By AMANDA HOFFMANN
“I thought 25 people tops would join,” said the Facebook page's creator and reunion organizer, Jim Gaines, a Bellmore resident who grew up in Oceanside. “I was just curious to see who would join. The idea of the page more or less took on a life of its own.”
Gaines attributes the page's popularity — it attracted hundreds of comments from people who have a soft spot for the place— to the fact that Nathan's has been an institution in Oceanside for more than 50 years. “I'm such a small part of that big generational circle,” said Gaines. “You had one group get older and leave for college and the next group came in and took over.”
Several generations of Nathan's enthusiasts showed up on Saturday, including some who have moved out of town, like Jillian and Gary Morton, who hung out at the original location in the ’60s and traveled from Newton, Conn.
The first Oceanside Nathan's, originally located at the south end of the TJ Maxx shopping center, opened in the ’50s as Murray's Roadside Rest, named for Murray Handwerker, the son of Nathan Hand-
werker, who opened the first Nathan's in Coney Island in 1916. The huge facility, nicknamed “the barn,” had high ceilings and long counters with separate windows for the purchase of hot dogs, french fries or drinks.
Two years after opening, Murray got his father's permission to use the Nathan's name, and business took off. “It became a place people could go for Nathan's without having to travel all the way into Brooklyn,” said the company’s director of operations, Bruce Miller. “The building was white with an art deco feel, and it had a small amusement park. They would actually have entertainment, too, at a stage in the middle of the dining room. It was an amazing situation.”
The company eventually sold the property because, Miller said, it grew difficult to operate because of its size. The restaurant was torn down to develop the shopping center, and it was rebuilt at its current location, at the corner of Long Beach Road and Windsor Parkway, in the late ’60s.
“It's not unusual that people want to get together and talk about old times, and since Nathan's has been in the community such a long time, it's part of people's memory of growing up,” said Miller, who grew up in Levittown and has fond memories of car trips to the Oceanside Nathan's with his father. “We’re very proud that people want to come back here.”
Among those who came back for the day was Dave Brown, who spent most of his ’80s high school years at Nathan's, but has since moved to Milford, Pa. “After I got my driver's license, the first place I went was Nathan's,” said Brown, who brought his two children along for the reunion. “I want my kids to know where their father grew up and enjoy a piece of my childhood as much as I did. Granted, I had to drive three and a half hours to do it, but it's totally worth it.”
Some of the attendees didn't have to travel far, like Lou Santoro, 49, who was born and raised in Oceanside. “Back in the late ’60s and early ’70s they used to have an amusement park with several rides for the kids that my parents used to take my sister and I to,” Santoro recalled. “It was so much fun back then. There weren’t any home computers, cable TV, video games, etc., to keep us kids in like there are today.”
Santoro remembered that the arcade was a big draw, especially when the temperature dropped. “We would spend lots of time there meeting friends in the winter months when there weren’t too many places to go,” he said.
Another Nathan's fan, Stacy Mandel Levine, wrote in a Facebook message, “My memories of Nathan's span over 30 years. Having grown up in Oceanside, I remember the game room and rides as a child; Saturday hot dogs with my parents and brother; pinball and Pac-Man video games when I was a teen; and now having made my home in Oceanside, my husband and I bringing our five- year-old daughter to Nathan's for the game room, rides and hot dogs.”
Gaines said he proposed the idea of the reunion to the group's members after his 20-year high school reunion sparked several smaller gatherings. “I figured I'd throw it out there and see what happens,” he said. Around 130 members accepted the invite on Facebook, among them several of his classmates and friends.
Josephine Colon Tierney made her first trip back to Oceanside for the gathering, having moved to Bellmore 15 years ago. “It was just wild seeing people you haven't seen in 20 years,” said Tierney, who brought along her husband, Thomas.
“Nathan's in Oceanside was always a pit stop, even though I grew up in Bellmore,” said Thomas. “I met my wife years later — not there — but it's kind of funny that we both used to hang out there.”
The attraction to Nathan's, according to the Tierneys, was that it was a safe and fun place for teens to hang out. “You could walk there or ride your bike or, when you were older, get a ride, and you'd play games and eat your food and hang out in the back,” Josephine recalled. “You could always find someone you knew there. Everyone was accepted — it didn't matter if you had purple hair or lots of piercings and tattoos or if you were fat or skinny. Everyone hung out there.”
It's strange, Josephine observed, that during the ’80s, when she was hanging out at Nathan's, she never thought about those who preceded her, but at the reunion she had the opportunity to meet some of them. “I couldn't believe it, that I met someone that was hanging out there 20 years before me,” she said. “When we drive by and see kids there now, it's wild to see them doing the same thing we did too, hanging out. It's pretty cool.”
Comments about this story? AHoffmann@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 269.
