Mineola's oldest citizen, Blanche Paris, died July 3,2006 at the age of 101. We held a 100th birthday party for her in October 2004 with about 40 neighbors and friends dropping by. Mayor Martins issued a proclamation honoring her and he came to the party. At her wake prayers were said by Msgr. Eugene Murphy. Among those we met were Ken King, Fred and Linda Terhune, Linda is Blanche's grandniece, Tom Spae, Mary McGregor, Jean Lazar, Lou Gagliano, Dorothy Bedson and Caroline and Stanley Kowalczyk.

Hundreds of Portuguese residents were gathered in front of Little Portugal Restaurant cheering the victory in the World Cup of Portugal over England, 1-0. Alas, their team lost the next round losing to France also by 1-0.

James Lignos used to work for Galaxy Photo. He lived in Mineola at that time, but now resides in East Williston with wife Patricia and kids Adrian and James.

We have readers in Portugal. Stephanie Ferreira graduated with honors from MHS and her dad and mom, Lino and Maria, carried extra copies of the Mineola American to show the relatives in Portugal.

Lou Citro of Mineola never missed going to the Kentucky Derby. Lou has two great loves, baseball and horse racing. He used to pay $500 for a room for two nights, then it went to $1,000 and when the price hit $1,100 this year, Lou decided that 18 years of the Derby was enough and stayed home and watched on TV.

I still don't get it. What the heck has flag burning or flag desecration got to do with Free Speech? We all believe in free speech, no matter whether we agree or not with what a person is saying. As Voltaire said, "I hate what you are saying, but will fight forever for your right to say it." To me, however, flag burning has no connection to speech.

Regardless of how you might feel about the war in Iraq, you have to be impressed with the regard our government gives to the fighting men and women. Walter Weismantel, whom we recently visited, was telling us about his grandson, Sean DeBevoise, a Marine Corporal, who was gravely wounded in Iraq. Sean was visited by a four star general who personally gave him the Purple Heart; later an admiral came to see him. The doctor attending him has written several letters to the family and, best of all, a wonderful nurse writes almost daily to the family about Sean's condition. This makes the family feel that the country really cares about its fighting men and women.

On the Fourth, Teddy McCormack, Kay Murphy, Vera Barrick, Eileen Leone and Fran Dempsey had breakfast at the Jericho Diner.

Congrats to Mineola's Mike DeStefano who was elected president of the Nassau County Fireman's Association which represents 71 departments and 10,000 firefighters.

Bob Koenig for the Centennial has produced two songs, I Love Mineola and The Way I Remember Mineola. He played them at the library on July 10. Bob lived his boyhood in this village and now resides in Levittown.

A friend of mine in Los Angeles recently took a quick survey of the people he met, who were all baseball fans, asking them if they knew why the team is called the Dodgers. Nobody knew why. As old time Brooklyn fans could tell them, a trolley track ran near Ebbets Field in the early part of the last century and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle began to call the fans the Trolley Dodgers, eventually dropping off the word trolley and just leaving the Dodgers. Speaking of early baseball, the batter was called the Striker and the basemen were called the Guardians. In the 1880s the Striker used to tell the pitchers where he wanted him to throw the ball; it could either be high or low and the pitcher was obliged to follow his instructions. Some game!

Diane Guylas of Mineola really likes the pool and goes every day that it doesn't rain.

Marcel and Cathy Chaillol lunched at the Churrasquiera Restaurant. Marcel is past grand knight of the Knights of Columbus.

Lou and Margo Dunninger of Rudolph Road get a real kick out of watching the village board meeting on channel 18.

Patricia and Joe Rudolph had lunch you know where. Joe is retired from the airline industry where he worked in the sales department of TWA.

Andy and Ellen Capp of Wardwell Road were shopping at King Kullen. Andy used to work for Schaeffer Beer.