The Best Part
One of the coolest parts of living in far east Hicksville was access to the Grumman property along South Oyster Bay Rd. They had at least a dozen softball fields and didn’t seem to mind if the neighbors used them. A couple of times a year, the Navy’s Blue Angels performance team would fly over the house before landing at Grumman’s airstrip. Finally, a powered model aircraft show was held by the ball fields for a few years. They had a 
dogfight competition where streamers were tied to the tails of the aircraft and the pilots, using hand controllers would try and cut the streamers of their opponent. They would also fly reproduction radio-controlled aircraft ( mostly WWII vintage). Finally, they held an aircraft carrier landing contest. People would try to land their model planes on the beautifully handcrafted flight deck using arresting hooks and cables stretched across the deck, just like the real thing.
