The Dec. 16 mystery picture in the Enterprise Pilot remains a mystery but we believe it will be solved! You know that is always a favorite column in the making…
Belle Santora called to identify the mystery picture in the Nov. 18 issue of the Enterprise Pilot and we saved some of her story for another issue.
Belle said one Friday as we chatted about a mystery picture, “I graduated from Oyster Bay High School in 1929. A lot of my friends got married after high school. I went to Pratt and graduated as a fashion designer. I commuted every day to school.
“I graduated at the height of the Depression and there were no jobs. Finally I settled on a job in Sachs Fifth Avenue in the alteration department, not what I was trained for. I learned so much in alteration that I never learned in school.
“I made my own patterns in alterations. I could sketch something. I sketched my wedding dress in lace and tulle and then went there and made it.
“When my son went to kindergarten I started my own business in my house until my son went to college and then I quit the alteration business.
“I didn’t have room to make things. I had to take care of my mother who had dementia. My father died and I took care of my mother for 14 years.
“I was involved in politics and everything in the school when I was doing my alteration business.
“They had a big alteration room in Sachs and I started as an inspector and I would bring things back to them to fix, but I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing. I was the second in the department before I left.”
She said when she had to come up with a design, she would look out at ivy growing up the wall. “I was able to look at the Ivy and come up with a design,” she said.
Belle is 99 and looking forward to reaching 100 and has lots more stories to share.
On the other hand, Tony Pilla sent us a lovely animated musical email card. We thanked him for the delightful greeting. He replied, “I thought you might enjoy it and Merry Christmas to you and all the people at the Pilot.”
Please note that Mr. Pilla says Pilot. The newspaper was originally called the Oyster Bay Pilot when it was formed in 1885. It joined up with the East Norwich Enterprise and became the Enterprise Pilot for a while. Then it turned into a combined newspaper as The Record and The Pilot that had a front page filled with Oyster Bay items and the rest carried Glen Cove and other local area news. Later the Enterprise Pilot returned to Oyster Bay in the late 1970s. At one time the paper was called The Enterprising Pilot, we have heard from older readers.
And all our readers, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too!
– DFK
