Growing up Islip

Growing up in a small Long Island town in the '50s and '60s, we lived away from it all in what people called 'the sticks.' West of us nearly fifty miles was New York. We simply referred to it as 'the city.' As the years went by, the city kept moving closer and closer. New faces were added to the town of the Millers, the Smiths and the Andersons. They came from Brooklyn mostly and had names that either began with the letter 'O' or ended with it. Our fathers had special names for these immigrants, but our mothers begged us not to repeat them. You could name any sport and we had enough for two teams. Eventually, each team was integrated with talent and geography to ensure harmony and our future. In the end, we made each other better than we ever would have been apart.