Passing down Seaford stories at the library

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Longtime Seaford residents have said that preserving the community’s history is both an important and sometimes challenging task. But library leaders aim to make that process easier as they expand their oral history initiative, with help from neighbors and local groups. 

Through the Seaford Public Library’s My Story Program, residents are welcome to sit down and record and interview, recounting their memories of their hometown; the recordings are saved on CD-ROMS for patrons to access at the reference desk. Officials invite locals of all ages to participate. 

Librarians Ida Zaharopoulos and Eric Wasserman took up the project in May 2015, as they were inspired by an oral history initiative at the Bellmore Memorial Library. They said that their primary goal is to capture the lives of Seaford residents for future community members to look back on in years to come. 

Zaharopoulos and Wasserman invite everyone from longtime Seaford natives to those who experiences Hurricane Sandy in the neighborhood to participate. Theirs efforts have been well-received by community leaders thus far 

“It’s very important that older generations tell their story,” said Judy Bongiovi, president of the Seaford Historical Society. “Without programs like this, it’s simply by word of mouth or written word.”

The American Library Association and StoryCorps selected the Bellmore Memorial Library to take part in a national pilot program called “StoryCorps @ your library” in 2014. StoryCorps is an independent, nonprofit organization that gives people of all backgrounds and beliefs the chance to record, share and preserve the stories of their lives. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 45,000 interviews with nearly 90,000 participants.

Frank McKenna, Seaford’s library director, heard about the interviews being conducted in the library two neighborhoods away and became interested in creating a collection of “auditory heirlooms.” Zaharopoulos and Wasserman liked the idea, so they reached out to their peers in Bellmore. 

Bellmore Library staffers taught Zaharopoulos and Wasserman how to conduct these interviews with residents. Bellmore also loaned Seaford recording equipment they received through the StoryCorps grant. 

For each Seaford resident who wishes to record a memory or story, the process begins with a pre-interview phone call with Wasserman; that way, he explained, both people have an idea of what they’re going to discuss. Next, participants meet with Wasserman for to record the interview in the library’s staff room, a space that creates a relaxed environment. 

“We try to make it like a casual conversation, and not an interrogation,” Wasserman said. “Sometimes we’d go off course, but that’s okay.”

To date, the library has recorded eight Seaford interviews. Each of the participants —Charles Wroblewski, Stephen and Judy Bongiovi, Fred Roth, Les Lowinger, Stanton Bahr, Carol Papp, Barbara Richardson and Charles Schmitt — shared different life experiences. 

Wasserman noted that the participants have range from former Seaford teacher to a retired FBI agent. However, he said there’s one thing that they all have in common. 

“They all share a love of Seaford and had nothing but wonderful things to say about it,” Wasserman said.

The Bongiovis said they were happy to share their memories and have them added to the oral history collection. Stephen grew up in Seaford and met Judy when they were students at St. William the Abbot School. Later on in life, they moved back to Seaford together in 1982.

Their interview focused on raising their two daughters in Seaford and some of the big changes they’ve seen happen in the community over the years.  They described days before the Seaford–Oyster Bay Expressway was constructed, and when the Long Island Rail Road station was elevated decades ago. 

“It’s such a new world now,” Stephen said. “As alert as younger generations are to what’s going on, they have a hard time picturing what Seaford was like in the 50s when we grew up here.”

The couple stressed that the types of stories recorded for the collection are all unique, and therefore, should be treasured. Judy said that she doesn’t want the community’s history to be lost. 

“It’s a very special community,” she said of Seaford. “Because it is small, most people make connections in high school who become lifelong friends and acquaintances.” 

Lowinger, another contributor, agreed, noting that he fell in love with Seaford when he moved into the neighborhood in 1967. He took his passion for science and thrust it into the local school systems for 41 years. 

In his interview, the longtime teacher spoke about how the class periods flew by as he taught former Seaford students lessons on heat, expansion and density with a lava lamp. When teaching in Seaford, his philosophy was to “make the students feel important and include everyone in any way possible,” he said.

Zaharopoulos and Wasserman said that Schmitt (who owns a funeral home on Merrick Road), Wroblewski, (the former FBI agent and past president of the historical society) and Roth, who got married in the Seaford Historical Museum when it was still a firehouse) also offered interesting anecdotes. Currently, any resident can walk into the library and request to listen to one of the CD recordings of theseSeaford stories. 

Library leaders noted that the project is ongoing, adding that they hope to expand the collection of recordings in the coming months. According to McKenna, they are looking to conduct additional interviews, add transcriptions of all interviews, digitize a collection of historical photographs of Seaford and create a presentation about what they have learned about the community through the initiative. 

In the future, Judy Bongiovi anticipates that the Seaford Historical Society will be more involved with the library’s endeavors. She said that she would love to present some of the recordings at the Seaford Historical Museum. “It’s important to not only record them, but spread the word,” she explained. 

To contribute to the oral history collection, library officials said residents should ask for Ida and Eric at the reference desk. To reach the library, call (516) 221-1334.