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.
A large group of people from Mineola traveled to Lancaster, PA to the Sight and Sound Theater. This a theater that portrays biblical stories using live animals, such as horses, sheep, goats and camels. The last production was about Samson and Goliath. The month before they performed Jonah and the Whale. And, no, the whale was not there!
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Pastor Chester Easton and his wife, Dottie, announced that their daughter, Sarah, would be wed in July. Rev. Easton is the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Mineola.
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One of the greatest workers we had at the Mineola American was Ruth Kazdan, who covered village board and school board meetings for the paper for more than 30 years. Her late husband, Lennie, was famous because he was blind and could ski. Ruth and Lennie lived on Colonial Avenue in Mineola. We wish Ruth the best on her forthcoming heart surgery at Mt. Sinai.
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Marcel and Cathy Chaillol of Mineola were visitors here at The Bristal in Westbury, as they considered moving into the facility.
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I spoke to a longtime friend of ours, Muriel Mehlman, who lives at The Brandywine Assisted Living in Plainview. We compared notes. Muriel’s late husband, Jerry, ran an insurance business in Mineola for many years.
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At The Bristal we all gathered to watch the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness, and were disappointed that there will be no Triple Crown winner this year.
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As a lifelong stamp collector, I was interested in the fact that the inverted jenny will be displayed at the Javits Convention Center. The inverted jenny is an image of this airplane that was printed in error upside down on stamps. Four stamps were produced before the error was noticed. Three have disappeared, and the one left, a 24-cent stamp of 1918, is now worth $1 million. And, no, I am not the collector who has it!
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The Mineola-New Hyde Park Running Club, in which Judge Scott Fairgrieve is one of the motivators, will hold a race that starts at Denton Avenue School in New Hyde Park. Mr. Fairgrieve is part of the group for runners who are more than 65 years old. In the previous race a couple of months ago, he finished second, by one second.
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I was talking with Tony Donnelly, former head usher at Corpus Christi Church. He and his wife, Beverly, live on Marcellus Road in Mineola. I remember a couple of years ago, he was named Irishman of the Year.
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The term “ring leader” comes from the fact that in early days one of the few entertainments available to people was folk dancing. Men and women would dance in a line. To be the head of the line was a great honor, and that person would be called the ring leader. Over the years, we began to use the term to refer to the head of a gang of criminals.
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In the early Middle Ages, men’s hats were all made of fur. At the time of the Industrial Revolution, hats began to be made of felt. At that time, mercury was used to produce felt. The men who made these hats were exposed to the mercury which had a bad physical effect on their bodies and on their brains. The hatters were often called madmen, hence the phrase, “mad as a hatter,” made famous through the character in Alice in Wonderland.
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On June 4, our youngest son, Tom, his wife, Debbie, and our oldest granddaughter, Tracey, joined us here at The Bristal, where we ate in a private dining room. Tom, a CPA, is now the chief financial officer at the Mellon Foundation, and Tracey is an early childhood education teacher in Manhattan.
