Almost 1,300 people attended the concelebrated Mass for the Feast of Corpus Christi at the church. On the altar were Msgr. Lawrence Costello, Pastor Father Kenneth Winkler, plus Fathers Robert Batul, Tomaz Gomide, Thomas Murphy and Basilio Montiero. Parishioners held a procession around several blocks. It had been raining most of the morning but just as the procession started the sun burst through the clouds. Oddly enough when the procession ended, it began to rain again off and on the rest of the day. Afterwards, a reception was held in Fitzgerald Hall. Those we had a chance to talk to included William and Judith Rohan, Greg and Mary Peppard, Charles and Maria Ribondo, Pat Tobin, Helen Hettinger, John Macedo, Ed McGuinty, Charlotte Raad, Dalila Goncalves, MaryAnn Burns, Terry Hettinger, Bert, Charleen, Crystal and Kelly Conway, Irene Pereira, Dulce Matias, Helen Culleeny, Ruth and Ed Curran, Mary, Terence and Hollie Hale, Helen Mackay and Ann Massa. The Mass honored three leading, now deceased, parishioners Jim McLees, Manny Martins and Tom Culleeny.

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Dolores Mangold tells us that she remembers when she was a little girl and Gensels was a private home looking pretty much as it does today. Dolores used to visit the little girl who lived there and she and her friend used to pick grapes off the vines in front of the house.

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Manny Teixeira of Columbus Parkway was having a bagel and coffee at Jericho Bagels in the east end. Manny used to be the engineer at the pool, but is now with the Water Department.

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Speaking of the pool, the village board and the pool board are going to allow a vendor's cart at the northeast corner of the pool. This is the section where eating is now permitted. At this point the cart will only contain dry foodstuffs like pretzels and chips. There is a possibility that at a later date hot dogs could be included. The pool board also likes the idea of selling hot dogs because it would eliminate children leaving the pool complex to go to the outside food stand and out of the protection of the pool personnel. The people who run the outside food stand would also be handling the inside vendor's cart.

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Our friend Olga Klass among others continues to press her case that she should be allowed to use the pool. Olga owns a house on Beebe Road but does not physically live there since she is estranged from her husband who resides at the Beebe Rd. address. Olga lives out of Mineola. The board, however, has renewed its ruling of last year that only people who reside in Mineola can join the pool. Merely owning property is not sufficient, otherwise half the merchants could use the facility.

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We enjoyed the recent Country Fair held at Notre Dame School. The children particularly liked the petting zoo with its goats, sheep, cows, donkeys and horses. The eight-foot dancing woman attracted a lot of attention, she was great on stilts and had the little kids fooled. Games like the laser maze also drew many little ones.

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Jim and Vita Lombardo of Clinton Ave. marked their 50th wedding anniversary June 20 with a dinner party with family and friends.

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A woman and a man were leaving our favorite diner when I heard her say to him, "I ain't doing nothing for you no more." Let's hope she was not a product of our local school system.

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Trent D'Onofrio, former president of the Golden Age Club, was back in town. He has a home in Florida.

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Dennis and Jeannie Liberates held their 24th wedding anniversary on June 28. They are the owners of the Davenport Press. Guess where they held their party.

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Ran into Marge Irace and Fran Dempsey the other day. Fran says her husband Bill, retired Family Court judge, is feeling fine. Marge says that her husband, Izzy, is restless in retirement and wishes he was still working. Izzy used to own Mineola Glass.

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Enjoyed a great Toulouse Lautrec exhibit at the Nassau County Art Museum.

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John and Dolores Cooke of Columbus Parkway celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary June 20.

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President Clinton's entourage in China numbered 1,000 persons. When George Washington was president he stopped at what is now the George Washington Manor for breakfast traveling with one other man. Times sure change.