Life was a giant block party to the Baby Boomers who grew up on Long Island in the 1950s. Popular historian Doris Kearns Goodwin remembers the open-door policy of her Rockville Centre neighbors: “we didn’t knock on doors. We just raced in, gathering up our gang.”
The gang grew by leaps and bounds. By 1960, Long Island’s median age was just 30, and more than half of its population was under age 20. Communities with one-room schoolhouses at the end of the World War II – Island Trees, Plainedge, and Brentwood – now scrambled furiously to catch up with house construction and the birth rate, building dozens of new schools.
Outside their neighborhoods and schools, young kids popped their gum, stretched their legs and raced their mouths at plenty of fun spots, including Nunley’s Amusement Park in Baldwin, and Lollipop Farm in Syosset. Teenagers lived at Jones Beach or caught the latest cowboy or Brando flick at the old Hempstead Calderone Theater or the Rocky Point Drive-In. By the spring of 1956, as Alan Freed’s national radio program (carried locally on WABD) blasted out tunes from Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard, rock and roll took many Long Island teens by storm. One 14-year-old East Meadow girl – self-described as one of Elvis’s biggest and “first” fans – ran away from her parents in 1957 to Memphis to try to catch up with the crooner. “I thought if I came here I might become his secretary or something,” she told the startled reporter that found her.
Where did you grow up? What things do you miss most about your hometown? What do you see as improvements? Where did you dream of ending up when you were 12? Are you there yet?
I miss those days
I used to cut through neighbors' backyards... Today, you could get shot or abducted for god's sake for doing just that! Ballfields back in the day were filled with pick-up games... Today... virtually empty unless it's organized by adults.
Anyhooo, I believe the biggest reason these shootings are happening are-the Lindsey and other laws in the late60s, 70s, making it ALOT HARDER to get people who are mentally ill help. YES, THERE WERE PEOPLE in institutions who should have never been in them-by relatives, 'friends' trying to get a hold of their estates, etc., and just plain evil people, but after that, so many 'ill' people are now living on the streets, etc. I used to, in the 80s work off of PARK AVE, in NYC, very nice area, but even there, we had at least 4 people on said corners who in their minds, had whole groups with them, arguing, shouting, etc. Go to worse neighborhoods, you found alot more. These people needed help. And I am sure they and others are still around. Also, forget gun laws, etc. because years ago, it was ALOT easier to get a gun. STOP HAVING THESE TRAGEDIES playing out 24/7 on the news !!! Besides feeling so bad for the people in NEWTON-they can't even TURN ON TV!! and their kids, the survivors are home-they need to go straight to Cartoon network?? =It can be seen as a GLORIFICATION for those with a sick mind.
These people, I can only assume, have come to the end, that they figure they are not going to live on, and what to go out famously (IMFAMOUSLY)-it does not matter it will be neg. at that point. I can only figure they figure their name will live on. We must have had 'killings' before, but, our NEWS has changed. Blame has changed too. Instead of blaming the shooter outright-HIS MOTHER-for having guns- Video games, tv. how easy it is to get guns, etc. TAKE THE BLAME BACK!!! These shooters are sick, DO NOT PUBLISH THEIR NAMES!!!
We would play all kinds of basic games like marbles, baseball card flipping, Stoop ball, Running bases and dodge ball. We would eat lunch at who evers house we happened to be at when we got hungry. My Mother worked for several years when I was in my teens at the Levittown Roller Rink. This really helped me meet girls backed then since I could get in for free. I had more friends in one year then my kids have had through their whole childhood. seems all we have now is organized playing and sports. So sad. We built motorbikes, go-karts, tree houses and still found safe swimming holes to go swimming in. What I loved most of all back then was exploring, Either old barns and buildings or through the woods with my best friends. Sometimes we would just walk as far as we could through neighborhoods to try and meet new people.
How about our first skate boards. Where we separated a pair of American Flyers Skates and nailed the halves to the ends of a 3 foot length of a 2x4 and called it a skate board. Do you remember when the McDonalds on Hempstead Tpke, opened? When they changed the # sold sign on the bottom of the Golden Arches sign every time they went over a million or so. Wetsons, Tad's Steaks or Jolly Rogers? Bumper cars? Not enough space to list all the good times. But what I remember most was my friends. We never did anything without the usual cast of suspects until that tour of the far east interrupted everything. We are the lucky ones!
What I loved most of all back then was exploring, Either old barns and buildings or through the woods with my best friends. Sometimes we would just walk as far as we could through neighborhoods to try and meet new people. I hear that!!!! Generations before us also made their own games, like kick the can, etc. Electronic technology has been the destruction of this forever. The shame is that these kids will never know, or uderstand what it could have been like to be alive as a child & not a tech zombie shut in. My ex's kids don't even go to school. They are schooled by some state run computer program in Philly. God how I pitty today's youth.
I also remember the milk strike. I remember a few TOBAY trucks drove upstate NY to pick up as much milk as they could put on the truck. The milk delivery became a political issue and the TOBAY highway supervisor, George Schmidt lost his job over it. Thats when government put us first!!!! Not like the, whats in it for me people in office today.