Levittown's symbolic water tower lingers in our memories

By FRANK BARNING

If anything is a symbol of Levittown, New York it is the huge water tower at the corner of Azalea Road and Hilltop Road. It could be seen from miles away and was used as a landmark if someone became lost either walking or driving. Toni Crescenzo Gelfer, class of 1968, described it as "Omnipresent."

A 2009 photo of the structure by Tom Urban was recently the topic of a spirited discussion on Facebook. Several Division Avenue High School graduates from the 1960s participated, Tom among them, contributing information and remembrances.

Originally, the water tower was a checkerboard red and white. Eventually, it was painted green, as it appears in Urban's photo, but the people I asked did not recall when the colors were changed.

Some of the boys climbed to the top on dares or under the influence of spirits. This was the highest point in our town, Levittown's answer to the Empire State Building.

I moved to Levittown as a 12-year old in late 1954 and spent countless hours in the water tower's shadow, playing basketball. Mark Scope who went to Levittown Memorial High School also played hoops there. I have a vivid recollection that someone climbed the tower and painted "Scope Sucks" in large letters.

Here are comments posted on Facebook:

Susan Weldon (Division Avenue High class of 1960) wrote: I was there when the cops caught Warren Zaretsky on the top of the tower. When one of them stated, "This is illegal young man", Warren answered "no shit Sherlock".

Urban (1960) wrote: If you sat on the walkway that ran around the top of the tower you could see Wantagh Parkway winding towards Jones Beach. On a clear night it was peaceful. You could also clearly see the police cars at the North Village Green should they head your way.

He also stated: I cringe when I remember some "bad boys" unscrewing the bulbs on the very top. P.S. the access cover on the very top was not locked. Dangerous if you were to fall in but very tempting for green food dye around St. Patty's Day. Never materialized but tempting just the same....."very Bad Boys". And I yelled at my kids for missing curfew.

Your blogger replied to Urban: How many of the guys urinated over the side of the tower? It would seem like the natural thing to do for Levittown boys we knew, right Tom?

Tom Urban replied: Never did that Frank. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Walt Linder (1961) mentioned: I think my brother Paul did the water tower also. My parents had to go to the police station to get him.

Leslie Sands Bell (1968) remembers: the tower had raindrops (condensation) hitting us as we walked to the swimming pool on Azalea Road. It was refreshing!

Jeff Peyton (1961) commented: the late Al Baldwin (1961) had a prized red dome he had retrieved off the catwalk and made it into a lamp.

Jim McGrath (1960) bragged: Didn't spend much time at the tower. Was spending my time parked in Abbey Lane School's parking lot.

Do you still have your high school yearbook? If not, what happened to it?

If you still have your class yearbook, how often do you look at it and what do you find most interesting? If you no longer have your yearbook, what happened to it?

Jack Jacobsen, class of 1962
In recent times I have been looking at it twice a year. I first wonder where the time went, secondly, I wonder how Mrs. O'Keefe talked Jon Dubeau, Don Kanarvogel and me into participating in our senior play as angels and is captured in Class of '62 yearbook. I look at the pictures, attach "one-liners" to each name. Also, the word "beer" is used by many of the signees.

Arnie Galeota, class of 1961
I still have my class of 1961 yearbook but it's falling apart. After all I've moved so much and it always moves with me. I take it out once or twice a year, usually when I'm either packing or unpacking or if a name comes up on one of your blogs that I want to see the picture of. I'm only sorry I never bought the years 1960 and 1962. I knew so many people from those classes.

What's most interesting in the yearbook is how much I still look like my photo and everyone else doesn't look like theirs...just kidding. I find it interesting what some of the students showed an interest in and what they actually did in life after school.

June Johnson, class of 1963
I still have the 1963 yearbook. I haven't looked at it since last year when I went to the 50th reunion with Michelle Fromm-Lewis. I think we looked at it as a reference more than anything else. What I find interesting is that I had entered "Fencing" as an activity under my name and no one ever questioned the entry. I made it up. There was never a fencing club.

Len Sandok, class of 1963
I still have my yearbook and its life has been resurrected in the past two or three years. I took it to college with me and occasionally I would look at it in my dorm room when I got a little homesick. Soon, however, it was relegated to the bottom of a closet somewhere until I got married. It moved with all of my stuff and was once again put in a closet or an end table at our houses throughout the years.

It surfaced about two years ago when I discovered Facebook. I reconnected with a number of high school acquaintances and of course, I had to compare yearbook pictures with profile photos. It now has a place of honor immediately to the left of my computer and I refer to it on a regular basis. My kids and grandchildren get a chuckle when they see my flat top hair cut. I consider it to be the most valuable book in my collection.

Mike O'Boyle, class of 1960
Lost in hurricane Ike, September 2008 (still remember the misspelling of school as shhool on the inside front cover, maybe inside back cover), and the pioneer theme.

Marilyn Monsrud Frese, class of 1963
Almost daily- and what I find interesting is what Frank is going to do with the photos he's requesting for me to scan.

Pat Stanley Share, class of 1962
I have mine, class of 1962 and my brother's class of 1960. Because of FB and your blog I look at it frequently now. I brought it to the Keys mini-reunion and we all shared stories over the books. Unfortunately I have begun to add the dreaded D next to too many of our class mates.

Susan Weldon, class of 1960
I do still have my yearbook and I look at it occasionally when one of your blog entries triggers a memory.

Daria Marusevich, class of 1961
I look at both 60 and 61 at least 8-10 times a year. I think of the classes 60 & 61 as one. Your blog has inspired me to go to the "book" to check out the faces more often than I would have in the past.

Kathy Stahlman Zinn, class of 1963
I have only the 1961 yearbook, from my sophomore year, because after that year we moved to Plainedge. It is filled with "Goodbyes", and I am so glad I kept it. I especially look at senior class pictures and teachers. But lately, I also look at the letters from the administrators. They mean much more now than they did at age 15.

Larry Loewy, class of 1975
I have looked at my yearbook about five times a week since last summer. Why? Because I am scanning the whole thing into Facebook.

Larry Bory, class of 1960
A few times a year, mostly to verify things that Frank raises in the blog.

The 1961-62 Division Avenue High School basketball team

Click on photo to enlarge


Front row: Paul Linder, Tony Pace, George Rosenbaum, Gary Parker, Bill Astman, the late Jimmy Cain

Back row: Coach Jimmie Amen, Bob Spadafore, Pat Hill, John Stalberg, Peter Greene, Richie Ligouri

It is odd that the guys are not in their basketball uniforms. A team picture with the players in school clothes is sort of weird. Some of the flavor is lost.

Source of photo: 1962 yearbook

Division Avenue High football coach Jerry Jewell was immortalized as the tall, dark stranger in a Maverick theme song parody

The old coach is still going strong. This photo was snapped at the class of 1960 reunion in 2010

Jerry Jewell was a physical education teacher, department chairman and football coach at Division Avenue High School for decades. Some of us remember him as early as around 1956 when he was a young gym teacher out of Cortland State. He built a great Blue Dragons football program, one of the best in Nassau County.

The class of 1961's John Kinstrey played on some of coach Jewell's early teams and recalls that the players, not to his face, referred to him as Tonka, Chief and Wahoo because he resembled a Native American.

"I think my teammate Carl Kielbasa hit on Tonka," said Kinstrey. "These names were terms of endearment which never left the confines of the locker room. The little ditty we made up about him went to the tune of the original Maverick TV show theme song starring James Garner."

Who was the tall dark stranger there?

Jerry Jewell is his name.

Beating a path to who knows where,

A whistle’s his companion

Wind sprints are his game.

Chorus:
Run along all you clods

Tearing up all the sod

Run it on down the field

And back again.

We’ll be here 'til five

And unless you come alive

We’ll be on this football field 'til ten.
**
Your blogger's recollection was that maybe John Kinstrey's 1961 classmate and football teammate Tom Lux had written lyrics. Here is his poetic reply.....

Tommy was talented, have to admit

But had nothing to do with the writing of it.

Daydreaming in class consumed most of my time

So I dabbled and pondered the challenge of rhyme.

The infringement of copyright I did take on

By the time they caught up

I long would be gone

So I stole the Maverick tune like a thief

And put in pentameter our Indian chief.
*****
Mr. Jewell attended the 50th reunion of Division Avenue football last year as well as the 50th reunion of the pioneer class of 1960. According to some of his players from the old days, their coach's early nicknames still seem appropriate. John Kinstrey has been crowned by your blogger as the Poet Laureate of DAHS football.

Old Levittowners prefer the names our classmates had way back when Brooklyn was the name of a borough, not a girl, and Tiffany was a lamp

Yesterday's blog post ran under the headline "Our Division Avenue High School cheerleaders had grand old names, but these new fangled ones for babies drive me wild."

Judging by the comments, readers related to the topic. Modern names horrify most early Levittowners and we nostalgically recall the days when Tiffany, Savannah, Keira, Zoe, Madison, Addison, Camryn, Chloe, Jada, Peyton and Brooklyn were not in our school.

In the year of my birth, 1942, the most popular girls' names were Mary, Barbara, Patricia, Linda and Carol. For baby boys, they were James, Robert, John, William and Richard. Frank came in at No. 21. If you were a student in the 1950s and early 1960s, you surely knew someone with each of these classic names.

Two letters concerning yesterday's story follow:

By Karen Biro Hewson, 1960

First of all congratulations on your 250th blog post - I've been enjoying all of them very much.

Second, the name thing - I'm glad your mother triumphed with your name - you don't look like a Harry or a Herman. I almost suffered a similar fate with my first name - my father being named Albert wanted my name to be Alberta, no thanks - my mother prevailed also. The name Karen my mother chose from a Hollywood actress named Karen Morley, who I found out later in my life had been black-balled in Hollywood for being accused of being a communist. Great, thanks Mom!

When I was real young no one I knew was named Karen, they were all Carol, Joan, Mary, etc., so when someone yelled 'Karen', I knew I was in trouble. It wasn't until I was at Division Avenue that I heard "my name" - there was Karen Balos and Karen Judge. Now I hear and see it quite often and with various spellings - I have a friend whose middle name is Caryn. It's a common name now and I never turn around when someone yells Karen.

The name Judge made me laugh, as my last name 'Biro' when translated from Hungarian to English is 'Judge', so it was kind of a joke in my family - "here come the Judge, here come the Judge". I often wondered if I were related to Karen Judge in our class.

Most of my family, cousins, etc. have what you would call normal names except for a distant cousin named Colt (don't know if he was named after the beer or the gun, but that's his problem).

I just had to comment because your blog made me laugh as my husband and I laugh at some of these names often and wonder, "is it a male or female".

Thanks again for your insights, thoughts and old memories.

Take care,
Karen (Judge) Biro Hewson

Note from your blogger: Karen was No. 16 in 1942

*****
Dear Cousin Frank,

With the exception of Colton, which is new to me, I hate every single one of those contemporary names, too! Madison was cute in the movie Splash, when Tom Hanks' and Daryl Hannah's characters agree the mermaid should be named after the Manhattan avenue; otherwise, they're all so pretentious. Tangerine, I like a lot.

I'm surprised my dad didn't take this opportunity to tell you what he wanted to name me: Liquidity. Though I would absolutely love to be named that now, I think I would have struggled with it until I entered college. That's generally when I became less self-conscious but also where, in Middlebury, Vt., I met the likes of Harvest, Laurell, Sueño, Katinka and a small Korean-American named Nancy in honor of Mrs. Reagan!

Yours truly,
Karina Tinio Hof
___________________

Karina writes and edits for a living and divides her time between New Jersey and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. She is the daughter of Frank Barning's second cousin once removed, Henry Hof 3rd. Her website is: http://karinahof.com/

Our Division Avenue High School cheerleaders had grand old names, but these new fangled ones for babies drive me wild

By Frank "Judge" Barning

Yesterday, our blog post was of the Division Avenue High School's 1961-62 cheerleaders. Give me the sweet old names of those young women. The squad included Linda, two Sues, Joan, Mary, Janet, Cathy and a pair with the solid, feminine name Melissa.

What strikes your blogger is the names of these young women. None are as off putting to my old-fashioned taste, as are some of today's most popular names for girl babies. Examples are Savannah, Keira, Zoe, Madison, Addison, Camryn, Chloe, Jada, Peyton and get this, Brooklyn.
The name Tiffany became popular a few years ago. I look forward to meeting a Tiffany whose last name is Lamp. As if Tiffany is not exotic enough, here are some alternate spelling of that name: Taffany, Tifanee, Tifaney, Tifani, Tifanie, Tifany, Tiffane, Tiffaney, Tiffani, Tiffanie, Tiffanny, Tiffeney, Tiffenie, Tiffine, Tiffiney, Tiffini, Tiffinie, Tiffiny, Tiphani, Tiphanie and Tiphany. None of these alternates are listed in my computer's spell check.

I knew someone in California with the last name of Shore whose daughter was named Sierra. Sierra Shore might be a good name for a stripper, a hooker or a beach motel. You have to be careful giving babies names.

And don't get me started on boy baby names. Jayden, Caden, Colton and Ryder are among the leaders on the 2010 list. In my class, the names Sterling (Morrison), Erling (Ernie Anderson) and Garrett (Gary DeCastillia) were not main stream.

Checking my class of 1960 yearbook, there were few of us with odd first names. Topping the charts might be Lilette (Levy), a different but charming name. And rare was the odd spelling. We had a Lorrayne (McCoy).

My mother had an offbeat, and rarely exhibited, sense of humor. She insisted that had I been a girl, I would have been named Tangerine. A song named Tangerine was a big hit the year I was born, 1942. It was on the Billboard charts for 15 weeks, peaking at number one. Dad wanted me to be Harry Herman Barning 3rd. Mother intervened on that, thank you very much. And I was named for her grandfather and brother.

Mother also, jokingly I assume, considered naming me Judge Barning. Imagine the taunts I would have received from the the boys in school. "Here come the Judge, here come the Judge."

And excuse me if you have grandkids with some of the names that I find odd. Please accept, in advance, my apology.

Division Avenue High cheerleaders photo from the 1962 yearbook

Click on photo to enlarge

Standing left to right: Karin Christiansen, Melissa Graves, Linda Kaiser, Sue Propper, Joan Kashman, Melissa Shaffer, Sue Kilbride

Kneeling: the late Mary La Mar, Janet Trama, Pam De Gregorio, Linda Cacioli, Cathy Burner

What a great looking group of young women, some of Levittown's finest. On the other side of the coin, one of the reasons that people go to high school reunions is to see how the cheerleaders look in middle age or as senior citizens. And let's leave it at that.
____________________________________________

"Every man's memory is his private literature." ~ Aldous Huxley

From Levittown to England and beyond, Karen Biro Hewson tells her story

Karen's yearbook photo and a recent shot with husband Brian while on a cruise

By Karen Biro Hewson, class of 1960

My classmate Carol Ackley Rosebery's wonderfully detailed story posted on February 23rd reminded me of things long forgotten. It was great growing up in Levittown, they were innocent times and I was soooo naive.

I came to Division Avenue High School in the seventh grade and always felt not really part of the crowd. Everyone seemed to know each other -- it seemed like from kindergarten -- I always felt like the “new” kid, which was mostly my fault, as I was kind of quiet and not very outgoing, which made it all the harder for me to fit in.

I hung out mostly with Loretta Fountain (’61) who was a neighbor and the first person I met when I moved to Levittown. My first recollection of Levittown (I think I lived there only about two days) was going “Trick or Treating” and winding up at Renee Gordon’s house, leaving there and getting lost in the winding streets. Loretta introduced me to most of the girls I hung out with, all of whom were in the Class of ’61, Ginny Castle, Mary Birney, Ann Crescenzo and Rita Cataldo. Two of the girls in our class that I was friendly with moved before graduation – Carol Vasser and Dorothy Whittaker.

American Bandstand was what we watched every afternoon (does anyone remember Pat Molinari on Bandstand?) And, of course, we “just had” to watch Bandstand on Christmas Day to see what the girls were wearing.

I remember going to the Meadowbrook movie matinees and getting in for 25 cents because I looked like I was 12 until about age 16. In the winter, if we could get a ride, we’d go to Jones Beach and roller skate, then get coffee or hot chocolate at the only boardwalk restaurant that was open. I remember how cold and windy it was and enjoying every minute of it. In the spring we’d play Par 3 golf (badly). And of course in the summer we’d go to the beach or the East Village Green pool.

Loretta and I used to shop at Mays a lot, then go to Wilfred’s Coffee Shop and if we had enough money, get a cheeseburger platter -- huge cheeseburger, fries and coleslaw for $1, what a deal! We relied on a lot of people (mostly parents) to get rides, because none of us had cars until we were out of school. It was great fun even without the cars. When we got older we would go to the Bowlder Lounge at the North Village Green to bowl, then go and listen to the piano player in the lounge (no it wasn’t Billy Joel), also, Caruso’s and that infamous bar in Hempstead -- Ryan’s, The Coach House in West Hempstead and the Garden City Bowl.

I never went “steady” with anyone in high school, but dated Scott Cornell, Peter File and Terry Turner in my senior year.

There were a few teachers whose classes I enjoyed, Ms. Eisenhauer, Mr. Keating and (don’t laugh) Mr. Flynn – he scared the s--- out of me, but I never forget to cross my T’s and dot my I’s to this day.

After graduating from DAHS, I moved into New York City and worked for Mobil
Oil. After a particularly bad winter in New York I moved to Miami Springs, Florida. Moved back to New York in 1968 and stayed for 11 years, working at LILCO in Hicksville for 11 years. Moved again to Boca Raton, Florida where I worked for IBM for 10 years, until they decided it was better for their bottom line to manufacture and distribute their PC's from the Raleigh, NC area and closed the Boca site.

At that point, I decided to work temp for a while -- as IBM was very generous when they distributed their pink slips.

That's when I decided to go to England on vacation - a dream I always had was to go by ship. I did just that -- booked passage on the QEII and sailed to England for a month. Did all my sightseeing, went up to Scotland -- and met my future husband, Brian. We were married in Delray Beach, FL in 1991. After that I sold my house and moved to London, England where I lived and worked for three years. In England we had a conversion camper and traveled all over England and Scotland, also did quite a bit of traveling through Europe.

In 1994 we came back to Florida and now live in Stuart with our dog and cat and no children. I'm sure there will be another move in our future as we are looking to downsizing and getting free of having to mow the lawn, trim the bushes, etc. In the meantime my husband and I have both been retired now about four years and are loving it, although it took a bit of getting used to for me (after 47 years of working). Our days are busy and we don't know where the time goes but it's nice not having a 9 to 5 schedule and I still keep in touch (via telephone) with Loretta Fountain who lives in Babylon and I hope to visit maybe this year.