December 2023: Volume 24 - Issue 3

Newsletter for the Alumni and Friends of Hicksville High School - Hicksville, New York

Dear Readers,
We hope you enjoy our latest issue. If you want to contribute, please get in touch with us. We would love to hear from you!
Have a great holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Your HixNews Team

Editors:
- Wendy Elkis Girnis '77
- Stefanie Cedar Shames '77
- Ron Wencer '64

Webmasters:
- Bruce Scherzinger (spouse of Eileen Goldstein '77)
- Gail Schwartzman Mayer '73
- Matt Kennedy '08
- Roger Whitaker (Webmaster Emeritus)

Holiday HFD Open House/ Tree Lighting / Popcorn Ball Fun

Submitted by Karl Schweitzer, Class of 1981 

As noted in some earlier articles, Hicksville has been our home for many years. It was a place where the middle class made their home.  The population boom of the 1950s doubled, then tripled Hicksville's population. The sense of community grew in popularity during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Community Christmas Tree Lighting

The Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony began in Hicksville in 1948. The local Rotary Club used the triangular piece of land where West John Street,  Broadway, and Jerusalem Avenue intersect. The Rotary Club would cut down a local tree and erect it in the area. The area is still used today and is now known as Kennedy Park.

Intersection of West John, Broadway, and Jerusalem. Kennedy Park is the triangular piece of land. Kennedy Park from Google Earth

The Hicksville community held its first public arrival of Santa Claus with a parade through the business section and candy distribution to the children. The first noted Santa Claus was Mid Island Herald's Editor, Fred Noeth. The Businessmen’s Association, later the Chamber of Commerce, started it all.   Each year, students from the high school provided the music as Santa rolled up Broadway and took up his station in front of either the Long Island National Bank or the Bank of Hicksville.  Children lined up in all directions for hours to greet Santa, who distributed candy gift boxes, assisted by local businessmen.  MacPherson Chevrolet was one of the first businesses to support the effort and provided the vehicle. The Police Boys Club also led the arrangements and assisted with the gift distribution.

The Rotary Club, in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce, were sponsors of the community Christmas tree at the Broadway Railroad crossing at the corner of the parking field by Jerusalem Avenue and the Railroad Depot. The Rotarians sponsored contests for youngsters to guess the number of lights displayed and the footage of electric wire used on the tree. The community lights along Broadway were strung across the road the day after Thanksgiving and the public tree lighting took place the first Saturday in December. There would also be a full schedule of carol singing by local youngsters.  The retail division of the Chamber of Commerce employed a full-time professional for the two weeks before Christmas. The professional took up his station in a little house next to the Community Tree at the Railroad crossing and was available daily to hear children express their heart'sdesire.

Before Mid Island Plaza was enclosed, the area under the metal arch was used to suspend a large, lit multi-color star. The star would be illuminated each Christmas season, and the large tree, dubbed “Christmas Around the World,” was placed directly under the star. The Plaza celebrated the Christmas season each year with Santa’s arrival by fire truck or helicopter. Today, they have a huge area within the mall designated just for Santa. 

 

In 1960 four men wearing winter attire have a rope tied around an evergreen tree and are hoisting it from the back of a flatbed truck. They are shown lifting the tree into a hole that was dug at the triangle located on Jerusalem Avenue and Broadway. This evergreen was the town's community Christmas tree. Sometime between 1965 and 1996, the community tree lighting was stopped, and it was not restarted as part of the holiday season at Kennedy Park until 1996.

Fire Department’s Popcorn Ball Day

In October 1938, Fire Chief Harry Borley and Commissioner John Werthessen held the first community fire prevention observance. The event morphed into an annual event that lasted 11 years. The fire department’s Fire Prevention Open House festivities were changed in 1961 under Chief Walter Werthessen. The attendance and awareness during the department's observance in October dropped off severely, prompting fire officials to establish a plan to heighten the forgotten observance. In 1965, the fire department brought up the idea of moving the annual Open House festivities from the month of October to December. It would be in conjunction with the holiday season.

The annual Open House would occur on the first Sunday of December, including fire prevention demonstrations.  With their parents in tow, the children walked through the fire station. Once upstairs,  the children visited displays and were allowed to see Santa Claus and receive toys and trinkets, with informational messages about fire prevention on each item. Over the years, our members, Bill Biggs, Joe Giardina, Joe DiFronzo, Harry Single, Shane Stevens, and many more, have helped in the event as a “Stand In Santa.”

The promotional idea to heighten awareness of the fire department's Annual Open House would include each of the eight fire companies on the last Sunday in November to board their apparatus with Santa Claus and distribute popcorn balls to waiting children in the community. The advent of “Popcorn Ball Day” took its roots and has continued for 53 years in rain, snow, sleet, or shine.

In 1987, there was a change in tradition, from popcorn balls to lollipops. While it was a good try, the distribution of lollipops thrown from fire trucks by firefighters had problems. The wind would stop the lollipops from hitting their targets.  The lollipops would hit the ground and the candy would crack. That idea was never tried again.

In 1990, the Annual Popcorn Ball Day had an incident with fire officials pondering this annual event's future. Firefighters, as usual, distributed popcorn balls on the Sunday before Open House.  Later that evening, reports were coming into Fire Headquarters that the possibility of glass-tainted popcorn may have been distributed. State and local agencies investigating these reports found what appeared to be glass fragments in one of 12,000 popcorn balls. The police investigated the incident, including working with the distributor of the popcorn. Thankfully, no one was hurt. 

1981 Members of Emergency Company 5 1981 Members of Emergency Company 5: George Howard, Frank Sala, Jim McLaughlin, John Keyer, Charley Hearon, Steve Urso, Jim Nicollet, Joe Russo, Robbie Warren and Pete McLoughlin. Jerry Nolan is standing on the truck, and Santa’s helper is Karl Schweitzer.
As mentioned, this has become a holiday tradition. On the last Sunday morning in November, the phones will ring off the hook, asking when and where Santa is within the community. I have had the opportunity and privilege to be a helping Santa “Stand In” while on Unit 935 for over 40 years.  

Santa on the fire truck Here Comes Santa Claus!

Kennedy Park Shines Again

Hicksville/Jericho Rotary ClubIn 1996, the Hicksville Fire Department teamed up with the Hicksville/Jericho Rotary Club to bring back the annual Christmas Tree Lighting. 

Providing Quality Counseling Services to Combat

Drug Abuse among Hicksville Adolescents & Adults

Submitted by John Maniec, Class of 1964

Hicksville Against Drugs, Inc. (H.A.D., Inc.) which was also known as Help-Aid-Direction (H.A.D.) was started in the late 1960s by various Hicksville residents to deal with the growth of drug abuse among Hicksville community youth and young adults.

Founding members of the H.A.D. board of directors included Christine and Ray Callahan, Shirley and Lennie Kershow, the Goodman family (mother and son) can’t remember their first names, Dorothy Mele, her daughter, Kathy, and myself.  Later on, a former school board member, Tom Nagle, joined this core group along with Walter Dunbar, a chiropractor who lived on Jerusalem Ave. I’m missing the names of several other founding/early members, but my memory was much better close to sixty years ago.

I remember that Christine Callahan was very active with her children in community sports, clubs, and various PTA groups. Lennie Kershow was a local butcher who worked at Braun’s Meat Market on Broadway located next door to the Sweet Shop.

We got Hicksville Against Drugs, Inc. recognized as a 501 ( c ) 3 non-profit charity and then got funded as a local drug abuse counseling program via the Nassau County Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction.  Lennie got his boss, Tom Braun, to rent us space above his butcher shop so we could start group and individual counseling sessions. We hired two former addicts, Terry P. and Billy W., to run these groups. Terry and Billy were recovered drug addicts who had both graduated from structured in-patient treatment programs ( i.e. Nassau County’s Topic House and NYC Phoenix House).

 We were very lucky also to have Dorothy Mele, who was finishing up her certified social worker graduate degree.  We had a very unique sign-language counseling group led by Terry for hearing-impaired and deaf youngsters. When we started H.A.D., Inc., I was a professional educator teaching junior high school history out in Suffolk County. As we grew and hired two other men who were finishing their social work and psychology advanced degrees, I left teaching to be H.A.D.. Inc.'s first executive director/administrator.

Throughout the early to mid-1970s, staff members spoke to many public and private school classes and fraternal/community groups about the dangers of drug abuse.

We tried to offer Hicksville community youth alternatives to drug abuse. We brought a traveling circus to the parking area of the Mid-Island Plaza. We arranged for 50 cent children's movies to be run during the hot summer months within the air-conditioned Mid-Island Plaza movie theater. We were even lucky to have the original Brooklyn Bridge band donate their time/talent at a concert held in Levittown Hall. Before this professional group came on at that inexpensive concert ($ 3 admission), we conducted a battle of bands using four local teenage groups. Some very talented teenagers and young adults also created a little theater and we produced several quality plays that were well received and attended by community residents.

In 1978, I left H.A.D., Inc., to become state director of Odyssey House in Manhattan while finishing my Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) at New York University. Help-Aid-Direction (H.A.D.) continued to function quite well for many years to come, and it definitely helped countless local adolescents and young adults see drugs as not the answer to their problems.

If you or someone you know needs assistance, contact SAMSHAA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration).  SAMHSA’s National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357) (also known as the Treatment Referral Routing Service), or TTY: 1-800-487-4889 is a confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year, information service, in English and Spanish, for individuals and family members facing mental and/or substance use disorders. This service provides referrals to local treatment facilities, support groups, and community-based organizations. Or, send your zip code via text message: 435748 (HELP4U) to find help near you. 

Don't Let Them Die Twice
Submitted by John Maniec, Class of 1964

Next June 2024, God-willing, I will experience a significant milestone in my life. It will be 60 years since I graduated with my Hicksville High School Class of 1964.

As I contemplate how my life has traveled from adolescence to old age ( so far 77 years here on this earth), I wonder what if I had taken significant other paths instead? The Vietnam War was raging as I started Nassau Community College in September 1964. In my high school yearbook, I listed going to college as my immediate goal. I wanted to be a teacher. This war was getting hotter, and the government instituted a lottery draft system assigning each birthdate a number (from 1 to 365). The lower the number, the better chance of being called up to serve in one of our nation’s Armed Services. My birthdate (October 14^th) ended up with a very high two hundred number. I was able to go onto SUNY Oneonta earning my bachelor’s degree in History in June 1968. I told myself that if I had been drafted, I would have willingly gone to serve my country, but that didn’t happen.

These last 60 years have flown by, and my adult life overall has been a very positive experience. I have a wonderful wife (the second time around ) and four grown children given to me by my first wife. The children were also kind enough to provide me with four grandchildren who have made my twilight years outstanding.

Now, you are probably asking yourself, what does all of this have to do with the title of this article? There is a movie that I regularly watch. It has a key phrase that clearly explains this above title. Equalizer 2, has a scene where Mr. McCall (Denzel Washington) is talking to a Black teenager about how his older brother had died violently when someone wanted his gym bag. The teenager was a talented artist who marked each of his drawings with a symbol of his dead brother. To paraphrase: “To not remember someone who was taken away early and especially violently is like they died twice.”

Allan Robert Gianelli was a classmate of mine whose immediate goal in the yearbook also listed his desire to go to college upon graduating in June 1964 with the rest of our class. Unfortunately, Allan was killed in Vietnam on September 14, 1968, and his dreams and aspirations ended in a foreign nation sixty years earlier than mine. I think of Allan often now. Why was I so lucky to have six decades of time more than him?

We need to create a way today to honor the ultimate sacrifices made by U.S. Armed Forces men and women who were Hicksville residents/HHS alumni. Hicksville students attending the high school must realize that our freedom comes with a heavy price.

Let’s now fast forward to April 13, 2004. Attached to this article is the poster “Never Forget!” It shows a very handsome U.S. Marine named Cpl. Kevin Kolm KIA in Iraq on that date at the age of 23. This young man graduated from Hicksville High School with the Class of 1998.

What if circumstances had been different for this U.S. Marine, and he never entered the service for his country? He was probably born in 1981 and would be around 42 years old in 2023. He could also already be married and have one of his children scheduled to graduate with the HHS class of 2024. Unfortunately, Cpl. Kevin Kolm paid the ultimate sacrifice to defend his country and didn’t get a chance to grow old, marry, and have his own children.

Is it not about time to find a way to honor and remember all the fallen heroes who grew up in Hicksville and attended its public schools? Otherwise, not remembering their names and service to our community, its youth, and nation amounts to them dying twice. Over the past century, many Hicksville High School alumni probably served in the various branches of the U.S. Armed Forces and didn’t come home to their families and close friends. I now remember often Allan Robert Gianelli and Cpl. Kevin Kolm. Shouldn’t we find a way to honor meaningfully and remember these two heroes and many others, too?

Editors' Note: HixNews has a long history of remembering Vets but we weren't sure if that extended past Vietnam. Thanks to Webmaster Gail Schwartzman Mayer's  (Class of 1973) efforts, photographs of memorials to Cpl. Kolm are included here. We are proud that Hicksville and the Town of Oyster Bay remembered him and others.  HixNews previously highlighted the dedication of the Memorial Garden at the Middle School. The section on the south side honors Hicksville grads who died in the line of duty following Vietnam. Kevin's name was the first one on the center stone. Thank you to Bill Walden (Class of 1965) and Jay Tranchina (Class of 1964) for information about the Memorial Garden.

Photos from the Town of Oyster Bay Kevin Kolm Memorial Park

Etcetera for December 2023

The Editors received this news:

Just want you to know that Ethel Kunz Lehmann, HHS '47, is still going strong!  In a decades-long tradition, she ran the Clearwater, FL annual Turkey Trot - one day before her 94^th birthday. The eldest of 5,332 finishers in the 5K race, she met her goal of under 1 hour.  See the links below and attached snips from the 1947 yearbook. At 94, Ethel still competes in age 75+ men’s softball league twice a week, jogs 2.5 miles in a nearby park, and bowls weekly.

Jim Lehmann (son)

https://www.turkeytrot.net/

https://runsignup.com/Race/Results/83513#resultSetId-421770;perpage:10 – filter by age, high to low

In Memoriam - Names are listed by class on our website. These are recent submissions.

Catherine Tranchina Carson, Student, Class of 1966 - passed August 15, 2023