Farmingdale High School grad pens elementary school memories
Frank Nappi grew up living a double life. He lived in Massapequa, but attended the Farmingdale School District. The rivalry of all rivalries, as far as high school sports goes.
“I had friends from both Massapequa and Farmingdale, which made life very interesting,” Nappi mused. “Especially when I stepped on the baseball field or attended football games.”
But while he grew up in the ‘burbs of Massapequa, the Farmingdale High School Class of 1985 grad always had a special appreciation for the small-town feel of the Dale.
“Farmingdale was, to me, a true slice of Americana. That good old-fashioned, post-WWII suburban town with a quaint Main Street dotted here and there with mom and pop stores, restaurants, a movie theater,” Nappi expressed. “Very Norman Rockwell. Every time I have occasion to return to Farmingdale, I feel like a Daler. This will always be home in many ways.”
Now, Nappi is an English teacher at Oceanside High School for the past three decades—a fitting career for a man who always knew he was destined to become a writer. While balancing his work life, Nappi has churned out six books since 2005. His most recent release, I Became An Elementary School Outlaw, was just published and chronicles his time through elementary school.
“What began as nothing more than a series of unfortunate, at times comically absurd, elementary school experiences became this profound, multifaceted walking meditation that was very cathartic for me,” explained Nappi of how he came to write his memoir. “It reminded me of how important my teachers, both good and bad, were to me. And it also made me aware, once again, of how important I am in the lives of my own students.”
While typically a writer of fiction, Nappi said writing his memoir, described as a blend of The Wonder Years and Brighton Beach Memoirs, was like holding up a mirror and looking “deeply and honestly into yourself.” A feat he admitted was not always easy to do as it required exposing himself to all who would read his tale.
“So while the book does have its whimsical moments and will entertain readers, it does expose a more profound truth that wasn’t necessarily the original intention,” he explained.
As the memoir chronicles his childhood self, who experiences the woes of elementary school, the “angst of growing up and fitting in” and his eventual journey through adulthood and becoming a teacher himself, Nappi hopes his book “will make readers reflect on their own experiences. I feel as though they will have occasion to be touched deeply at some moments and at others smile quietly or even laugh out loud.”
Nappi knew he would be an author someday; his fifth-grade teacher, Miss Pitrot, even acknowledged his talent for crafting the written word—she was the first person outside of his family to do so. But it wasn’t until hosting two WWII veterans in his classroom that he was inspired to create a proper novel.
“After listening to Eddie and Bill [the veterans] captivate my students with their tales of war-torn Europe and the difficulty germane to the return home, I knew I had found my inspiration,” expressed Nappi of his decision to create his first published work. “I crafted 10 short stories based on the lives and experiences of Eddie and Bill, built a fictional framework around them and, then, St. Martin’s Press in New York City ultimately published it as my first novel, Echoes From The Infantry. I have been writing ever since.”
As Nappi carries on in his own writing venture, he offers to those aspiring to pen their first novel to never stop writing, as it is “a skill like any other…it is only through continued attention to your craft, and the reading of other writers as well, that you begin to find your vice and what is special about you as a writer.”
To learn more or to purchase Nappi’s works, visit www.franknappi.com and @franknappi on Facebook and Twitter.
