Since 1883, the First Presbyterian Church at First and Main Street has served the Protestant community. The present pastor, Chester Easton, aided by his wife Dottie, has been in the pulpit for the past 12 years. They reside at Kenilworth Road. He succeeded the Rev. Robert Duncan and Rev. Kermit North both of whom served 25 years. The Rev. George Dunshee was the pastor in the 1920s. Years ago the Mineola Men's Club met monthly at the church hall for a great roast beef dinner. The meeting was open to men of all faiths and they had as guest speakers, figures from the sport or political fields.

This summer their vacation bible school drew a record number of children. The choir under the direction of Mrs. Easton performs at the 10 a.m. service; they also have an early service at 8:30 a.m. Some of the longtime members are MaryAnn Guarino, Mary Matson, Warren Culp, Arnie Dino, Evelyn Wilson and George Nagrodsky. The church also serves a Korean and Brazilian community. Thirty years ago the church combined with St. Paul's Methodist Church. Louise Zobrist, now an elder, came from that church. Their Sunday school under the direction of Mrs. Easton presents a variety of excellent productions with the many talented children. Also, the teenagers under the direction of John Smith put on a number of fine programs.

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Mildred and Chris Berg of Mineola are seniors and Mildred badly needed to get her car out after the last big snow. She called the village but it doesn't provide snow shoveling service. Finally, she called the Mineola American and talked to its editor Joe Rizza on the phone. Joe, who is a real good guy, said he would help by volunteering his services. He shoveled their 100-foot driveway, the front walk and the path up to the front door. Joe told us that he would keep his job as editor and not go into snow removal full-time.

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Top cop, Lorraine Hannon, commander of the Third Precinct, over a period of 20 years, worked her way through the ranks to her present position.

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Rosa and Mario Ciccotto of Mineola are enjoying their first grandchildren, twins Gaige Ryan and Aidan James. Rosa owns the store "Take Another Bow" in Williston Park.

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Amy Thompson, the new manager of Astoria Bank lives at Birchwood Court.

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That diner which has been on East Second Street for so many years will open again and be called the Hudson Diner since that is the name of the short block where it is located. When we came here 52 years ago, it also had that same name. The diner has passed through many hands. I remember Matt's Diner, the Silver Diner and there were several others.

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I was sorry to hear that Maynard McNally had died in Florida. Maynard lived most of his life in Mineola and was a faithful parishioner at Corpus Christi Church. Our condolences to Mrs. McNally and the rest of the family. Speaking of that church, the longtime member of the rectory cooking staff, Julia OBrien, is recuperating from her recent illness at Sun Harbor in Roslyn.

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Jorge Riveria had lunch at the Jericho Diner. He lives on Elm Place and has only left his native Guatemala two years ago and already speaks English very well.

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Jay and Florence Kor live on Herricks Road. Jay was born in Istanbul and used to work at the Turkish Embassy.

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Anita Cocheo was in the office recently. She served on the Arts Council and lives with her husband Steve on Wellington Road.

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Our daughter, Sr. Annmarie, director of communications for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (78,000 nuns), will be joining a group of international women religious leaders at a conference in Rome in May.

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The new Parking Box the village is going to institute seems like a good idea. You park, find the number of your parking spot on the pavement, go to the box, enter that number and the required amount of money needed for the time you will be parked and take your receipt. This will eliminate all those broken meter problems. These boxes, like the one in the Main St. garage, will be installed at the parking lots behind Carlino's restaurant, next to the firehouse on Jericho Tpke. and all the other parking fields in the village. Concerning the village, we must congratulate the highway dept. on the great job they did on cleaning all of its streets after all the snowstorms we've had.

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Rose D'Arpino and her husband Vincent were longtime residents of Emory Rd. We are sorry to hear that Rose was killed out east when she was struck by a car.

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Dennis Liberatos, owner of the Davenport restaurant, was among a church group who received US permission to visit Cuba where the first Christian Cathedral allowed by the Communist government was dedicated.

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There is a Mineola, TX. Our friend Peter Gollobin found out that it was named in the last century by a railroad worker from our village who settled there.