By Joseph Kellard
(I needed the extra money.) Since then I’ve continued to work behind the scenes on this paper, feeding the reporters stories to cover and laying out and producing the copy each week.
While this paper will be my last, so I can focus exclusively on my new responsibilities in busy Long Beach, I’ll miss reporting in Island Park and particularly Oceanside, the town where I grew up and spent my adult years until I moved to East Meadow last year. Because of my strong ties to Oceanside, and having gotten my start in journalism covering the town, I’ll always tie my ever-evolving love for my field with reporting for this paper.
Usually, when we move far from our hometown and return years later, the sentimental among us get emotional when we once again encounter our past. Yet despite living in Oceanside, there were times when I was reporting for this paper that I experienced those emotions. Memories of fun times I had with friends bubbled up, for instance, when I returned for the first time to report on stories at my former schools: School 4, Boardman Elementary School and Middle School, and Oceanside High School.
Sometimes I’d drive down long-forgotten side streets, heading to an interview at someone’s home, and remember playing football or hockey or stickball there with my schoolmates, or I’d remember a house party I went to as a high schooler. Sometimes these experiences compelled me to write columns about them, including one about playing Little League at Wrights Field on Wrights Lane, or writing about the bands my friends and I went to see at Carol’s Place bar in Island Park.
But besides such fond memories, another great part of covering Oceanside/Island Park was the many interesting people I got to write about, and the different stories I got to cover. On a given day, I could start the morning by covering some innocent school kids raising funds for a good cause, then head to Mineola to sit in a courtroom and watch a murderer get sentenced, only to head out after lunch to interview a local entrepreneur about his thriving new business, and capping the day by sitting in the bleachers at OHS covering my nephew’s night football game. While that’s not a typical day at the Herald, days like that feed my love for the excitement of journalism.
And sometimes I pause to consider the many different people — some famous — I’ve met through my job, from legendary quarterback Dan Marino (my all-time favorite athlete) to retired New York City firefighter Bob Beckwith, who unexpectedly found himself standing beside President Bush when Bush visited the search and rescue workers at ground zero after 9/11.
When I had the opportunity to speak in classrooms, students invariably asked me about the most famous people I’d met, as well as the most memorable stories I covered. By far, it was the several stories I did following the terrorist attacks seven years ago, from Beckwith’s tale to the many obituaries I wrenchingly wrote about the people murdered that day.
Another memorable story I wrote was about World War II veteran Nat Glanz, a long-time Oceanside resident who was thrown into a Nazi prison camp following the Battle of the Bulge and did his best there to hide his Jewish identity. Ed Heines, another WWII vet, read that story and recognized Glanz as the man he had met there nearly six decades earlier. Naturally, my next story was on how the first story reunited these two men.
After I graduated from high school, I stayed in Oceanside, but as the years passed I saw fewer people whom I grew up with, and more new faces. In many respect, I felt that the Oceanside in which I grew up was gone. As an adult, I did my own thing and I paid little attention to community happenings. Working for the Herald changed all that. It allowed me to come to know many of the newer people in town. Since then, I’ve been in and out of so many people’s homes and talked with them and their families about so many different issues that I found that working for the Herald reconnected me with the town and the people I had felt were strangers to me.
I don’t have enough space here to thank all the people who helped me along the way. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention at least a few who I feel most indebted. First are residents Betsy and Bob Transom from my earliest days at the Oceanside Beacon, the now defunct paper I worked for briefly before it merged with the Herald. They let me know about the many goings-on in town, the important issues and the people to talk to.
Next door, in Island Park, Joe Pontecorvo did the same for me, and retired IPFD firefighter George Caracost was always happy to provide me with photos I needed or a history lesson about the village.
I thank these people and the many others in Oceanside and Island Park (you know who you are) who helped me make what I believe was a successful run as the Herald’s reporter-editor.
Lastly, please remember that while I’m covering Long Beach exclusively now, I won’t be completely absent from this paper. I’ll still have a hand in it from time to time, and I’m sure my articles and columns will continue to appear in it. Meanwhile, in the future, please send Oceanside-Island Park-related materials and information to Alex Costello, this paper’s reporter, at:
ACostello@liherald.com or Oceaneditor@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 207.
Comments about this column? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
