Observer_1989-12-13; East Rockaway/Lynbrook Observer

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Newspaper
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School District
litc Village
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"THE GOOD NEIGHBOR NEWSPAPER "
OBSERVER Since 1967 by Mailad Sulncriirtion
Executive Offices: Seiffert Building, 2787 Long Beech Roed. OceMiiide, NY 11S72
Pott Office Box A, Eest Rockewey, NY 11518 (516) 764-2600
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VOL. 36 NO. 47 Wednesday, Oecember 13,1989 35c PER COPY
AMERICAN LEGION POST NO. 958
Different Decembers
Happened to think while
observing some of the scant
television and newspaper
coverage of the Pearl Har-bor
anniversary that most of
East Rockaway/Lynbrooks
residents were not even alive
on that day 48 years ago so
how could they know what
it was like to be a 13 year
old, living on Adams Street
and wondering through
young eyes what all the old
people were doing to the
world.
it wasn't much of a town,
r e a l l y . . p o p u l a t i o n
5000..middle class..maybe a
little less than that. Every
day..all year 'round we
jumped over the fences
behind our houses and
played whatever was in sea-son
in Rhame Ave School
Yard. Baseball, Football,
Basketball..sometimes just
matching gum cards. Some
days we went down to Dock
Street untied our row
boats..we all had them..and
spent all day in Hewlett
Harbor..or even Reynolds
Channel. That was in the
day's when Otto's Fish
Market stood on stilts, in the
water across from where
Skippy's Bait and Tackle is
now. There was also a diving
board down near the Wild
Duck Inn and a Catling Gun
on the point where The East
Point Fishery now stands
not like today when there's
a bulkhead and you can't get
a place to dock unless you
know somebody in Mineola.
Besides, if you had an engine
on your boat you were a
wimp! Then there was that
Sunday. Where's Pearl Har-bor..
AkBka?..California?..Mexico?
The next day we were all let
out of school in the morning
and told to go home because
the Germans had declared
war on us. The church bells
were ringing. So I went
home and was shooting foul
shots in the back yard.
George Conklin came over
so we started to play horse.
George Conklin was always
coming around. To tell you
the truth now he was a pretty
good ball player and the only
guy I ever saw hit a baseball
over Cliffy White's house
and over First Ave. So
anyway, Mr. Ford started to
yell at us from over the fence;
Mr. Ford was an old man.
He lived next door at 88
Adams St. and now he was
yelling at us to get in the
house because the Germans
were coming. Just then the
air raid sirens started wail-ing.
We kept on playing and
pretty soon two old guys
with air raid warden outfits
were in the back yard telling
us the same thing. We went
in the house. When I got
inside the phone was ring-ing.
It was my mother who
was Christmas shopping in
Woolworths and was stuck
there because of the "raid."
We told her we didn't worry
about the Germans because
they were just a bunch of
soccer players.
Several months later I got
stuck in Manning's with a
young lady who lived down
the block. Mannings was a
little store at the end of First
Ave. where they sold Devil
Dogs, Mrs. Wagners Pies,
Pepsi's stuff like that. We
were sitting on the floor, in
the dark, with our backs
against the soda box. She
was wearing shorts and a
halter..which she didn't
really have to., and I began
to wonder if I should make
a move on her like the older
guys did in the Criterion. Of
course if I had, I don't know
what I would have done after
an initial acceptance. The
sirens stopped, the lights
went on and we went home.
I, still as curious as eyer.
The years went by and we
were still climbing over the
fence every day. Everything
'was rationed by then. Food,
clothes, gas, tires..that was
assuming you had a car.
Want to go anywhere on the
railroad ? Forget it! The
military had them all set
aside for troop movements.
Scrap drives for everything.
Metal, rubber, paper. The
housewives saved kitchen fat
and turned it into Ralston's,
Bohack's or the Renown
Market all next to each other
on Main St. What the hell
did they do with all that fat.
Shoot it at the Japs? Did we
do all that stuff so that now
they can beat us to an eco-nomic
death with their cars,
TVs, cameras and baseball
gloves. BASEBALL
GLOVES..for God's sake.
The American game.
We began to wonder if the
war would last long enough
for guys like us to get a shot.
By now there were blue stars
in the windows of many
houses. Some houses had
more than one. Not many of
the older guys were around
anymore. See them on Main
Street one day and two
weeks later they were thou-sands
of miles away.
Christmas 1944..the Bat-tle
of the Bulge that wasn't
much of a fun Christmas
either. The music "HI be
home for Christmas",
"When the lights go on again
all over the W o r l d " No
love, no nuthin', 'till my
baby comes home." And the
voices on the radio, Ray-mond
Graham Swing,
Gabriel (Good News)
Heater, Robert Trout, and
the incomparable Ed Mur-row.
By now there were
some Gold Stars replacing
the Blue ones in the windows
around town. By the time it
was all over there were
eleven all together..in a little
one horse town like
this..eleven.
And the bells. You never
heard them. D-Day-VE
Day~VJ Day. Now that I
look back I know that per-haps
Walt Whitman said it
best:
"Through night and day
with a
great cloud darkening the
land.
With the tolling, tolling bells
perpetual clang.
Here coffin that slowly
passes,
I give you my sprig of
lilac."
Happy holidays
Post #9581!
from
Christmas Toys
by Mildred Roemer
Baby Larenca Smith of
East Rockaway might have
been posing in this photo for
a Christmas commercial for
toys, back in the eighteen
hundreds. Her unique pic-ture
block certainly seemed
to intrigue her. Larenca's
photo was sent to the
Museum a while back along
with others of old timers
who had lived on Front
Street.
Ye historian started flip-ping
back the pages of the
past trying to remember an
early Christmas in a Brook-lyn
brownstone. A vivid pic-ture
came to life of a huge
Christmas tree with garlands
of tinsel and many, many
colorful candles placed on
the outer branches. Promi-nent
among the gifts was a
china doll, seated on a hand-painted
satin cushion, in a
gilded love seat. Her blue
eyes not only oppened and
shut, but moved from side
to side. Instantly she was
named "Goo-Goo Eyes."
There were no battery-run
action toys way back then,
just wind-ups. Trains and
music box merry-go-rounds
were popular. Stockings
were crammed with toys,
spinning tops, marbles and
sweets. Larenca Smith did
not live in a brownstone, but
in a neatly painted clap-board
house, near Mill River
where the old Mill was still
grinding corn and grain for
the local farmers.
Vietnam Support
Documentary Wins
Freedoms Award
GEORGE WASHINGTON HONOR MEDAL
L. TO R. Franic J. D'Amico of Staten Island, N.Y. Past
New York State Department Commander, The American
Legion; Miller; '^Support" corporation chairman, Raymond
W. Gimmler, Past Commander, E. Rockaway Post #958,
The American Legion; and Jack Connolly, Past Com-mander,
Roci^viltc Centre Post #333, The American Legion.
The Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge has awarded
the "We Supported Our Men in Vietnam, Inc." the presti-gious
George Washington Honor Medal for excellence in
the category of Programs and Activities. The award was
presented at a national award ceremony October 24th on
the Foundation campus at Valley Forge.
Robert W. Miller, President of the Foundation, stated
that thousands of nominations were received for this award.
Raymond W. Gimmler of East Rockaway, N.Y., president
and chairman of the "Support" corporation shared the
honors with corporation directors John M. Connolly, Jr.
of Valley Stream, N.Y. and Frank J. D'Amico of Staten
Island, N.Y.
In carrying out its program the corporation worked
closely with the leaders of the military, veterans, union,
business, fraternal, religious and community organizations.
Gimmler called attention to the tremendous assistance
from recently deceased State Senator Martin J. Knorr, State
Senator Serfin Maltese, Queens, the entire state legislature
and Governor Mario M. Cuomo for the grants enabling
the corporation'to professionalize the documentary and
carry out its program.
"To date hundreds of thousands of Americans in and
out of the military have viewed "At Home With Honor,"
a thirty-minute video documentary depicting the parades,
brass bands, homecoming and support events for our men
and women in Vietnam during and after the Vietnam con-flict"
declared Gimmler. He continued: "Now history will
record these events at the Freedoms Foundation, the
National Archives and the Library of Congress."
Freedoms Foundation, headquartered in historic Valley
Forge, Pennsylvania, is a national non-profit, non -politcal,
non-sectarian organization dedicated to preservation and-perpetuation
of the principals embodied in the Declaration
Qf Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of
Rights. Its basic goal is to promote an understanding of
the rights and responsibilities of citizenship among ail
Americans and to encourage their participation in the
democratic process.
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