Editor’s 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.
Here at The Bristal our guest speaker was Rhoda Sapolin who spoke about how our political systems are rigged to keep out outsiders like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. They do this by having delegates and super-delegates who support the establishment. This system is considered anti-democratic by many since the delegates and super-delegates control about 15% of the total vote.
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Greg Esitow is the office manager of Mini Point, owned by Peter Gollibin on the east end of Second Street in Mineola.
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The Walter Hoving Home entertained the members of the First Presbyterian Church of Mineola. The church sponsors this group whose main function is to aid young women whose lives have been shattered by past difficulties.
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Mary Ann Guarino is spending a week at the Woodloch Resort in Pennsylvania.
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Al DiUllo has worked for Bill Greene at Tsontos Furs for 25 seasons.
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Michael Murray of Las Vegas wrote to tell me that he left Mineola in 1968 to join the Marine Corps. When he returned from Vietnam in 1970 where he served as a combat infantryman, the Mineola American published an article about his service. The article made his parents proud. Michael is looking for information about an Italian restaurant that his grandfather, Antonio Ragazzo, owned in the 1950s on the corner of Mineola Boulevard and Washington Avenue, which he believes was called Antonio’s.
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A large crowd at The Bristal was entertained by the Happy Duo who are Larry Feit and Wendy Garfield, and their pianist Richard Whitten. Larry sang, “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” “Sunrise, Sunset,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” and other songs from Cabaret. Wendy entertained us with opera pieces, as well as “I Could Have Danced All Night.”
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With all the talk about Donald Trump, I recall this story about his father, Fred Trump. Anthony Lewis was a columnist for the New York Times and he dubbed Fred as the most ruthless landlord in New York City. He owned many apartment buildings under rent control and used vile tricks like filling the buildings with gangsters and prostitutes to drive out the poor people, terminating their leases and then re-writing them for extremely high prices.
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All the talk about polls these days reminds me of a poll by the Literary Digest in 1936 predicting a heavy defeat for Franklin Roosevelt and an overwhelming victory for his opponent Alfred Landon.
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In feudal times most lands were occupied by serfs. A man who occasionally distinguished himself in battle with an heroic deed would be rewarded with a house. The Anglo-Saxon word for house was hus. The ancient word for owner was bunda. These two words eventually evolved into the word “husband.” In that same period, wives had many duties. One of the principal ones was weaving. The ancient word for weaver was wifan, which eventually evolved into the word “wife.”
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Enrico Corleene is an accountant who assists popular Mineola CPA Jay Minsky. Jay and his wife have long lived on First Street in Mineola.
