The Jewish calendar has it right. The New Year begins in September as all of us who have lived our lives on the academic calendar know. The start of school is the excitement of new books, new school supplies, new school clothes and uniforms.

It's also the start of the new year for our many organizations that took a summer vacation of three months and are now gearing up for the season. Sure as the hurricane season comes the Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast, the kickoff of the Manhasset Community Fund and this year, something new--the Manhasset Chamber of Commerce Street Fair, to be combined with the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department display of equipment and demonstrations.

The Street Fair will showcase Plandome Road and the wares our merchants have to offer. It is planned to be a day of remembering the old--the year the Long Island Rail Road came to the Cow Bay Peninsula and changed forever life on the north shore--and celebrating the new. It doesn't feel like autumn yet, no matter what the calendar says, but that could change by next week. In any case it's a good time to check out what's being offered at adult education, the programs for senior citizens, the opportunity for spiritual renewal at St. Ignatius Retreat House and in our churches.

If there is a malaise in this country because of the scandal in Washington, we can shake it off by getting involved at our local level. That is, after all, where the things that happen make a real difference in our lives.

E.F.B.