SUPPORT OUR CLASS WEBSITE AND OTHER  ASSOCIATION ACTIVITIES: 

YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR  OUR ASSOCIATION ACTIVITIES IS ALWAYS NEEDED 
(Last request e- mailed July 2019)

By responding to our periodic voluntary dues appeals by e-mail, you activate or renew your membership in our unique 1960 Sailors Association Inc. (click for additional information about the Association) and paying at least a nominal $25 in annual dues when requested,* a portion of such dues will be allocated to the website fund, and this way you can provide financial support for the website. The balance of your dues will support any future reunions and other activities planned at the Board of Directors' discretion.
You should know that many hundreds of dollars have been invested in the creation and continue to be required for the maintenance of this site, among other costs, to keep it "afloat" and free of annoying advertising. Of course, I enjoyed creating it, I enjoy continually updating, expanding and improving it, and I enjoy just visiting it, too, but the class website is there for everyone's enjoyment —  it is our site, not mine.  
 

And why not send your photos (or scanned image files of them), memories and information about yourself to share with your classmates, too?  If  I don't have your e-dress yet, use e-mail or the Class Survey form on the Feedback page to register for our Class Directory — SEND IT NOW — and tell us how our site makes you feel! 

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*  Please make  sure we have  your contact information.

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A 1942 menu from the historic Roadside Rest.

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Our OHS marching band in their brand new, full dress uniforms, Memorial Day, 1960 and a souvenir from our beloved Rainbow Diner.

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50-YEAR GRAND REUNION VIDEO!!

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The colorful and little-known history of the grand Towers Funeral Home.

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A photo of the popular Texas Ranger and a 1972 photo of the late Alan Lupi.

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A memorial tribute page for Donny Fine.

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An original video documentary entitled The Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll, 1954-'59 made especially for us in conjunction with our 50-Year Grand Reunion. This is REALLY something!!

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Two shots of our beloved Rainbow Diner during the 1958 Memorial Day Parade and three "new" photos of Long Beach Road, circa 1958-'59

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A typical 1950s Woolworth's lunch counter menu.

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A complete history of over 50 years of OHS spring musicals from 1957 through 2009.

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Three "new" photos of our little town.

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A "new" photo of our Nathan's, as we knew it.

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Archival images from the OHS dedication ceremony booklet from September 21, 1955.

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A complete roster of our class of 1957 OJHS graduates and some history of our OJHS building before we arrived.

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Our class leaves its mark again in our hometown.

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A dedicated memorial tribute page for our dear, dear friend, Michael Katz

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A report of a "mini-reunion" in Florida in December 2007 among four dear old friends and classmates.

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A musical tribute to track coach,  Roy Chernock, and his illustrious career (which still continues).

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Oceanside/Island Park HERALD's  report of a doo wop concert at OHS in May 2007.

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Our own home town clown, Jolly Jazzbo, and his Jazzmobile.

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Oceanside/Island Park HERALD's full-page feature article about this website. (It's a big file, may take a while to load.)

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Captain's Column added to p. 1.

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Three more old boardwalk photos added.

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Ten more music files added throughout the site!  Watch for the links, and listen for the songs.

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A memorial tribute page added for Alan Lupi.

More photos of the boardwalk and beach at Long Beach, including Izzy's Knishes and under the boardwalk.

More memorabilia added to Sports, Sider Press, Teahouse, Prom Night, Music Program and Other Activities pages.

Photos added of the OJHS band from 1957 on our jr. high graduation day and Memorial Day (click here, here and here) and the Cozy Corner Tavern.

Rock 'n' Roll Radio pages revised and expanded with "new" photos, history and audio clips for 3 top NY DJs of the  1950s, a completely new Alan Freed page, Murray "the K" and now, JOCKO,  the "Ace from Outer Space," back with over 20

minutes of extremely rare audio!

Music recorded live, in concert, by our school band in 1960, also performed at our graduation

The sound of the ocean on the home page, and other cool, new sound effects here and there.

The last game of the exciting 1955 World Series, which the Brooklyn Dodgers finally won, revisited (see announcement, p. 3)

Convenient new links in the upper right corner of every page for easier navigation

Oceanside (the book) and more photos from "Our Little Town"

Nathan's Famous' acknowledgment of our tribute

Our new Site Search feature

A circa 1954 photo of the RAINBOW DINER!

1952 photos of the Oceanside triangle and more from Andy Southard, Jr. ('51)

Exclusive interviews with the 82-year old (and now late) Murray (late son of Nathan) Handwerker, the man who brought to Oceanside in 1959, and  Morty Shor, late son of Roadside Rest co-founder, Leon Shor

• SAILOR VOICES FROM THE PAST — from onstage at OHS in 1959.

•  Music files reduced in size by 75% for faster downloading

• Our COOLNEWS FROM HOME feature on p. 1

• Improved Roadside Rest page (see announcement, p.3) and a link to it with newest "hot dog" logo (first time anywhere on the web) in the banner at the top of every page

• Some inspired words on our Memorial Page, and individual memorial tribute pages added.

•   The current weather in and forecast for our little town

•   Photos of Peter's Clam Bar, circa 1950, and Carvel in 1954

•   A lesson in the meaning and origin of the word, "googamooga"

•   The best "American Bandstand" page on the web

•   The class birthday card

•   Cool stuff from the Sailor's Handbook, 1957-'58, 1958-'59 and 1959-'60 edition

•   The Rock 'n' Roll Radio page

•   Tribute page to the memory of Jr. High music teacher, Ed Taylor

• 12 more clippings from the pages of the 1959-'60 editions of  Oceanside Beacon

• A photographic tour of present day Oceanside and photos of Halloween window painting in our little town in 1958 and '59.

• Another "Blast from the Past" — sounds of the "Grand Kook" — Murray "the K"

• Our site has been diced with "new" souvenirs (mostly from memorable OHS events)  from the "treasure chest" of our classmate, Marta Watts, a rich scrapbook kept by her from 1957-'60, including selected clippings from Newsday's sports section and rare group pictures of our entire class as we were graduated in 1957 from OJHS. Check out the montage of memorabilia on the Acknowledgments page and the AWESOME photos of the St. Anthony's fire of March 1960. 

• A whole bunch of classmates' memories (mostly submitted just before our 40-year reunion) have been posted to the "Memory Book" page.  And our "Spindrift" page got a cool new look!

• Check out the stuff from , 1957-'60 editions, and The Story of Oceanside added to the "Our Little Town" section.

TECHNOLOGY TIPS:  

RECENT FACULTY/ADMINISTRATION LOSSES 

Popular guidance counselor during our OHS days, Daniel Bashner, passed away at age 91 on January 15^th, 2021, most recently a resident of W. Babylon, NY. Some may remember him fondly as their driver's ed. teacher,

 

The third legendary OHS coach from our time to pass away most recently in less than a year, Coach Roy Chernock died on.September 4, 2018. Click here for Coach Roy Chernock's memorial page.
   

Coach John ("Jack") Hay passed away January 21, 2018, at age 89 at his home in Maplewood, NJ. During our time there, Coach Hay was a popular phys. ed. teacher, wrestling, cross-country and girls' softball coach . See our memorial tribute page for Coach Hay..

One of our very favorites, Coach Frank Januszewski, passed away September 19, 2017, at age 89. Click on his photo at right for our special memorial tribute page.

Lawrence Cascio, former foreign language teacher at Oceanside High School (and later, Fordham University), passed on July 23, 2016.

 
We were informed by classmate, Bill Schrader, that Thomas Fetherston passed away on January 22, 2015, at the age of 92 near his home in Rhode Island after battling declining health for some months. You should recall that Tom was a universally beloved teacher of biology at OHS during our time and for almost 40 years, and he was one of my favorites.
 
Bill recalls a talk that Fetherston gave one day in his sophomore biology class about this amazing molecule called “deoxyribose nucleic acid” (“DNA”). That talk was only three years after DNA was first identified in 1953, and pre-dated the related Nobel Prize given in 1962. Said Bill, “Fetherston was giving us a taste of the most exciting science of the time, a tribute not only to him but also to the fine educational system that we enjoyed in our public schools in that era.”  Rick von Brook and Betty Griffin remember fondly when Fetherston and another biology teacher used to come out of the prep room frequently between the labs dueling with pointers.
  
Tom was born on April 12, 1923, grew up in Baldwin on the waters of Long Island  and attended Oceanside schools where his father (also, Tom Fetherston) was the president of the school board. He was a Sailor through and through having spent many years cruising with his family around its South Shore out to the Hamptons.​ He served as a laboratory technician in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during World War II. This experience helped shape Tom's compassion and his interest in life sciences, particularly biology.
 
Tom returned to Baldwin after the war, and in 1948 he married while attending Hofstra University, and upon graduation, he earned a fellowship at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute where he conducted research. He then joined the faculty of his alma mater (and ours) in 1952. Teaching gave him the outlet he needed for his dynamic and nurturing personality, and he shaped the lives of literally thousands of students. He was also a coach of the OHS varsity rifle team and as the first coach on Long Island to recruit women to the team., he was way ahead of his time. After his retirement, Tom still wanted to be around students, so he joined the administration staff at Hofstra University, where he worked with his wife until they relocated to join their sons in Rhode Island in 1999. 
  
Tom Fetherston will be remembered as a warm, thoughtful and caring man with a passion for biology and a sense of humor who made an enormous impact on his OHS students and all those who knew him. 
  
Much of this material was derived from an extensive online obituary. Click here for the full text.

 
  
According to his May 2, 2012, obituary in the Oceanside Herald, William F.  Helmcke, our Jr. High principal who retired in 1972, died on March 17, 2012, at his home in Sedona, Arizona, at age 95. Before serving as OJHS principal, Hemcke was a physical eduaction teacher at OHS, where students nicknamed him, "Wild Bill Helmcke."

Sadly, we learned that Arlene Nolan O'Leary, a citizenship ed. teacher fondly remembered for her classes entitled "Problems in American Democracy" passed away in early December 2010. Miss Nolan (as we knew her) had just honored us with her presence at our 50-Year Grand Reunion Gala in June that year but was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about two months later.

William J. Gerek, a business teacher at OHS during our time, subsequently Assistant Superintendent of the West Islip School District where he was a lifelong resident, a WWII Army Air Corps veteran and a golfer, died on January 7, 2009, at the age of 93.
                                                                                                                             Photo taken in 1982
 
Best known as a beloved baseball and football coach at OHS for 34  years, phys. ed. teacher, Angelo ("Angie") Plaia, passed away July 28,  2006, at age 79. His coaching career produced more than half a dozen baseball championships for the Sailors, including one county (in 1959), three division and four league titles. He was honored in 2004 by induction into the OHS Sports Hall of Fame's "Circle of Pride." In an exclusive to this site, Coach Roy Chernock said, "He was the absolute best PE teacher I have ever known and I am positive any of his former students would agree with that assessment!" Click here for the full text of the  Newsday and Oceanside Herald obituaries, including what Coach Jan (Frank Januszewski) said about Angie Plaia.  
 

Athletic Director, Frank Mangiapane, died July 31, 2005, in Long Beach, NY. One of the most popular  adminis-trators in OHS, Frank was a member of the original New York Knicks basketball team briefly in its first year, 1946. We were privileged to have Frank as our guest at both our 30-year and 40-year reunions in 1995 and 2000.

Anne C. Marks, 91, who began teaching English at Oceanside Jr. High School in 1956, passed away from a stroke on February 25, 2005.  Mrs. Marks honored our class in 1990 by attending our 30-year reunion.

A Newsday obituary reported the passing, February 1, 2005, of  popular and revered, 78 year-old, retired OHS soccer coach, Art Wright (OHS '44). Coach Wright co-founded Oceanside Little League in 1950, in our junior year, led our undefeated 1958-'59 soccer team to the County championship (among others), and was in the 2003 first round inductees into the OHS Sports Hall of Fame's "Circle of Pride."

We learned in 2004 of the passing of popular OHS math teacher, Elaine Rapp (left). Click here to read many fond memories of Miss Rapp expressed by our classmates.

Also, popular English teacher, Marion Musante passed in the Spring of 2003. (Click here for a photo of Miss Musante at our 40-year reunion.)

Won't you let us take you on a