Long Island, NY.
The weather was lovely today, perfect for a trip to Long Island with Marilyn and Alan, although Suzanne and Harold weren’t able to join us.
We visited Hempstead, NY, where it all began at Kernochan Avenue for this family of friends, when Marilyn, Suzanne, Randi, and I first lived together as housemates, and Bev first came to visit us on here on Long Island.
Bev moved up from Baltimore to join us the next year, in 1973, where we lived at 409 Fulton Avenue, Hempstead, from 1973-1974. Alan came into the picture later that year, on Halloween 1973. The house itself, an old gothic Victorian is long gone, but even the house that took its place is now dilapidated. Still, I released some of Bev’s ashes there, at this important place, and we enjoyed being there. The full story of Bev and I really began at Fulton Ave, where Bev once said to me, while we were kidding around, “You’ll never get the better of me, Phil Rich.” Very happily for me, I did get the best of Bev, and was very lucky to have done so, for the next 51 years.
We also took a visit to Hofstra University, just down the road apiece, where Marilyn and Alan attended.
From Hempstead, rather run down and urban, we headed to Westbury, where Bev and I lived from 1977-1979, and Alan, Mar, and Suzanne lived from 77-78, and Marguerite 78-79. The house is a little bigger now (and better looking), with a small extension built onto it. I was there for 3 years, 77-80, and a lot of good stuff happened there.
From Westbury, a working middle class town, on beautiful back roads through Brookville, with lovely and very expensive homes and grounds, to Greenvale and C. W. Post College (now LIU Post, part of Long Island University). Bev and I actually visited here together in 2013. A beautiful and classic campus, with many, many memories from our earliest days, 1972-1975.
From C. W. Post to Bayville, a really lovely town that we didn’t really appreciate when we lived there. It is a really lovely town, situated right on the Long Island Sound, and we spent some there, including eating and paddling a little on the beach. Of course, we visited Jackson Avenue, where Bev, Marilyn, Alan, and I lived from 1974-1975.
Then to Glen Cove, LI, where we looked for and found the Carvel Bev worked at and was robbed when living in Bayville, and Alan, Bev’s ice cream buddy, enjoyed a milk shake for Bev. Just a few doors down, Delicious Pizza, another favorite, wasn’t there anymore, but there is another restaurant in its place, in the same building. Both Carvel and the former Delicious were great to see, and still there after 48 years. Amazing.
No trip to Long Island would be complete without a visit to Levels in Great Neck, NY, where I worked from 1974-76, and again 1978-1981. We went inside for a quick look, and found the ‘I. Philip Rich’ sign still there, since 1981, on the center column.
My only couple of regrets about the day. I forgot to release some ashes in Westbury at Cross Street, and forgot to visit Mineola, NY., where Bev and I, accompanied by Suzanne, who lent us her ring, got married on December 24, 1974. Okay – next time. *
* I corrected that omission. I returned to Westbury and Mineola on November 9, and released some of Bev’s ashes, which I’d been saving for this, at 412 Cross Street in Westbury, and in Mineola. I couldn’t find the building we actually got married in, which may not even still be there after 50 years this year, so I released some ashes in Mineola Memorial Park, which seemed appropriate.
