Memories of the Jones Beach pool and Mello-Rolls. It seems like yesterday, but it was long ago.

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By FRANK BARNING

Many early Levittowners have fond memories, some 50 or more years later, of fun times spent at nearby Jones Beach. The picture of four-year old Marilyn Monsrud Frese triggers remembrances for the 1963 Division Avenue High School graduate.

"The photo of me in the Jones Beach chair (note the sea horse JB logo), eating one of those ice cream cones they used to sell with the ice cream roll wrapped in paper, was after a little mishap I had in the Jones Beach pool," she said. "I knew how to swim thanks to the Levittown pools, so my parents decided to enter me in a swimming race at the Jones Beach pool."

Marilyn got into the water, as the race began, and discovered that she could reach the bottom with her little feet. "So I decided I would walk my way across the pool. Being I wasn't a fast swimmer, I figured that would be a better way to get to the other side quicker. What I didn't know was that the pool got deeper in the middle."

So away Marilyn walked with all the parents cheering their kids on. "As my head went under, I remember thinking, okay I'll come up again soon. So I kept right on walking and walking and walking until my dad jumped in and pulled me out. I guess the lifeguards didn't notice I was missing. Then mom and dad bought me that ice cream because I was crying that they didn't let me finish the race."

That picture was snapped about 60 years ago. "Funny how I can remember stuff like that, but can't remember half of my graduating class," she said. Bob Seger summed it up when he wrote and sang, "It seems like yesterday, but it was long ago".

MORE ABOUT MELLO-ROLLS

Our next blog post will provide some Mello-Roll history and its tie-in to the hit 1970s TV sitcom, "Welcome Back, Kotter" which starred Gabe Kaplan.

Jones Beach, a Long Island treasure for Levittowners

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By FRANK BARNING

One of the best things about living in Levittown is the proximity to Jones Beach. For those of us who have moved away from Long Island, many list Jones Beach as one of the things they miss the most. Kathy Stahlman Zinn, class of 1963, muses, "How I took for granted all those trips to Jones Beach." She lives in North Carolina.

It was my good fortune to have worked at Jones Beach for five summers, starting with the summer between my junior and senior years at Division Avenue High School, all the way through college. My earnings there paid for a sizeable portion of my Hofstra tuition.

Once I starting working at the beach, I never had to look for another summer job. Most of the other members of what we called "The Jones Beach Navy" because of our uniforms, were students from nearby communities such as Freeport, Wantagh and Seaford. I don't recall any classmates who were also seasonal employees.

Most of the time my first couple of summers was spent picking up litter in the parking lots of Fields 4 and 5. Then I requested and received a move to the parking field at the Marine Theater on Zach's Bay where our crew directed traffic before and after the shows produced by Guy Lombardo. One summer, I was the night watchman at the theater.

Above are photos of Division Avenue people at Jones Beach.

* June Johnson, class of 1963, sitting on a beach blanket. Her classmate Pat Henry in the dark swimsuit.

* Reading a book is Roberta Landry. Behind Roberta is her 1961 classmate Alice Nutini.

* The two couples enjoying a day at the shore in 1960 are long-time DAHS teacher David Peyton (reading and smoking a pipe) and his wife Sybil. With them are their friends Arlene and Ed Lavey, parents of the class of 1963's Tim Lavey.

* Taking in the beach scene is four-year old Marilyn Monsrud, class of 1963.