Run, Run, Run!: The 1941 Diary of a Deaf Long Island Teenager

By E. Lee North

RUN, RUN, RUN!

is the unedited diary of a deaf Long Island teenager who defied doctors orders painful trick knee and ran all winter from 1940-1941 on his own, making the high school track team in spring and challenging for the county championship which he won

But the diary covers much more. Even though it's from a before - TV, - computer, and - cell phone era, there was excitement: Sailing, swimming, and cavorting on Great South Bay; trips to the Jersey Shore, teenage love, the daily in's and out's of high school affairs, Lt. Col. Norths work on a secret underground airport (still secret in 2010-11) all on the eve of the Second World War. Open this book and you'll meet the boys and girls of a typical 1940s Long Island high school.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456738471

E. Lee North

A graduate of Washington and Jefferson College, E. LEE NORTH has served as editor of the college’s Alumni Magazine and sports editor and columnist for the Washington (Pa.) Daily Reporter. He is the author of numerous newspaper and magazine articles and an earlier book, She Produces All Americans. Mr. North was the co-founder and chairman of the Good Government party of Suffolk County, New York, and the founder and first chairman of the Islip branch of the New York State Conservative party. An editor for the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, Mr. North resides with his wife, son and daughter in Brightwaters, New York.

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Cover: E. Lee North winning Farmingdale Invitational

          Tournamet half-mile, see Diary entry April 30.

© 2011, 2015 E. Lee North. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse    01/24/2015

ISBN: 978-1-4567-3846-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-6462-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-3847-1 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Introduction

The Diary

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

Lasting Memories

Cast Of Characters

Acknowledgments

About The Author

INTRODUCTION

Fast forward to 2010/11… The diarist, E. Lee North (sixteen and seventeen when he penned the diary) is now 86. It’s seventy years later. He’s found the old diary and finds it interesting (to him anyway). Despite doubts and misgivings, he works with it. First, he’ll need an Introduction… how did his North family get to that point Jan. 1, 1941, in Brightwaters, LI, NY, when he started the Diary?

His dad (Lt. Col. Edward Louis North, WWI and later WWII) was born in Walton, NY, Oct. 21, 1900 and brought up in Guilford. Ed married Elizabeth Jean Smith and they had two children, Edward Lee, b. June 2, 1924, and Richard Parsons, b. March 19, 1929. Ed and Jean started out in New Jersey, and in 1929 moved to Wantagh, Long Island, NY. Lee spent eight years in the Wantagh school system, graduating from Grammar School in 1937 at age 13. Dick was then eight.

Later in 1937 they moved east to Brightwaters, LI, part of the Bay Shore School Distirct. From 1937 thru 1940, Lee completed three years at Bay Shore High School. His diary begins as a Senior… January 1, 1941.

Thus the North family had to this point two distinct periods… Wantagh 1929-37, and Bay Shore/ Brightwaters 1937-1941. We’ll summarize the Wantagh experience first.

As above, we have fast forwarded seventy years to 2010-11. Lee prepares an Introduction for the diary. Alas, he comes down with two heart attacks… survives, but spends 42 days in hospitals. Meanwhile, his computer hard drive goes kaput… the Introduction disappears.

He recovers from the attacks and manages to save some of the Diary material, but nothing from the Introduction. He does, however, find a copy of a letter to the editor he wrote to the Wantagh-Seaford Weekly Citizen Jan. 23, 1986, headlined: Fiftieth Reunion is a Dream to 1937 Wantagh Grad. It called for the grads to join together for the upcoming 50th reunion in 1987 and since it summarizes the North family Wantagh experience, is repeated here. The following Summary of the Letter to Editor becomes our new Intro… it led off…

"By E. Lee North, Wantagh Schools 1937 Graduate:

"Long ago and not so far away, when Wantagh was just a village of a few hardy souls, a new school was opened on Merrick Road. It was called Sunrise Park School, and most of the little group comprising the initial first grade somehow survived eight years in the wilderness that Chief Wantagh had deserted.

Wilderness, you laugh? Obviously you did not have to walk the long mile to the new school from Locust Avenue (east of Seaford aveue). Giant cattails abounded along the route, frequently serving as stout spears with which one could protect himself from the Indians hiding in the woods and fields. And obviously you did not engage in the Cowboy-and-Indian battles that took place in the woods and caves around the Old Cement Block Place" on the south side of Sunrise Highway. These early Wantagh pioneers sometimes sought safety high in the trees, hammering rusty nails into a few rotten boards for their forts in the sky.

You may not even be aware that a few miles to the east in this wilderness, so these villagers were told, lurked ferocious beasts, including mountain lions, wolves and bears. The intrepid pioneers hiked all the way eastward to find that, sure enough, there were indeed these wild animals and many others, even lions and tigers, elephants and orangutans. Fortunately Bring ‘em Back Alive" Frank Buck had them inside fences. For sustenance on these long journeys to this fabulous happy hunting ground (which was called Massapequa) the young Wantagh pioneers devoured a square mile of the most delicious strawberries Manitou ever created, on the south side of Sunrise Highway in Seaford.

And then there were the winters: the snows were deeper and more violent in those olden times, or so it seemed. On one occasion, Lee was sent out through hip-deep snow one day when he was nine to find his four-year old brother Dick. To be honest, the nine-yer-old had probably eluded the four-year-old somewhere north of Woodward avenue and made it back to Locust by himself. Well, the four-year-old was duly found and returned through snow that must have been up to his head. Hard to believe now, but the four-year-old Dickie lost in that yesteryear Wantagh snow now lives in the Yukon Territory of northwest Canada, writing books about the Far North such as The Mad Trapper (MacMillan of Canada, 1972), The Lost Patrol" (Alaska Northwest Publishing, 1978), and an opus about Jack London (to be published).

"Ah, but what of the rest of those Wantagh pioneers of that TV-less, computer-less bygone age, particularly the graduates of the initial class? Since they were graduates in 1937, next year marks the fiftieth anniversary of that great class. So where are you, Dorothy Cordaros, Dorothy Washers, Robert Nortons, Alex Larssons, Mary Wrights, Owen and Malcolm Brooks, et al? Other villagers remembered (who may not have been in that class, or even have gone to the Sunrise Park School) include Harold Crane, Evelyn and Al Averill, Vito Vesia, Elaine Katz, Lois Wiebl, Louis Smith, George and Tom Box, Carl Lacler, Janice Van Tuyl, Warren Segalken, Craig Nelson, and the late Eugene Bradshaw.

Any of you who were in that famous (or infamous) class, raise your hand and be counted; do you want to get together for a rousing 50th reunion and commiserate with each other? We won’t have Mr. Sterner, Mrs. Parker, Miss Powell, or Mrs. O’Leary to tell us what to do (the latter teacher once in front of the whole class, called Lee shiftless — which was undoubtedly true and should have galvanizedhim into being less so). But we can discuss the times we played hooky and went to Frank Buck’s, the graduation boat trip up the Hudson to West Point, or ice skating on the pond," long since filled in along Woodward Avenue… and whatever else you recall.

Other than a couple sessions with entrepreneur realtor Harold Crane, about the only Thirties" Wantagh grad Lee met up with was Bob Norton, who showed up at Grumman Aerospace one day about twenty years ago. He and his lovely family joined Lee’s in some good times, but they have disappeared into the wilds of Connecticut. Has anyone heard from Bob? Has anyone heard from anyone?

Despite Mrs. O’Leary’s admonition (or perhaps because of it) Lee has held several jobs and has been in his current employment (Grumman) for 35 years. In that time, he’smanaged to raise a family of one wife, two children, one basset hound, and four published books. Of course, he gives his dear spouse Florence (nee Hennen, native West Virginian) all the credit for the child-raising. They are very proud of the results: son Patrick (now married to Angela) is a vice president of the Chase Manhattan Bank, excellent tennis player and father of three lovely children. Daughter Diane (Mrs. Joe Goncalves) was the first female clerk on the floor of the NY Stock Exchange, the first girl to win the prestigious Bay Shore Yacht Club Sailing Trophy, and is now the mother of super athlete-to-be Gregory.

End of letter. The Wantagh Experience led up to the North family’s move to Brightwaters (and Bay Shore HS, 1937-40)… on to January first, 1941…

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Lt. Col. Edward Louis and Mrs. Jean North

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Dick and