Kenora, Verona, and Naomi Places

[Warren Davies]

Even in a small [in the 50's and 60's] hamlet like Seaford, there were several street "neighborhoods" like this one. Everyone knew their neighbor. If one kid decided to fly a kite, by the end of the day lines of people on all three streets would be flying one as well. Besides myself, the was Terry Joos, Jimmy Umland, the Stamms, Vickie Musikas, Marilyn Davies, Fred Hoskins, Drew and Leslie Beauchamp, Bob Statnick, Barbara Cohen, The Valvanos, John Campo, Tommy Amato[ the Amatos bought our house from us when we moved to Louisville] and the Trubias lived behind us on Waverly. The back yards of several of the houses on Kenora Place were the actual Seaford-Wantagh border. Any others out there? Remember the car crashing into the King Kullen? The house at the end of the street being hit by lightning? "Stoop Ball" and 'Stick Ball"?

[Warren111qwert]

Barbara and Jim Beer lived on Kenora Place in the 50's, as did Margaret Olsen. Mike and Skip Manzi lived right around the corner. Mike (1965) passed away according to the Virtual Memorial - as did Rocky and Jimmy V., Marie Stamm, and Tommy Amato.

[Mark T]

back in the 50's there were all kinds of vendors and amusements that would ply the neighborhood. There was the "bleach man" who sold gallon bottles of bleach and you had to give him your empty bottle. Another sold ice and someone else came through sharpening knives. The best one for us kids was the pony cart.

[leslie]

Speaking of returning bottles - For years we had a milk man. My mom didn't stop milk delivery until a whole year after King Kullen was built.

[ANDREW65]

Hey Leslie! Maybe your mom was more interested in something other than milk. Just kidding. My father had seltzer water delivered to the house in those metal-topped spray bottles. We used to sneak them out of the house and have water fights with them. He'd do a slow burn when he would go to make a "Highball" and have to run up to South Shore to buy more.

[BRIANgd70]

Warren, it was Tommy Umland not Jimmy. His father built a huge boat in the garage. Remember?
The best stick ball games were up at Seaford Ave. School with the strike zone drawn on the wall. Happiness was a brand new "Spaldeen".

[amanda59p]

Bungalow Bar & GoodHumor!!!!!!! Running through the sprinkler!!!!!!!

[Fred68]

Spalde-e-e-e-e-e-ns!!!!! What a great sound when you would connect just right with that broomstick ..... "POP"!! Bases were parked cars, trees and front stoops. Foul balls ALWAYS ended up in someone's gutter.

[Warren111qwert]

The snowstorms !! I forgot about the great snows we had. School would be closed ( naturally ), some of us would make a ton of money shovelling snow for neighbors, and, in our case, when the LIRR would shut down it meant that our Dad was home. Once the roads were plowed, we'd go to Bethpage State Park for the BEST sledding this side of the Catskills. Then we'd load up the snow shovels and head off to the Mill Pond on Merrick Rd. in Wantagh and shovel off the ice so that we could skate. It was a real "community" affair with people from Seaford, Bellmore and Wantagh all helping out. If the fire Department had already flooded Davis Field (on Waverly Ave.) then we'd shovel the snow off of it as well. At night we'd have a big fire and, sometimes, our parents would line up their cars along the edge of the field with their headlights on so we could skate after dark. It was really neat !!

[Marilyn61]

Remember the mosquito fogging trucks that used to drive through in the summer? We'd ride our bikes in and out of that dense white fog. It was probably DDT. It's a miracle that we all didn't get deathly sick (at least I hope no one did). And the stink !! YUK!!

[BRIANgd70]

Three additions to the list: Curtis Bergh '67 - Naomi Pl. and Janet Scotto '81 & Candace Nyborg '72 - Verona (I think)

[VickieMOlsen]

Helmut and Evelyn Steeves lived on Kenora Place on the Seaford Ave. end where the big maple trees started. (Kenora Place was L-shaped with the long end stopping at Seaford Ave and the short end stopping at Merrick Rd by the King Kullen. Naomi and Verona Places ran from Seaford Ave. into the short end of Kenora.)

[Mark T]

With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving coming up, I am reminded of the terriffic apple cider that some independent vendor used to sell from his small truck. He sold three types of cider, but we children were only supposed to know about two of them. There were (in gallon bottles) clear cider and un-filtered. The third kind was the one in quart bottles that got handed only to adults and was already in paper bags. Hmmmmm. It was all stored on the back stoop for lack of room in the "Frigidaire". There wasn't a store-bought cider that could compare!! The guy with the knife sharpening truck would make a special run through the neighborhood just a few days before Thanksgiving, as well.

[johnbock86]

how about a little later? kick the can, Tiger the ice cream man, street hockey, the "Marshall" and his wife, "no, you may not have your ball back!"... going from pool to pool in the summer, writing on the lamp post, sling-shooting apples out the windows...walking to "the Avenue school", you guys around? Mike F., Terry O., Jimmy M?

[guestloriglickman1986]

Hey John-

Saw your post...what have you been up to? Where are you living?

I am in Florida, married and have a 3 year old daughter.

Do you remember the Freeman family? Mike Freeman and also Jimmy Marino (I had such a crush on him!) ...whatever happened to them? I think they lived very close to you.

Lori