back to Archive Index


September 2002
Volume 2 Number 12

In Memory
Hall of Fame
Editorial
News and Notes
Reunions
Trivia

In Memory

• I'm writing to inform anyone who remembers Florence Ziegler (58) that she passed away on July 14, 2000 in Enceintes, CA.
  She rests in the Mission San Luis Rae, Oceanside, CA. I am her brother and miss her very much.
  
  Thanks. John Ziegler, 1963 (AZ)

• In memory of all those who perished on the morning of 9/11/2001; the passengers and the pilots on the United Air and AA flights, the workers in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and all the innocent bystanders.
  Our prayers go out to the friends and families of the deceased.
  
  God bless America!

back to index

Hall of Fame

Hicksville High School Hall of Fame Nominations

• Vincent G. Luisi (Class of 1972) Submitted by Carol-Ann Luisi Saletto (Class of 1975)
  
  My older brother, Vincent, now lives in Florida with his wife, Lucy, and my adorable niece, Erin. Vinnie, as I call him, is a curator of a museum in Dunedin, Florida. (http://www.ci.dunedin.fl.us:/dunedin/library.htm).
  
  He is very well known throughout the town of Dunedin. He has just recently written a book called "Images of Sports - New York Yankees - The First 25 Years" published by Arcadia. It is a must read for any true Yankee fan. He gets back to Hicksville several times a year to see my mom who still lives in the house we grew up in on Lee Avenue. My dad passed away suddenly and unexpectedly 4-1/2 years ago. Vinnie has taken on a new role since my dad left. He has become a father figure to my two daughters, Jeannie-Lee and Jenna-Rose and me. As I never left Hicksville myself, I live not too far from Lee Avenue and continue to tell my daughters who now attend the high school about all the wonderful times I had growing up in a great town. I love Vinnie so much.

• Raymond J. Luisi (Class of 1979)
  
  Now, onto my younger or baby brother as I call him. Ray works for Hofstra University in Hempstead on the grounds crew. He helps keep the campus looking terrific. Whenever I drive by the college, I am proud to see it and know that my brother has a hand in making it look as great as it does.
  
  Ray moved away from Hicksville about 12 years ago to Tampa, Florida. When my dad passed away, he decided to sell his recording studio and move back to Hicksville to be close to my mom, my two daughters and me. He means the world to us and helps us in every way that my dad used to. Please consider these two unbelievable and terrific guys for the Hicksville Hall of Fame. They both deserve the recognition. I love them both dearly.
  
  Sincerely,
  Carol-Ann Luisi Saletto (Class of 1975)
  

back to index

Editorial

As the newsletter approaches its second birthday, I wish to thank all of you who have contributed your memories, joys, sorrows and news of your current lives. I know the newsletter is read because I received many birthday wishes. A great big thank you to all. I also know that people really care, even if they just know each other through the newsletter, because I still get queries about Debbie and Peter Sirkin. The last I heard they were back in California and Peter was doing well.

I recently had to do some work on the address book, again, thanks to Netscape's changes. As I clicked on each name I remembered something about each one of you. I sometimes send a note and the replies always have news to share (see Jeff White's note below). There are now 346 email addresses on our list and I invite each of you to share with the rest of us. Hicksville has produced many outstanding citizens and it is so nice to read about my hometown pals. From the notes received in the mailbox, many of you feel the same.

Bob Casale has done an outstanding job with the photo albums on classmates.com. Take a few minutes and check them out and add your comments and help us identify the people and places. Bob gives the following instructions:

"Click on the below link to get to classmates.com

http://www.classmates.com/user/index.tf

This should bring you to a classmates screen that shows My Schools on the lower left side of the screen... Click on Hicksville... This should bring you to another screen that says Welcome to Hicksville... Scroll down to where it says School Photo Albums...
Click on School Photo Albums... This will bring up a screen that shows all the Hicksville albums...
There is an album named HHS Misc. Faces (Pictures from Hicksville Past...Help us name names... Many thanks to Imants Gulbis (Class of 1959) for sharing these photos). The other albums are self-explanatory...view them all and enjoy.

Please send comments to grandmag@atlantic.net (Pat Koziuk Driscoll) or
to bufbob@juno.com (Bob Casale)..."

Again, my sincerest thanks to each of you for helping this newsletter grow and evolve. Keep those letters and suggestions coming.

Pat Koziuk Driscoll
1956

back to index

News and Notes

• Linda (Piccarelli) and Claude Hayden are pleased to announce the birth of their first grandchild. Krystal Ann Hayden was born to their son William and his wife Diane on August 14, 2002 at 5:45 am. She was 7 lbs, 11 oz and 21" long.

  Linda had back surgery on Thursday, August 22, 2002 and probably will not be able to sit at the computer for a while. If you would like to send her get-well wishes, her address is:

  MRS. LINDA HAYDEN
  PO BOX 216
  SPARTA, NJ 07871-0216

• Barbara Clark and I got together for the first time in 37 years last weekend. What great fun! We felt (and probably acted) like 17 year olds again! She has committed to taking on a search for Rita Bianchi, and I will do the same for Carol Conroy. Does anyone know Carol's married name?

  Wendy Karen Stuart (1957)

• We haven't heard from Jeff White in a while and his reply to my recent note explains why. With his permission, I share it with you. It was written on August 11th. (PKD)

  Hi,

  I am doing several things right now.

  My Praise Band BELIEVER is performing live at Mulligan's in Murrieta CA on Aug 23 from 6-9. We go into the studio next month to cut our first CD.

  I will be appearing in ROBIN HOOD, a comedy as King John Sept 22-23 at United Methodist Church in Temecula CA.
  Then THE ODD COUPLE as Oscar Madison in October and then as the lead role in a Christmas Musical Dec 22-23

  On top of all that I am opening up a family hair salon in September in Murrieta.

  Along with my partner John Klek, we will open
  2 GUYS WITH SCISSORS
  FAMILY HAIR SALON
  in Murrieta CA. We are meeting with the landlord and having renovations done on the unit we are going to rent and hope to be open sometime in Sept. I will send detailed info as it happens.

  Other than that, my daughter Jennifer - 28 will be getting married on Dec 28 in Huntington Beach, CA and my son Jason and his wife Cheryl are expecting their 2nd child (our 7th grandkid) in November and it is a boy Matthew Ryan White. We are all excited and the next few months will be nonstop. On top of all this I am putting in a patio and patio cover in the backyard and tiling the patio and walkways with Saltio Mexican tiles.

  I will send more specific info of the productions and their dates, times and locations as I find them on my desk somewhere underneath all of the above.

  My wife Dianna and daughter April are in San Francisco for the weekend as April won a trip all expenses paid. She took her Mom as a Christmas/Birthday/Mother's Day gift. They will be home late tomorrow night.

  I wish I had all the details for all my goings on and will get them to you this week.

  I will also send a photo of my band BELIEVER.

  Thanks, Hope you can use some of this.

  Jeff White, 1973

• Concert Alert

  I know it's early, but I want everyone to put down the date of our holiday concert. Friday, December 13th 2002. The location and time will follow with later reminders.

  This is going to be a very special concert in that a 13-piece orchestra will accompany us. The highlight pieces are Vivaldi's Gloria and Buxtehude's Das Nuegeborne Kinderlein.

  They are always special, but this year's concert will be even more so.

  For those of you who will be attending from out of town, let me know as soon as you can so that arrangements can be made for you.

  I hope all of you can make it.

  Love,

  David Teitel, 1968, NYC

• June (Olsen, 1958) and Ed Cullen celebrated June's birthday with a trip to Great Britain. They are scheduled to be in North Wales on the actual day, Sept. 2nd. June is probably reading this in a
  Cybercafe, somewhere in Europe.

• Tanya Hawrylowicz Radgowski , 1962 is looking for Loretta Noce. Maybe someone who attended the recent reunion knows Loretta's whereabouts.

  If you know how to contact Loretta, please drop a note to this newsletter and we will forward it to Tanya.

• Jack DeVaul, 1956, has been a member of the Brentwood Fire Dept. for 33 years. He has also played in their percussion band for 30 years and this year they took home the State Championship for the 9th year in a row. You can see a photo of Jack with his glockenspiel in the 1956 album on classmates.com
  http://group.classmates.com/user/photoalbum/photo.tf?album_id=79238;offset=49

• Sue Kotowski Athenas, East Meadow HS 1976 (married to Harry Al Athenas, HHS 1974) sent the following announcement: (Sue and her daughter Kristi Hine have been members of the Levittown Fire Dept. for the past year and we have posted their photo on classmates.com -Ed.)

• Hi Guys,
  There are some video clips from our fire service training on: http://www.news12.com/CDA/Articles/View/0,2869,5-5-46777-78,00.html
  
  News 12 followed our class for five weeks. In the second segment, that's me on the ladder when they take the shot looking down from the instructors view and me again climbing right after that shot. When they talk about going up and coming down, it's me at the bottom of the left hand side ladder.

  The series is only on the website in the evening. Go to http://www.news12.com after 5pm and look for Inside the Academy. They have all the clips from the week in that section.

  Sue:)

• Steve Reden, 1959 shares the following with us:

  We just finished shooting a short film, a dark comedy about a obsessive, compulsive (yeah, like we don't know anyone like that) woman who gets a message about eliminating sinners from her little town. I have a featured role as an "alleged" sinner/victim. The movie runs about 40 minutes.

  The trailer and other information about the film can be seen at www.poolsideproductions.com.
  
  Steve Reden.
  

back to index

Reunions

• CLASS OF 1957

  Saturday, October 19, 2002 at the Islandia Marriott (exit 58 of the L.I.E.), cocktails at 7 p.m., dinner to follow. Cost is $65 per person. Hotel is giving us a discount rate for those who wish to stay there, including free transportation to and from MacArthur airport. We'll also be meeting for brunch on Sunday morning, before everyone heads home. Invitations have been sent to all the classmates whose street addresses we have. We're still waiting to hear back from some of those registered on Classmates.Com.

  Thanks,

  Phil Fulco
  Email: pfulco@optonline.net
  10 Kendall Green Drive
  Milford, CT 06460
  Phone: (203) 878-7154

  UPDATE:

  Hi All,

  Well, we're getting very close to the reunion date and we still need to get a few more people to make our minimum guarantee of 50. If anyone hasn't yet sent in his or her money please do so ASAP. And, if anyone knows of any classmates we haven't contacted yet, please let them know about the reunion.

  As a last resort to reach our minimum number, if someone wants to bring along an additional guest please do so. If we don't get the minimum number, then it will mean having to pay for people who aren't there. So, get those checks in, if you haven't done so already or try to find a classmate we've somehow missed.

  Checks can be sent to me at: 10 Kendall Green Drive, Milford, CT 06460.

  See you soon.
  Phil

• CLASS OF 1962
  The 2002 Reunion, Hicksville High School, Class of 1962 is history. The event was held at the Imperial Manor in Bethpage on Saturday, August 10th. From my pristine viewing area, I can guarantee it was an extraordinary evening.
  
  The festivities actually began the night before when students that arrived several days earlier met at Delaney's. It was not a typical Friday evening for Ed and Maryanne Delaney, either, because it brought back fond memories of their many years in Hicksville. Their children were born and raised in Hicksville and are part of the new generation. Ed and Maryanne were wonderful, as usual, as host and hostess of Hicksville.
  
  On Saturday, I arrived early at the reunion site. There were clusters of people milling around waiting to be checked in. The check in table was adjacent to a banquet room that would be the focal point throughout the evening. The reunion committee decorated the banquet room modestly earlier in the day. When entering, it was reminiscent of times past. Several comments were made referencing the hours of preparation for the Winter Carnival, the Sophomore Hop and all the proms. The elaborate transformation of the boy's gym at the high school that took hours to complete was only a memory.
  
  I thought that if I were to arrive a little early, I would be able to greet people. Wrong. Most people were over anxious and arrived even earlier. I found myself caught up in the whirlwind that was whisking friends in many directions.
  
  The first question I have to ask is how is it that certain individuals defy nature and time. My impression is that they look as youthful and in shape as they did when they graced the halls of Hicksville High. I refuse to mention names but you know who you are. I marveled at the beauty of the woman there and reflected to the past momentarily. Our students were beautiful in the old days but the gracious way the years have treated them is mind-boggling. Their beauty far transcends time. The guys looked like guys...nothing personal intended.
  
  The camaraderie once shared in the old days was rekindled. It was a turning back of time, a look to the past that was cherished by everyone. Small groups of friends who had not seen each other for years formed spontaneously. Eyes met from across the room and bodies darted toward each other and then hugs were required. The clusters remained huddled together most of the evening.
  
  Reminiscent of the first reunions was the resurgence of photos that now displayed radiant pictures of grand children of all ages. It brought back vivid memories experienced when we were eager and proud to show pictures of our young children. The same glow was evident in the faces of the grandparents that were here.
  
  There would be no reunion without the thankless work of certain individuals that endure punishment, not because they like it but who do it "For The Love." We give thanks to the following people who went above and beyond in their efforts at guaranteeing a memorable evening; Rich Humann, Frank Lombardi, Steve Smith, Joe Carfora, Bob Dierker, Roy Garman, Marcy (Lipschutz) Seus, Karen (Hubner) Jenkins, Sue (Hodges) Mruz, Dana (Hayden) Jackson, and Janice (Breeden) Manaskie.
  
  Thanks to the Hot Wax Band with Jim Surliss from the class of 1960 on sax for their wide selection of wonderful tunes we could all dance to. Rekindled were the fond memories of sock hops and dance classes in the boys' gym when the girls and boys got together that one time a year (to dance).
  
  Sorely missed were our classmates who have passed away. There are many whose memory will never be forgotten. All of us said a silent prayer and thanked them secretly in our own way for being part of our lives.
  
  This could go on forever because the memories are sustained and part of the brain despite the failing memory. How could you ever forget people that impacted your life and were part of era in time that will last a lifetime?
  Thanks to you all.... Bob Casale on assignment.

• FLORIDA MULTI-YEAR GET TOGETHER
  
  Although this reunion had been put on the back burner for now, May Horn (Mabel Perduto, 1958) is still working on getting together a committee and some workers. If anyone is interested, May is planning a luncheon in Orlando and would like to hear from you. Her email address is: MayHornCPS@aol.com
  

back to index

Trivia

There was a question about the WPA and the North Beach Airport, Queens, NY in one of the newsgroups, which I read in connection with my genealogy research. As usual, someone had the answer and replied with the following: "From notes in "Old Queens, N.Y. in Early Photographs" by Vincent F. Seyfried and William Asadorian"

Quote: The appearance of airports was another part of the transportation revolution. Glenn Curtiss Airport opened on the site of the former North Beach. Purchased by the city, it became the second municipal airfield in 1939, when it was renamed La Guardia Airport."

So now we know the ancestry of La Guardia Airport. I remember standing on the top of a building on what was an observation deck and watching the planes with my family on many a Sunday afternoon way back in the 1950's. Boy, how things have changed!

I remember another airport in Hicksville on the west side of Jerusalem Avenue towards Hempstead Turnpike. The Vanderbilt Parkway crossed over Jerusalem Ave. around the area that is now Spindle Road on the Hicksville-Levittown border. There was a country club and private airstrip, which was called the Hicksville Airpark. There is mention of the Hicksville Airpark in the biography of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindberg. I haven't found anyone who remembers this but me, so far, but there is a Charles Lindberg Blvd. in Hicksville. (I guess that means that I am older than dirt!)

Bob Casale located and posted some photos of the L.I. Motor Parkway, which is the current name for the Vanderbilt Parkway on classmates.com. So I really am not the only one who remembers this road!

Pat Koziuk Driscoll

Pat Koziuk Driscoll, 1956, FL
Linda Piccerelli Hayden, 1960, NJ
Bob Casale, 1961, HX and PA

back to Archive Index