It was Sunday, October 29th, 2000 a month after Mom’s final rent payment was paid, meaning it would finally bring her home to a close. So our family gathered together again, all of us, to make one last visit to our Mom’s home.
So here we were, the home was finally cleaned out and we were bringing the last of the boxes to Good Will . Suddenly one of us had a thought. Thinking back, perhaps we will all take credit for it, but I believe it was our eldest brother Dick, who with Mom’s passing was given the mantle of Family Leader, who said ‘'why don’t we take a walk down the block for one last time." We thought about it for a New York second; magically all siblings quickly agreed. So walk we did. We walked a few steps and within moments we were in a different era, a different time. We were back as kids growing up together on the street we loved with the neighbors we cherished. This is the story of that walk back in time.....
***************** ...... And suddenly it was 6:00 PM, Tuesday, July 21, 1959. Mr. Gates' bellowing dinner call, combined with Mr. Murray's piercing human whistle and our blasting village fire alarm at 6 PM all came at once…advising all of the 87 kids on Memory Lane that it was time to pack up our baseball gloves, the sawed off broomsticks and our one and only once bright pink spaldeen and head back to our individual homes to have dinner.
Amazingly, every night, it was the same thing! Our block would go from a mass bedlam of summer games such as stick ball; I Declare War, Steal the Flag, etc. to quiet dinner time inside the happy confines of the 42 homes on our beloved block. That’s not to mention the two side streets’ (Leo and Macrame) where other kids lived as well. Shortly after dinner, our block once again transgressed to become a nightly street fair of kick ball, punch ball, ring around the rosie or hide and seek in the short course of only 55 minutes because by 7 PM, we were all outside running around again.
We proudly and happily lived in Baby Boomer Land - Mineola / Williston Park hamlets of Long Island, New York!
We grew up in a town where every child deserves to have grown up. Located a relatively short distance from the hustle and bustle of the Big City but it had the ever loving charm of small town USA. Caring neighbors, friendly shopkeepers, civic minded citizens, dedicated politicians, countless volunteers, it is a hamlet that could be the set for many a movie about the ‘good life’ in middle America. We grew up in an America where love of neighbor was not only preached but practiced.
THIS RECOLLECTION IS A HAPPY REFLECTION OF A TIME GONE BY...
It is a long walk backwards, with many steps forward.
It is a view of the people we knew and the life that existed for so many years for so many people on our Memory Lane in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and onward as four siblings, along with their spouses and children, embarked on our ‘Last Walk On Our Block’.