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

One new donor in July in the amount of $100, brings our donation total to $35,013! Also, 1 new name was added to the Confirmed List of Names, bringing our total to 1,929. In addition, one name was disqualified from the Unconfirmed List, with new data received on that person.

If you have yet to donate, or have missing data you can help us with, it's not too late! Please see our July Update in the Honoring Our Veterans tab of this newsletter for details.

Please note that we will not publish for the September 1 issue, but will be back again on October 1. Not much has happened during the summer, plus I'll be out of the country from 8/20 through 8/31, as Sharon and I celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary on a Rhine River Cruise in Europe (belatedly, as we were married in January, when it's too cold to do this!).

As always, should you have any new information to report for either the Confirmed or Unconfirmed Lists of Names, particularly to fill in missing data 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, HHS 1962

The Newsletter

Photo Gallery

Despite all the insanity going on it is still a beautiful world with beautiful, loving creatures.

God is Good! Enjoy.

The Wonderful Thing About Authentic Photographs is That They Often Render Words Unnecessary

 Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is life, fight for it."

Mother Teresa

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Memory Lane

(a.k.a. "That Don't Mean Shit!")

In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before the invention of commercial fertilizers, so large shipments of manure were quite common.

It was shipped dry, because in dry form, it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, not only did it become heavier, but the process of fermentation began again and a by-product is methane gas that formed again.

As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen. Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern...

Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening. After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the instruction ' Stow high in transit ' on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.

Thus evolved the term ' S.H.I.T ', (Stow High In Transit) which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day. You probably did not know the true history of this word. Neither did I.

I had always thought it was a golf term.

This story is a hoax. There is no historical evidence that "Ship High in Transit" aboard ships was the origin for the word "shit." The eRumor has circulated on the Internet since about 2000. This issue is specifically addressed by the folks at the Online Etymology Dictionary who say that "Despite what you read in an e-mail, 'shit' is not an acronym."

The Merriiam-Webster dictionary dates the word back to 1526 and says that it is from the Old English scite and akin to a related word, "scitan", and means to defecate.

A writer for the Online Etymology Dictionary points out that the use acronyms didn't develop until the 20th century so a word that is hundreds of years old would not have originated as an acronym.

Casale's Corner

An Amazing Collection

I was born in England and trained as a draughtsman, having always had a pencil in my hand. I later re-trained as a Technology teacher and emigrated out here to New Zealand. Here I carried on teaching and pursuing my interest in competition model aircraft, classic cars, and bikes. When I was 40 years old I started to play the electric bass and joined a local band for more than 12 years. This led me to change from model aeroplanes to designing and building electric stringed instruments. It had been my intention to retire from teaching and carry on full time as a luthier.

Unfortunately, I had an accident on the bike that shattered my left wrist. This required reconstructive surgery, 4 plates, 8 screws, and a bone graft off the hip, to fix it. The great news is that I can still ride the bike and do stuff like that. The not so great news is that I have lost the sensitivity, fine control, and strength that was there previously. No more working with woodworking power tools! No more sensitive bass riffs!

While I was off work recovering from the accident I picked up the drawing instruments and started taking a serious look at the Coruba and Cola cans that I had held back from the recycler. I have seen pictures of some very fine model aircraft made from drinks cans but they had the plain aluminum from the inside of the cans on the outside of the model. This defeats the purpose of using the drinks can as far as I am concerned. You want everyone who looks to be able to see instantly what your basic resource was. Celebrate the fact, don't hide it!

Having finished the Coruba Climax, and evaluated what I had done, I realised that changes would have to be made to the next one to make the build easier and the finished model better looking. Indeed, each subsequent car has been an improvement upon the last, and until that stops happening, I'll keep going.

I hope you get a little something out of looking at my CanCars and perhaps give building one a go!

Sandy