My name is Barry Furr and I graduated FRHS, class of 1963. As I view the site I have both fond and sad memories. My parents moved to Wave Crest Gardens in 1953, after spending a few summers at the beach rooming houses on 30th Street. We came from the University Heights Section of the Bronx and moved into the 20-23 Seagirt Blvd building. It seemed to me that there were hundreds of kids on that terrace (a group of six buildings) and they all came from Brooklyn. I was the only Yankee fan. P.S. 215 was brand new and I stated the 3rd grade in October of that year. Growing up in Wave Crest every summer there was a different fad, water guns, bicycles, roller skates, bow & arrows and every kid had one. There was a Good Humor Stand on the beach and the older kids would get jobs selling ice cream out of white boxes kept cold with dry ice.

As we got older we attended junior high school by bus (JHS198 on Beach 56th Street). One summer a classmate of mine Steve Dobin had a speed boat; he, Michael Sherman and I use to ride an air mattress being pulled behind it in Jamaica Bay.

On the first day of School in 1960 Hurricane Donna Hit and the Bay and the Ocean met in Bell Harbor; it was also my first day at FRHS.

When I think of FRHS I think of Mr. Tietz who would find me smoking in the boys room and send us to Dean Barry`s Office. This would either get you detention or after repeated offenses a letter home. Because of this one of my prized processions was my mail box key. I used to cut French and go to lunch a period early and hang out at Elies under the El. You needed two program cards each showing a different lunch period in case the cop stopped you.

On opening day at Yankee Stadium some of us would cut school and take the subway to the game. In October 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis was going on and we all thought the World was going to end. At night planes from Floyd Bennett Field would be constantly flying over the Rockaway’s. The summers between my junior and senior years found me working at the Sliver Gull Beach Club in Rockaway Point.

 

It was there I learned to appreciate the fifteen cent glass of draft beer. After work I hung out at Kennedys or the Sugar Bowl in Breezy Point. One of my jobs when working at the beach club was to drive a VW Mini Bus to Kennedys and pick up club member who took the ferry from Sheepshead Bay and drive them to the club.

In my senior year I remember coming home to the coverage of JFK being assassinated and sitting in front of the black & white TV in my folks living room transfixed on the coverage.

During the late 60`s and 70`s there were some great fires in the Rockaway’s the grand Old Far Rockaway Public Library on Central and Mott Ave. St. Mary’s Church on Central and Cornaga Ave. Spartan Day Camp and Roches Beach Lockers at Beach 19th Street and Seagirt Blvd. At nights it seemed a new fire would claim a section of old bungalows or a beach hotel on a weekly basis. It was as if the Rockaway’s of my childhood were being burnt down. In retrospect, It was the beginning of the end of the old Far Rockaway.

After High school a lot of things changed, friends moved, left for school, the military and Viet Nam became big News. I remember after Cosmo Pacetta was killed in action the actor Robert Vaughn`s public stance on the Viet Nam War caused Cosmo’s father on a crusade against him. Viet Nam took two more kids from the neighborhood; Steven Goldstein, US Army (FRHS 1963) and Mickey Elflein (St. Mary`s) USMC.

I was saddened to hear that Larry (Tank) Brotz died a few years ago; we played tackle foot ball on the beach at Wave Crest. Jay Matas always wanted to be a teacher and ended up teaching at FRHS before he passed away.

After leaving the US Army in 1969 I want to work for New York Telephone and retired from Verizon in 2001. I have three children and three grand children and live in Oceanide.

Barry Furr