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

Once again, no new donations were received in the past month and as we enter late fall, with its cold weather, the possibility of the Memorial Dedication Ceremony, will likely be delayed until next spring, when the weather improves and we can hopefully put the Covid Pandemic in the past!

We'll keep you posted as things change and promise that we will alert everyone of the dedication ceremony date, once we have it officially approved. We will also give everyone as much advance notice as possible, in the event they wish to attend.

At this time the Memorial stones can be viewed in the Hicksville Memorial Gardens on an individual basis at the south side of the Hicksville Middle School on Jerusalem Avenue.

Additional donations will continue to help us cover the cost of the Dedication Ceremony gathering for school district and local official dignitaries, as well as to honor donors who have made very significant contributions to the Memorial. Further donations will also help with maintenance and upkeep of the Memorial for many years to come.

The project will be officially complete once we are able to conduct the Dedication Ceremony at the Memorial.

Please visit the Honoring Our Veterans tab of this newsletter for the full update, along with information on how to send in new donations.

We trust everyone enjoyed a Very Happy Thanksgiving and we wish All of You and your Families a Very Happy Holiday Season!!

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

The Newsletter

Photo Gallery

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Memory Lane

billion

This is too true to be funny

The next time you hear a politician use the Word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, But one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases:

• A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
• A billion minutes ago Jesus walked the Earth.
• A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
• A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
• A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.
• While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's look at New Orleans. It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.
  • Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu, was asking Congress for 250 BILLION DOLLARS to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number. What does it mean?
  • Well. If you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, and child) you each get $516,528.
  • Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.
  • Or... If you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington, D.C...HELLO! Are all your calculators broken??

And to think, we left British Rule to avoid so many taxes.

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt. We had the largest middle class in the world. And Mom stayed home to raise the kids. What happened? Can you spell 'politicians'!

And I still must press '1' for English.

I hope this goes around the USA At least 100 times.

WHY NOT A BILLION??

Casale's Corner

In 1964 in Albuquerque , New Mexico , when this woman got pregnant her senior year in high school, the principal told her she would not be allowed to graduate. She begged the school to change its mind. It did, but there were conditions. She was not allowed to talk to the other students. She was barred from eating in the cafeteria. She could not come to school more than five minutes in advance of the opening bell, and she had to leave school within five minutes of the closing bell. And she was not allowed to get her diploma onstage with the rest of the students. She did marry the father of her child, but it lasted only a year. He was not a good husband and not a good father. After the divorce, he never had any contact whatsoever with his ex-wife and their son. A couple of years later, she married a Cuban emigrant, a good and decent man. He adopted her son and gave him his name.

Many years later, in 2013, the biological father was operating a bicycle shop in California when a writer/reporter came by and asked if he could talk to him. That was when the biological father, Ted Jorgensen, found out that his biological son is Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world.

When Bezos exited the space capsule, the first person he hugged was his mother

AMAZON founder Jeff Bezos sought the help of his parents to kick start his company back in 1995.

Since then, Amazon has become one of the top five wealthiest companies globally, with a net worth of over $314billion.

Jeff Bezos' and his parents Jacklyn and Miguel 'Mike' Bezos

Who are Jeff Bezos' parents? Bezos, 57, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Jacklyn and Ted Jorgensen. Jacklyn was 17 years old when she gave birth to Bezos and was still a high school student at the time.

Bezos' dad Ted owned a local bike shop in the city.

The pair divorced in 1965 and Jacklyn met Miguel "Mike" Bezos shortly after and fell in love. She and Mike moved to Houston with Bezos and asked him to adopt her son when he was four years old.

Mike agreed and raised Bezos, even granting him his last name. Mike came from a Cuban immigrant family and worked as an engineer for Exxon when he moved to the US.

Bezos presented Mike and Jacklyn with the idea of Amazon back in 1995.

His parents lent him $245,573, which at the time was considered a large sum of money and a massive risk as the internet was fairly new.

Bezos turned $245,573 into $1trillion as of 2021 and is the world's wealthiest person as of July 2021.