Update 8-30-11

Hi,

I'm sure we're all happy the hurricane spared most of the Northeast, though Vermont seems to have been hit badly.  And for a while, it looked like the eye was tracking right over Valley Stream, but I guess it shifted slightly west.

Related, from Nancy Garfield:  Just a question before I head to work.  Do you remember being sent home from Forest Road School because a hurricane was coming?  I can't remember how old we were or what grade we were in. 

Also, from my sister, Marilyn:  Do you remember sitting on the basement steps watching Mom and Dad pulling things out of the water?  I only remember the basement flooding once or twice in the first years we lived in Green Acres, and I can remember the water being "deep" both times -- up to an adult's mid-calf.  There was talk about the "snake" and having to get someone to do that.
    The funny thing is, I don't remember you being there.  Were you away in camp?  I also remember being told to stay on the stairs because Mom and Dad were worried about us being in the water and slipping or catching some disease.   

[Rich -- As I wrote Nancy and Marilyn:  Well, that answers a question -- I wasn't on the basement steps with Marilyn, because I was at school with Nancy.  The hurricane was on October 15th, 1954, it was named Hazel, and Nancy and I were in second grade.
    I just looked up the name of the hurricane.  I thought it was Louise, but that came several years later.  And my main memory of Hazel was my mother rolling up towels and lying them along the frames of the picture windows in the living and dining rooms because water was blowing in the cracks.  We had storm windows on the lower windows but not on the top ones.
    Also, I always seem to remember trees being blown down in storms, often the willow in front of Forest Road School, at the corner of Forest and Eastwood.  I think that tree was replaced several times, and I don't think there's a tree there now, so maybe the district finally gave up.] 

And Marilyn wrote back:  See, our memories are really there if they're jiggled and then left to do their work.  I'm glad your memory called up the missing pieces for the difference between Nancy's and mine.
  
In other East-Coast-related, natural events last week, from Zelda White Nichols:  We did not feel the earthquake where we live in North Carolina, but other parts of the state did.  I hope all our classmates are safe, with no damage to their homes.  Most people don’t realize there is a fault that runs from Canada down to the Carolinas.  It’s larger than San Andreas but not as active.  There are minor tremors all the time, however.
    I also remember when we lived in Massaachusetts, on the New Hampshire border, feeling a few small tremors that centered in New Hampshire.  Having been in some small quakes in California, I do recommend checking your walls, foundation, and outside areas in future weeks as problems can arise later on.  Also watch out for aftershocks if you are in the quake zone.

In more ordinary news, from Lynn Nudelman Villagran in answer to Zelda's question last week:  My family moved to Valley Stream from Ozone Park, New York.  We -- my sisters and I -- attended kindergarten at P.S. 100, but I don't remember anything about it.  We were seven when we moved to Valley Stream and started school at Harbor Road School in second grade.  I think the school's called Robert Carbonaro now.

Similarly, from Carol Bunim Okin:  Wow -- I didn’t realize so many of us were from Stuyvesant Town.  Me, too!  We lived at 448 East 20th Street, near 1st Avenue, and the public school was P.S. 40.  We went back to see the old neighborhood about eight years, and it still looks good.
    I have fond memories of everything from the apartment layout that was so well described last week, to roller skating -- you weren’t allowed to ride a two-wheeler there then -- to buying Good Humor from "Sam, Sam, the Ice Cream Man" on the corner.  Thanks to all for the fond stroll down Memory Lane.  And best regards to everyone.

Finally, while many of you were having wet and windy adventures on the East Coast, we had a quieter adventure here.  Here's a story for a dog day afternoon -- better than Wikipedia filler about Hurricane Hazel.  
    Yesterday, our neighbors went to the beach, so we had their pool and their big yard for the dogs to play in.  Their cattle dog, Ruby, barked a bit through the window when we arrived, but she didn't want to come out to play, and after a while our Boxers, Molly and Rocky, lost interest and started running around the far end of the yard.  It's about an acre long.
    After a couple hours, Ruby did come out, and for about five minutes the dogs played nicely.  Then Ruby sensibly went back inside -- it was 95 degrees by the pool.  Unfortunately, Rocky followed her through the dog door.  Now we didn't have the house keys, so I called "Rocky" through the dog door, but nothing happened.  And he'd never been in that house before, so it was a playground.  Then Ruby started barking and came tearing out the dog door, chased by Rocky.  I quickly got him on his leash, and, as quickly, Ruby  ran back inside.  But she wasn't barking, just watching us through the window.  I tried to lure her to the dog door again, to give her one of Molly and Rocky's treats as a reward, but she wasn't interested.  Meanwhile, I let go of Rocky, and he and Molly took off to the other end of the acre. 
    After maybe five minutes, I gave up on Ruby.  It was clearly cooler inside the house, and she didn't want my treat anyhow.  She disappeared, never to be seen again.  When I got back to Rocky and Molly, it seemed Rocky had found a chlorine tablet from the pool and was noshing on that.  He hadn't found it for the first two hours we were there, so I'm guessing he got more adventuresome while I was trying to buy off Ruby.  Or maybe he simply liked the smell of chlorine because he'd been occasionally lapping out of the pool.  Saying "Rocky -- No!" just makes him drink faster.  In any case, I quickly took both dogs home, checked the Poison Control site on the Internet, and gave Rocky lots of water and absorbent food.  Then we monitored him.
    Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of his adventures.  When I went to walk fretting Molly, who was possibly jealous of all the attention Rocky was getting, Rocky slipped past me and got to a lunchbox one of our other neighbors had left on their front porch.  The lunchbox had a slice of pizza in it, which Rocky downed before I got to him.  "Rocky -- No!" just made him eat faster.  When I asked our neighbor how old the pizza was, he said, "Oh, a couple of days."  And it had been sitting out all the time, in a hot box, incubating.  So we fed Rocky more absorbent food and more water.  Obviously, Rocky's food-driven, so he'll eat anything.
    The good news is that all the food pushed the chlorine tablet -- tiny white pellets still intact -- out of his system overnight, and he seems to be OK.  And I guess either the rotten pizza didn't hurt him or the chlorine neutralized it.


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Rich