Update 4-23-13

Hi,

 

A series of interesting notes:

 

From Jay Berliner:  I am advised that it costs two cents per mile to run the Tesla.  Considering Long Island has one of the highest electric rates, I am thinking 2.5 cents per mile, which is at most 10% of the cost of gas.  It is also one of the fastest cars on the road, as there is no transmission delay.

 

From Joanne Shapiro Polner '59.  I have two 8 x 11 softcover books about Valley Stream history.  If you communicate with the town historian, you may be able to order, and possibly receive free, a copy of each book.  The first is called 50th Anniversary of Valley Stream and is copyrighted 1975.  The second is titled Valley Stream [at] 75 Years and was published in 2000.

    In the 50th Anniversary book, the article on Curtis Field is on page 44.  The last paragraph reads:  "By 1933, the depression had taken its toll, activities came to a standstill, and the field was closed.  The property was eventually sold to the Chanin Company.  Plans were immediately announced that they would build 500 homes in addition to the largest shopping center on the south shore, Green Acres."   
    In the 75th Anniversary book, the Curtis Field article is on pages 28 and 29.  There is no mention of Green Acres in that article.  On page 32, there are three paragraph in an article entitled "Green Acres Mall" in which the sale year of Curtis Field is noted as 1936.  It is also mentioned that Curtis Field was once the property of Reisers' Farm of the 1920s."  "Over the years the mall evolved from an open air shopping center to an enclosed mall and surrounding properties on 103 acres."  There was "ambitious expansion" in 1983 when a "second level" was added.  In 2000, there were about "175 retail establishments."

 

From Amy Miller:  It was I who mentioned the Lord's Woods book.  My husband found it in a used bookstore in London back in 1982.  I passed the information on to you, and you mentioned it a few years back in one of the newsletters.  Also, here is a map I drew of Green Acres.  I made when I was about 10.

 

[Rich -- And it's a very sweet map, but it's a photo, and unfortunately those -- along with active links -- just send these newsletters directly to spam folders.]

 

Also from Amy, news of the planned class of '63 reunion:  I am planning on tallying up the reunion questionnaires on Sunday, so if you have any inkling that you might want to put in your votes for a fall gathering, please send it in to me by tomorrow night.  A firm commitment to/deposit for attending will not be needed until mid-May.

    Also, for those of you -- 20 -- who haven't responded to the invitation to join the Google group, please do so.  This will not only help us to more easily keep in touch, but it will make my sending out e-mails much easier.  35 of the 55 people we've found have signed up for the Google group, but that 55 is just under a quarter of the original class and only a third of the people we found 25 years ago.  So we still need help in searching for the missing.  Please let me know if you have some time, motivation, and energy to do this, and I will send you the most current contact list.  It changes daily.  Thanks.   ymarellim @ aol. com

 

From Peggy Cooper Schwartz:  There was a mentally challenged young man who hung out in front of Leo
and Mollie's in the late 50s/early 60s.  I believe his name was Jimmie.  I seem to remember that he was, sadly, one of the drowning victims.

 

[Rich -- Yep, that was the boy I knew about, and the one that started Amy Kassak Bentley on this question.  It would be great if anyone could remember his name.  Last week, I thought it was Dennis. 

    Meanwhile, here are the entries that I mentioned that Amy forwarded.  They were originally posted on Facebook in mid-August 2011, and I don't know any of the posters.]

 

    Leenie Marlene Jacknowitz Atwood:  Anyone else remember the 3 young boys who drowned in the creek near Mill Road while they were rafting?  It would have been early-to-mid 60s.

 

    Vincent Viviano:  I remember the car in the lake, in the summer of '74.   Had I known about the 3 boys, I would have never rafted in there

 

    Christine Csernica-Haas:  I think you are referring to Johnny (?) Cairins, brother of Vera Cairins.  He was with 2 other kids who were able to get out of the water.  One of them was Jack Drumm, class of '67, who also -- now that I think of it -- passed on in recent years. I don't think I'm spelling the boy's last name exactly right, but it was the early 60s, like 1962.  You were right about it being 3 boys.  But only 1 drowned.

 

    Leenie Marlene Jacknowitz Atwood:  The memory is so vague.  Thanks.

 

    Christine Csernica-Haas:  I have thought of that incident so often throughout the years.  As I heard the story, the boy had hold of Jack Drumm's foot or leg and was pulling Jack down, and Jack had to break free.  I seem to recall that the boy had some wader-type gear on, that filled with water thus pulling him down.  A few years back, I was wearing a "dry" suit while jet skiing on a lake, and I tipped over, and all I could do was panic, thinking about what happened to him, when I felt water going inside the elastic opening of my pants and jacket.  Mine was just a nylon suit though, nothing that would have "filled" and weighed me down.  Still, obviously, that tragedy stuck with me.

 

    Linda Connolly:  I don't remember three boys in Mill Pond, but I remember when John Kerns -- his sister was Vera Ann -- drowned in what we called the water works after a heavy rain.  He was with Jack Drumm and another one of that group.  Jack Drumm tried to save him, but the boy kept pulling him under, and Jack had to let him go.  This would have been about 1960, and I may not be spelling his last name correctly.

 

    Leenie Marlene Jacknowitz Atwood:  I didn't mean to imply Mill Pond.  It was in the creek behind our house.  It ran under Mill Road and then got deeper

 

    Linda Connolly:  You are right.  It was the creek behind our house.  As it went under Mill Road, it did get deeper, especially after a heavy rain.  For some reason the kids called it the "water works."  I can picture the other kid but can't remember his name.

    Carol Fink Teitelbaum:  I always thought it happened closer to Brookdale Road, but I remember it, too.

    Christine Csernica-Haas:  I think the other kid was Mike DeVoe -- or DeBeau.  Something like that.  He was also class of '67 and had a younger brother from class of '69 named Harry DeBeau -- am I even close?   Also, I can't even believe I'm vaguely remembering these guys because I didn't know them.  I also thought it was closer to Brookdale Road, not quite at the creek at South Drive and Mill Road, but further down.

 

    Christine Csernica-Haas:  Yes, Linda, it sounded like "Kerns" but was spelled differently, as I said above, and it began with a "C."  Maybe it was Cairns.

 

    Carol Fink Teitelbaum:  I think it was Cairns.  You're right.

 

Finally, a public service announcement, forwarded by Robert Fiveson:  Dear friend, I just learned that kids as young as 13 are held in solitary confinement in prison -- locked up in cells away from human contact for days or months at a time.  It's one of the most extreme forms of punishment possible.  It doesn’t rehabilitate. It doesn’t protect.  And it devastates young people with mental health problems.  Vicky Gunderson's son, Kirk, committed suicide while in solitary confinement in a Wisconsin jail.  Kirk was only 17.  It was just two days after Christmas.  And she's been speaking out for him ever since.  Can you join me and Vicky in helping to end the barbaric practice of solitary confinement of young people, so no mother or father, and no child, has to endure this again?  Sign a petition urging Attorney General Eric Holder to ban solitary confinement of youth in the care of the federal government.  The link:   aclu . org / secure/mothers-plea-stop-solitary-confinement-children

 

The South '65 e-mail addresses: reunionclass65 . blogspot . com

 

The South '65 photo site: picasaweb . google . com / SouthHS65

 

 

Rich