to catch sea lion pups. We spent 2 weeks, 10 hours per day, sitting on the beaches of a private sheep ranch straddling the northern coastline of the Valdes Peninsula

A boat ferries monks with parasols across Taungthaman Lake , near Amarapura in Myanmar , at sunrise casting a reflection on the still water of the lake.

This is taken on the Copenhagen Metro, from the front of the train going through a tunnel. I like the effect of motion and extra-terrestrial feel of this shot.

In the mangroves of Cuba , we had an incredible experience with this American crocodile. It was like swimming with a dinosaur

 To take this image I had to camp in the wilderness of Greenland about 90 kilometers away from Kangerluusuaq right at the border of the inland ice. After days of walking and looking trough my telephoto lens I finally found the Musk ox. I approached very slowly because Musk ox are extremely shy. Then I made a huge mistake, I moved too fast and they could hear me. Immediately they built a wall and the adults protected the juveniles -the perfect moment for this shot

Young men having fun on the rooftop of the trains. There were too many people rushing home after the Bishwa Ijtema at Tongi train station, in Bangladesh .

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Memory Lane

Too Busy For a Friend

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.

Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper and listed what everyone else had said about that individual. 

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much." were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded yes. Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

"We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it."

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it."

All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home."

Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album."

"I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary".

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists'

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.

So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

Casale's Corner

EVERY FRIDAY AT THE PENTAGON

Submitted by Gerry Barnett class of 1961

It really breaks your heart to know that we didn't know this goes on every Friday, well at least I didn't know. Instead, I guess the media feels it's more important to report on Hollywood stars as heroes. I hope this article gives you a sense of pride for what our men and women are doing for us, every day, as they serve in the armed forces here and abroad.

Mornings at the Pentagon 
by JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY 
McClatchy Newspapers
Over the last 12 months, 1,042 soldiers, Marines, sailors and Air Force personnel have given their lives in the terrible duty that is war. Thousands more have come home on stretchers, horribly wounded and facing months or years in military hospitals. This week, I'm turning my space over to a good friend and former roommate, Army Lt. Col. Robert Bateman, who recently completed a year long tour of duty and is now back at the Pentagon. Here's Lt. Col. Bateman's account of a little-known ceremony that fills the halls of the Army corridor of the Pentagon with cheers, applause and many tears every Friday morning. It first appeared on May 17 on the Weblog of media critic and pundit Eric Alterman at the Media Matters for America Website.

"It is 110 yards from the "E" ring to the "A" ring of the Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is newly renovated; the floors shine, the hallway is broad, and the lighting is bright. At this instant the entire length of the corridor is packed with officers, a few sergeants and some civilians, all crammed tightly three and four deep against the walls. There are thousands here.

 This hallway, more than any other, is the `Army' hallway. The G3 offices line one side, G2 the other, G8 is around the corner. All Army. Moderate conversations flow in a low buzz. Friends who may not have seen each other for a few weeks, or a few years, spot each other, cross the way and renew.

 Everyone shifts to ensure an open path remains down the center. The air conditioning system was not designed for this press of bodies in this area.

The temperature is rising already. Nobody cares. "10:36 hours: The clapping starts at the E-Ring. That is the outermost of the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the building. This clapping is low, sustained, hearty. It is applause with a deep emotion behind it as it moves forward in a wave down the length of the hallway.

A steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at the pace of the soldier in the wheelchair who marks the forward edge with his presence. He is the first. He is missing the greater part of one leg, and some of his wounds are still suppurating. By his age I expect that he is a private, or perhaps a private first class.
Captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels meet his gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to soldier. Three years ago when I described one of these events, those lining the hallways were somewhat different. The applause a little wilder, perhaps in private guilt for not having shared in the burden ... Yet.
Now almost everyone lining the hallway is, like the man in the wheelchair, also a combat veteran. This steadies the applause, but I think deepens the sentiment. We have all been there now. The soldier's chair is pushed by, I believe, a full colonel.

"Behind him, and stretching the length from Rings E to A, come more of his peers, each private, corporal, or sergeant assisted as need be by a field grade officer.
 "11:00 hours: Twenty-four minutes of steady applause. My hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at how stupid that sounds in my own head. My hands hurt. Please! Shut up and clap. For twenty-four minutes, soldier after soldier has come down this hallway - 20, 25, 30.. Fifty-three legs come with them, and perhaps only 52 hands or arms, but down this hall came 30 solid hearts.

 "They pass down this corridor of officers and applause, and then meet for a private lunch, at which they are the guests of honor, hosted by the generals. Some are wheeled along. Some insist upon getting out of their chairs, to march as best they can with their chin held up, down this hallway, through this most unique audience. Some are catching handshakes and smiling like a politician at a Fourth of July parade. More than a couple of them seem amazed and are smiling shyly.

 "There are families with them as well: the 18-year-old war-bride pushing her 19-year-old husband's wheelchair and not quite understanding why her husband is so affected by this, the boy she grew up with, now a man, who had never shed a tear is crying; the older immigrant Latino parents who have, perhaps more than their wounded mid-20s son, an appreciation for the emotion given on their son's behalf. No man in that hallway, walking or clapping, is ashamed by the silent tears on more than a few cheeks. An Airborne Ranger wipes his eyes only to better see. A couple of the officers in this crowd have themselves been a part of this parade in the past.

"These are our men, broken in body they may be, but they are our brothers, and we welcome them home. This parade has gone on, every single Friday, all year long, for more than four years.

Unfortunately, the Friday tribute is no longer a weekly happening at the Pentagon!!!!