From Brooklyn to 'a dream come true'

    It seems that the East Rockaway Class of 1963 has an incredible collective memory — and most of those memories are of their golden years living in the community they call home. Some of their parents were immigrants, and others fondly rememered their walks to school — some from near the canals in Bay Park.
    Here are some more of their recollections:

These boots weren’t made for walking
Back in the 60’s, my girlfriends and I met at the end of the canal to walk together to ERHS in rain, sleet or snow. It wasn’t cool back then to wear boots, or as we called them golashes, so we would take them off, leave them at the canal, put our white sneakers and stockings on (yes I said stockings). We would then walk to school freezing. Our feet would be numb. We would walk home in the afternoon, put our boots on again, say goodbye to each other at the canal and go home. Our moms never knew.  Today we would have great boots to wear, wouldn’t we?  
Before we went to the reunion, we drove around East Rockaway to all of our friends’ old houses, to the local candy store where we use to buy those long pretzels for two cents  and then, there is was — the canal — and they made a park.  How beautiful it is, with all of the boats, people riding bikes, people playing softball and the children playing. A park where families go to enjoy each other. East Rockaway a small town, but large in families made up of all the people in the town.  That is why our 50th class reunion was such a success, because we may have grown up without that park, but we grew up in this wonderful place of beauty, wonder and family.
 JoAnn Riccio Francis