The WHEEL

By JOE FANELLI

Back in 1889, he fell from a fireescape four stories to the groundAn account in the old New YortWorld described the incident. Hisfather expected his year-old sorto be dead , rushed down thestairs only to find him alive anckicking.

When this country enteredWorld War One, he twice wasrejected , finally got in , sawservice on three major battle-grounds , came up with enoughinjuries and ailments any one oiwhich could have been fa ta l .

Friday, our old Frank Fischerof 33 Burchell St., Bay Shore,stopped by to reminsce with thewriter about the days of the oldBay Shore Journal . This one herewas a schoolboy doing somewriting, who also got pressed intoservice on Tuesdays and Wed-nesdays to collate the paper andto perform assorted other duties ,all of them menial.

Names like Clint Metz , Sparks ,Jack DeCarmine crept into theconversation. It was rather hardto stop Frank. The talk drifted tothe old minstrel show days at St.Luke's, the golden voice of AlanMacKinnon (he , like Frank , wasa linotype operator) ; "we hadmore fun putting on the showthan the audience that paid to seeus perform ," Frank recalls.

Yes, Frank was hard to stop.The fall from the fire escape, thewar battles , must havetoughened him. At age 82, he canpull out the 1889 clipping from theWorld , his service disabilitycard , complain about how hislegs ached back in 1919, and still

walk a couple of miles a day !• » »

It must have been oldtimers'week for this corner. Anothervisitor here was the Rev. OscarL. Daley who formerly occupiedthe pulpit of the IslipPresbyterian Church when hewasn 't in the "pads" for abaseball game. We have con-sidered this crusty (don 'tmisconstrue) character acherished friend for many, manyyears and hope to continue thatrelationship many more.

To all intents and purposes,"Doc" is retired now but hemanages to get about , dispensinghis dry humor to old friends andacquaintances. He has what hecalls a calling card which lists"every blessed number they 'vegiven me, social security, homeaddress , telephone number ,they 're all on it. "

The Rev. Oscar L. calls himselfa "Contran tidisest abl ishme n-tarian ," claims to be the onlyone. Explains: "You can drop afew letters here and there andstill be agin ' something!"

# # *Like one of the kids used to say :

March! Comes in like a lion andgoes out like a lamp!

• * »International Motor Show

opens today...in Geneva. OurChases' calendar also reportsthat on Sunday, beheading-of-the-goose-by-horseriders-for-the-title-of-emperor takes place inAntwerp, Belgium, and that'srather rough on the goose. Alsoon Sunday, Expo '70 opens in

Osaka , Japa n , and it launchesNational Foreign LanguageWeek , National PoisonPrevention Week and NationalWildlife Week. Sunday, Caesar, isalso the Ides of March. Ourjaunty Irish friends will be gladto hear that March 17 is CampFire Girls ' Founders ' Day and"Evacuation Day " in Boston andSuffolk County...that' s SuffolkCounty, Mass. And a Happy St.Paddy 's Day to you!

* » »Bay Shore High Class of '50 is

planning a reunion for some datethis summer. Mrs. Jerry(Beverly Brewster ) Jones headsthe search committee to locatemembers of the class. Assistingare Mr. and Mrs. (Tater andJoyce ) Modderno (MO 5-2241) ,Mrs. Arthur (Lil l ian Kruse)McCall (MO 6-5859) , and Mrs.James (Jackie Dowd) Costello(MO 5-8874). Telephone numbersare for convenience of anyonehaving knowledge of thewhereabouts of some of themembers of the class.

The Greater Lake Charles(Louisiana ) Chamber of com-merce recently made a pitch toget new physician members bymailing the doctors a disposablehypodermic needle attached toits letterhead with the catchyphrase, "Join...or we'll needleyou." The letter started , "Weintend to get more doctors tobecome members of theChamber of Commerce and weare not above needlin' you until

(Continued on Page 23 )

Paul Bailey 'sHis toric Long Island

Selected and Supp lemented/>v (]a rl 4. Staracr

Whaling From The ShoreEarly Long Islanders , often as-

sisted by Indians , put out fromshore to captu re whales long be-fore they outfitted oceangoingvessels and hunted the grea tmammals around the world. Al-though the east end of the islandis more often associated withshore whaling it was also en-gaged in off the Grea t SouthBeach and Jones Beach. The eastenders had the advantage ofhaving the ocea n close to home sothat word of whales close to shorereached them swiftly. The island-ers of present day Brookhaven ,Islip, Babylon , Oyster Bay andHempstead towns had to main-tain lookouts on the beaches andcross wide bays in order to reachthe scene of action .

The Huntington town recordshave an entry of June 13, 1793, inwhich one Nathaniel Wickes in adeposition sta tes tha t he recallsthat there were two whale houseson the beach , between —GoosIsland and Thatch Island , abou topposite the opening of "Mas-sapague" Gut some sixty yearsearlier (1733). This would havebeen abou t opposite HuntingtonWest Neck South, presentdayAmityville , now in Babylon town.

Charles R. Street, who com-piled three volumes of Hunting-ton town records in 1889, com-mented in connection with the"whale house" entry that it"reminds us of the fact tha t fromearliest settlement of Long Islandthe caputre of whales forsecuring oil was carried on fromthe South Beach. Many from theNorth Side of the Island engagedin the business for a part of theyear , and shared in the profits ofthe business. The writer , when aboy, listened to the stories told byhis grandfather , Gilbert Scudder ,of the exciting adventures of thelatter while pursuing and cap-

turing whales."From Judge Henry P. Hedges

history of East Hampton we learnthat shore whaling was an im-portant iridustry in his home vil-lage of Wainscott when he was aboy. Born in 1817, he recalled awigwam on the beach , used bylocal whalemen as a shelter. Itwas "constructed of oak saplingssharpened and forced down in thesand" , similar to the homes of thelocal Indians.

There was also a 30-foot-highstage-pole; a tree set deep in thesand , with some of its branchesleft on and trimmed to permiteasy climbing. From that van-tage point a watchman couldsearch the sea for the sign ofwhales. The whaleboats, contain-ing all gear, rested bottom up onpoles "laid in crutches driven inthe sand" . At sight of a whale ,wrote the Judge, "Men ran wildto gain the beach in time. Boysshouted with delight . For onceour little world woke up!"

An excellent work on Americanshore whaling is "Whale Off" , byEverett J. Edwards and hisdaughter , Jeannette Edward sRattray, published in 1932.

A Friendly WarningMathew Harvey, town clerk of

Oyster Bay, on July 5, 1669, whichwas just 16 years after the townsof Huntington and Oyster Baywere founded , sent the followingnotice to the Huntington townfathers:

"Friends and neighbors of thetown of Huntington . We oncemore desire you in a lovingfriendly way, to forbear mowingour neck of mea dow, which youhave presumptuously mowedthese several years ; and if afterso many friendly warnings youwill not forbea r, you will force us,friends and neighbors ,to seek ourremedy in law, but resting yourfriends and neighbors". We do

not know whether the matter wastaken to court . The meadowinvolved was on Lloyd Neckwhich was then in the town olOyster Bay although Huntingtondisputed the title and eventuallyproved its claim. That did nothappen for more than 200 yearswhen, in the 1870's, the area ,originally known as Horse Neck ,was relinquished by Oyster Baytown and became part of Hun-tington.

The Cornells, CornwellsCornell , Cornwell and Cornwall

are the same family, members ofwhich played many importantroles in the island's early history.They all stem , we understand ,from Thomas and William Corn-well who migra ted to Americafrom England in 1635. The for-mer 's son , Richard , was one ofthe founders of Flushing tow n in1645 and twenty years later was adelegate to the Hempstead As-sembly which framed the lawsfor the province of New York.

In 1687 Richard purchased thelower end of the Rockawaypeninsula and three years laterbecame its firs t white inhabitantby establishing a fa rm at FarRockaway. He died in 1693 but hisoriginal homestead farmhousestood until 1833 when the fabulousMarine Pavilion was built on thesite. Richard left five sons andthree daughters. Ezra Cornell ,for whom Cornell University isnamed , is of this family and an-other member founded Cornwall-On-Hudson.

W i l l i a m S. Pet t i t , onetimepresident of the Nassau CountyHistorical Society and himself adescendant , once wrote : "Prac-t ical ly every respectableAmerican family on Long Islandwho can trace its ancestry backto the 17th century, can find aCornell in the line ".

By Lloyd Morela nd

Having dwelled too much in thelast two issues on the field ofsports, especially baseball, to thedismay of the distaff side, itoccurs to me that I shouldbroaden my horizons. Being aperson of critical propensities (ifyou doubt this, ask my wife ) , ittakes li t t le prompting todiscourse on a few aggravationswhich must be irritating to peoplemore tolerant than I.

One has to do with the banksand the interminable waiting thatprecedes getting to the teller tomake a deposit or withdrawal ,depending on your fiscal pligh t atthe moment. None of my bankerfriends (of whom I now have veryfew , no longer being an in-fluential member of the com-munity ) should take personaloffense at this, because it is notaimed at any one bank in par-ticular. It seems to apply to all ,and it applies to the noon-timehours.

There are many persons ofmoderate circumstances andcontrolled working hours whoseonly opportunity to visit theirfriendly neighborhood bank isduring their lunch hour. It is veryfrustrating, therefore, when theyarrive at the bank to find only twotellers on duty to serve long linesof loya l , if not necessarily af-fluent, customers, who have toget back to their jobs before thesun sinks slowly in the west.

This is not to imply thatcashiers, tellers and all otherbank personnel should abstainfrom lunch. They need thecarories as much as any of us. Itdoes seem, however, tha t astaggered schedule could bearranged so that the muchpublicized services of the bankswhich can take care of all yourneeds, could provide better tellerservice for the noon time throng.The solution of one unnamedbank official , "Let them come inFriday night" sounds very muchlike the ill advised rejoinder ofthe French monarch , "Let themeat cake." It's not a good way towin friends and attractdepositors.

The other gripe at the momentis aimed at service stations, andthe owners or managers thereofshould turn to Webster's im-mediately to refresh themselveson the meaning of the word"service." Here again, this is notaimed at any local station butappears to apply to most , and theparticular episode that touchedme off recently took place inBabylon.

I happened into tins nice, largeclean station. It was newlyblacktopped and there was easyaccess to the pumps, unlike somestations where there are so manyobstacles in the form of old carsand wreckers that the path to thepump is a dangerous one.

I drove up early in the morningand there inside the office wasnot one but three uniformedattendants, each of whom glaredat me for having the effrontery tobring them business. At long lastone surly youth emerged, and I ,smiling friendly like , said, "Fill itwi th high test , please." Hegrowled something, thrust thehose into the gas tank , and strodepromptly back to join his com-panions at their high level con-ference.

Meanwhile another driverpulled in , and after receiving noattention from the triumvirate ,drove off in a righteous huff . Soona woman driver drove up to apump, and eventually was waitedon. Meanwhile my friendlydispenser of service, returned tomy car , proceeded to overflowthe tank (this is to keep down thedust) , and then growled $6.40. Ismiled again and said, "Wouldyou mind checking under thehood?" If looks could kill , GeorgeWhite would have had anotherstiff on his hands at that point.After having made him check theoil, and give the windshield aonce over, I was tempted to askhim to check the pressure in thetires. But I refrained, realizingthat I have come this far andshould not blow the chance ofmaking Social Security andmedicaid , just because of thedeficiencies of a gas station at-tendant.

What appalled me most of allwas that one of the threecharacters had to be the owner orthe manager, because they justdon 't hire three gas pumpers in'astation that size. If he isn't in-terested in giving service, whyshould they ?

Perhaps the incident I ran intois far fetched and not typical.There seems to be a growingtendency, however , for peoplewhose main function is thedispensing of service to fail torender the service or to do it mostbegrudglngj y .

Oh well , spring is just aroundthe corner , and its coming willameliorate if not dissipate thoseproblems of life which are ac-centu ated by winter. And aHappy Ides of March to you.

Alwayson Thursday

Eclipsed