Conversations With Robert Murphy

A reflection of the dialogue that took place with Robert Murphy, a former resident of our area. We hope this will inspire memories, or add cultural and historical importance of our community. In addition, we hope that lost ties can be reunited.

Please feel free to contact the civic if you have any information, or wish to expand upon the history of our area.

E-mails

Seeking Old Friends:

I grew up in Elmont and lived at 34 Sterling Rd from 1943 to 1963. I attended St Boniface School on Elmont Road, St Mary's High School in Manhasset. and St John's University in Jamaica before joining the US Air Force. While in high school and college I worked for 3 summers as a groundskeeper at Belmont Race Track and another 3 summers as a sanitation worker for the Town of Hempstead. The stores I remember on Hempstead Tpke were Michael's Pharmacy (near Heathcote), and between Locustwood and Sussex a candy store/luncheonette a deli, a butcher shop, a cleaners, John's barber shop and Luna Restaurant. Between Sussex and Sterling was first a Shell station, followed by Esso(Exxon). On the corner of Sterling Rd was a soft ice cream shop called RO KO KO.

My wife and I have been living in Spring, Texas (a Houston suburb) for the past 38 years but I'd like to re-establish contact with some of my old friends.

I'm wondering if any of your older members would know how to contact the following families;

Sterling Rd. - Markovich, Haughey, Riordan, Mertens, Nappi, Kozlik, Alonzo, Bredow, Zahn, Juesalius(sp?)

Sussex Rd.- Carlino, Ford, Steinbrenner, Bovenzi, Uhl

Heathcote - Lapple, Guidice

106th Ave - Mastro

We're hoping to return to Elmont later this year and would love to be able to contact old friends

Thanks for your help!

Sincerely,

Robert Murphy
Spring, TX

Memories:

Thank you very much for your prompt reply. I may contact you later in the year to find out when you have your civic association meetings so that I may possibly attend one of them if I visit Long Island. I enjoy living in Texas but I have many fond memories of Elmont. It was a great place to grow up in. By the way, although I attended St. Mary's High School in Manhasset, all of my neighborhood friends attended Elmont Memorial. They all graduated in 1957, 1958 , 1959 and 1960. Their names are, Jerry Mastro, Danny Haughey, Bob Lapple, Simone Guidice, Geraldine Donahue, Cathy Giordano, Roger Juselius(sp?), George Markovich, Joe Bovenzi and others.

Thanks again for your interest in hearing from a former Locustwood area resident.

Sincerely,

Robert Murphy

P.S. Here's some Locustwood history you may not know about. Many original residents in the Locustwood area were first and second generation German immigrants who moved to Elmont from New York City. The story I was told is that this happened because the developer/builder of the Locustwood subdivision (Mr. Frank) advertised in the area of Manhattan (Yorkville on the upper east side) where these people lived. Also, many of the residents who lived in Locustwood during WWII worked for defense contractors like Republic Aviation in Farmingdale and Sperry Gyroscope and Grumman Aviation. I personally knew 3 or 4 of these workers. In fact my Dad worked for Republic and got to work in Farmingdale by catching a Long Island Railroad train in Queens Village designated for Republic workers only. Another memory I have is of my Mom, her sister and some friends WALKING with their toddler children (including myself) in strollers to Jamaica Avenue in Queens Village for shopping expeditions. They also walked to the old A&P supermarket at Hempstead Turnpike and Elmont Road (across from the Argo movie theater) for grocery shopping. How times have changed!!! Also, my parents remember the priest at St. Boniface asking the congregation to pray for rain for the area farmers (their were several farms in Elmont in the 40's and 50's including a large one on the north side of Hempstead Turnpike across from the public library and another one on Elmont Road near Elmont Memorial High School).

We hope to hear from Robert Murphy again, because he shared a lot of history that immediately made some of our members recollect on history. We hope that old ties could get reunited, and memories to last forever.