The December meeting of the Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce was a great time for networking about what is happening in the hamlet. Chamber officers told of their plans for the chamber's 75th anniversary celebration and members gave information on what merchants are doing for the holiday season. FULL STORY

History meets the holidays in a visit to the newly restored Malcolm House in the Jericho Preserve. Located on the spur off Route 106 that leads to the Maine Maid Inn, the house is decorated for the holidays. The Nassau County 9/11 Foundation, in conjunction with the Nassau County Department of Parks, Recreation and Museums, is sponsoring the Holiday Show House at the recently restored Malcolm House in Jericho, announced Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi. Nassau County Parks and Museums, Nassau Conservancy Commissioner Doreen Banks has been instrumental in restoring Malcolm House through the vision of Mr. Suozzi. "He felt that I could rejuvenate the public's interest in the county's historic properties by forming a conservancy. Since then we have a board of trustees, and a bank account; this is our first effort to improve an historic house using the expertise of Harrison Hunt, our Historic Site supervisor and the enthusiasm of artistic gifts of talented interior designers," she said in a welcome note at Malcolm House. FULL STORY

Lacrosse is becoming a reality for children in the Oyster Bay-East Norwich area. The Oyster Bay Rough Rider organization, working along with OB-EN PAL, is bringing lacrosse to town this spring. Rough Rider Lacrosse, Inc. is headed up by Chuck Greenspan. The program is for both boys and girls, kindergarten through sixth grade. Clinics will be held for kindergarten through second grade once a week, planned for Friday evenings. Mr. Greenspan said, "We are going to teach those who don't play and bring them up to speed. A lot of kids have played in neighboring towns such as Cold Spring Harbor, Huntington, Jericho, Bayville and Syosset. We are bringing them back to play in the town where they live." This group will be broken down into two sub-groups: kindergarten and first will play together and second graders will be separate. FULL STORY

This column first started as weekly diatribe of sailboat racing at Sagamore Yacht Club, which is located next to the town marina at Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park. After about two months it became monotonous writing about the same 5-10 boats that often vied for finishing first, with an occasional development of some other boats in the fleet. There was a break in the local racing scene around the 4th of July timeframe and I tested writing about some other activities that still related to the water. FULL STORY