TWO CLASS OF 1960 DUDES, TOM PATURZO BAKER AND DEWAIN LANFEAR

By TOM PATURZO BAKER

Class of 1960

The photograph was taken when I was 33 years old for my promotion to Captain. Prior to that I was a Criminal Investigation Command warrant officer and special agent.

I was in the regular Army for three years and in the Army Reserve Program for 22 years. I retired in 1993 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. I also served as a military police officer.

____

By DEWAIN LANFEAR

Class of 1960

I was back to Levittown a few years ago after being away for over 10 years. Even when I was teaching there I didn't drive through the streets, just to school and home. I was pretty clueless regarding the extensive remodeling that had taken place. I think most of the houses that were changed look great even if it is difficult to see the original peeking through. You may remember that some people in surrounding towns opposed Levittown on the grounds that it would be a slum in a few years. Wrong!

An anecdote for you. On this visit to Levittown, I went for a run and traveled down Daisy Lane, my former street. When I got to my house, a man was mowing the lawn, and I asked him if he was the owner (Levittowners now have lawn service! In our day WE were the lawn service) He said he was and I told him I had lived there 50 (OMG) years ago.

He asked if I wasn't Mr. Lanfear who taught English at DAHS and when I admitted it, he said he had been in my class. At that point I recognized him too: his name is Greg Ward. He said my initials were still in the backyard patio and they still had some "artifacts" from those days, such as the cement block that was the counter balance for the attic trap door. If that isn't a typical Levittown story, I don't know what is.

Howard Burtt, class of 1960, passed away on May 26

Howard Burtt's Division Avenue High School yearbook photo.

COMMENTS FROM CLASSMATES AND FRIENDS

Pat Kraft McDonald

My condolences to his wife, Geri and family. He was one of the sweetest and nicest people I ever knew in school.

Dewain Lanfear

Howard was a wonderful classmate. My sympathy to his family. He will be remembered by the class of '60.

Damon Solomon

I am so sad to hear about Howard’s passing. He was a fine gentleman and a good friend to me during our time at DAHS. Please give my deepest sympathy to his wife and family for me.

Tom Paturzo Baker

I remember Howard as being a very nice person in high school. He served as a Nassau County Police Officer. I had limited contact with him in our high school mechanical drawing class. Our next encounter was at the first class reunion in 1980. We had a lot in common because I also served as a police officer. I extend my sincere sympathy to his family.

Mal Karman

I will always remember Howard as one of the absolutely sweetest guys I knew in high school. Along with all who knew him, I mourn his passing.

Arnie Galeota

How sad. He lived around the corner from me on Cornflower Road during our schooldays. What a decent human being he was. A terrible loss! He and Geri were together for many years. My condolences to Geri and his family.

Bob Bond

I was real sorry to hear that Howie Burtt passed away. I was also saddened to hear that he had to endure a hospice situation. He was a good guy and I will remember him well.

Frank Barning

More than 50 years later, I can still see Howie's smiling face and great haircut. He touched a lot of us with his warm, pleasant manner.

Pat Stanley Share

Oh my, so very sorry to read this. He was in hospice care so perhaps his time had come. My love to Geri and his family.

Cliff Fromm

Our class of 1960 was small and we knew just about everyone. My deepest sympathy to his family.

REMEMBERING BUTCH MURPHY, CLASS OF 1962, ON MEMORIAL DAY

Edward T. Murphy's name appears on the travelling Vietnam memorial exhibit

click on photo to enlarge

ABOUT BUTCH MURPHY

From a friend, Bill Newman class of 1963

About Edward Theodore Murphy. Everyone called him Butch including his family. He was the youngest and only boy of the Murphy family (Albatross Road a few doors down from the Koehlers). Butch died in Vietnam (May 22, 1967), close to the DMZ but not sure.

He was a decorated hero for valor trying to save others and was awarded the Silver Star. On a personal note, Butch always stood up for me and anyone who was picked on when we were kids. I've always missed him.

I'm not sure how many Division Avenue students lost their lives in Vietnam. Butch would have been in the class of 1962 but left high school to work and then join the Marines. Just before I was drafted (September 1965) I saw Butch one more time. He was home on leave and was the most proud I had ever seen him. He loved the Marines.

From Jack Jacobsen 1962

The story of Butch Murphy is one of much sadness for those who were his friends. It started with the accident on a trampoline in East Meadow. A bunch of us were at a place that had trampolines in the ground and paid by the hour to use. Butch over flipped on his face smashed into edge onto a metal rod holding the springs. The impact not only broke his nose, but also eye socket, cheek bones, etc.

It took Butch years to heal both physically and mentally. Butch went into the Marines with pride and honor. We who knew Butch have always felt a sadness and a loss. I have been to the Vietnam Memorial many times and have always spent time with his name on the wall.

___

Photo of the Vietnam Travelling Memorial Wall by Jim Anton.

Modest Levittown capes and ranches still rule among the McMansions

Marilyn Monsrud Frese's neighbor's big house on Furrow Lane

click on photos to enlarge

By MARILYN MONSRUD FRESE

Class of 1963

I must tell you that although some homes are gigantic, most in Levittown are not. You can still see those little ranches and capes inside of modest expansions. But knowing some people who do own these big houses (one of those posted above is my neighbors' across the street on Furrow Lane), their desire to own a larger home had them looking at other towns, ones with larger plots of land.

However, their desire to stay in Levittown, for a multitude of reasons, led them instead to expand their little capes and ranches rather than moving out of town.

My husband Don and I also looked at other homes about 10 years ago when he began thinking of retirement, but the feeling we have for Levittown, along with a block of wonderful neighbors, kept us here. We ended up pushing the back of the house out, along with extending the garage in the back to make more room for his three motorcycles.

We also made the extended rooms with cathedral ceilings. The high ceilings made the room so bright and open and we have nine-foot tall glass windows and doors across the back of the room which sort of brings the outside in. We still have only one bathroom for the two of us. If we managed with one bathroom while the kids grew up here, we can surely manage with one now.

From the front of our house, you cannot see the expansion at all. People walk in and are surprised to see so much room. We still have our fireplace between the kitchen and living room, as most of the ranches do. I don't know of any homes that still have the black tile floors and the radiant heat in them or their oil tanks still buried in the front lawns. That is long gone. Those warm floors on a cold morning were great though, remember that? No cold feet. We could go barefoot all year in the house. Yes, the small Levitt homes still rule the streets of Levittown.

A REPLY TO MARILYN

Leslie Sands Bell

Class of 1968

Marilyn, it sounds like your extension is tasteful and kept your house looking like your house, unlike the others. If I were to ever move back to Levittown, I'd be looking for a simple house, one that retains the look across the front with surprises in the back and/or inside.

I do have a deep appreciation of your love for that wonderful town and your neighbors. I think that the changes are harder to see for those of us who've moved away, and didn't have a chance to adjust with the times as the years went by and you continued to live there. We did move to a much bigger house in East Meadow and it was not a good experience.

I missed everything about Levittown, but I was a kid and had to go with my parents, although I begged to live with my mother's best friend and her daughter who was my best friend until graduation.

COMMENTS ON PREVIOUS STORY: LEVITTOWN HOUSES ALL GROWN UP

Dave Cahn, early Levittowner. Around here (Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC), we call these McMansions. Although they appear nice in well-cropped photos, they are too big for their lots and look ridiculous in real life. They scream of new money poorly spent. We're not in Levittown any more, Toto!

___

Photos by Marilyn Monsrud Frese

Part one: LEVITTOWN (NEW YORK) HOUSES ALL GROWN UP. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE CHANGES?

click on photos to enlarge

Question: What is your opinion of the major expansion of Levittown houses? Photos by Marilyn Monsrud Frese '63.

Kathy Stahlman Zinn '63

Toto, I don't think we're in Levittown anymore! Wow - these photos take my breath away, and make my father's additions to 99 Butternut Lane look paltry in comparison. I don't think I like them, but I think it was inevitable. Fashions and desires change.

I wonder, also, if Levittown's early reputation as a place where the houses "are all made of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same" led to folk's desires to make their houses look more distinctive. Still, every time I see a classic Cape Cod, usually somewhere other than Levittown, I get a smile on my face. My son lived in a house in Charlottesville, VA which had the very same floor plan as my old home. I told him I knew where everything was in his house the moment I got in the door!

Toni Crescenzo Gelfer '68

These photos of expanded Levitt homes produce a dichotomy in my mind. My home life, since marriage, has been chock full of remodels and restorations. I appreciate all the hard work, time, thought and money that was expended to accomplish the finished project and the accompanying pride and self-satisfaction in seeing that huge undertaking to fruition.

On the other hand, I mourn for the charm and innocence of those beautiful, basic capes and ranches. Touring some streets of Levittown now, passing one behemoth after another, smothering those basic lots, crowding out the foliage makes me feel I'm in a giant Pulte neighborhood. There is a fine line between love and hate and sometimes crossing a Levittown street can put you over that line.

Wendy Max Dunford '68

Levittown? Surely not! Oh, but it is. These homes that began their lives as humble Cape Cod and ranch models, now towering above the sidewalks and streets of our beloved home town.

While some are done tastefully, and others not so much so, they still tug at our heart strings as we struggle to hang onto precious memories of the homes in which we grew up. Homes where we fought with our siblings. Homes where doorways were marked in pencil as a testament to how much we’d grown in a single year.

Those little homes where families struggled to get ready for work and school, sharing the single hall bathroom. We marked so many milestones in those small, sturdily built houses -- birthdays, proms, weddings -- often shared by multiple generations. Small? Yes, but they were full of love and warmth and happiness of a simpler time.

I’m sure the newly remodeled homes are nice and accommodate their families well. Still, one can’t help but sigh inwardly at what our beloved home town once was.

Arnie Galeota '61

What sticks in my mind about early Levittown is the sameness of each piece of property. Not only of the house, but of the entire property layout. The back yards had the same apple and peach trees, but not much more in foliage. The trees lining the streets were young and still small by today's standards.

There was the feeling of being content with what we had, not the feeling of trying to one up your neighbors by changing the appearance of your house. It just didn't seem that important then. I'm not sure when all the reconstruction of the homes and the community went into full gear, but it wasn't changing that much while I was still in high school. A few years later, first a garage, then a dormer, then new windows and then the more drastic changes began steamrolling until how it looks today. No two houses look alike!

____

Part two, with more mansion photos, will be posted in a few days.

How Bernard Tray bought his Levittown house in 1949 thanks to the GI Bill

The house on Chickadee Lane, May 2012.

The Tray residence, 12 Chickadee Lane in Levittown, in 1950.

By STEVE TRAY Class of 1965 The article that follows was a story my father wrote and sent to Newsday on the 50th anniversary of Levittown in 1997. Our house was 12 Chickadee Lane. My mother still lives in that house today, 62 years later. My Dad was a decorated WWII veteran and was able to use the GI Bill to afford the house. Both my Mom and Dad grew up in Brooklyn, and moved to Levittown against the wishes of both their families. The families thought 1) Why do you want to live in potato farm country? 2) It’s too far away. 3) It will be isolated and turn into a slum. My parents were pioneers in the true American spirit, moved to the suburban frontier, and built a great life for themselves and their three children. All three of their sons are glad they did. My brother Ken graduated in 1967 from Division Avenue High School. He was the first student to be disciplined for having long hair. Vice principal Aiello suspended him but my father managed to talk him out of the suspension. My brother Elias graduated in from DAHS in 1977 after appearing in a wonderful series of musicals directed by Mr. Ehrbacher, a wonderful man and teacher. Elias was inspired by him to follow his passion and after a series of parts off-Broadway, Elias eventually became an Emmy-winning associate casting director with “All My Children”. He still works behind the scenes in many productions as a musical director and sometimes on stage. THE HOUSE THAT BILL SOLD Bernard Tray, 76, and his wife, Marsha, 73, raised their three sons in the Levitt home they've lived in for nearly half a century. Their sons now live in Connecticut and California. Their only granddaughter lives in Brooklyn. Here, Bernard remembers the fateful phone call that led him to Levittown.

It was a hot August day in 1949 at about 4:30 Friday afternoon. The telephone rang as I sat in my quiet Garment District showroom waiting for quitting time. I was expecting either an order of women's dresses or a customer complaint, but it was instead my old friend Irving Minkin. "Have you seen the news?" he shouted. "A house to live in for $7,900! I'll pick you up tomorrow morning at 10. Bring $100 just in case the houses are real!" My answer to Irving was, "I'll bring $200 in case you're short."

Saturday morning we started on the long journey to Long Island. We arrived in what was to become Levittown at around 1 p.m. First, we were shown a group of one-family homes that were for rent at $60 a month, including all utilities. We proceeded to the sales office, where an agent explained that the new ranch houses were indeed being built for $7,900: four rooms, an attic, one bathroom, on a 60-by-100-foot lot. Now that was what I wanted for my family. My wife and I returned a few weeks later to pick the street where we wanted our house built. Bill Levitt listened to my wife's requirements. She wanted a small street near the schools. He personally helped us pick out our "perfect lot." We put down our $100 deposit and Uncle Sam arranged the rest, as I was an ex-serviceman covered by the new GI Bill. Six weeks later, we met with a government representative who had the mortgage for us to sign. In October, we moved into our new home. We were young and optimistic about the future in this new land called Levittown. Forty-eight years later, with three grown children, a grandchild, two renovations and the many events encountered down the road of life, we still live in the house that Bill sold us. My wife and I both agree about this -- it was the best decision we ever made.

OUR LEVITTOWN TEACHERS, SADLY WE HARDLY KNEW THEM

Lawrence Lasker served as a paratrooper in the Korean War

By FRANK BARNING

I didn't really know my teachers at Division Avenue High School and I doubt that many of my classmates did either. Because we saw them nearly every day during a particular school year, we might have thought we knew them, but I am certain that I never asked my teachers about their lives outside of school.

Sadly, I have learned details about the lives of some of them while doing research for my blog. The information was contained in their obituaries, which were found thanks to a Google search. You can assume that very few of our teachers from the 1950s and early 1960s are still living. The same goes for parents of our Division Avenue schoolmates.

A while ago, a blog story included a baseball team photo from 1960. Robert Simes, a well-remembered math teacher, was the team's coach. His obituary was found online and we learned that he had passed away at age 80 in 2002. But probably few or none of his students knew that he was "A World War II veteran of the Army, attaining the rank of sergeant, he served from 1943 to 1946." Also, he had a daughter and two grandchildren and was a Catholic. The religion of our teachers was hardly ever mentioned.

Upon reading obituary information in the blog, a few classmates have written that they had no idea about some of the personal aspects of their teachers' lives. The bulk of the comments concerned military service and World War II and Korea. In those days, veterans hardly shared their war-time experiences with their own families, much less their students.

I knew the sons of two of our coaches. Jim Amen, a revered early Division Avenue teacher, had a son Jim Jr. who was about the same age as we were. Occasionally, Jim Jr. would attend his dad's games or hang out in the gym with us playing basketball. Another coach, Mr. DiMaggio, occasionally would bring his young son to Saturday baseball practices. So some of us did have a personal connection.

There have been more than 525 stories posted since this blog began in July 2010. Precious few have included intimate details of a teacher's past. The June 26, 2011 story written by Kathy Stahlman Zinn, class of 1963, was quite personal. She wrote about Ben Murphy, a Summit Lane School teacher who she had for two school years, 1955-57.

Kathy wrote: "We knew a lot about him, because, like most Irishmen (he was a Brooklyn Irishman), he loved to talk. He had left high school a few months before graduation, lied about his age and entered WW II as a Seabee in 1944. He spoke often of his war experiences, but never with any horror or bitterness."

Among the most popular Division Avenue teachers, and later an administrator, was Lawrence Lasker who passed away in February 2011. His obituary was included here and we learned: "A U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War, he had served as a paratrooper and was very proud to have served as a guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery." Not many of his students knew this about the man affectionately known as "Uncle Larry".

Some students were aware of his military background. Following Mr. Lasker's passing, Marilyn Monsrud Frese, class of 1963, commented: "He loved to tell old war stories."

Among my most non-academic contacts with teachers were those who, like me, were avid baseball fans. Maybe they would mention in class last night's Yankees or Dodgers game, so I got the idea that we shared a common interest and would chat them up.

More than a half century later, it is with regret that I do not know more about the Division Avenue teachers who had so strongly impacted our lives. At the same time, I regret not asking my parents and grandparents more about our family history.

Recent photos of Division Avenue people, including two teachers

Armand Tarantelli, now pushing 90 years of age and still going strong. The original Mr. T was a popular industrial arts teacher.

Karen Biro Hewson, class of 1960, in Panama City, Panama.

Jerry Jewell, best known as the highly successful football coach of the Blue Dragons. The man doesn't seem to age.

Tim (1963) and his cousin Glenn Lavey (1969) at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City.

Bob Gifford, class of 1962, and a Hofstra University graduate.
___

Photos of Mr. Jewell and Mr. Tarantelli taken by Lou DeFrancesco on May 14, 2012.

THEN AND NOW: Merilee Flamm's residence at 8 Cherrytree Lane

From 1958. Merilee Flamm, class of 1961, in front of her Levittown home.

The 9 Cherrytree Lane house as it looked last month.

Her 8 Cherrytree Lane Cape Cod house in 1954.

Looking east down Cherrytree Lane to Valley Road.

By Merilee Flamm Kubart

Class of 1961

My mom and dad bought this two bedroom Cape Cod house in 1949. It was a resale and just two houses away from my aunt, uncle and two cousins. My brother and I shared a room until my father was able to finish off part of the attic as a bedroom for him.

It was fun living so close to my two cousins, and our family seemed so much bigger because of it. My parents and aunt and uncle would host big family holiday dinners in our small house by taking the furniture out of the living room and putting several tables together with many chairs.

We were two blocks up the street from Division Avenue High School and a short walk from both the North Village Green and Mays/Penney's shopping center on Hempstead Turnpike.

Split sessions were the word of the day, and we were sent from school to school across the district as they were built. When Summit Lane was completed, I remained in place for three years until I went on to Division Avenue for junior high and then high school.

As the years went by, there were many changes on Cherrytree Lane. Most of the houses were enlarged in one way or another. My parents added a front porch, extended the kitchen and main floor bedroom, and broke through the living room wall to make a dining room/living room with a built in fireplace. The attic was extended again and another bedroom appeared. I lived in this house until I got married in 1965 when we moved to a garden apartment in Jericho.

I continued to visit my parents home almost every day and we even bought our own Levitt house on Gardiners Avenue in 1967. My parents sold the house in 1972 and moved to Florida. I've seen the house many times over the years, and took another look before we left Long Island in 2008. Everything looks very different these days and I'm happy for all the good memories that remain.

___

Color photos by Marilyn Monsrud Frese.

DIVISION AVENUE HIGH SCHOOL PROM PICTURES FROM LONG AGO

Click on photos to enlarge

Louise Nicolosi and Howard Burtt at their senior prom in 1960.

1960 yearbook photo of Penny Stone and the late Pete Cybriwsky.

Linda Bishop and Tim Lavey at their senior prom in 1963.

Sadly, both of these 1961 graduates are deceased. Here are Kathy Rees and Mike Fitzgibbon before their junior prom in 1960.

Marilyn Monsrud Frese (1963) and Gary Parker (1962) prior to Gary's senior prom.

Welcome to Levittown: An unexpected return to the Peytons' places

Zach Peyton in front of Division Avenue High School. His dad is a 1961 graduate and his grandfather a distinguished long-time teacher.

By JEFF PEYTON

Class of 1961

Recently, I received a rare text from my son who is now living in Manhattan with his fiancé which included a photo of a sign shot from a rear car window: “Welcome to Levittown”.

I texted back: “Looks like Hempstead Tpke.?”

“YES”

“What are you doing?”

“Taking Marci to a friend’s Baby Shower”

“Where?”

“Somewhere on Gardiner’s Avenue… it’s in a pizzeria.”

“You know, you passed the site of Fiesta, at the corner of Hempstead Tpke. & Division Ave. The school is only a quarter mile north on Division. On the way back, you should take a picture of yourself in front. [Fat chance, I’m thinking]

Later Zach sends me a real time photo of 35 Snowbird Lane, the house I grew up in.. It’s painful to look at. Like it got stung by a giant bee all puffed up on some steroid bee toxin.

“This isn’t how it looked, right.”

“No. Hold on”

There is a folder on my desk of random old pictures. I pull 2 black & whites (‘52?) and photograph them and send them. They are pictures of kids: the true reference points in any pictures of early Levittown that reveal things. In the first one the kids (Joey Gallagher and Guy Johnson) are sitting where the driveway would be one day. In the second, there is Joey holding his baseball glove up with ball-in-pocket and standing between the bare-bone new but settled homes viewable in the background. This tech acrobatics is probably not needed as I think the house next door is still pretty much the same. Some Levitt homes, for better or worse, never get a major makeover.

“My battery is almost out” he texts. I figure that’s it.

But a short while later I get a picture of Zach standing in front of the school. I take it in. I don’t know why it matters. There’s the new generation. A young guy showing up to stand on turf his grandfather and father once walked on. The present has randomly asserted itself in the form of a gift, one of Forest’s feather landing on a field of our collective reverie.

I didn’t think to ask Zach to see if there was a jockstrap still hanging at a point way up the flag pole.

Some recent pictures of early Division Avenue High School graduates

Len Sandok, class of 1963, lives in Bloomington, Minnesota

Jim Anton (1961) deals poker as a part-time job.

Jim McGrath (1960) and his wife Beth.

Teresa Morse Klein (1963) and a best friend.


Arnie Galeota (1961) at Dodger Stadium. His comment about the pose: "Some lady made a bad remark about the Yankees. I had to teach her a lesson." Arnie moved to Delray Beach, Florida last week from the Los Angeles area.

One of the original Levittown houses has been recognized by the Town of Hempstead

click on photos to enlarge

The sign tells the story of the Cape Cod house at 52 Oaktree Lane, the 70th built in Levittown NY in 1947. These photographs were taken by Tom Filiberto, class of 1963.