What would have ordinarily been an exciting evening for the eighth graders at Berner Junior High School became a swinging good time that the students will remember for a lifetime when they were surprised with a performance by Grammy award winner Brian Setzer.

The fact that a star such as Setzer would do a performance in his hometown is one thing, that he would perform at an eighth grade dance in his hometown is another thing altogether. How many performers of Setzer's caliber would take the time to perform at a junior high school as a favor to a teacher he had in seventh and eighth grade? That he would come to Massapequa and do something like he did just shows Brian Setzer's true caliber.

Setzer did not receive any money for the performance, because he wouldn't take any, yet he gave the eighth graders at Berner and their chaperones the thrill of a lifetime. He didn't arrive in a limo with a lot of fanfare, he didn't have a whole entourage with him, he came as a surprise guest and showed those present what a real star is.

Rather than diminishing the importance of where he came from, Setzer praised Massapequa and the influence that the place and people in the community had on him.

Setzer gives Karen Landau credit for helping him to become who he is today, and although she says she cannot take much credit for that other than the fact that she taught him poetry with '60s music, she summed up the type of person he has become when she stated that he is "really a decent human being."

Who else but a decent human being could make children as happy as he made the eighth graders at Berner Junior High School last Thursday night? An hour of his time will remain a wonderful memory for these children for many years to come.

-Susie Trenkle