Each Issue of the Magazine should have a message from the pubisher/editor or from one of our classmates... a message that takes us back to our senior year in Mineola and also to tie that message back to our lives and Mineola friendships today. Looks like I'm doing it again.
Rich Ottaviano, Guest Contributor
My Uncle Frank and Aunt Cele lived one floor down. My paternal grandfather's grocery store was on the corner on the street level, and my grandparent's small apartment was the next door down. My Mom's brothers lived nearby. My cousins lived by Fort Hamilton. We are all born at Shore Road Hospital. My Mom's parent's luncheonette and candy store with their apartment above was just around the corner. If you want to be popular, be a little kid that has a Grandma that owns a candy store!! My dad always said, we never had much money but between the grocery store and the luncheonette, we never went hungry. (Believe it or not, they called me the last rose of summer, and Grandma was always sneaking eggs into the malts she made for me as a treat). |
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I was a happy kid because I had received my desired Gene Autry cowboy outfit with six-gun for Christmas which I was now wearing every day. I basically remember being hugged and kissed and pinched a lot at these gatherings. I remember lots of laughter and commotion….lots of laughing until you had tears in your eyes. I remember singing Christmas Carols around the piano and later my Uncle Gene performing..'Angelina…..ta da da.' My parents place was THE gathering place. I'm not sure why, maybe it was the Dumont 5" TV that they had, the first TV in the neighborhood! | ||||
But what I remember most….Everywhere I looked were people to have fun with and to get in trouble with. Everywhere I looked were people that would forgive me. Everywhere I looked were people I loved and people who loved me.
| Now the scene shifts. It is Raff Ave in Mineola in December 1962, the Christmas Holidays of our senior year in high school. Things are different …. But things are the same. Some of the names change, but the experience was so very similar. Within about a block and a half I had friends like Anthony and Marianne…the very first people I met in Mineola. There was Steve Berland, Gene Miller, Bruce Damon, and Jack Emmer. Elaine Bua often visited her brother who lived directly across the street. Phil Meringolo was in the crowd as well. Phil's parents were best friends with my parents in Brooklyn, and they also made the move to Mineola about 7 houses away some years after we did. |  |
My mom's parents sold the candy store and bought a home about 5 houses down from the Meringolo family. You go another block and a half and the list about triples….The east end contingent, the northern section of the Hampton Street crowd.
My extended family has stretched out. More kids, more cousins. Further distances. But my parents place was still THE place to gather. Now instead of neighborhood travel in Brooklyn they came from Queens, Jersey – both north and south, other parts of The Island, and yes…. Still some cousins in Brooklyn.
205 Raff Ave was again filled to the brim, with the usual commotion, eating, and laughing.
I could now defend myself better, and dish it out myself, but I was still getting pinched and hugged and kissed a lot. We were still telling the same stories over and over, and laughing as if we were hearing them for the first time, ..laughing until we cried again. We were still singing around the piano with Uncle Gene performing "Angelina….da ta da ta da….
But what I remember most….Everywhere I looked were people to have fun with and to get in trouble with. Everywhere I looked were people who would forgive me. Everywhere I looked were people I loved and people who loved me.
And now the scene shifts again. It is time for Holidays once again, but now it is 2011. Most of us are at least 66 years old. Can you all believe it?
Families are even more scattered. Now instead of coming from Jersey and Queens and Brooklyn and having the gang around the block the neighborhood is the entire country. Our family is in California, in Oregon, in Texas, several places in Virginia, in South Carolina, in Georgia, in Ohio, in West Virginia…. And probably a few others that I am missing.
We've moved from being the 'kids' to being the parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles… even great aunts and great uncles.
It is even harder to replicate those old times but that is why we travel, we skype, and we facetime. That is why we travel every Thanksgiving and Christmas so we can be with our kids and grandson. That is why we travel to visit family. That is why Harriet is always on the look-out for just the right gift for Will, or Elizabeth Ann, or Greg or his baby, even it is not Christmas time. We figure if unannounced stuff shows up from Aunt Harriet and Uncle Richard, they will be reminded they are part of something bigger than just their family unit.
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And then there is MHS'63, another type of extended family. It is also spread across the country with a strong base in New York and Florida. It has become a sharing family, tied together by this web site (Thank you Carl!), mini-reunions in Florida, and our annual reunions in the fall. We stay in touch, we support each other, especially in times of sickness or trouble. It is so very special in this world of being disconnected. |
Between my extended family, my church family, close associates at my work, and my MHS'63 extended family it is easy to see at this Holiday time that I am indeed blessed.
But what I see most….Everywhere I look are people to have fun with and people to get in trouble with. Everywhere I look are people who will forgive me. Everywhere I look are people I love and people who love me.
I wish the very best of this Holiday Season to you and your extended family. God Bless each and every one of you.
Rich
Rich Ottaviano 
