Update 6-18-13

Hi,

 

If the usual update is a 1000 words, and a picture is worth about that, then the following link should hold us through November.  It's a photo montage of Watts (Mill) Pond and Watts Creek assembled recently by Amy Kassak Bentley and dedicated to Jimmy O'Neil.  It includes pictures of the path, geese, and what's left of the high school bridge:  youtu . be / Ya6IlSaWlUc    (please remove the spaces)

 

Something else Amy sent was a dense summary of a law suit her brother Jonathan had found online.  In seems that in 1962, two brothers -- one 9 and one 12 -- were playing under the bridge between Watts Creek and the Pond, and one of them slipped, cutting his wrist.  Instead of his parents saying, "We told you not to play there," they sued.

    They sued the Green Acres Civic Association, the town of Valley Stream, the town of Hempstead, and Nassau County.  It seems that everyone claimed someone else was responsible for the area under the bridge.  Eventually, in 1973, the case was dismissed, but not for the obvious reason that it was dumb.  Instead, it was because no one could decide who, legally, was liable for that area under the bridge.

    Amy also notes:  It's an interesting case.  The accident happened in 1962, but the case first went to court in 1973.  That was 11 years after the incident.  The kids were in their 20s.  And the verdict was appealed 3 times.

 

At the other extreme -- kindness -- Linda Tobin Kettering mentioned that the new owners of the late Pearl Kaplan's home in the former Green Acres asked for a history of the residents of the house.  They wanted to set up a small, permanent memorial.

 

Related, the soon-to-be new residents of my still-active mother's house in what she insists on calling Green Acres may wonder who the tombstone in the backyard belongs to.  Actually, it's a keystone to an arch that my mother picked up from some salvage place in Brooklyn because it's decorated with an interesting face.  But we don't need to tell anyone that.

    The real estate lawyer who's handling the sale of my mother's house also just had to hire an architect to draft plans of the basement that was already finished when my parents bought the house in 1953.  I wonder how many other people in the area had to do that when they were selling their houses.  It appears that not a lot of families got permits when they were doing those do-it-yourself projects.

    And, yeah, the next couple of newsletters will follow an eccentric schedule because I have to finish cleaning out my Mom's house.

 

Also remembering the past:  a bumper sticker I spotted this morning while walking the dogs:  "In loving memory of 2 buck diesel and 8 dollar hay."

 

Another Valley Stream link, this one from the Memorial Day parade and forwarded by Barbara Blitfield Pech.  Barbara notes:  South's marching band uniforms are so far from the red and gray they used to be that it's only by deduction that you can figure out which school the band belongs to. (please also remove the spaces)

liherald . mycapture.com / mycapture / folder.asp?event=1660674&CategoryID=56076  

 

Finally, another history lesson from Steve Zuckerman, also delayed from Memorial Day:  A quick historical note, once again about a time 70 years ago, right after Pearl Harbor, the defeats at Corregidor and Bataan, the above-and-beyond heroic stance taken by the United States Marines on the tiny island of Wake in the central Pacific, and the first strike on the Japanese mainland with the bombing of Tokyo in 1942.

    Soon after all that, the United States Navy pulled off one of the greatest naval ploys by keeping the Japanese Pacific task force which attacked Pearl Harbor busy in a futile search for the remaining American naval fleet.  The United States tricked Japan into attacking the island of Midway, where the American fleet was waiting.  There, the United States delivered the second biggest defeat to the Japanese in World War II.

    Also, just over 50 years ago, on the first of May to be exact, the first American reached the summit of Mount Everest in Tibet.  Mountaineer Jim Whitacker and 3 other climbers planted the first American flag on the roof of the world.  Whitacker is still alive, and he lectures about the event, others, and runs several successful corporations.  It's odd that I didn't see a single mention of his feat on CNN or on any other news sources.

    That's it for history for now.

 

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

 

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

 

 

Rich