Helena Sommers of Skelly Place has been teaching Sunday school at Corpus Christi Church for the last 45 years.
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Tara Fairgrieve wed Jim Anthony at the Swan Club. Tara’s father, Judge Scott, performed the ceremony. Scott had tears in his eyes as he saw his daughter begin her new life. Tara is an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County. The day of the wedding, Oct. 4, was a dark and gloomy day, but just as the ceremony was complete and the final vows taken, the sun broke through. What a great omen.
Margaret Conway is the visiting nurse here at the Bristal. She and her husband, Thomas, have lived in Williston Park for 10 years. Tom is a chiropractor.
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Ed Smith and I arrived in Mineola about the same time—Grace and I, with our newspaper, the Mineola American, and Ed, with his real estate business. Ed, who died recently, joined his wife, Evelyn, in the hereafter. Ed was my next-door neighbor when the paper’s office was on Jericho Turnpike. Ed was often either complementing us or disputing with us about something we had printed in the newspaper. I was friendly with Ed and Ed Smith, Jr. and one of his other sons. Ed and I served in the army at the same time and we were almost the same age. I was the person who persuaded Ed to become the president of the Mineola Chamber of Commerce. When Ed was mayor he went through many, many tough meetings where he was challenged by residents with questions and complaints and managed it all with grace.
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Our oldest son, Richard Sanders, had a long career as the executive editor of People magazine, and equally long career as an editor of Entertainment Weekly. Born in Mineola, he now lives in the Wyndham in Garden City. He devotes himself to writing novels. He has now written eight detective stories.
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The expression, “to high-tail it out of there,” which is used when a person who feels threatened runs out in a hurry, comes from the Wild West when wild horses roamed the plains. Ranchers noticed that when a horse felt in danger, it would raise its tail as it ran.
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Physicians noticed years ago that patients hated taking big bitter pills. Therefore, they thought of a plan to make these pills into smaller tablets and coat them. Thus they could sell more pills in this so-called tablet form. Down through the years, the word “tablet” has been taken over by the newspaper business. Anytime a broadsheet paper goes down to a smaller size it is called a “tabloid,” like The NY Daily News.
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Margaret Irwin is a lab technician for National Starch. Her late husband, Robert, was in the check-printing business. They were both parishioners at St. Annes Church in Garden City, where Grace and I were married 67 years ago.
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John Hughes entertained us here at the Bristal with his group called Coast to Coast, bringing us music from the ‘60s,’70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. Hundreds watched and many danced.
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Mary Ann Guarino enjoyed seeing The Marriage of Figaro at Molloy College and now looks forward to The Nutcracker which is coming soon.
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Our daughter, Sister Annmarie, was lucky enough to be seated outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC when Pope Francis celebrated an outdoor mass there.
Editors Note: Lou Sanders, who has his journalism degree from NYU, and his wife, Grace, a graduate of Adelphi, founded the Mineola American in 1952, giving the village its first successful newspaper. Lou and Grace have lived in Mineola for 60 years, and his popular column is a signature feature of this paper.
