Compliments of Volume 64 | Issue Three FREE ® Fire Island’s Longest Running News Source Since 1957 August 7, 2020 INSIDE: AUGUST Lady and the Mermaid FIN in Fresnel Fire Truck Tale Accolades Your Source for Summer News on the South Shore www.fireisland-news.com THE FIRE ISLAND NEWSPAPER • August 7, 2020 • PAGE 3 Volume 64 | Issue Three ® Fire Island’s Longest Running News Source Since 1957 August 7, 2020 IN THIS ISSUE IN EVERY ISSUE 7 INTERVIEW: 22 ADULT COLORING JACKIE GORDON PAGE Mariana Dominguez Lauren Stevens 8 CHIEF LYN AND 13 BOOK REVIEW CHERRY GROVE’S Rita Plush NEW FIRE TRUCK 11 DAY IN THE LIFE Laura Schmidt OF FIRE ISLAND 16 PCLI 2020 Contributed Photos 19 FIFLIX COMMUNITY Hugh O’Brien 21 HISTORY COLUMNS Thomas McGann 9 SALTAIRE 5 LETTER TO THE EDITOR Hugh O’Brien 18 NYC THEATRE 1O OCEAN BEACH AREA Leonard Feigenblatt Joey Macellaro 17 POLICE BLOTTER 12 OCEAN BAY PARK Shoshanna McCollum Barbara Gaby Placilla 15 CHERRY GROVE/ FIRE ISLAND PINES ONLINE Robert Levine THIS ISSUE www.fireisland-news.com > DINING REVIEW: GET BAKED TUESDAYS AT CHERRY GROVE PIZZA Shoshanna McCollum Cartoons by Eric Pedersen PUBLISHER ...................................Craig Low EDITOR ........................................Shoshanna McCollum MANAGING EDITOR ..................Lorna Luniewski REPORTERS ..................................Mariana Dominguez and Laura Schmidt DESIGN/PRODUCTION ...............Pam Gurman for Fat Cat Graphics AD DESIGN .................................Joey Macellaro DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR ...Emma Boskovski SALES REPRESENTATIVE ..............Beth Errico ACCOUNTING ............................Mariluz Valdez Founding publisher Jay Garfield Trien and the Official Paper of Record ® 260 Montauk Highway, Bay Shore, NY 11706 FIRE ISLAND NEWS 631-583-5345 | [email protected] www.fireisland-news.com FOR INFORMATION ON ADVERTISING: CALL: 631-583-5345 or EMAIL: [email protected] www.fireisland-news.com THE FIRE ISLAND NEWSPAPER • August 7, 2020 • PAGE 4 Your Source for Summer News on the South Shore www.fireisland-news.com THE FIRE ISLAND NEWSPAPER • August 7, 2020 • PAGE 5 LETTER TO THE EDITOR EDITOR’S WINDOW by Shoshanna McCollum In response to “Fallen Idols of erected during The Jim Crow Kennedy, as Attorney General, [email protected] Fire Island (Part 2)” Published era and the KKK Terrorism of went to Roanoke, VA, just a in our July 24, 2020, edition: the 1930s and 40s. decade before, to cut the chains Yes, George Washington, off of the schoolhouse door to I WAS RAISED in Mastic Thomas Jefferson, and perhaps, enable desegregation to occur. Beach, having graduated from my own alma mater, William We have much to do in William Floyd HS in 1967. Floyd, owned slaves. The our country to make this “a I moved to Virginia in 1977. Indentured “servants” in NYC, more perfect Union.” It’s time Quite a difference, indeed. had a similar lot in life, as we to devote our efforts to that. But Virginians do exhibit an experienced the growing pains The South is dealing with its unquestionable pride, in being and desire to make a quick history of white supremacy and the birthplace of America in buck. We should NEVER try to racial injustice. I suggest that 1607, the marked triumph erase our history. If any of you you, up North, capitalize on in Yorktown in 1781, and saw “Hamilton” in the theater the progress you have made, the state who “boasts” the or on Disney+, you witnessed both with immigration AND most number of Presidents. how many “mistakes” were COVID19. I’m so proud to be a Indeed many of our Founding made by our FF’s. No one is New Yorker at heart! The Cone of Fathers hailed from VA. perfect ... Let he who is free Nancy Reichert Keenan Lee surrendered to Grant in from sin, cast the first stone. Hallieford, Virginia Uncertainty Appomattox, VA. And we The statues in the North of can also “boast” that the first William Floyd, a signer of our THE CONE OF UNCERTAINTY describes all the enslaved African Americans Declaration of Independence, To submit your letter to the variables that may arise in the path of a strong storm. came to our shores, at what of George Washington, the editor for consideration, write As I write this Hurricane Isaias is threatening to kick is now Ft. Monroe in 1619 highly respected Father of us at editor@fireisland-news. up. The wind is gaining momentum. I worry that I … something we, like the our country, and of Thomas com. Electronic submissions might not be able to send the final bits and pieces to Germans with the Holocaust, Jefferson, the author of our only, no paper letters please get this paper together if a power outage should occur. are not so very proud of. Declaration, and others who – 350 words or less advised. As we now arrive to the month of August, it I learned very quickly, when fought militarily and politically We reserve the right to edit, occurs to me that we have become quite fatigued by the monument issue came for our freedom, should never abridge, or not publish the cone of uncertainty we have all been living under to the limelight, that in the be minimized. We all learned any letter as we see fit. The for months on end. Some of us have weathered the South, these were not erected different takes on history. Boy opinions expressed in Letters to storm better than others. to memorialize our southern did I learn that when I came the Editor are not necessarily Certainly all the first responders that answered history. Rather, they were south, only to learn that Robert those of Fire Island News. the call to combat a house fire in Dunewood on a hot Saturday afternoon have their own families and stresses, but they rose to the occasion. A few days later Fire Island Lighthouse was vandalized with graffiti, perhaps a sign of someone buckling under pressure. It is in the hard times that we really see who is there to weather the storm by our side, and who is simply a fair weather friend. In this issue we learn the story about one Long Island woman running for congress, a former fire chief who now has a truck named in her honor, and the legacy of a physicist who helped guide countless wayward ships safely to port. CORRECTION: Robert Sherman’s cover photo on our July 24, 2020, issue misidentified the young man riding the skateboard as Holden King, when it was in fact Holden’s friend, Matt Servin. Sorry boys, the masks must have confused us! ON THE COVER: Martha Morgan with a striped bass weighing 24 pounds and measuring 36 inches she caught after surfcasting off the coast of Cherry Grove on Oct. 27, 1979. Photo courtesy of Diance Quero www.fireisland-news.com THE FIRE ISLAND NEWSPAPER • August 7, 2020 • PAGE 6 Your Source for Summer News on the South Shore www.fireisland-news.com THE FIRE ISLAND NEWSPAPER • August 7, 2020 • PAGE 7 INTERVIEW >> by Mariana Dominguez A Conversation with Jackie Gordon “No woman has ever represented where I’m able to help, and think I can was just an essay contest at the point. Suffolk County in the U.S. House be productive, and of service – then I And I really breathed new life into it. of Representatives. This could now will step into that arena.” When I left the town board we prob- change,” wrote Karl Grossman in ably had regular communication with his July 24, 2020, column in this FIN: You were the first black wom- over 2,000 veterans in the town. We publication. Copiague resident Jackie an to sit on the Babylon Town Coun- had several events throughout the en- Gordon defeated Patricia Maher cil, and if elected you would be the tire year and the biggest was of course in the Democratic primary for U.S. first woman to represent New York’s the Wounded Warrior Project soldier House New York District 2, which Second Congressional District in the ride, which over my 10 years we were includes the western portion of Fire House of Representatives. Do you able to raise over a million dollars to Island. She was a lieutenant colonel consciously think about these types help wounded veterans, and over the in the U.S. Army Reserve, a combat of firsts? last five or six years, 50 percent of the veteran, and spent three decades Jackie Gordon, NY Second Congressional JG: Everyday. As an educator I know money that we raised stayed here on working as a public school teacher District Democratic Nominee. that you must have examples in order Long Island to help veterans here. So, and guidance counselor. She left her to learn. We show a student an exam- I’m really proud of that. seat on the Babylon Town Board, ple of her problem. If it’s math, and The other program that I’m real- which she held from 2007, to run for the question is one plus one. You show ly proud of is an internship program the House seat. and was impacted by Hurricane San- an example to show that the action is that Janice Tinsley James started and dy, and we know climate change is attainable, so if we don’t have exam- when she left the town she asked me real. All of their issues are my priority ples in society children can’t imagine if I would be willing to continue it. It’s Fire Island News (FIN): Why are when I get to Washington. it. I know my role as the first Afri- a minority internship program where you running for Congress? can American battalion commander high school students of color living in Jackie Gordon (JG): I am running FIN: How has the experience of in my unit was important.