The Orient Beach State Park is a nature lover's dream. Rare plants and the coastal salt ponds at the end of the North Fork have made this area so unusual. We see rare birds like ospreys, piping plovers, terns and the northern barrier Long Beach Bay is an important wintering area for hundreds of ducks and seabeach knot weed, a singular plant which grows here plus there are sea turtles and a maritime red cedar forest.

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Speaking of that area we attended Mass at St. Agnes and I was pleased to see a picture of Bishop John Dunne in the lobby. Bishop Dunne as some will remember was a parish priest at Corpus Christi many years ago.

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Our daughter Sr. Annmarie has a very important new job. She is the director of communications for all the nuns of the United States, a total of 80,000 women. She will help form the points of view for all the women religious in our country. We would also like to thank Corpus Christi head usher Tony Donnelly for the help he gave her laying out the best route to travel after her visits to Mineola back to her post in Silver Spring, MD. One of Tony and Beverly's daughters lives in the same area.

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Charlie Patterson must really like me. He caught me cleaning my car and said that I could clean his next.

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Frank DiPrima, like me, served in the combat engineers in WWII. Frank was in George Patton's Third Army and fought in Normandy. He lives on Foch Blvd. with his wife Josephine.

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It was one of those rare days when there were so many people using the pool that guests had to be turned away. When the manager's count of people in the pool reaches 411, no more guests can be admitted. On a recent visit to the pool early in the morning, I found very few people. Among the few were Dorothy Lynch, a charter member, Tom Spae and Fred Sweetapple. Talking to Fred I, found out that both he and I have the same birthday, July 22.

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Mayor Jack Martins enjoyed a holiday in Portugal.

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Nancy Portoghese Bauer had coffee at the Jericho Diner. Nancy is active in the Chamber of Commerce and she is a member of the pool/recreation board.

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Congratulations to Martin and Mary O'Donnell on the 10th anniversary of their fine bar, O'Donnell's Irish Pub. Martin and Mary have brought a touch of Donnegal to Mineola. Drop by and have a pint of Guinness served up by the lovely Laura Blake.

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We lost some old friends all at once it seemed. Recently dying were Patricia Signoracci, Tom Flanagan and neighbor Nick Dolce. Tom was a pro basketball player with the Boston Celtics, he was Brooklyn Postmaster and Postmaster at the NY General Post Office and active in the Knights of Columbus.

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Jerry and Connie Schmidt of Holly Ave. vacationed in Montreal.

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Having breakfast at the Jericho Diner were Herb and Myra Jahn and Dave Miller.

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George and Lily Carlow of Willis Ave. although in their 90s are still dreaming of visiting their ancestral home in Ireland.

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I have often admired the work of Diego Rivera, the great muralist. I have seen his work in Mexico City and Madrid. He did the mural at the United Nations and the famous scene at Ford's huge complex in Detroit depicting auto workers on the assembly line. Rivera, handsome and a big man with women, was a confirmed atheist. At the bottom of all his works, he always wrote Dios No Existe. After a lifetime of denying God's existence, he called for a priest on his deathbed.