Carol Ackley, class of 1960, recalls working at Woolworth

1950s Woolworth menu. The prices now seem amazing.

Click on menu to enlarge
"One summer I was working at Woolworth in Levittown, and the store was trying to get rid of hoola hoops, so I volunteered to sell them in front of the store," Carol Ackley remembers. "Needless to say, I saw everyone from Division Avenue High School that day, and I could not make the hoop spin. Frank Barning and Russ Green thought that was the funniest thing."

New Year's Resolutions of Division Avenue High School alumni

Dewain Lanfear '60
Find something useful to do with the abilities I have left.

Mal Karman '60
To take one day at a time, and appreciate every moment of time in one day.

Pat Stanley Share '62
My No. 1 resolution would be to not want to bitch slap those that don't agree with me and to REALLY try to understand their point of view.

Susan Padgett Termini '62
My No. 1 resolution is the same as it has been every year...to lose weight and get in stronger physical condition. Wish me better luck with it in 2011.

Lillian Smith Handleman '62
My No. 1 resolution is to spend less time on the computer. A lot less time.

Susan Weldon '60
Think about exercising more.

Karen Biro Hewson '60
I don't normally make New Year's resolutions but, thinking about it I would have to say that I'll try to "go more with the flow" this coming year - stay relaxed and always have a plan B, plan C, etc. Sometimes I'm just a bit too organized. Hope I can keep that resolution, but sometimes it's hard to go against your nature.

Joan Bartels Signorelli '62
I really don't make resolutions. I never keep them so never make them.

Michelle Fromm-Lewis '63
My No. 1, most important for my sanity resolution is to follow the message on the refrigerator magnet my daughter gave me that says "Stop me before I volunteer again!"

Lilette Levy Bagwin '60
I would like to search for and find peace of mind. It has eluded me for a long time.

June Johnson '63
At this point in my life I like to keep things as simple and as uncomplicated as possible.
No resolutions. Eat, drink and be merry now.

Arlene Gibson '61
Put the gold in the golden years.

Frank Barning '60
To stop pestering my wife about her driving habits.

Warren Zaretsky '60
I will let you know once I resolve the issue of how I aged so quickly this year.

Thanks for all your "educational" emails in 2010, I think

As we progress toward the end of 2010, I want to thank all of you for your educational e-mails over the past year. I am totally screwed up now and have little chance of recovery.

I no longer open a bathroom door without using a paper towel, or have the waitress put lemon slices in my ice water without worrying about the bacteria on the lemon peel.

I can’t use the remote in a hotel room because I don’t know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels.

I can’t sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed.

I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking one’s nose.

Eating a little snack sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans fats I have consumed over the years.

I can’t touch any woman’s purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom.

I MUST SEND MY SPECIAL THANKS to whoever sent me the one about rat poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing.

ALSO, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die for the 1,387,258th time

I no longer have any money, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa’s Novena has granted my every wish.

I can’t have a drink in a bar because I’ll wake up in a bathtub full of ice with my kidneys gone.

I can’t eat at KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes, feet or feathers.

I can’t use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

BECAUSE OF YOUR CONCERN, I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer buy gas without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer doesn’t crawl in my back seat when I’m filling up.

I no longer drink Pepsi or Fanta since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put ‘Under God’ on their cans.

I no longer use Cling Wrap in the microwave because it causes seven different types of cancer.

AND THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW I can’t boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face. Disfiguring me for life.

I no longer go to the movies because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS when I sit down.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or Fed Ex since they are actually Al Qaeda agents in disguise.

And I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore , and Uzbekistan ...

I no longer buy cookies from Neiman-Marcus since I now have their recipe.

THANKS TO YOU I can’t use anyone’s toilet but mine because a big black snake could be lurking under the seat and cause me instant death when it bites my butt.

AND THANKS TO YOUR GREAT ADVICE I can’t ever pick up 25-cent coin dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting to grab me as I bend over

I no longer drive my car because buying gas from some companies supports Al Qaeda, and buying gas from all the others supports South American dictators.

I can’t do any gardening because I’m afraid I’ll get bitten by the Violin Spider and my hand will fall off.

If you don’t send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5 pm tomorrow afternoon, and the fleas from 120 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s best friend’s beautician . . .

Oh, by the way.....

A German scientist from Argentina, after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse.

Don’t bother taking it off now, it’s too late.

P. S.: I now keep my toothbrush in the living room, because I was told by e-mail that water splashes over 6 feet out of the toilet.
_______________________________
Thank you to Daria Marusevich '61 for emailing this to me. She had learned that her prayers would only be answered if she forwarded this e-mail to seven of her friends and made a wish within five minutes.

City kid Frank Barning's earliest Levittown memories

Click on photo to enlarge
Photo, courtesy of Tim Lavey, is from the early 1950s. Note the small trees and shrubs.

BY FRANK BARNING

Moving to Levittown in October 1954 was like being in a science fiction story where you wake up on a far distant planet or maybe even Oz. The first dozen years of my life were spent in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. I was a city kid. And all of a sudden, here we were in "the country."

Levittown was so quiet, so wide open. I had lived in a six-story apartment house just a few steps to a wide variety of stores and a short walk to the subway. At first glance, my new home at 10 Hyacinth Road was in "the sticks." I wasn't unhappy to move, but it was incredibly different. There was so much grass, so many neat little houses, no problem finding a place to park the family car. There was room to roam.

When you move, at any age, there can be a concern about finding new friends. Little did I realize in the beginning that Levittown in 1954 was a paradise for kids. There were so many of us. Our Cape Cod house was at the corner of Hyacinth and Primrose Lane. I quickly found out that all I had to do to find friends was to ride my bicycle on these streets and I would be greeted by boys who were incredibly welcoming.

The first boy I met was Steve Zwerling who introduced me to his next-door neighbor Artie Reiersen. Then I met Mike Gurr who lived next to Louie Pascale on Primrose Lane, near my corner. This became a core group of kids during my junior high years. Soon after we moved in, the Giffords bought the house across the street from us, which added Eddie and Bobby to the crew. I was in hog heaven almost from day one.

Of course, I was changing schools and that could have been a challenge. But my new seventh-grade classmates were friendly and I felt at home, at least socially, immediately. Kids that come to mind are Richie Humbert, Joan Lucas, Mickey Graham, Louise Nicolosi, Lilette Levy, David Reavis, Emily Estow, Ray Wenz, Phil Adrian and Midge Bollinger.

Acclimating to new classes and teachers was not as easy. First of all, the school year was into its second month. So I was behind. And there was this class listed on my schedule as Cit. Ed. I had never heard of this subject. What gives?

The only class, academically, that was a problem was roly-poly Robert Reggio's seventh grade science. I had been at my new school maybe two days and he announced that there would be a test. I asked if I could be excused and Mr. Reggio wasn't buying it. The result, I got a grade of 32. Holy shit, what will my mother think? Frankly, I was afraid of disappointing her and here I had gotten a 32 on my first test in my new school.

I told Mr. Reggio, who I came to realize was a great teacher and gentleman, that he was being unfair. He wasn't buying that either. Well, I was going to show him that I was a good student and I rarely worked harder in any class I ever took. The result was that I earned a high 90s on the final exam in June. When the grades came out, I reminded him of my unfair 32 in October. "I knew you could do it, Frank," he told me. Well, I doubt that he "knew" it but that crappy grade was a great motivator.

In 1954, Division Avenue High School had not yet been created. We were Division Avenue School until the spanking new high school, connected to the junior high, opened two years later. There was a cozy small gymnasium in which dances were held on Fridays instead of physical education. Most of the boys did not know how to dance, but it sure was fun slow dancing with the girls in my grade. That might have been THE highlight of seventh grade for me. I developed a crush on one girl that I held for six years. Don't ask because I won't tell who it was.

My first gym teacher was Eugene Aeillo, another all-time great person. A few years later, he became the assistant principal. For English I had the studious looking James Reilly who became the principal. My math teacher was Jim Chenevey, the best instructor I ever had. Harold Fricke was a revered art teacher and I was in love with Miss Dorothea Stahman who was the music teacher. She later became Mrs. Fitzsimmons. I am not sure if my teacher for industrial arts was David Peyton or Armand Tarantelli. Both were fine men but I was not cut out (pun intended) to use a saw.

I even liked the lunchroom. The food may not have been great but it sure beat the crap that the New York City schools dished out. That stuff was foul. The playground at my school in Forest Hills was all cement. Not a single blade of grass. But behind Division Avenue School was acres of grass and for a boy who loved to play sports, this was a dream.

I am so glad that my mother and dad moved us to Levittown. Life was a holiday on Hyacinth Road.
___________________________________

From Damon Solomon, class of 1960:
Every day, like a child, I await your new blog entry to transport me back in time to a 16-year old kid again; a time of joy, peace and “Happy Days”! God, do I miss those times of our school years and growing up in the paradise that Levittown was. I never realized how wonderfully rich our childhood years were...until they were gone.

Record blizzard makes Levittown a winter wonderland

Fellow Division Avenue High School alumni who now live in sunbelt places such as Florida and Southern California only get to see blizzards on television and the internet. It's not nice to gloat, but some of us do.

The best thing about heavy snow when we were teenagers was that school was sometimes closed. The second best thing was the cash that could be made by shoveling sidewalks. Those were pre-snow blower years.

The photos of the very recent record snowfall were snapped by Marilyn Monsrud '63 on her street in Levittown. She reports that winds reached 60 miles per hour. One of the black and white photos is of Marilyn and her sister Susan from 1950 on Boat Lane.

The other vintage shot is of snowy Blue Bell Lane from around 1954 and was provided by Karen Biro Hewson '60. We don't know if Karen is gloating, but she lives in Florida.

Jim Anton '61 found a box of very pleasant memories

Jim Anton was looking for Christmas lights to hang and came across a box of old stuff from Division Avenue High School. According to the 1961 graduate, "My mom must have sent it to me years ago. I found my freshman letters '61' and my Varsity D's."

In the box was the program from the 1961 graduation. "I was No. 2 in my class," the Southern California resident reported. He failed to point out that he was No. 2 alphabetically, not academically. "It looks like 67 percent of the class got regents diplomas. We also had lots of scholarships. After all these years I found out that I graduated and got married on the same date, June 25. Marriage was five years later."

Also in the box was a program from the Blue Dragons' 1958 sports awards dinner. So, we can look forward to seeing some of the more interesting pages posted in our blog, including a list of cheerleaders, award winners and baseball letter winners.

Thanks for the memories, Jim. You'll always be No. 2 to your old friends from Levittown, some of whom remember you being full of No. 2.

Christmas Eve report from wandering Warren Zaretsky, class of 1960

By Warren Zaretsky

It was Christmas Eve and I felt like the last survivor of the Alamo. The neighborhood kids had me surrounded, I was under siege. Bombs bursting overhead outside the garden walls, gunshots, rapid fire machine gun blasts of firecrackers and whistling rockets split the night air.

A dozen dogs barked with a vengeance. Some wise-ass tossed a cherry bomb over the wall and into the yard, then another. It was legitimately scary and I wished I had a gun. Then suddenly it stopped. Either they were out of ammunition, reloading, or they had fixed bayonettes and were coming over the wall. I waited, just behind the patio door, a kitchen knife in each hand and one clenched between my teeth. The best I could hope for was a Mexican stand-off.

Remember the Alamo, Christmas in Mexico, and me.
______________________________________________
Yes, that's wandering Warren in the Santa suit.

Levittown Mickey's favorite Christmas songs . . .

Dressed for the season is Mickey, who lives in Levittown and is the pride and joy of Marilyn Monsrud Frese '63. He is a 2 1/2 year old Yorkie. These are his favorite Christmas songs:

10. Grandma Got Run Over by a Rottweiler

9. We Three Canines

8. Oh! Holy Fire Hydrant!

7. Duke, The Red-Nosed Doberman

6. Sniffing Around the Christmas Tree

5. Jingle Bones

4. Wreck the Halls

3. I Saw Mommy Licking Santa Claus

2. Away in a Dog House

1. All I want for Christmas is My Two Chew Toys

Your blogger sends greetings from Las Vegas, but remembers his Levittown roots

Frank Barning in front of the big Christmas tree at Bellagio in Vegas

What is your favorite Christmas movie?

Here are the opinions of a few Division Avenue High School graduates

Pat Stanley Share '62
My favorite used to be A Christmas Carol, the really old one from 1951. The original with Alistare Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge scared the crap out of me, but now I have to say it's Love Actually. It's an adult kind of movie, not for kids under say 18, due to its content but a great sound track a feel good story. This movie features a wonderful cast, including Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, who actually play a character who's wife dies very young an unfortunate comparison to his real life, Colin Firth, and many others.

Arnie Galeota '61
A Christmas Carol - Alastair Sim version
March of the Wooden Soldiers - Laurel and Hardy

Sandy Adams '60
White Christmas
Miracle of 34th St - original version (1947)

Larry Bory '60
It's a Wonderful Life

Lillian Smith Handleman '62
The Little Match Girl

Patricia Kraft McDonald '60
1A. Polar Express tied with
1B. Charlie Brown Christmas

Frank Barning '60
A Christmas Story - Darren McGavin, Jean Shepherd

Dewain Lanfear '60
A Christmas Story - Darren McGavin, Jean Shepherd

Ann Crescenzo Fazzino '61
It's a Wonderful Life

CHRISTMAS CAROLS FOR THE PSYCHIATRICALLY CHALLENGED

Schizophrenia ---
Do You Hear What I Hear?

Multiple Personality Disorder ---
We Three Queens Disoriented Are

Amnesia ---
I Don't Know if I'll be Home for Christmas

Narcissistic ---
Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me

Manic ---
Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and Fire Hydrants and...

Paranoid ---
Santa Claus is Coming to Get Me

Personality Disorder ---
You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout,
Maybe I'll tell You Why

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ---
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Agoraphobia ---
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day But Wouldn't Leave My House

Senile Dementia ---
Walking in a Winter Wonderland Miles From My House in My Slippers and Robe

Oppositional Defiant Disorder ---
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus So I Burned Down the House

Social Anxiety Disorder ---
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas While I Sit Here and Hyperventilate

Division High graduates pick their favorite Christmas songs; blogger remembers Bing Crosby's carol in Latin

The first Christmas music I can remember is from a 78-rpm album entitled "Merry Christmas" by Bing Crosby on the Decca label that my aunt Mary Barning liked to play. This goes back to about 1947. The album, released in 1945, included five of those large black discs and came in a heavy-duty, full-color cover with a sleeve for each record. Therefore, 10 songs were included. The album cover pictured above is from an LP (long play) version of the album issued a few years later.

Aunt Mary loved to play music and at that point I was the only grandchild in the Barning family, and an appreciative captive audience. I memorized all the words to the Crosby songs and at about the same time knew all the lyrics to the score from the Broadway smash, Oklahoma, thanks to my wonderful aunt's record collection.

To me the most intriguing song was Bing's Latin version of Come All Ye Faithful, Adeste Fideles. Young Frankie did not have access to the Latin words in written form, so they were memorized as best I could. As it turned out, I was pretty close in my interpretation. Here are the Latin lyrics via Google:

Adeste fideles,
laeti triumphantes,
Venite, venite in Bethlehem!
Natum videte,
Regem angelorum
Venite adoremus,
Venite adoremus,
Venite adoremus
Dominum.

We asked a few of our Division Avenue High School friends to list their favorite Christmas songs. The results show a mix of traditional, rock and novelty songs.

Sandy Adams '60
1. White Christmas – Bing Crosby
2. Blue Christmas – Elvis Presley
3. Angels We Have Heard on High – Andrea Bocelli
4. Silver Bells – various artists
5. Winter Wonderland – various artists

Larry Bory '60
1. Little Saint Nick - Beach Boys
2. Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
3. Carol of the Bells - Swingle Singers
4. O Holy Night - Perry Como
5. 12 Days of Christmas - Muppets and John Denver

Patricia Kraft McDonald '60
1. The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
2. White Christmas by Bing Crosby
3. Emanuel - Amy Grant
4. Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
5. I'll Be Home For Christmas - Bing Crosby

Frank Barning '60
1. Adeste Fideles - Bing Crosby
2. Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
3. Santa Claus is Coming to Town - The Ronettes
4. We Need a Little Christmas from Mame
5. Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt

Ann Crescenzo Fazzino '61
1. The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
2. Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer - Gene Autry
3. White Christmas - Bing Crosby
4. Little Drummer Boy - Johnny Mathis
5. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Frank Sinatra

Arnie Galeota '61
1. The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
2. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Frank Sinatra
3. Silver Bells - Johnny Mathis
4. Miracle of the Bells
5. Little Drummer Boy - Harry Simeone Chorale

Dewain Lanfear '60
1. Mary Did You Know - Billy Dean
2. Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt

Lillian Smith Handleman '62
1. Winter Wonderland - Johnny Mathis

Pat Stanley Share '62
1. All I Want for Christmas is You - from Love Actually
2. We Need a Little Christmas - from Mame
3. White Christmas
4. Jingle Bells
5. Silent Night
____________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE SONG WHITE CHRISTMAS
Irving Berlin knew he had just written a classic. When he asked his secretary to take down the song he had just written, he said, “I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written. Hell, I just wrote the best song anyone’s ever written!” Bing Crosby sang it on his radio show in 1941 and recorded it in 1942. It was the best-selling single in any music category until Elton John’s version of Candle in the Wind for Princess Diana took over in 1998.

Since more and more seniors are texting, it’s time for STC (Senior Texting Code)

ATD: At The Doctor's
BFF: Best Friend Farted
BTW: Bring The Wheelchair
BYOT: Bring Your Own Teeth
CBM: Covered By Medicare
CUATSC: See You At The Senior Center
DWI: Driving While Incontinent
FWB: Friend With Beta Blockers
FWIW: Forgot Where I Was
FYI: Found Your Insulin
GGPBL: Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low
GHA: Got Heartburn Again
HGBM: Had Good Bowel Movement
IMHO: Is My Hearing-Aid On?
LMDO: Laughing My Dentures Out
LOL: Living On Lipitor
LWO: Lawrence Welk's On
OMMR: On My Massage Recliner
OMSG: Oh My! Sorry, Gas.
ROFL... CGU: Rolling On The Floor Laughing... And Can't Get Up
SGGP: Sorry, Gotta Go Poop
TTYL: Talk To You Louder
WAITT: Who Am I Talking To?
WTFA: Wet The Furniture Again
WTP: Where's The Prunes?
WWNO: Walker Wheels Need Oil
________________
Thank you to Alan Lerner '60 for forwarding this, I think.

Early Levittown's four Urban brothers were not a myth

Here's another memory lane photo. It was snapped on Easter Sunday, 1957. From left to right are Dale, Jim, Tom and Norm Urban. You couldn't have lived in Levittown in the 1950s and '60s without having known at least one of the Urbans. They could be found on ball fields, in classrooms and working at the drug store at the North Village Green.

The picture was taken in the front yard of their home at 220 Old Farm Road, two houses east of another memorable Levittown brother combination, Pete '60 and Corky Cybriwsky '62. The Urbans moved to Old Farm Road in 1952 then to 25 Azalea Road in 1958

Big brother Norm graduated from Levittown Memorial High School in 1958, and then went to Boston University on a full football scholarship. He transferred back home to Hofstra where he played football, after which he joined the United States Marine Corps and served in Vietnam becoming a highly decorated helicopter pilot.

The three younger Urban brothers all graduated from Division Avenue High School. Tom was in the class of 1960, Jim in 1961 and Dale in 1964. Tom and Jim graduated from Hofstra. For Dale it was SUNY Cortland where he earned Bachelors and Masters degrees.

Now home for the Urbans is in four different states; Norm in California, Jim in Maryland, Dale in North Carolina while Tom has remained on Long Island.

1961 Division Avenue classmates in a vintage blast from the past

Kathy Rees provided this pajama-party photo of her 1961 Division Avenue High School classmates (left to right) Pat Calderwood, Iris Ornstein, Mollie Feit and Mickey Thomas. Don't you wish that you had been invited?

Division Avenue High lunchroom buddies, separated for decades, reunite in sunny California

Don Davidson and Frank Barning in front of the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas

By FRANK BARNING

About a dozen years ago, Stephen Zwerling emailed me to ask if I remembered our Division Avenue High School classmate Don Davidson. He wrote that Don lived in the San Diego area and that maybe we lived near each other.

Of course I remembered Don, but memories had faded. There was the caption in the football section of the 1960 yearbook that stated, "We lost to undefeated Herricks, 12-6, with our touchdown coming as lineman Don Davidson picked up a fumble and rambled into paydirt." I had written that.

Through the years after high school, Don's name occasionally flashed before my eyes, but in an odd form. There was a baseball executive, primarily with the Atlanta Braves, named Donald Davidson. He was often quoted, but most stories mentioned that the man was four foot-one inches tall. No one who rambled for a touchdown was that size.

I was living in San Diego and was experiencing very little face-to-face contact with people from my high school days. Frankly, I yearned for it. So thanks to Zwerling, the first person my age who I met when we moved to Levittown in 1954, I grabbed a phone book. There were two or three Donald Davidsons listed.

The first Donald Davidson gave a negative answer to my question, "Are you from Levittown, New York?" I hit pay dirt with the second call, received an enthusiastic response from the real Don Davidson. "Sure I remember you, Frank. We usually sat together in the lunchroom in high school." In my yearbook, he has referred to me as "our beloved sports editor."

Within 24 hours we were reunited, meeting for breakfast. And we both knew, within minutes, that we had found something special. Here we were, 3,000 miles from Levittown, with nearly 40 years passing since we last met, and it seemed like we were back in the school cafeteria.

There was so much to talk about that we got together a few days later and then met as often as Don's busy travel schedule permitted. It did not take long to realize that we were now each other's best friend. He was the brother I never had. We not only shared being from the same town and high school. Our interests were compatible. He was also a huge sports fan, and we were on the same page politically. Also, my son and one of Don's three sons had graduated from the same high school, a year apart. I felt badly that we did not know about each other being in Southern California earlier, had lost several years of what became a great friendship.

In 2005, the Barnings moved to Las Vegas, which is about a five-hour drive from the San Diego area. My biggest regret in relocating is that Don and I were separated by distance. No more breakfasts in La Jolla down the hill from his house, no more San Diego Chargers or Padres games together, no more driving around in his slick Mercedes sports car with the top down and the Beach Boys blasting from his tape deck.

Don and I liked to cruise the coast highway which overlooks the Pacific Ocean for many of its miles in San Diego County. Nearly 25 years earlier, both of us had been captivated by the Beach Boys' songs that made California so inviting. And here we were cruising the coast that they had immortalized. Nothing said it better than Brian Wilson when he wrote:

"All over La Jolla
At Waimea Bay
Everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A."

Maybe we were too old to take up surfing, but two Levittown guys were living the dream promised by Wilson's lyrics. It was a heady time for Don and me. Now we get together a half dozen times a year. He loves Vegas and has been a frequent visitor. Vivian and I spent our summer vacation this year in San Diego, renting a place about 10 minutes from Don's house. Of course we chat on the phone a couple of times each week, solving the problems of the world and our favorite teams.

Our plan is to drive the coast highway all the way from San Diego, which borders on Mexico, to Canada. When we do, the Beach Boys will provide the sound track.

"Oh, pun-ish me, pun-ish me"..... 26 Puns

1. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian

3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

4. The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

12. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.'

13 I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'

15. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

16. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

17. A backward poet writes inverse.

18. In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.

19. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

20. If you jumped off the bridge in Paris , you'd be in Seine.

21. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, 'I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.'

22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says 'Dam!'

23. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

24. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, 'I've lost my electron.' The other says 'Are you sure?' The first replies, 'Yes, I'm positive.'

25. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.

26. There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

Q&A with Jon Buller class of 1961; Connecticut resident has had a rare mix of life experiences (part 2)

Was there anyone in Levittown who sparked your interest in what became your career?

Our fourth-grade teacher, Mr. Langan, noticed that John Fitzsimmons and I both liked to draw cartoons. Another teacher might have told us to put away our cartoons until after school, but Mr. Langan would give us special assignments that would allow us to combine our interest in cartooning with the subjects we were studying. So, for instance, I got to draw a several-page comic strip about the conquest of Mexico. I can still remember certain panels from that cartoon, like the one in which Cortez sets fire to his fleet — he is holding a match to one of his ships, with an evil grin on his face — so that his men will not give any thought to retreat.

You and some of the other 1961 grads seem to have a nice bond. The gathering of friends at the 50th reunion, to me, was memorable. Anything to comment on here?

It’s always tricky to try to explain why some people hit it off and some don’t. But in my case it may have had something to do with problems at home. By the time I was old enough to be aware of such things, both of my parents had decided, for slightly different reasons, that their marriage had been a big mistake. But for various reasons, the chief one probably being me, they did not manage to separate until after I had graduated from Division. So the atmosphere at 176 Blacksmith when I lived there was usually grim, and that was on the good days. Hanging out with my friends offered a relief from all that. In some ways, they became my family.

When you graduated in 1961, what was the next step in your life?

I had a summer job working for the Doubleday Book Clubs direct mail center in Garden City. Then in the fall I was off to my freshman year at Columbia. I felt very lucky to be able to go to school there. In spite of all my attempts in high school to maintain my image as something of a wise guy, so as not to be thought of as some sort of “brain,” I really enjoyed learning new things, and I looked forward to the intellectual challenges of college. And to be able to go to school in New York was the cherry on top.

While still at Division I would often play hooky for the day and take the train into New York. I would go to bookshops in Greenwich Village, take in Ingmar Bergman movies that didn’t play at the Meadowbrook Theater, and wander around Central Park, soaking in the incredible diversity, in terms of people, and architecture, and general goings-on, of the city.

Do you consider yourself an artist, a cartoonist, or something else?

When I have to fill in the line that says “occupation” I usually put “children’s book illustrator.” But I suppose those other labels could be used too.

Tell us about your career, how it evolved to where it is today.

I got a good education at Columbia, but I also picked up a serious dose of the hippie virus. After graduation I traveled a lot and worked at undemanding jobs, so I could concentrate on Being Here Now. In 1972 I was living in Lyme, Connecticut, where my wife, Susan, grew up, and working as a letter carrier. I had a friend who started a weekly newspaper, and he asked me if I would like to be on the staff. He couldn’t pay anything, but I could have any job I wanted. I said that I had always thought it would be fun to be a cartoonist, and I started doing a weekly cartoon called Bob Blob, about a talking amoeba.

A few years later I got to know a children’s book illustrator, Lucy McQueen, who lived down the street from us. She said that she thought kids might like my work, and said that if I would like to give kids’ books a shot she would tell me what I needed to know to get started. I put together a portfolio of sample pieces and went to New York to show it to the editors and art directors that were on the list that Lucy had given me.

I didn’t get any work immediately, but I got enough encouragement to keep me going for the next few years. I sold my first book, “Fanny and May,” in 1983. I was then 40-years old, and working as a bartender. That first book was a solo effort, but a little while later I started working in collaboration with my wife, Susan Schade. She does more of the writing, and I do more of the drawing, but we both do a little of each. We are now working on our 54th book. We have had no massive bestsellers, but so far I have not had to return to bartending.

Are you doing or have you done much teaching?

I have given dozens of cartoon workshops for kids at schools and libraries, etc. These have all been extra-curricular activities. I have never been a regular employee of a school system or college.

What is the address of your website?

www.bullersooz.com

Q&A with Jon Buller class of '61, children’s book illustrator (part 1)

Where did you live in Levittown, when did you move there, and where had you lived before?

I was born in 1943 in San Antonio, Texas, where both my parents were serving in the U. S. Army. After my father came back from WWII my parents lived for a few years in Brooklyn. We moved into a Levittown Cape Cod south of Hempstead Turnpike in 1949, and then into a ranch at 176 Blacksmith Road in 1951. We lived just across the street from the Old Motor Parkway. That strip of the Parkway has now been filled in with houses and the Laurel Lane School, but through most of the 1950s it remained a strip of vacant land overgrown with weeds and trees where I could play at being Tarzan of the Jungle.

What were some of your earliest memories of Levittown?

I remember my father, when we first moved to Levittown, going on about how we now lived in the country. “You can buy fresh eggs just down the road!” he would tell people who came to visit. I suppose he was thinking of Zorn’s poultry farm on Hempstead Turnpike. I have no memory of the areas surrounding Levittown in those very early years, but I can imagine it was much more rural. But the process of development was pretty intense in the following years, and by the time I graduated from Division the undeveloped areas were few and far between.

Who were some of your first friends in your new home town?

By the time I was in fourth grade, possibly earlier, I was good friends with John Fitzsimmons, Clayton Citrano, Al Greengold, and Jerry Reichert. A few years later Wally Linder joined the group, and a few years after that I met Michael Haag. These friendships were all to last all the way to graduation, and beyond. We took part in the normal juvenile activities of that time — flipping baseball cards, playing wiffle ball and Chinese handball, etc.

One of the earliest of our childhood games, and one of my favorites, was playing Skullsy (see cartoon above). I have read descriptions of this game in books and articles about kids’ games in New York, where it is always referred to as “skelly” or sometimes “skully.” But our local variation was always called Skullsy. It was played with bottle caps that had had the cork lining scraped out of them. They were then filled with broken Crayolas and left in the sun, so that the Crayolas would melt and form a smooth filling. The playing field was a square of sidewalk with nine boxes drawn in chalk. It was a little like croquet, with the object being to shoot the bottle cap with your index finger from one box to another. The last box was in the center and had a skull drawn in it. Once you reached this box you became a skull and could kill all of your friends by hitting their bottle cap three times in a row with yours. In our graphic novel Faradawn I had the animal characters play a game of skullsy while they discussed the fate of The City of Ruins.

Was attending Division Avenue a good experience? Any teachers you really enjoyed?

I remember long stretches of boredom where time crawled, relieved by frequent bursts of sit-com hilarity. As far as Division Avenue’s effectiveness as an educational institution, it’s hard for me to judge, since it was the only high school I ever attended. But I suspect it deserved at least passing grades in that respect, because many graduates went on to good colleges where they were not immediately thrown out. Since Levittown was a town that sprang into being very suddenly, I think a lot of teachers were needed very suddenly and were hired just out of college. I think this must have been good in that there were not a lot of middle-aged burn-outs in the teaching corps, as there must have been in more established systems. I have fond memories of Thaddeus Kalinowski, who was a great character. I remember him explaining to us that his initials, T. K., stood for Teacher = King.

What is the address of your website?

www.bullersooz.com
__________________________________________________
Look for part 2 with Jon Buller tomorrow

Life, including retirement, has turned out great for Jim Anton

Jim Anton '61 and his kid brother Jerry lived at 27 Furrow Lane in Levittown where the top photo from 1955 was taken. Immediately after graduation, Jim joined the Navy. "My friend Jay Citrin (21 Furrow Lane)", he recalled, "went into the Navy in 1960 after his graduation. He tested the water so to speak and encouraged me to join."

After four years in the service, Jim was discharged in California in 1965 and stayed in the Golden State. He soon met Shirley and on the same day, June 25, he graduated from Division Avenue High School, they were married in 1966. The Antons live in Rowland Heights, California while Jerry resides in Massapequa Park on Long Island. Among other things, the now semi-retired Jim Anton, has been a very popular and successful DJ and photographer. His pride and joy is his six-year old grandson Ceiveon.

"I am actively retired, meaning I work when I want to. I deal poker and other casino games on weekends as well as play poker a few times a week. I'm still a DJ about 20 times a year. Isn't being retired fun?"

Franne Newman Lee is a winner of Emmys, Obies and Tonys for her costumes

Franne Newman Lee, a born artist, was a member of Division Avenue High School's class of 1960 where she was a varsity cheerleader. In 1967, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Design from the University of Wisconsin.

She began her professional career in New York theatre with Andre Gregory's "Alice in Wonderland" for which she received an Obie Award for costumes. Her many Broadway credits also include Hal Prince's productions of "Candide" and "Sweeney Todd". Franne received Tony Awards for costume design for both productions.

Her film credits include John Sayles' "Baby It's You", Paul Simon's "One Trick Pony", David Lynch's "Industrial Symphony #1" and Al Pacino's "Chinese Coffee".

Franne's TV credits include the first five years of Saturday Night Live, for which she won an Emmy. Among the costumes she created for SNL were the famous Coneheads attire. More TV work followed when Franne moved to Los Angeles in 1995 where she designed "Sherman Oakes" for Showtime and "Roseanne" for King World.

In 1999 Franne moved to Nashville and designed "On Music Row" a TV Movie of the Week. This led to designing local music videos, commercials and theatre. On Nov. 10, 2001, Franne opened the Plowhaus, an artists' cooperative in East Nashville , bringing her full circle back to her artist roots Plowhaus has been opened now for five years and has grown from a small storefront to a full scale gallery space. She also teaches Costume Design at Belmont University's theatre department where she can keep in touch with her designing roots.

The talented Franne Newman Lee has come a long way, baby!

Division Avenue High School's class of 1960 had more than its share of talented people; among them is Franne Newman. Her accomplishments as a costume designer during the early years of Saturday Night Live are just part of a brilliant and still ongoing career. Our next blog post will provide a glimpse of her award-winning work.

For today, here are a pair of childhood photos of Franne, who is known professsionally as Franne Lee. While in high school, she lived on Carnation Road in Levittown.

The story of how Frank Barning became a blogger

Becoming a blogger was triggered when the Barnings attended a poolside 4th of July community party here in Las Vegas. One of the activities was an arts and crafts sale and we were invited by my coffee klatsch friend Bob Normandin to drift on over to see what was going on. Grudgingly, I left the free ice cream being served a few steps from the pool.

As we squeezed out the door after 10 minutes at the art show, we happened upon a couple I did not know, Chris and Mike Cutler. Bob knew Chris from a committee he chaired which was seeking ideas to improve our senior community's monthly magazine.

Within a couple of minutes, I realized that Chris had some of the same interests as I, namely writing, communications and photography. Somehow the subject of blogging came up. It turned out that I was vaguely interested in learning how to blog and she was an accomplished blogger more than willing to teach me.

At that point, I really did not know much about blogging, but was looking for an outlet to expand my efforts of keeping communications alive among early Division Avenue High School alumni. Facebook is a very useful tool, but for me there are limitations. Written comments are mostly done in a few short sentences and disappear after a day or so.

I wanted an outlet that would involve real stories that could have a long life on the internet. Back about six years, I published an alumni newsletter that lasted maybe two years. It was emailed to about 50 people. After a while, I hooked up with something called Blue-Dragons.com and my newsletters were included on the website. Although Blue-Dragons.com is no longer active because the webmaster Trina Cattler Wallace (class of 1975) passed away, the site still lives in cyberspace.

A couple of days later, Chris paid a visit to our home and gave me about an hour's tutorial. My background in journalism and computers made much of what she explained understandable. She plugged me into something called "blogspot.com", helped me register and now I had a way to blog. I am making it sound easier than it is to get started in blogging, but hopefully you get the picture.

On July 13, I entered my first post on what I named "Early Levittown and Beyond." Originally, it was going to be called "The World According to Frank Barning" but my wife thought that title was more than a bit pompous. Here we are nearly five months later and I have made more than 160 posts and have received upwards of 11,000 hits.

The difficult part for me is coming up with something to post every day. It is my personality to want to have something new on a daily basis. And here is the good part for me, a long-retired person who had been totally unable to find anything to do as a volunteer. I consider my blog to be volunteer work, service to my community. And because I want to post something every day, it has re-stimulated my creative talents.

My somewhat dormant mind has been stimulated to the point where my writing skills seem to have returned to a level that I thought was in the past, never to return. The body may be showing some of the ravages of age, but not my brain. However, I must admit that sometimes I cannot find my cell phone or car keys and cannot remember the name of the movie we saw yesterday.

Most of the people who follow my blog attended Division Avenue High in Levittown, classes 1960-63. Some of the younger kids, LOL, from classes in a handful of years after 1963 are also on board. Younger to me is anyone not yet old enough for Medicare.

Obviously, the vast majority of the 11,000-plus hits are from people living in the United States. This I know because statistics are available when I log on to the blog website. There are many hits from Israel because Roya Sitkoff '61 lives there. Roya's classmate, the author Michael Haag, lives in England and is an avid reader. My second-cousin Karina Hof lives much of the year in Amsterdam, so there are hits from Holland. When 1961 grad Arnie Galeota was being an expatriate in Panama for a couple months, there was a total of 32 hits from that country.

It is exciting to see hits coming from Russia, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, France, Slovenia, Germany, Greece, Ireland and a Caribbean island I had never heard of, Anguilla. There was a steady stream from Italy when Chris Cutler vacationed there for a month. I wish I knew who was reading the blog in some of these countries. One of the younger Division Avenue grads, Dave Phillips, is an airline flight engineer who regularly flies all over the globe. He recently wrote to report that he was enjoying the blog during a layover in Hong Kong.

So that's the story of Early Levittown and Beyond. Thanks for your interest, and please keep the hits coming.

The Natives in their natural habitat, Levittown's North Village Green

Here's a 1961 photo that really turns back the clock for those who spent any time at the North Village Green a half-century ago. It seemed like most of these kids were always sitting on a park bench or tossing around a ball. Going home during daylight hours on non-school days was not an option.

Left to right: unknown, Bobby Lombardi, Tommy Byrne, Doug Duffy, Artie Reiersen, Ira Nerzig and George Vine. All of these lads, except Reiersen and unknown, were charter members of The Natives. To learn more about the group, see Ken Taylor's blog story about The Natives posted here on November 1.

Jackie Bernstein Karp snapped this picture with a Kodak Brownie camera. She attended Division Avenue High but her family moved before graduation. Jackie's brother Perry was in the class of 1960.

Memories of Levittown being built in assembly-line fashion

Q & A with Tim Lavey, Division Avenue class of 1963

Where did you live in Levittown, when did you move there and where had you lived before:

The Lavey family moved to Levittown in June 1950. Prior to that, we had resided at 225 Parkside Avenue right off Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. My grandfather was the building super and so was able to get us in the building when my dad returned from the service in late 1945. Our house was on Orchid Road about half way between Newbridge and Jerusalem. We were actually right off Skimmer Lane which led up to Pelican Road and Northside School which opened in 1951.

What were some of your earliest memories of Levittown:

My very earliest memory of Levittown was going out to see our house being built. I think only our foundation had been laid, but there were workmen busy hammering on many others up and down the block. It looked like a building assembly line (although I’m sure I didn’t know what that was at the time). What’s truly amazing is the quality of the workmanship these guys displayed as they erected our houses day after day.

Along with everyone else, I remember those totemic elements of our town like the Village Greens, the public pools and the Old Motor Parkway. The OMP ran right behind my house and was a place filled with wonder due to its overgrown vegetation and general wildness. It stood in stark contrast to the quite barren look of the early yards each having just a handful of straggly trees and shrubs.

Another very early memory was the Japanese Beetle infestation. Those jars in the trees filled with insecticide and dead Japanese Beetle bodies were sure spooky. Way later, of course, I can remember the earwigs showing up and even later the gypsy moths.

I’ve retained one very negative early recollection. We had a cat (the first of many) that we had brought to Levittown from Brooklyn. It disappeared, but then my brother Mitch and I saw it further up Orchid Road at the house of the Greenwood sisters (Ann & Ellen I believe). They were older than we were, and they wouldn’t return it. When I complained to my parents, they told me and my brother we were mistaken, but I remained unconvinced. To this day, I can’t think of the Greenwood sisters without attaching the appellation “evil” in front of their name. Hey, it’s not easy to hold a grudge for going on 60 years.

Who were some of your first friends in Levittown:

I think the first Levittown kid I ever met was Bob Berman who lived a bit further up on Orchid Road toward the East Village Green. We weren’t five years old yet, but I started poking fun at him because of his weight. Later we were in the same classes at Northside where everyone hurled insults at him. Our group of tormentors included Charlie Newton (younger brother of Mike '60), Gordon Bradberry, Ricky Coward, Bert Heilmann and Robert Fink (who had an older brother named Stephen who some may remember). I’ll never forget my mom coming out of our house one day to give us all hell for tossing Berman’s hat over the sump fence where he couldn’t retrieve it because of his weight problem. I think that was the first instance of my becoming aware of the cruel nature of children, and I was embarrassed for myself.

In my early days at DAHS, I hung out a bit with Bob Leporati, Brian Williams and Richie Liqouri. However, my main cadre of buddies included Linc Binninger, Bart Thibadeau, Fred Barash, Bob Brooks, Joel Bienstock and Bob Berman.

I was also friendly with a few girls. In grade school, I hung out a little with Elyse Jacobs. In early high school, Pauline Spadafore and I were friendly. In my junior and senior years, Linda Bishop and I were an official couple.

Was attending Division Avenue High School a good experience, any teachers you really enjoyed:

My two best teachers were Mr. Chapman for English (10th grade) and Ms. McGuigan for Latin (8th and 9th grades). I’ll always remember Mr. Chapman telling the class he was leaving DAHS to teach in California as it had the only progressive school system in the country. Other teachers I liked were Mr. Lasker and Mr. Fenter for Cit. Ed., Mr. T.E. Murphy for math and Mr. Peyton for shop.

You and some of the other 1963 grads seem to have a nice bond. The gathering of 1963 classmates at the class of 1960's 50th reunion this summer, to me, was memorable. Anything to comment on here:

I really enjoyed the DAHS reunion. I had connected with several members of the class of ’63 via Facebook so it wasn’t at all difficult to see them again after 47 years compared to what it might have been like going in cold. My wife and I sat with June Johnson, Pete Weiss, Michelle Fromm and Len Sandok.

While none of us had been particularly close back in the day, we all discovered just how much we liked being in one another’s company. At Michelle’s suggestion, we’ve even made a plan to get together next year in Albuquerque where she resides. By the way, June had arranged a brunch for the ’63 group the Sunday following the reunion where we got to see some other classmates who hadn’t attended the reunion (Judy Lewis, Chris Jacobsen and Sue Blank).

When you graduated in June 1963, what was the next step in your life:

I attended Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA following graduation. I learned about Lycoming because they used to play sports against Hofstra. My degree was in History. I then went to graduate school for a year with an assistantship at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb.

Tell us about your career:

In 1968 after tiring of school, I joined the business world. I was hired and worked my entire career for the Guardian Life Insurance Company. I oversaw the contracts and finances of their sales force retiring as a Vice President in 2005. For my first 30+ years, I worked in our building located in Union Square in Manhattan. The company moved downtown in 1999 to Hanover Square (on Water Street just down from Wall Street and the South Street Seaport). I commuted through the World Trade Center every day. Fortunately, I always came in quite early and so missed being there when the planes hit the buildings on 9-11.

Anything else you would like to add:

I had an interesting discussion at the reunion picnic with Pete File from the class of ’60. I was of the mind that our Levittown experiences weren’t really special as compared to those of other suburbanites growing up. However, Pete made the case that what we had was quite special because the ages of the parents and the ages of the children were all so close together. We had a homogeneity lacking in many other suburbs.

I remember hearing some statistics about Levittown back in the 1960s. I heard it said there were 17,000 or so homes and 75,000+ residents half of whom were 17 years of age and under. That made sense to me as there were just so many kids. I also heard it said the town was 50% Catholic, 25% Protestant and 25% Jewish.

It never ceases to amaze me when I look at the early DAHS yearbooks just how many names of underclassmen are familiar to me. It seems that virtually everyone I knew had brothers and sisters following in their footsteps.

The Binningers' Levittown home still has that loving feeling

Who says you can't go home again? This photo, snapped on Easter Sunday in 1951, is of Linc '63 and Carol Binninger '64 with their parents in front of the family home at 15 Quiet Lane. Carol and her husband Joe Mondello bought the house when Carol's mother passed away in 2007.

"Living in this house again is amazing, said Carol. "We have a lot of the same neighbors and my aunt, Mildred Robson, still lives next door. I love it."

SLANGTIONARY PART 2: words and expressions out of the past

Here is part 2 of a list of words and expressions seldom heard these days. In the streets of Levittown in the 1950s, however, one was likely to commonly hear these terms. We have omitted terms of profane, sexual, racial and ethnic natures as those are readily available elsewhere on the Internet.

J
Jailbait - underage girl; sometimes Stacked (see under S)
Johnny-Ride-a-Pony - schoolyard game involving vaulting onto players’ backs
J.D. - juvenile delinquent

L
Large charge - something exciting causes it
Lucky duck - fortunate person

M
Made in the shade - success, successful
Make out, making out - kissing and hugging with all four hands above the waist; vs. Petting (see under P)
Make the scene - be there
Meanwhile, back at the ranch – sarcastic prompt to get speaker back on the subject
Mimeo- a copy made by machine (Mimeograph)
Monkey-in-the-Middle - keepaway street game

N
Natives - A group of mostly harmless guys who hung out at the North Village Green.
No sweat - easy
Noogie - rap on the skull; to hit someone on the top of the head with one knuckle extended

O
Oddball - strange person
Ollie Ollie in come free!- you can come out of your hiding place, you are not “it”
Out-to-lunch - dazed mental state

P
Pad - apartment, home
Pajama party- group sleepover (usually girls and ONLY girls)
Panic, a - something funny
Party pooper - event spoiler
Passion pit - drive-in theater
Pea shooter-small straw-like tube for shooting beans or peas from mouth (bane of moviegoers)
Peel out - burn-rubber departure
Pegged pants - formal trousers especially for Hoods (see under H), Rocks (see under R)
Penguin - teaching nun
Petting - making out (see under M) with hands possibly drifting below the waist
Pididdle - car with one headlight; supposed reason for a kiss from date
Pinkball - Spalding rubber ball; also stickball
Potsie - sidewalk game aka hopscotch
Pusher - drug dealer
Put out - girl willing to Pet (see under P)

R
Rank, Rankout - clever put down, usually as humorous and insulting as possible, as in, “If b.s. was cement, you’d be a 10-lane highway to Alaska”
Rat fink - tattler or total jerk
Raunchy - messy or gross
Red Rover Come Over - field game sans equipment similar to All Across (see under A); good groping opportunities when played co-ed
Ring-a-Levio - form of hide and seek
Rock - Hood
Rubber - condom; often used in sarcasm, as in “What’s that got to do with the price of rubbers?”
Rumble - gang fight
Running Bases - 3-man catch and tag game similar to Monkey-in-the–Middle (see under M) that simulates a player getting caught in a rundown between bases

S
Salugi - keepaway game involving the snatch of something (usually hat or school book) belonging to another and tossing it back and forth with a third person to prevent the owner from getting it back
Scene, the - the place or event
Scream - something very funny
Shotgun! - front seat call, Dibs! (see under D); used when traveling with family; mothers always trumped call
Smarty pants- a know-it-all
Smartass- wiseacre (see under W) know-it-all
Sock hop - informal dance
Spaldeen - Spalding made rubber ball, pinkball (see under P)
Split - to leave
Spud - game of It involving throwing a ball to tag the victim; also putrid-tasting cigarette brand
Stacked - large-breasted, referring to a female
Stickball - broomstick-bat pinkball (see under P) baseball played in street; also 2-man version on schoolyard wall
Stick up - to defend, as in “Why don’t you stick up for me?”
Stoop ball - game played with tennis ball or Spaldeen (see under S) batless baseball variation
Straighten up and fly right - behavioral advice similar to Wise Up! (see under W)
Straight Arrow- well-behaved goody two shoes (see under G)
Submarine races – making out (see under M) near water
Square, a - uncool conformist

T
Tear ass - to go very fast
Think fast! - reflex check
Threads - wardrobe
Three on a match - bad luck to third person (dates to WWI trench warfare; third man often shot by snipers)
Thrown to the wolves - to sacrifice; due to shortage of wolves, today synonymous phrase is “throw under the bus”
Tinkle - ladylike term for urination

U
Up yours! - verbalization of middle finger gesture often accompanied by upfisted crook arm flourish
Upsie daisy - cute saying while helping one to one’s feet after mishap

W
Wasted - drunk
Way out! - innovative
Wazoo - anal canal often used to in quantitative description, as in “I’ve got homework tonight up the wazoo!”
Weed - cigarette
White bucks - laced white suede shoes with red soles
Wild - amazing thing
Wiseacre - smartass (see under S)
Wise guy - smart aleck
Wisenheimer-sarcastic variation of wise guy, wiseacre (see above)
Wise up! - truculent behavior suggestion
______________________________________
Thank you to Jeff McGann who compiled this list for the Forest Hills Club website. It
has been edited to provide a Levittown flavor.

SLANGTIONARY PART 1: words and expressions from the past

D.A. – hairstyle resembling a duck’s ass

Here is a list of words and expressions seldom heard these days. In the streets of Levittown in the 1950s, however, one was likely to commonly hear these terms. We have omitted terms of profane, sexual, racial and ethnic natures as those are readily available elsewhere on the Internet. Compilers are not representing this as a complete list and additions, corrections, and suggestions are earnestly solicited.

A
Ass kisser - suck-up; results in being a brown noser (see under B)
Ass wagon - cool car

B
Bad news - a trouble person, as in “he’s bad news”
Bag - thing, as in “it ain’t my bag”
Barf - to vomit after over-imbibing alcohol at a bash (see under B)
Bash - great party
Bombed - really drunk
Boss - something cool, good
Bent - to drop dead, as in “get bent!”
Big Shot - an important person
Bit - an act, premise, as in “get the bit” i.e. to understand
Blast - good time
BMOC- big man on campus
Bob, Bobbed - a short hairstyle, as in “she got her hair bobbed at John Christie’s”
Bread - money
Brown noser - habitual ass kisser (see under A)
Bug - to annoy
Bug out - to leave
Burn rubber - to screech off in car

C
Can’t beat it with a stick- something really great
Cat - cool guy
Chariot - car
Cherry - good; also a virgin
Chinos - khaki trousers with a little belt and buckle in the back
Cinch, a – easy
Cheesit, the cops! - Run!
Chucker - basketball player who shoots a lot
Chicken fight - 2 vs. 2 wrestling while riding on partner’s shoulder, often played in water
City, the - Manhattan
Coffin nails – cigarettes
Cool - indefinable great quality, extraordinary
Cool it! - Relax!
Country club - an easy school
Crack up - to laugh heartily, as in “When he said that, it really cracked me up”
Crazy - implies a good thing, as in “That’s crazy, man”
Cream - to ejaculate; also damage
Cruisin’ for a bruisin’ - pushing the limit(s)
Crush - to like someone romantically
Cut out - to leave, as in “I’m cuttin’ out”

D
D.A. – hairstyle resembling a duck’s ass
Daddy-O – casual form of address
Depants - to forcibly remove an individual’s trousers in public
Devil Dogs - devil’s food cake with creamy filling, hot dog bun shaped
Dibs - a claim on something
Dig - to understand
Dip, dipshit - real jerk or fool in presence of parents or clergy, dipstick
Dippy - crazy
Ditch - to suddenly leave or disappear on a friend or group
Dog - ugly or generally poor
Dork - nerd
Drag - depressing, a bore
Drag- a puff on a cigarette
Dunce- a dope
Dutch treat - something for which you split the check, also go Dutch (see under G)

E
Engineer boots - heavy black work boots worn by Rocks (see under R)

F
Fake out - to fool
Falsies - breast size-enhancers often as simple as toilet paper or tissues
Far out - weird, cerebral
Fast - more willing to get into heavy petting (see under P) or more (said of girls, for boys it was a given)
Feel cheap - embarrassed, regretful
Fink - to squeal, tattletale
Flake - unreliable person
Flicks - movies at the Meadowbrook Theater
Flip - to get excited (over)
Forty five- record speed and type of popular music record of the era. Also, the player with thick spindle.
Fracture - to amuse
Frosted – angry
Fruitcake- crazy as in “He’s a fruitcake” or “He’s nuttier than a fruitcake”
Fuzz, the - police

G
Garrison belt - heavily buckled wide leather belt swung in fights by Hoods (see under H), Rocks (see under R)
Gas - Sinatraese for “fun”
Geek - gangly one; sometimes also nerdy and/or dorky
Gee Whiz! - expression of regret or amazement
Get the heave- to be unceremoniously sacked or thrown out
Get on the stick - to become aware, capable
Get with it! - similar to Get on the stick (see under G)
Gig - occupation, performance
Go ape shit - to go crazy
Go Dutch - to split or share expenses
Going steady- serious dating relationship
Golly - similar to Gee Whiz (see under G)
Goof-off - [noun] malingerer
Goody two shoes – uncommonly good person (from 1934 children’s story character)
Goose - [verb] usually involving rear end-grabbing, jabbing, poking
Green, The - places kids hung out, for example the North Village Green

H
Hack around - to loiter and/or fool around aimlessly
Hairy - close call or situation, dangerous
Hangout - loitering place such as the North Village Green
Hard up - in dire need, as in “If she went out with him she must be really hard up”
Hep - being with it, knowing the situation
Hip - someone cool, in-the-know, up to date
Hi-Fi - expensive record player
Hit the road - to depart
Hock - to swipe, steal
Hood - hoodlum often clad in black leather jacket, engineer boots, garrison belt (see under G) with D.A. (see under D)
Hot-to-trot- willingly anxious (usually used in a sexual context)
Hump - loser, as in “What a hump!”

I
I.D. bracelet- usually a male’s chain bracelet with rectangular plaque inscribed with name or initials often worn by girlfriend when ( see under G) Going Steady
Indian giver - one who takes back a gift
Indian rope burn - twisting of wrist skin to cause pain
Indian wrestling – strength contest involving pulling opponent off balance while shaking hands
Island, the - Nassau and Suffolk Counties
Ivy League - dress style incorporating pants with a little belt in the back, white bucks (see under W), V-neck sweater often draped around shoulders
Ivy Leaguer - clean-cut collegiate-looking guy; opposite of Hood (see under H), Rock (see under R)
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Part 2 of Slangtionary will be posted tomorrow.
Thank you to Jeff McGann who compiled this list for the Forest Hills Club website. It
has been edited to provide a Levittown flavor. If you have suggestions for additions, send them to fbarning@cox.net