Problems with the homeless continue to plague downtown Mineola in the Main and Second Street area. There are about 10 of these people, not all at once. They are dirty, disheveled and foul-smelling. Many are drunk and others seem to be mentally ill. They are not helpful to the businesses downtown. The cops can do little about them since there is no law against sitting on benches or standing on a corner. The police would like to take them to shelters, but they always refuse. Some would like a tougher policy enforced. But others recall the words of Christ, "What you do for the least of these, you do for Me."

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Bob Signoracci of Latham Road spends much of his time refereeing high school basketball games. Bob used to be a fine player. He spent his working life in the insurance business with Aetna Life and Allstate.

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John Pavlovich of Dos Ave., who used to own the Executive Restaurant, worked as a waiter when he was a young man at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel. He remembers bringing then-Vice President Harry Truman breakfast in his room. There were no body guards. This was a more innocent time before the assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and to the wounding of Ronald Reagan .

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Frank Morehouse of Harrison Ave. is unusual. He was born in Mineola as was his father and his grandfather.

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Charlie Munder, the owner of the last hardware store in this area is seriously ill at Winthrop Hospital. Munder's Hardware is the only store in Mineola or Williston Park with the same owner since we came to this village in 1952. His two sons have taken over as of now.

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John Vafiadis owns a home improvement business. He started as a painter and has now branched out into kitchen and bath remodeling. He will take on any handyman type of job. John and his wife, Maria, have lived for the past 13 years on White Road.

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Ann Gentile for many years made all the vestments worn by the Corpus Christi priests, deacons and altar servers. Ann lives on Raff Ave. She and Teddy McCormack lunched at the Williston Town House.

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Isabel Garcia of Creations by Belle has been named the new membership chairman of the Mineola Chamber of Commerce. She replaced Amy Thompson of Astoria Bank. The bank has transferred Amy out of the area.

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Dan and Tom Flynn of Kenilworth Ave. like to attend different Masses. Mostly they go to Corpus Christi, but also visit Our Lady of Hope, St. Bridgid's, St. Joseph's, St. Paul's in Old Brookville and even a church in Tarrytown. "No," they said, "The headless horseman did not appear."

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John Herling of Dow Ave., the research librarian at our facility, went to the opening game of the Islanders. Opening night is impressive with the 12 ice girls and members of the Youth Hockey team of Port Washington, unfurling a huge American flag 200 feet by 50 feet in size and covering the entire ice surface. It is displayed during the singing of the national anthem. Two unusual things happened that night. The Islanders had a full house and actually defeated the St. Louis Blues 5 - 2. Hard to believe, but true.

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Jay Leno found an item regarding a murder trial where a woman said she could not serve and be impartial because she, herself, had been a murder victim! He also saw a headline, "Cops Hunt Cereal Killer." They didn't say whether it was Wheaties or Rice Krispies.

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Papa Joes, that fine Italian restaurant across from the ice rink and next to the Herricks Theatre, now has music. While eating you can listen to Andrea Boccelli, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. Owner Joe Jordan also makes good pizzas which many people enjoy.

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Artie Epstein, owner of Randi Cleaners, was one of the prime movers of the "Coats for Kids" program. He started it in Mineola some 24 years ago and it has spread throughout NY State. From Niagara to Albany to LI. This year alone, Artie has collected good wearable coats to the tune of 13,000 and 35,000 have been donated by the Island as a whole. The politicians have helped Randi's drive with people like Mayor Martins and Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy.

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Things are not bright in the newspaper industry. The NY Times told me that they are ending their distribution in Suffolk.

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The Pope has declared that this is the year of St. Paul, who was born just 2,000 years ago. Msgr. Edward Tarrant spoke of how Paul was originally named Saul and was the arch enemy of the Christians. On his way to arrest some of them he fell from his horse on the road to Damascus and soon after joined the followers of Jesus. It was he who spread Christianity through the Middle East and Europe. We know that he was persecuted by the authorities, frequently imprisoned, flogged and tortured.