I marched with the Irish-American Society in the local St. Patrick's Day parade in Garden City. In spite of the heavy downpour of rain the Corpus Christi Knights of Columbus and the school also braved the elements. Usually thousands watch the parade but the weather kept the crowds down to a brave few. Along the line of marching I spotted Martin and Mary O'Donnell of Brown Street, Pat Galvin of Bruce Terrace and Charlie McDougal of Cottage Place. It was good to be greeted at the parade's end by the smiling face of Bishop William Murphy.

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Joe Galante of Mineola, formerly the Democratic town leader, is now head of OTB.

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Helen Culleeny of Emory Road lunched at the Jericho Diner.

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Tara Wiley of Williston Park is the new hostess at Eleanor Rigbys.

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Doug and Vita Aidala and 2-year-old Vincent are new residents on Beebe Road.

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Glad to report that Frank Syracuse has recovered from his recent illness. Frank is one of our meter people.

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Pat McDonald's Shamrock Service Station is moving to Albertson - same friendly Irish people as always.

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Theresa Irace, Ann Kitt and Theresa Banahan all enjoyed lunch together at a nearby restaurant.

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Patrick Leung of Sheridan Boulevard is the manager of the new Mineola Cardinals. All members of the team live in the village and graduated from Mineola High. Many of them played for the Mustangs. The team needs a sponsor. If you are interested, you can call Pat at 524-3625.

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Bill Urianek, president of the Mineola Civic Association, has a stamp collection that dwarf's mine. His collection consists of 35,000 entries with many mint plates. We can thank Bill's organization for staging the informative meetings first with the three candidates for mayor and then a week later with the six people running for the two trustee seats.

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Joe Wood is such a friendly fellow. Whenever you pass his house on Jackson Avenue you get a big friendly hello. Both Joe and his wife are EM's at Corpus Christi Church.

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Why is the intersection of Garfield and White Roads always so cracked up whether we have a mild winter or one such as this year?

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Dolores Mangold, a member of Corpus Christi's choir and Maddy Maffetore, a retired school teacher, enjoyed dinner at Jonathan's. Also at the same restaurant we met Oren and Yolande Edwards of Russell Drive, a 30-year resident of the village.

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Tom Doherty gave us a cook's tour of the newly remodeled Knights of Columbus building. It really looks great and seems like a perfect place for an event.

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Mike Chiusano of Evelyn Road tells us that his wife Fay is seriously ill. Mike is one of the few people left who rooted like me for the old New York Americans which along with the Boston Bruins were the first two hockey teams in the US.

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Mineola has designated as historical sites the Anglican Church of the Nativity on Willis Avenue and the western portion of Gensels Furniture.

The chamber of commerce is still looking for the best place to erect their planned electronic message board. The board would carry community and business news. The sites being considered are at the LIRR station, the old Bohack building at Mineola Boulevard and 2nd Street and the building across the street.

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Carmela Bernacchio has been nominated to become the new president of the chamber.

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Many people have difficulty facing reality. Bank loan officers are now called personal relationship managers, used cars are pre-owned cars, old people are senior citizens, the handicapped are physically challenged and the best yet are unruly kids now suffering "opposition defiance disorder" - funny, but true.