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

The final Confirmed List of Names, organized alphabetically by graduating class year, just as it will appear on the actual Memorial is what we will continue to publish from this point forward! To review the final list, please go to this month's Update in the Honoring Our Veterans tab of this issue of HixNews.

Construction of the Vietnam War Era Memorial is now complete!!! The only exception is a possible image to be added to the top of the Center Stone to make it taller. An option for this has been chosen and we expect to have a quotation on it soon, at which time we will decide whether or not to pursue this.

Anyone may now stop by to view the Memorial! Current photos can be seen on the Home Page of the 12/1/19 issue of HixNews by clicking on the Archives tab of this issue.

The official Dedication Ceremony date and surrounding issues will be discussed at an upcoming meeting with Hicksville Schools Superintendant Lintz and we will report on this in the March 1 issue of HixNews.

New donations totalling $175 were received in January, giving us about $3,700 left in Memorial Funds. More may be needed, so it is still not too late to donate!!

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

CLASS OF 1980 CLASS REUNION

August 8, 2020, 7:30-11:30 pm
Oak Room at the Heritage Club at Bethpage. 
Cost $125 includes food and drink. 
Payment info will be released soon.
Nearby Hotels include: (Book sooner rather than later)
Hilton Garden Inn Round Swamp Road
Homewood Suites Round Swamp Road
Holiday Inn, Plainview on Sunny Side Blvd
Four Points by Sheraton in Melville, Plainview on South Service Road
Any questions? Contact Sue at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

The Newsletter

Photo Gallery

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Memory Lane

Some People I've Met

by Buffalo Bob Casale

I was on a flight from New York to Portland, Oregon, in December of 1964. I was seated in a middle seat on the flight when a woman sat down next to me in the aisle seat. I was in uniform and she said "How do you like the navy"? I told her I loved it so much that I re-enlisted and I was heading to Portland to pick up a ship, the USS Liberty. I asked why she was heading to Portland. She said, I'm an opera singer and I'm going to perform tomorrow night with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. I said "Wow".

To make a long story short, she had performed at the Met for years, was retired and would travel anywhere to perform. Her name was Rise Stevens. That was the most interesting five hours of my life, up to that time. Another interesting time happened in 1965 when the U.S.S. Liberty steamed up the Congo River to the port of Banana. That's another story that up can read about by going to my website buffalobobcasale.com and stroll down to Drama on the Congo.We talked all the way to Oregon and boy was she interesting. Actually she did most of the talking.

Back then, my billet was as a cryptanalyst and we were sworn to secrecy. I had just finished Processing & Reporting School in Pensacola and was headed to my first tour as an analyst. I couldn't tell her that my first tour of duty after graduating from "A" school in 1962 was copying Russian subs while stationed in Bremerhaven, Germany. I left Bremerhaven and went to Cyprus and copied Iraq, Iran, Syria and Jordan. Israel was our ally and we did not copy them. Good friends they were on 8 June 1967 when they attacked the Liberty.

I read later on that Rise died in 2013 at the age of 99. When I met her in 1964, she was close to 50. Funny that later on, after I was out of the navy in 1970 and driving a truck in New York city that I would meet many celebrities because we were delivering carpet and tile on Park Avenue. A most interesting person I met was Polly Bergen. We took the service elevator up to her floor and rang the bell and she opened the door. I recognized the face but couldn't put a name to it. I looked at the delivery ticket and it said Polly Bergen; Dah!!! I remember meeting Vivian Vance (Ethyl Mertz) when I was delivering an area rug to a doctor in an upscale town in Westchester County. Her married name was different from her stage name. She had an interesting career and spent a lot of time with Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy). Some very interesting times delivering carpet. Had a face to face meeting with Ace Frehley from Kiss when we delivered carpet to his home in Connecticut. We delivered carpeting to Bert Parks after he had been fired from the Miss America pageant.

Casale's Corner

Casale's Corner February 2020

In Brooklyn , New York , Chush is a school that caters to children with learning disabilities. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school career while others can transfer into conventional schools. At a Chush fund-raising dinner the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that always be remembered by all who attended.

After extolling the school and its dedicated staff he cried out, "Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything God does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is God's perfection?"

The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father's anguish and stilled by the piercing query. "I believe," the father answered, "that when God brings a child like this into the world the perfection that he seeks is in the way people react to this child."
He then told the following story about his son Shaya:

One afternoon, Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys whom Shaya knew were playing baseball. Shaya asked, "Do you think they will let me play?"

Shaya's father knew that his son was not at all athletic and that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya's father also understood that if his son was chosen to play it would give him a comfortable sense of belonging. Shaya's father approached one of the boys in the field and asked if Shaya could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his team mates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said "We are losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning."

Shaya's father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short centre field. In the bottom of the eighth inning Shaya's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning Shaya's team scored again and now, with two outs and the bases loaded with the potential winning run on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shaya was given the bat. Everyone knew that it was all but impossible because Shaya didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it.

However, as Shaya stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shaya should at least be able to make contact. The first pitch came and Shaya swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya's team mates came up to Shaya and together they held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch.

The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya. As the pitch came in, Shaya and his team mate swung at the ball and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game.

Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman. Everyone started yelling, "Shaya, run to first. Run to first." Never in his life had Shaya run to first base. He scampered down the baseline wide eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would tag out the still-running Shaya.

But the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions were so he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman's head. Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second." Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base the opposing short stop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base and shouted, "Run to third." As Shaya rounded third the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, "Shaya run home." Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero as he had just hit a "grand slam" and won the game for his team.

"That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "those 18 boys reached their level of God's perfection."
Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!