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A
serialized autobiographical novel
By
Matthew Bashie |
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE:
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WORKING MY WAY DOWN THE EDUCATIONAL LADDER
"Lets
see," the teacher murmured outloud as he pondered over
and checked his rollbook roster. "Whose turn is it
today to make his presentation? Yes! Today we will hear
from Matthew Bashie who will enlighten us as to the subject
of Alexander Graham Bell and the invention of the telephone.
Are you ready to deliver the results of your extensive research
on that topic Mr. Bashie?" My turn! Can't I just
find a nice deep hole to crawl into? Am I going to have
a heart attack? Is that the sound of my knees knocking together?
Why are all these kids grinning at me? Wouldn't this be
the perfect time for a fire drill??
For some strange reason, educators have
long considered written and oral dissertations to be an
integral requirement for learning. I have even experienced
in some of my own advanced university classes the sad reality
that these two types of submitting might even become the
substance for the entire class. One initial two-hour college
session whereby the seasoned professor splits the class
up into groups of two or three and then assigns pertinent
topics. For the rest of the semester, each group gives a
presentation - the professor comfortably rooted in the back
of the room assigns grades based upon performances. Nice
work if you can get it!
(Read more)
Go to
Archives to read the previously published chapters.
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HISTORIC
ARVERNE PHOTOS
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How New York attorney Remington
Vernam first discovered that this undeveloped
part of the Rockaway Peninsula was available for
purchase will have to remain a mystery. But, by
1877 he had arrived on the scene and had decided
to "set up" a real estate development
program. Within only a few years, Vernam actually
acquired the land now making up the section we know
as Arverne. Of course, this is probably how the
place got its name! He often signed documents "R.
Vern" with the last two letters "a m"
unable to be clearly deciphered. His wife (Florence)
suggested the name for the community to be "R-Vern"
- which would later become "Ar - Vern"-
spelled today as "Arverne."
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Vernam built the Arverne
Hotel which opened to the public on July
1st, 1888 on the west side of what is now Beach
69th Street and the oceanfront. Vernam proved to
be a better land developer than a businessman. The
following year the hotel was facing bankruptcy and
Vernam was forced to sell off much of his land to
cover his debts. |
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"Ground Zero" - 1922
style! The Hotel Nautilus, located
on the Arverne oceanfront between Beach 59th and
Beach 60th Street. On June 15th, 1922, a workman
while engaged in a simple maintenance project -
replacing worn shingles on the first-floor porch
of the hotel - carelessly lit a cigarette. Within
less than twenty minutes a small fire developed.
Although several other workers desperately tried
to extinguish the flames, the fire quickly raced
out of control. This simple event led to the largest
conflagration in the history of the Rockaway peninsula |
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The great fire of June
15, 1922, devastated a large part of Arverne.
Only remnants of buildings remain on Beach 61st
St shown here. |
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The original
WaveCrest Long Island Railroad station basks In the
sun on a glorious summer day back In 1939. Like all
other ground-level train stations on the Rockaway peninsula
It will shortly be replaced by a spectacular overhead
concrete trestle -- designed to eliminate costly and
dangerous street-level grade crossings. Our Stevie S.
Stevens shares some of his own thoughts and reflections
on those ancient stations and the superstructure which
eventually replaced them back In the early 1940s. For
your added enjoyment a photo album revealing the present-day
condition of that trestle as well as other interesting
views of the surrounding areas is offered at the completion
of Mr. Stevens' most fascinating essay.
Read
Article
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Congregation
Derech Emunoh, a brown-shingled two-story wood frame
building, located on Beach 67th Street in the Rockaways,
was built by architect William A. Lambert in 1905. The
Orthodox-Jewish synagogue, about a block away from the
Atlantic Ocean, was the center of religious and communal
life for thousands of Jews who lived in the Rockaways
or vacationed here in the summer. The congregation flourished
until the 1960s when many members moved out of the community.
During the next forty years, the remaining congregation
struggled to survive, overcoming poverty, vandalism,
floods, and fires. In late 2002, the building succumbed
to fire, which could have been electrical or the act
of an arsonist.
Read
Entire Article
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From Steve Sacks to Rockaway
Memories , dated January 23, 2012:
Once again I wish to compliment you on this
FANTASTIC website. I lived in Wavecrest Gradens from 1958 to
1972 then moved to California. I recently printed out a few
pages from the article on Wavecrest and sent it to my dad in
Florida. He'll be 87 in March. He moved us from Kew Gardens
to Far Rockaway because he always loved the beach. He called
me and said thanks for the early birthday present. He took a
great walk down memory lane. He really loved the it. He can't
stop raving about it. I've encouraged him to get a computer
so he could see it first hand and even offered to buy one for
him. I just can't seem to get him to do it. He's very techie
for his age so this surprises me. Oh well. I thought you would
enjoy hearing a small part of what your efforts have accomplished.
Your work made a very healthy and spry old guy very happy. Keep
up the great work.
Read
entire letter and Rockaway Memories reply
From Marsha Cohen Menahem
to Rockaway Memories , dated January 15, 2012:
I have been receiving your newsletter for the
last few years and I am thrilled, no end, when I read about
Far Rockaway, Edgemere, and Arverne. The nostalgia touches my
heart and I cannot help but smile.
Your picture of Ms. Craft was a "rip." Everyone who
attended the high school knew these teachers, their abilities,
and their foibles (of course, we were perfect). The amazing
thing about the Rockaways was its suburban nature amidst the
image that we lived in the largest urban center in the US. My
friends and I would walk from deep in Bayswater to my house
on New Haven Avenue at 12:00 at night, never thinking that it
was unsafe. When we got to "The State Diner" someone
we knew would be outside or inside, and we would chat for awhile
and then walk the rest of the way alone.
I lived in Arverne first, and my grandparents lived on 72nd
Street. My grandfather would walk to the shul on 67th Street
in the early morning. When I saw the picture of the shul, I
could picture my grandfather leaving the shul with his wide
brimmed hat after a morning minyan, carrying the blue-velvet
bag that encased his prayer materials. I was walking to the
grocery store on Rockaway Boulevard for my mother when I saw
him leaving, and we walked together towards the grocery. I still
have his siddur, and I remember feeling so close to him at that
moment.
Read
entire letter
From Cynthia Woods to Rockaway Memories
, dated January 14, 2012:
Marty, I notice there are no people of color
included in your Rockaway Memories. Did these people exist or
they were not a part of your memories?
Read
entire letter and Rockaway Memories reply
From Richard Herbst
to Stevie S. Stevens , dated January 12, 2012:
What happened to the Rockaways? Surely you
jest.
It wasn't the subway. Robert Moses comes closer to the truth.
By the late 1940s the City of New York's planning commission
had made the decision to erect barracks for the poor in the
Rockaways and relieve parts of Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn
that were fast becoming slums that police and fire could no
longer manage. These "projects" preceded the IND subway
by at least ten years. Regardless, this was the end of Rockaway
as a summer tourism center and the beginning of the infamous
"White Flight" movement that totally repainted the
community's cultural texture. What is still astonishing in retrospect
is the City's willingness to sacrifice a respectable tax base
in their efforts to sanitize less productive neighborhoods in
New York.
There was no mystery associated with this makeover. Rockaway's
middle class had no place to go but out.
Read
entire letter and Stevie Stevens reply
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| THE
IRISH RIVIERA |
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Terence Patrick
Winch |
Terence Patrick
Winch is an American writer and musician. We are very
pleased to present a chapter titled "The
Burden's of Life" from
his extraordinary book "That Special
Place: New World Irish Stories",
a non-fiction work which details the struggles and ambitions
of the youngest son of an Irish immigrant family growing
up in New York City.
Like a lot of the Bronx Irish, Terence spent his summers
as a boy in the Seaside section of the Rockaways, more
affectionately known as "Irishtown" or "The
Irish Riviera". During that time in the late 1950s
and early 1960s, The family rented bungalows of the
kind he describes that had plasterboard walls you can
easily punch your fist through. Terence's mother worked
as a waitress at Curley's Atlas Hotel.
Terence was raised on Irish music. In Rockaway, the
great center of that music was Beach 103rd Street, which
featured live performances in the many bars and dance
halls that lined the street from the boardwalk to the
bay.
We are also very pleased to present Terence's lilting
song "The Irish Riviera"
from his CD, "When New York Was Irish"
performed by his band, Celtic Thunder.
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FRHS
FACULTY PHOTOS |
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| Dean
Ed Barry and Coach Jack Kerchman visit Beach 116th St.
during the 100 Anniversary celebration of FRHS in 1997.
Photo courtesy of Helen Georges. |
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College advisor
Marion Craft from the January, 1939 Dolphin Yearbook |
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Music Chairman Fred Ruf, from a 1940s
Dolphin Yearbook |
©2012, rockawaymemories.com
This work is licensed
under a Creative
Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing
with attribution.
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