Linda Morgan called to identify the Dec. 30 mystery picture in the Enterprise Pilot. She said, “I think that is Mitchell Levy and his wife at the Artist Club Gallery across from the Boys & Girls Club.”
She nailed it!
Linda said when she was at the gallery showing, “There were so many people there. I didn’t think they would get as much traffic as they did.” She said she had met him after she called to see if he would like to buy some of their paintings, as they move to North Carolina. “He invited us to the show,” she said.
Linda and Matt Morgan were both treasurers of the Oyster Bay Historical Society, but at different times. She is a Rosarian and has a great garden. When she sold her house, she said to the buyer about her rose garden, “If you don’t like the roses, I’ll pull them out. He said, ‘That’s why I fell in love with the house and garden.’
“We were away and he called us when we were coming back from South Carolina and our neighbor let him in. He fell in love with the house first. We live on Tooker Avenue. It’s the best street in town, that is what the neighbors in town say, because the people are friendly with each other. It’s a short street but everyone knows each other. While we were away, my neighbor shoveled my driveway.”
Linda said she is leaving all of the roses except two she couldn’t part with. “One is called The Gardens of the World and is not seen anywhere. The other is a Polyantha, Jems.” She just couldn’t leave them behind. [FYI: The Polyantha roses are typically small and compact or spreading, perfect candidates for planting in containers, small spaces, and borders. Polyantha roses are often referred to as “Old Roses” or “Antique Roses” .]
John Walsh called to identify the mystery-mystery picture of Dec. 16, in the Enterprise Pilot. He said, “It is looking into the window of the Earle-Wightman House.” He remembered seeing this reporter when he was active on the Oyster Bay Civic Association board.
Lou Brusca of East Norwich guessed it was the basement of the OBEN Public Library, where you make a left turn into the room where they show the movies. It was a good guess and in chatting he said his family is a big believer in education. That shows in the occupations of his children.
He said, “Richard, our oldest son, is a litigation attorney in Washington D.C. He is with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, and assisted his partner, Bob Bennett, in representing President Clinton several years ago.
“After the terrible shootings at Virginia Tech a bit back, Rich was the attorney for the committee that looked into assuring greater security measures for the future of that school.
“Our daughter, Laura, is a vice-principal in Massapequa Park, and our other son, Rob, is an attorney in Oyster Bay,” he said proudly. “Rob is active in several civic associations and on the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum board,” he added.
Mr. Brusca has an interesting story. He attended Queens College at age 16 in January 1944. At the time, the GIs were returning and taking advantage of the GI Bill. Mr. Brusca said, “I submitted a late application so was put into the afternoon session with all the GIs.”
He fondly remembered the quadrangle with four mission style buildings clustered around. “And the library was in an old Quonset hut. I was a member of the Dead End Boys fraternity.
“My wardrobe was my two brothers’ old Army uniforms. Maybe people assumed I was a veteran.” He made great friends out of the GIs. “There was Artie Davis, 27; Maxie Rosenblum, 23; Timmy Holland, 25, and his wife Florence. I had a good time.
“A professor assigned an essay on our brave new world and it dawned on me that it was the afterlife, which I wrote about. He gave me an A, but he said, ‘Did you write this tongue-in-cheek?’ He thought I was a ruffian,” said Mr. Brusca who grew up in Corona, Queens.
As always the mystery picture column is an opportunity to open up some of the wonderful lives of our readers. It is always a joy to know more about someone – and in this case, to know that Mr. Brusca and this writer both attended Queens College. It was a great educational institution.
– DFK
