By Patty Servidio
Last week, my husband and I spent a wonderful evening with my mom. We began to reminisce about the old days, mainly for the benefit of my young niece, who was scrolling through her phone on the floor and bemoaning the fact that she found Levittown and Hicksville to be “boring.” My sister and her boyfriend were involved in the conversation, which quickly turned to how great the “good old days” really were, especially with regards to the “village greens” that populated both towns.
I fondly recalled our North Village Green, which was located two blocks from my childhood home. During the conversation, we began to flesh out the shopping center, from the pharmacy with the luncheonette in the back, to the dry cleaners at the far end of the parking lot. Sandwiched between the dry cleaners and the pharmacy was a supermarket, a delicatessen, a barber shop, a laundromat and a bakery. All of the “greens” also had swimming pools, and a few had bowling alleys. Mom mentioned that she did all of her shopping at Danny Boy Supermarket, because she found A & P to be “a dirty store,” and she didn’t enjoy the crowds at Grand Union. When my niece questioned how a large supermarket could fit at a Village Green, my sister answered that the supermarkets back then weren’t the mega-stores that they have become nowadays. Supermarkets were smaller and took up less space, much like Best Yet Market on Jerusalem Avenue or Key Food on Newbridge Road.
Village greens were stores or businesses that were within walking distance of homes in the surrounding areas. They were painted white with green rooftops, with park benches and trash receptacles that lent to the suburban feel. Each green also had a playground where local children could shoot hoops or pump their legs giddily on the swings until they swore they could “touch the sky.” William Levitt provided for seven village greens, which were located in Levittown, Hicksville, Island Trees and Carle Place. Billy Joel sang of the West Village Green in his song, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.” The West Village Green is home to such stores as Allie’s Gluten Free Goodies, Subway, Boos Florist, Carvel and The Pie Shoppe, to name a few. For the record, Billy Joel attended Fork Lane, and hung out with a group of “greasers” who were frequently thrown out of the pools because they enjoyed doing “cannonballs” and “can-openers” when they “rocked the pools.”
As we continued to discuss the ever-changing faces of each village green, I mentioned that the pharmacy at the North Village Green also contained a 5 & 10 at the front of the store, where we often spent our allowance. My sister mentioned how she would pore over the candy counter for her favorite sweets, which included Jolly Rancher bars. I could always be found at the dimly lit magazine section, where I would use several weeks’ worth of allowances to purchase a comic book. Most of the time, I saved up enough to purchase a large “Snoopy” book, which kept me entertained for a while. Dad enjoyed the magazine section as well, where he would purchase a copy of Newsday for mom and a copy of Long Island Press for grandpa. We would enjoy a slow saunter back home, oftentimes cutting through the treed area by Schoolhouse Road. Dad would fold the newspapers beneath his arm and gently guide us home, my sister skipping home with her candy bar unwrapped and my nose pressing deep inside my book.
As we wound up the conversation, my niece sniffed a bit. “It all sounds so basic,” she sighed as she returned to her game of Bubble Witch Saga. The “good old days” were simpler, it’s true, but the memories aren’t basic at all. They’re alive and rich with the history of suburban Hicksville and Levittown and all the glory that goes along with it.
