Childhood friends from Oceanside turn Facebook nostalgia page into a book

Their “page” may have started in 2008, but they couldn’t physically turn it until this April. Childhood friends-turned-co-authors Scott Mandel, 48, Jordan Kaplan, 57, Stacy Mandel Kaplan, 52, and Kimberly Towers, 48, started a Facebook page “Hey Long Island … Do U Remember?” 14 years ago, to reminisce and share their memories, and now their book, of the same title, is inspiring memories nationwide.

On Saturday, the four authors — all natives of Oceanside except Jordan Kaplan, who now lives there, too — met some of their readers at a book signing at Thriftway Card and Gift in Oceanside.

Authors not by choice, but chosen nonetheless, their literary adventure began when MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc., in Canada, approached them about turning their virtual page into tangible pages. “We got the phone call to become authors,” Towers, a local fashion designer, recalled with a chuckle. Jordan Kaplan, a personal banker, compared it to an “American dream” story.

With backing from a publisher, the hard work had to begin, and the authors started researching, speaking to contacts to gather information and photos, sending photographers out to locations and racking their brains for notable locations and historical footnotes on the Island — all of this taking place during the coronavirus lockdown.

“We had restrictions on us,” Towers said of the challenges of the pandemic, “so we couldn’t go everywhere.”

Their research, however, ranged far and wide across Long Island. “We made sure in the book to cover everything,” said Mandel Kaplan, who is Jordan Kaplan’s wife, Scott’s sister and an attorney. “It goes from the Brooklyn Bridge to Montauk Point, Sands Point to Long Beach and the places in between.”

Her brother, who is also an attorney, added that “it also covers culture, so there’s music in there, pretty much anything having to do with Long Island, so it’s a nice scope.”

It was hard to narrow all of the information down, they all agreed, because there was so much rich history to explore. “You’ll find one thing and we’ll talk and say, ‘Wow this is amazing,’” Mandel said, “then we’d move on to the next one and say, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’” He added that each place “brought up different emotions and different memories” for each of them.

Mandel Kaplan said she hoped readers would feel the same way. “Each page brings a different connection to somebody,” she said, “and because we did things as far back as our earliest picture, which I think is the early 1900s, it covers a lot of generations.” Already they’ve gotten responses from around the county, with readers saying things like “‘Hey, I remember my grandfather telling me about that,’ or ‘I remember going here with my son,’” Mandel Kaplan said. They also intended the book to be a tribute to their past and present. “We wrote the book collectively, more for us to honor our parents and to preserve those memories for our children,” she said, “and we now have something to show them.”

One of the book’s featured photographers, Kathleen Balsamo, 61, of East Patchogue, also came to the book signing, which was the first time the authors met the photographers they deployed during the pandemic. “I don’t think we’ll ever see all of the landmarks on Long Island,” because there are so many, Balsamo said.

But that didn’t stop her from “loving every minute of it,” she said, recalling her father’s words to her when she was a young adult. “My dad used to say, ‘You want to trek all over the world and see this and that,’” Balsamo recounted, “‘but people come to Long Island to see what we have.’”

The authors never expected the book to be as well received as it has been. “This was a labor of love for the four of us,” Mandel said, “and to see the response in reviews on Amazon was really nice, and something that caught us off guard — five-star reviews.”

Towers shared the sentiment. “To find out it put a smile on someone’s face — that’s what it’s all about,” she said, “and everybody needs to reminisce and think back, and that’s how this whole Facebook page started.”

Their book isn’t like a school history textbook, Mandel Kaplan said. “It’s not just history,” she said. “It’s nostalgia and memories, which are different than history.”

The authors, who plan to write a sequel or perhaps turn the book into a series, say they have seen the landscape of Long Island change already. “Things have already altered and changed since (then),” Towers said. “Unfortunately we’ve lost people that were in the book, jobs have changed … places have closed. But it just shows how it’s an ever-changing cycle.”