By:Anthony Rifilato
"Throughout the year I kept hearing about Miss Essling," said Picchioni, of Rockville Centre, adding that his brother, then in third grade, was smitten with the teacher and had a huge crush. After a bit of prodding from his parents, who thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to ask her out, Picchioni "went up to meet the teacher that everybody was talking about."
Although he would return to school and then embark on a trip to Mexico after graduation, he was eager to meet the young teacher. "I had a pleasant chat with her, and said, 'Would you mind if I called you?'" recalled Picchioni, who also attended Brookside and grew up in Baldwin.
When he returned from Mexico a few months later, Picchioni, a teacher at Lynbrook High School for 22 years, called Essling and met her at her home in Elmont. "I chatted with her mother for a half an hour before she came downstairs," he said. The two hit it off, and have been married for 32 years. They have two children and three grandchildren. Needless to say, both have fond memories of Brookside Elementary School, where Marilyn began her career in 1969 and where she still teaches.
"She teaches in the first-grade classroom where I started," said Picchioni. "Sometimes her students ask me if I remember who sat at their desks."
Over the weekend, the Picchionis attended Brookside's reunion and prom celebration, a culmination of a week of activities and events celebrating the school's 50th anniversary. There, the couple reunited with past teachers, students and friends.
"You could see how many people loved being part of the Brookside family," said Picchioni, who offered a few words at the ceremony. "Having a celebration for the school where the whole community came together, I think it was a rare thing."
Picchioni not only met his wife at Brookside, he was one of its first graduates. His family moved to Baldwin from Brooklyn in 1955 and lived on Wallace Avenue. "I joined Brookside as a first-grader," said Picchioni, the second child in a family of four children. "We were the first class that went all the way through."
Picchioni grows sentimental when he recalls the days of growing up in Baldwin, describing it as a simpler time when all the neighborhood kids played in the street and went to Nunley's Carousel. "It was just a wonderful place to grow up and go to school," he said. "We all knew that going to school in Baldwin, we were getting a great education."
Even though the teachers at Brookside could be strict at times, he said, they were pleasant and had their students' best interests at heart. "We just loved being there, we loved our teachers," he said.
Picchioni remembers not only the Saturday morning basketball program at Brookside's gym and spring concerts where he "had to wear the puffy shirts like on Seinfeld," but also a time when there were morning prayers and air raid drills.
It was the during Cold War, a time of ominous threats when students would have to duck under desks with the lights off or stand side by side against the walls in the hallway, in case of nuclear war. Picchioni described those threats as the terrorism of their day.
"We didn't want the airplanes to see us inside our schools," he said.
Picchioni also recalls the balmy, endless summer nights spent playing stickball and other games like touch football and ring-a-levio. He remembers the totem pole he and his classmates made for a school project, which stood on Brookside's grounds for over 10 years. Like all the other kids, Picchioni loved Nunley's Carousel, which used to be on Sunrise Highway, and he would often play in the woods near Brookside with his friends.
"All the kids played in the street all day and night," said Picchioni.
During his days at Baldwin High School, the radio airwaves were dominated by the Beach Boys and Motown artists, and the young Picchioni, involved in sports and other activities, would drive around in a 1955 Plymouth that he bought for $50 and hit Chico's Bar on Grand Avenue, Jones Beach, The Pink Canary or his father's establishment, Peaches' Pub, with his friends. He remembers a little-known band that would play around Baldwin called The Hassles, whose keyboard player was Billy Joel.
"It was just great back then, there was really good dance music," said Picchioni, adding that he still remains friends with some of the kids from Brookside. "We still get together with our families."
As teachers, the Picchionis still keep in contact with some of their former students, and Mrs. Picchioni, in particular, caught up with some Brookside graduates who now attend Baldwin High School.
"We go to a lot of baptisms and weddings," Picchioni said. "We keep in touch with a lot of our students."
Ê At the reunion, Mrs. Picchioni wore her high school prom dress, which still fit. "She wore it as a spoof," said her husband. "It looked great."
Old yearbooks, journals and photos spanning the school's history were on display, and a film of Brookside's grand opening was shown. "It was a whole time line and history," Picchioni said.
Aside from catching up with old friends, he had the rare opportunity to reunite with his second-grade teacher, Mrs. Corcoran, who brought along some photos of Picchioni and his classmates as kids. It was brought to Picchioni's attention by two former classmates that for some 45 years, there has always been a Picchioni attending Brookside: Bill, his younger brother or sister, or his wife.
Which is why Picchioni was perhaps the perfect person to speak to about the school during the ceremony, as he shared some of his memories with those who have been associated with Brookside during the past 50 years. "Everybody was coming up to me afterwards and saying what it was like for them back then," he said. "We all feel the same way about our upbringing. We're very proud of it."
