Amityville Long Island in 2004 Photos

2004 Photos of Amityville Long Island

by Richard Boyle

Park North School in 2004

 I believe it was built around 1898 and once served as K to 12 for the Surrounding area as far away as Seaford. When I went there 1947 to about 1951 it held the First to third grades. I remember the there was a little gym with a stage on the second floor. The building had a fire sometime in the late 1950’s and the fire door automatically closed limiting the fire damage, amazing everyone for the doors were installed fifty years earlier. I remember having to go down the basement of the building where they looked at our head with a blue light.

Park Central School in the year 2004

Park South School as of 2004 Which was Amityville High School from 1932 to 1953

Amityvlle High School as of 2004 has been the High School since 1953

Amityvlle High School as of 2004 has been the High School since 1953

This building was once called Losi's Corner Grocery Store

The Triangle Building has long been the symbol of the Village of Amityville.  it is between Broadway (Rt. 110), Park Ave and Ireland Place. It houses mostly Lawyers offices and the like.

The Triangle Building between Broadway as of 2004 and Park Avenue Amityville

The five and Ten cent store was always one of my favorite Store when I was a kid I Knew right where they kept to toys. It was probably never a good as I remembered it.

The Security National Bank was a Long Island Bank brought by Chemical Bank which Merged with Chase Bank which it is now.

The Bank of Amityville on the corner of Ireland Place and Broadway became the Franklyn Bank and is now the Amityville Historical Museum

The Village Clock is still there as of 2004

The Village Clock erected in memory of the Amityville Citizens lost in World War One, whose names are on the sides of the clock, which has been a village landmark ever since.

Saint Martin of Tours RC Church as of 2004

The New Amityville Public Library as of 2004

The New Amityville Public Library as of 2004

James A Caples Park near Amityville Beach

Amityville Beach as of 2004 popular beach for generation of Amityville residents.

Amityville Beach as of 2004 popular beach for generation of Amityville residents.

Great South Bay from Richmond Ave Dock as of 2004 The dock at the end of Richmond Ave Amityville was a public dock when I was growing up in the 1940’s & 50’s where Amityville resident would go fishing and Crabbing.

Photo taken in 2004 from the Dock at the end of Richmond Ave and Ocean Avenues in Amityville.

Where have all the Jobs gone.

President-Elect Donald J. Trump is running yet another Scam on the American people or more directly the people of Indiana who per a deal worked out with Carrier Air-conditioners where the taxpayers of Indiana will pay the wages of one thousand workers at a factory in Indiana.   You may ask why only one thousand workers, that is because of the development of Robotics they need a lot less workers to run a factory. Factories that once gave work to hundreds of thousands of workers now may employ only a couple of thousand.

Now I believe that the trouble start with the advent of Capitalism which replaced feudalism a lot of people will disagree with me especially those that look on Capitalism as a religion. The trouble as I see it anyway is that as the name Capitalism says Capital meaning money so the priority is MONEY not people in fact people cost money which could go the Capitalist. So, the Capitalist find the working class as an inconvenience so they had machines invented usually by the workers themselves. So, they can do the same work with less workers. This eventually lead to Robotics and will eventually lead to AI Robots eliminating the need for workers altogether.      

The trouble is there is now seven billion people on this planet and counting so the few Capitist have to start to sharing with the working class so we can all work together to build a better tomorrow for all of us.   

Rigged Elections

November of 2016

Donald Trump who won the Electoral College, but lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton says the election was rigged because he wanted to win it all. The thing is all American elections have been rigged from the start. The founding fathers put in place a government where there is only two private clubs that select candidates for any office including the presidency. The American people get to vote between two candidates that are often twins in public policy.

          The American Revolution was about power so after gaining it the founding fathers didn’t want to give it up. So, they came up with the electoral college to ensure that they not the public got to choose who would be president. They also made it so the Senate was chosen by the State Legislatures that was changed to popular elections in 1913.

          So, all this talk about this year’s election being rigged is not new it is just more apparent because of the mass they made of it with foreigners hacking the election and all we are now in new territory, but you can be sure the power brokers will made sure they keep their power and the people their slaves that think they are free.           

The Lucky Generation

I Realize that I was born into the Luckiest generation to ever been born on this planet. After World War Two the United States of America was the only country that still had its industrial base still intact. My parent moved to the United States in 1929 from Scotland. My father left Scotland because he was an Irish Catholic who suffered suppression in Scotland and thought that America couldn’t be much worst and indeed it was much better. My Mother quit school in Alva Scotland at the tender age of nine to work in the local mills to help support her family. So, her mother and her mother’s sister sent three young girls to New York hoping they will find better lives. All three came to think that America was no better than the Scotland they left. Lucky for my brother, sister and I my mother met my father. She was a protestant whose family at that time was much against Catholics, but she fell in love so unlike her cousins she stayed.      

So, you see that hate has hurt my family as it has hurt many families across this country. We must move pass this mistrust of others to band together we must move forward and vote against those that divided us into groups to hate each other. Learn from your ancestors and don’t vote against future generations don’t condemn them to relive the lives of your ancestors.  

Hillary set her Goal should not we do the same.

Hillary Roddam Clinton set her life goal to be the first woman president of the United States and her did everything in her power to achieve that goal. We should do the same when we vote we should ask ourselves which candidate is more lightly to achieve our goals. The object is not just the fight for your goals, but to achieve them. First you must have goals, so the first thing to do is to set your goals like Universal Healthcare and Education, living wages are good starting points.

Pretend Democracy

The discussion among leaders of the later part of the eighteenth century was between one-person rule or some form of democracy would work. They all agreed that in the past there were some great rulers and that letting the people rule would end up in chaos. So they came up with a plan of pretend Democracy which would still be rule by an elite class, but let the people think that they have a voice, that is the system we live under today.

Maybe this was in response to what was happening in France in the early days of our republic where they ended up with Napoleon. When Germany finally got a democracy they voted for Hitler in the 1933 elections. So turning people against their own interest is quite easy like Hermann Goering once said “Naturally, the common people don’t want war, neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood, but the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy, all you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”

I am still optimistic that democracy can work, but it won’t be easy for we must get it through to all people on this planet that they all belong to the same race, the human race. This is not a new idea humans have been trying to make it happen since we came out of the caves. Those attempts were usually along the lines of if only everyone had the same beliefs there would be peace in the world, that is where the universal church idea came from or for others just through power like the Roman empire today I am hopeful that communications between people have improved to the point the in a few generations the people of this planet may come to understand one another.  

Crossing a frozen Great South Bay in February of 1955

          One Saturday in the winter of 1955 some friends and I were going to go to the Movies, but we thought we had a little time and the Great South Bay was frozen over so we decided to walk across the ice and see how far we could get, we obviously had no sense of time. We of course didn't realize then how dangerous it was, but we did get to the island just across the state channel from Gilgo Beach where we saw a hunter's cabin after looking at it we decided we better get back we were late for the movies. While we were returning across the ice an airplane buzzed us then we saw red light flashing from the shorelines in seems that someone saw us crossing the ice and called the police. We were almost to the shore when one of the older brothers of one of my friends came out to meet us and told Kathy where to walk. She fell though the ice, but got herself out with her legs now wet. I think we would have made it all the way without incident if it wasn't for our "rescuer". But we did get home safely even if we did miss the movie. Amityville Police Chief William Kay gave us a talking to, but we were home safe. All the local and City Newspapers Newsday, Long Island Press, Daily Mirror, Daily News, The New York Herald Tribune came to take pictures and do stories on us.