Macari, Carmela

"I Remember When" by Carmela Macari. My family, my mother, Angela, my brother Vincent and I moved to Central Park in 1922. We had a post office located where the garage facing the railroad track is now. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Hackett served as postmasters. South of the tracks on the east side of the street, the large building, was a silent movie house with vaudeville shows.

Our first foodstore, that I remember, was the Roulston store located north of the tracks on the west side of Broadway. Hill's Pharmacy was located across the street from Annie's Place (of today). It was the only drugstore in town for many years. The Goettlemans owned the butcher shop. James Klingelhoffer's father had a butcher shop in the building where Schottland's Hardware Store is located today. The children remember Mr. Klingelhoffer and the piece of Bologna he treated us to.

On my way to school I remember passing Jarvis' big house with chicken coops in the back. My mother sent me there to buy eggs. The old Jarvis house is now located on the corner of Broadway and Barbara.

There were other large homes on Broadway, they were owned by Buddy Mazzara's family and the Parisis. The Parisis lived so close to the train that the conductors would wait for them as they ran for it. The LIRR trainmen waited for my neighbors who ran all the way from, what is now, Barbara Street to the Broadway crossing. Fellow comuters applauded them when they caught the train.

In the beginning there weren't many social events. To go swimming we went to Laurelton a beach that was up on the north shore. Later on in my teens I remember a group at St. Martins putting on a play. A big thing in our lives was the barn dances held around Thanksgiving each year. In fact, these dances were held in the present PAL clubhouse when it was located on Central Avenue almost across from the Knights of Columbus. Every Christmas there was a play which was given during the day for the children and presented at night for adults. The principal of the school, Mr. Goubleman, would hand each youngster a box of hard candy. That was considered a treat for us.

I have lived in Bethpage throughout my married life and my husband, Buddy Macari, spent many years as member of the Bethpage Fire Department. Later our children, Nancy Desorbo, taught, for many years, in Hicksville High School, and our son, Peter, is an architect residing in Seaford. They spent their growing years in Bethpage.