Update 7-29-08

Hi,

A couple of people wrote to say they hadn't gotten the newsletter last week, and I think it had to do with length and the way it's group mailed.  If you didn't get the update and want to read the new articles about Lord's Woods and the Curtiss Airport, please let me know.
   
    In this week's letters, first, a reminder from Claire Reinhardt and Robbie Birnel:  Hope you are all enjoying the summer.  This is just a reminder that our get-together at the Irish Coffee Pub is almost upon us.  The date is Wednesday, August 6, 2008, and the time about 6:30 as Booker starts playing at about 7:00.  Please let us know if you would like us to add you to our reservation, or please make you own.
        Again, here is the information:  Irish Coffee Pub, 131 Carleton Avenue, East Islip, New York 11730.  Phone:  631-277-0007.  Web site:  www.irishcoffeepub.com  ; Please let us know if you can make it.  Meanwhile, best to all.
   
    Next, some further Lord's Woods-connected information, from Peggy Galinger Menaker:  Thanks to Donald Faber for sending additional information about Lord's Woods.  Following is a bit more, woven throughout with fond family memories.
        Dr. Benjamin C. Berliner, or Dr. Ben as his patients and their families called him, did in fact reside on East Rockaway Road in Hewlett.  I know this because he was the pediatrician who took very good care of my sister and me and our cousins, along with hundreds of others -- perhaps some of you, too? -- from birth into our college years.  My mother, who thinks the "C" in his middle name was for Clemens, knew him and his family growing up, and they had friends and acquaintances in common.  I asked her about Robert Arbib, and she knew that family too, saying she thinks the Arbibs lived on Leroy Avenue in Cedarhurst.  She pointed out that the Five Towns area was like one small village in those early days, and it was taken for granted that everyone knew everyone.
        Besides being a caring physician, Dr. Ben was an avid bird-watcher and also grew prize-winning orchids.  His office was attached to his home, and over the years, following a medical visit there, we would, on occasion, ask him if we could see the fabulous flowers that he grew in his hothouse.  This structure was also connected to the residence and, as I remember it, accessible through a long, low, winding corridor behind the office.  If time permitted, he would take us back for a quick peek at the amazing orchid blooms he nurtured there.
        With these kinds of interests, it stands to reason that Ben was a staunch environmentalist long before it was fashionable to champion the protection of wooded or open land or to be "Green."  My mother, who also said that she and friends used go horseback riding in Lord's Woods, clearly remembers Ben's strong local activism efforts to save that acreage, and she recalled that it was a very sad day when they demolished the area.  After speaking to some still-local friends, she reported back that the Lord mansion is now a Yeshiva!  Who would have guessed that?
        When Dr. Berliner retired from his by-then-shared practice probably in the early-to-mid 1970s, he and his wife moved to Connecticut, where I believe he lectured on pediatrics at Yale Medical School.  Following the sad news of his death about six years ago, my mother, sister, aunt, and I attended a memorial service held for him at Columbia University's chapel.  The throng of people that congregated to honor his memory gave Standing Room Only a totally new meaning, as the beautiful, large chapel was filled to capacity with people of all ages.  After all the many seats were taken, people stood shoulder-to-shoulder along the side aisles and at the back, and then the crowd spilled over into the room behind the chapel.  I have to believe that many people were there not only because of Ben's early connection with the Pediatrics Department at Columbia, his later association with Yale, or his legacy as a beloved physician, but also because of his passionate efforts on behalf of environmental issues.
        Best to all.
   
    More related memories of Long Island, from Amy Bentley:  After looking over the old Chanin home brochure and the Lord's Woods map, I have gone into a nostalgic mode.  I have been giving great thought to my childhood, and I have some memories I would like to share about restaurants where my family used to eat.
        China Jade -- on Broadway, in Hewlett.  It was on the same block as Wall's bakery.  I remember having dinner there many a Sunday night.  Most times, my grandparents would join in.  We parked in the parking lot behind the restaurant and would enter through the back door.  We would have to literally walk through the kitchen to get to the dining room.  For me, that was the highlight of the evening's dining experience.  Walking through the kitchen.  All the Chinese cooks had on white uniforms.  The kitchen was steamy and smelled delicious.  The cooks were talking loudly and banging pots. The food was delicious -- at least I thought so.  The waiters were very solicitous to young children, as Chinese restaurants are known to be.  Here is a family story:  I don't actually remember it happening, but it is true.  I was very young, in a high chair in the restaurant, eating lobster Cantonese.  All the diners and the wait staff were very impressed and could not believe that an American toddler was eating such cuisine.  They all remarked and made a big deal about it.  Shortly after that evening, I became a very picky eater, for many years, in fact.  Legend has it that the restaurant staff and onlookers had given me a kinahara, the evil eye.  My family was very superstitious, and my loss of appetite was matter-of-factly attributed to that fateful Sunday evening. 
        Shor's -- My next fond memory is of Shor's, located diagonally to the China Jade.  I think Shor's was not attached to other property but was on an island between Broadway and West Broadway.  What a fun place!  I had my fifth birthday party there.  Shor's reminded me of Nathan's.  You would stand in line at different counters for hog dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, and soft ice cream.  I think they had small indoor rides and outdoor seating.  I also remember they had huge figures of children, a boy and a girl?  What a lovely place.
        Hamburger Express -- was also in Hewlett.  I believe it was on the same block as the China Jade.  My mother would take me there for lunch.  I don't know if they were in business for a long time, but this I do remember:  We would sit at the counter and order hamburgers.  The burgers would be delivered from the kitchen on plates atop model trains.  Train tracks ran along the length of the counter and stopped exactly at your seat.  You would take the plate off the train, and then the train would chug back into the kitchen.
        Willie's Pizza -- was located in the Peninsula Shopping Center, not far from Carvel and Woodro's.  After reading Lord's Woods, I have learned that Peninsula Boulevard marked the end for the Woods.  Their pizza was excellent, and we went there many a summer weekend evening.  Here is why:  We belonged to the Capri Beach Club in Atlantic Beach.  On weekends, my father played cards, gin, with the other beach club fathers.  If my dad was the big winner for the day, then off we went to Willie's Pizza for dinner!
        Those were the days.
   
    From Zelda White Nichols:  For Linda Cohen Greenseid -- There was an Italian deli in Lynbrook that was owned by the father of Mario Derogatis.  I remember the wonderful aromas that were so prevalent as soon as you walked through the door, and I also remember square pizza slices that I used to eat.
        For Irene Augustin Wehn -- I seem to recall the property next to the back entrance of William S. Buck School that reminded me of a farmhouse.  I was, and am, dog-crazy and remember a big Saint Bernard that lived there.
   
    From Linda Cohen Greenseid for Steve Gootzeit:  I know that Charles Aznevour sang "Yesterday, When I Was Young," but I don't know if that's the singer you are thinking of.
   
    From Steve Gootzeit:  The pizza at Golden Crust came out of the oven in large rectangular trays, and the slices were also rectangular -- two across, I believe, and about ten rows deep.  I always tried to get a corner slice, with two crusts.
        I lived behind the airport in Green Acres, on Heatherfield Road.  My father said that there was concrete just one foot below the surface of the back lawn, but I never checked.
        In 1960, Barnet Kellman and I camped out at Mitchel Field -- one "L" -- in preparation for the Jamboree in Colorado Springs.  Even more coincidentally, I now work at Rexcorp Plaza, across from the Nassau Coliseum, on Glen Curtiss Road.
        Who knew?
   
    From Barbara Blitfield Pech for Tom McPartland:  As a veteran in the apparel industry -- which is politically correct speak for "old and still working" -- I can advise on the location and floor plan of any retail store in these here parts, and I also remember others in my past.  In the old Green Acres Shopping Center, the end anchor department store was Love's, part of the S. Klein chain.  I worked there part-time after high school to cover some of my internship retail hours while at F.I.T.  The Time Square Store was on Rockaway Turnpike, just at the end of Peninsular Boulevard, but perhaps you are recalling the replacement store for Floyd Bennett's.  That closed in 1973 and became a Times Square location.
        And, yes, Golden Crust pizza was a large rectangle in black pans that were set in cutting trays in the center island of the tables.  The end slices were prized and sold out first, but calling an end slice and waiting for a fresh pie was so worth it -- 15 cents worth of sheer gastronomic heaven.  No wonder many of us are now on Lipitor.
   
    From Amy Lieberman, more on Billy Valentine and the good ol' Casa Del Mar:  That's right -- they want him again.  And we want you -- well, only if you have the desire to get out on a summer's night.
        So if you're on the West Coast the night next week that Booker Gibson is playing on the East Coast, come hear Billy Valentine and the Stuart Elster Trio.  Wednesday, August 6th, from  6:45 to 10:30 PM.  Casa Del Mar  Hotel, 1910 Ocean Way, Santa Monica, California.  Phone:  310-581-5533.  In the lounge, against the backdrop of the setting sun and the new and improved Ferris wheel on the pier.
   
    About Lord's versus Lords' Woods, someone anonymously and humorously mentioned, "The problem with any discussion of grammar is it's bound to end up sounding pedantic and pompous."
   
    Finally, from Amy Miller:  This book has certainly stirred up a great deal of enjoyable correspondence.