WELCOME to the Deer Park, NY High School alumni site. Find old friends, plan reunions, and keep up with what's new on good old Long Island.
Hundreds of Deer Park alumni e-mails are listed. Join us by sending your information to us and include any comments or ideas. Tell us a little about yourself and what you've been doing if possible.
E-mail some old friends listed under the various pages. Check out the rest of the site links and please send updates if anything changes. Visit alumni forums to catch up on recent discussions. It's free and there is nothing to lose.
Thanks for visiting, come back often and stay in touch.
CLASS OF 1979 THIRTY YEAR REUNION BLAST ON AUGUST 8 and 9, 2009!
You KNOW you don't want to to miss this one! Prices will be $125.00 per person and it covers both the Friday and Saturday events.
Just to be safe GO TO THE REUNIONS OF AMERICA WEBSITE at www.reunionsinc.com/form1.html
AND SEND
THEM YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION ASAP and be sure to tell them you want to attend the Deer Park NY 30 Year HS reunion on August 8, 2009!
DON'T DELAY SENDING YOUR INFO... I already sent them all the e-mail addresses I have but I have no control from this point on. THEN
(unless you have already done so) send me your e-mail info and I'll put it on the list (and the website if you want it
posted). Being redundant will ensure your name is not lost again... EVERYONE should have received an invite by snail-mail from ROA by mid April at the latest. If you did not, LET US KNOW one way or another!
Send your information soon to me at [email protected]
ALL YEAR REUNION MIXER: This is a separate event being held on June 6th... We all know that just ONE reunion is far from enough. This one is for all class years, and anyone else who wants to join in, hosted by Jimi Ferris and will take place on June 6th 2009 at:
GRIZZLIES, which is right on the east side of where the Gardiner Manor mall used to be located. This one is the sixth one in as many years... the event keeps
getting bigger every year so why not show up? why not go to BOTH reunion events this year!
888 Sunrise Highway Bayshore, N.Y. 11706 June 6th 2009
8pm till 2:30am Live Music, No Cover
Hope to see you all there.
site e-mail [email protected]
Use the tab button on your keyboard or the mouse to navigate the form, do not hit enter but click "send the form" button when you are finished. If you do NOT get a response within a few days please send an e-mail and we will
make sure you are listed.
THE SITE IS BACK HERE AGAIN! FOR NOW YOU MUST STILL REGISTER HERE!
A PERMANENT HOME FOR THE SITE IS BEING RESEARCHED!
sunset at Robert Moses Beach in October 2000 
The Deer Park of our youth will never be forgotten. Many of us remember those days like they were yesterday and find it hard
to believe all those years have passed since we left those sacred grounds one at a time to go out and face the real world
on our own. We used to see friends every day. Then college or work slowly started to pull us in new directions, and we
started to see everyone less often. Many of us moved more than once, settling in other states. As we took on more and more
adult responsibilities, we all had less time to hang out. As the years went by, a lot of us lost touch with our old friends.
Time seems to have passed in a flash. Remember when summers seemed to last forever! What happened to all that, and us?
Thankfully the web has provided us with opportunities to reconnect, if only once in a while, with our past. Things like
cruising aimlessly up and down Deer Park Ave, grabbing a few cold ones, spending our hot summer days at Robert Moses,
Gilgo or Cedar beach and going into bars like OBI, Cheers, Colonial Pub, Hammerheads, Reflections, Kozy Kabin, and Finish Line (all gone) and
The Nite Owl and Uneeda Rest (still there) at night. Hanging out on moonlit beaches with bonfires going till dawn, sleeping
late and never worrying too much about adult responsibilities. We were not going to live life like our parents did...
or so we thought!
A lot of things have changed since those glory days. Many of the businesses are gone or changed, some local landmarks are
gone, and several have moved around. A lot of the shopping centers recieved facelifts and new stores.
And yet some things remain relatively unchanged. The schools look better now, they landscaped and refaced most of the
exteriors. And although Deer Park is one of the most densely populated areas on Long Island, we were able to get the state
to preserve about 850 acres of rare Oak Brush plain ecosystem at the Edgewood/Oak brush plains preserve site on Comac Road,
there are several miles of hiking trails and bikepaths open. Free permits are available for hiking, biking, bird watching,
etc. for all of the LI state DEC preserves, and there are never any parking fees. The old mysterious landmark "bridge to nowhere"
on Commack road in Dix Hills may be saved or rebuilt after all since it connects hiking and bike trails leading from Otsego Park to
the preserve and will become a vital link in the regional trail system leading to the Motor Parkway trail that will be built in Nassau County.
Another area worthy of preservation and clean up is the brook that runs behind Birchwood field, known as Sampawam's creek. This could be a nice greenbelt if it was managed
right, and could link to the bay. The wetlands running from Gieger Lake to Belmont also have potential.
There is little land left for residential or commercial development. The old Deer Park racetrack has been developed into
homes. Remember the Deer Park airport? The movie theatres? How about the nearby drive in movies?
Friendlies? Arby's? The beer distributor? The strawberry picking farms in Dix Hills? All are gone. The LIRR is electrified
now and the Deer Park station was moved east to the Brentwood border. There is a 24 hour golf course adjacent to it. AIL
merged with EDO and later closed the Deer Park plant. It was subsequently demolished to make way for ... you guessed it another (Tanger)
mall which just opened in OCTOBER 2008. At least they had a free concert with Cheap Trick (remember them?). A Home Depot,
Stop and Shop, and a Kohls already are open at the same spot. Park Place (formerly DK's) closed and was replaced by a bank.
A Strohemann's bakery distribution center was built behind the new TANGER site facility on the old AIL ballfields. Another big
and brand new shopping center is rising from the ruins of the OTB/Finish Line center right now and some stores will open before Spring 2009.
On Deer Park Ave., Meyer's Drugstore has been replaced by a Walgreens. The bike shop went out of business. St Cyril's Church
was expanded, Nathan's replaced Arby's, Sizzler became a Boston Market, Jack's became a Checkers. The Taco Bell near the
high school was recently torn down, only to be replaced with a bigger, better Taco bell. The Suffolk Jewish Center on the
west side was sold and is now an evangelical Gospel church of some sort. Memorial-Sloan Kettering hospital opened a new
outpatient facility on Comac road just north of the Comac multiplex theatres. Waldbaums and all the old stores next to it
were knocked down and rebuilt-expanded.
The DP public pools were rebuilt a few years back and actually look smaller. The Deer Park Fire dept. now has a
substation, training facility and really nice soccer fields at Comac and Nicoll's Rd in what used to be a highway yard.
The DP bowling alley was renovated and looks great. Belmont Lake is still a great place for a bike ride, barbeque, or paddle boat/canoe
trip. Robert Moses, Gilgo and Jones Beaches are still the best anywhere and the water has been clean for the last few years.
The land including the OBI was purchased by Suffolk county in a complicated deal allowing the former owners to make a nice
profit. The south bound causeway bridge was completely rebuilt recently, and the northbound side only patched up for now.
When the next major overhaul takes place in a few years, it will have a bike and walking path added at least as far south
as the ocean parkway. If you have not been to the beaches and parks in a while, make sure to visit them soon. The NY empire
pass is still a good deal for frequent visitors, $65 gets you in all year to any state park or beach as often as you wish.
Other new things on LI include a new minor league baseball team, the LI Ducks, who play at a new stadium in Central Islip
near NY Institute Of Technology, and another minor league team at Coney Island called the Cyclones began playing to a
packed house at the new Keyspan park stadium. A huge new 11 floor Federal court complex also opened in Islip. An aquarium
opened in downtown Riverhead and another is planned for Bayshore or perhaps Pilgrim. The historic Fire Island Light was
re-lit and completely renovated. Fairchild Republic is gone, replaced by a mall. But Republic airport is doing well,
as is Islip, where Southwest is now the main airline. Grumman is really small now, it's sad because they built not only the
A-6 and F-14 but also the lunar excursion modules which landed on the moon, the wings for the space shuttle and parts of
the Boeing 747. Most of their plants are gone forever, sold for industrial and office development.
An aviation museum is being developed at Mitchell Field. Gardiner Manor mall in Bay shore was demolished, and replaced by
a Target, a bookstore, and Stern's (formerly Gertz) was taken down and replaced by a Lowes. "Outlet malls" and "Big Box"
retail stores are popping up everywhere. But the overall economy is no longer booming on LI and real estate prices are slipping nationwide.
Nissequoque River State Park opened in Kings Park, and was expanded to include all of the old Kings Park Psychiatric center,
But no one knows the eventual outcome of that transfer, since the costs of figuring out what to do with all the old buildings
have not been determined but would likely exceed $130 million. The Paumanouk hiking trail is now continuous from Rocky Point to
Southhampton, where it disappears for a bit, and reappears at the border of East Hampton all the way to Montauk Pt!
We finally are getting some new bike trails on land owned by NYSDOT that was originally aquired for the Bethpage State
parkway extension. Another one will run along the Ocean Parkway and over the northbound twin causeway bridge. (see the map
on the DP weather page).The Wantagh parkway trail will be rebuilt and hopefully be linked to a new trail along the old LI
Motor parkway in Nassau, it's already being planned within Bethpage state park. A new trail now connects the Fire Island
Lighthouse to Field 5 at Robert Moses, and the rebuilt southbound causeway bridge is open. A new proposal calls for Rt 347
to be redeveloped, with 3 lanes, a few new bridges and hopefully bike lanes.
Over 38,000 acres of the Pine Barrens have now been acquired by Suffolk County and New York State, protecting the
globally rare ecosystem. The forests are recovering well from the big fires of 1995. You can still get far away enough
from developed areas while hiking or biking to where it is totally silent and most cell phones don't work! Another new state
park, known as Shadmoor, opened in the Montauk dunes soon, near Camp Hero, which incidently is REALLY cool and is also open
to the public. You can also take a tour at Montauk Point to see the seals during the winter and early spring. Call
631-668-3781 for details. Anyone even remotely interested in supporting any of the bikepath projects should visit the
The LI Motorparkway site for more info and let local
leaders know of your support!
NYPA recently built a 44 MW power station near Pilgrim hospital. LIPA later added ANOTHER powerplant adjacent to it
that would brought the total output up to about 120 MW. They avoided an environmental impact statement by building 3
small plants instead of one large one. Heartland is slowly progressing on it's proposed major redevelopment of Pilgrim.
There is also a very poorly thought out NYDOT plan to build a trucking and rail transfer facility at Pilgrim too.
This could cause more pollution, noise, and traffic around Deer Park and Dix Hills as well as Brentwood. I was successful
in stopping a new access roads to Commack road right through the preserve. But the overall fight to kill the project still goes on.
The booming housing market on LI has slowed a bit now, but so have purchases of open space... still the threat of paving
over woodlands and farms exists. This is especially true on the east end of LI. Many farming and heavily wooded areas have homes
being built even now in spite of the decline in the market.
In case you missed it above: WE WILL HOLD A THIRTY YEAR REUNION ON AUGUST 8 and 9, 2009! WE'LL NEED YOUR HELP TO ROUND UP ALL OF THE PEOPLE WE HAVE LOST CONTACT WITH!
WE KNOW THAT ALL THE PAST REUNIONS WERE A BLAST. What if somehow, some way, we could outdo ourselves just one more time and make it last just a little bit longer? Instead of just a few hours, why not a whole weekend of events?
That's one of the ideas we are working on. The only complaint I heard about the 25 year event was that the 5 hours we set aside was not really enough. We'll be using Reunions of America this time, and will get all the details up here as soon as we work them out. If
anyone wants to help, just let us know! I can tell you that there has been a lot of interest...from many people, actually more than I've ever seen. There were a few people last time who were kind of "iffy" about going. After some convincing phone calls and e-mails they came, and
were really surprised by the outcome. If you are here reading this far into it... you know you want to do it. We just want you to show up for this one. You won't be disappointed. Please send your information soon to me at [email protected] and/or to
Jack Tesoriero at [email protected]. We do look forward to hearing from you one way or another.
Here is the note from Jack:
Hey Guys, Our 30 Year Reunion "Weekend Celebration" will be held on August 8th and 9th, 2009. I will have more specific information
in the upcoming months. I wanted to get out the dates early before everyone started setting up their travel plans for next summer.
I assure you it will be something you will not want to miss. Since the word got out that I was planning our 30 Year Reunion,
the response has been unbelievable. I have received e-mails from our fellow graduates from all over the country, everyone can't wait to attend.
I still need updated e-mail addresses from our classmates, please help spread the word. Thanks...Jack Tesoriero [email protected]
If YOU have an event that you would like to have posted here, send the
information!
BE SURE TO VISIT THE DP FALCONS SITE created by Christa for more information and news!
Help make this site a success!
Please inform all alumni of Deer Park HS about this site. Offer those Deer Park alumni not on the web to send in their info! I recommend that everyone get a free email address from YAHOO! or NETSCAPE, etc. : web-based e-mail addresses that you keep forever, even if you change your web account. The more people we register increases the likelihood of great reunion turnouts!
This site is non-commercial and exists only to plan reunions and find old friends. If anyone has any content such as photos, graphics, ideas or news please send it. I will normally update at least once a week and hope you will send us updates when your e-mails change. If you find an obsolete e-mail or address let me know so I can fix or remove it. This site will never be used to SPAM or send junk-e-mail.
This site is located on the Deerparkschools.org server. This page, the comcenters, Motorparkway, the Bridge, LIRR rail-trail, recent photos, Save LI greenspaces site, Html Help and formulas pages are hosted by Denis Byrne 1979. All others are recommended links. The DP home of the Falcons page is hosted by Christa File 1979.
Thanks to Frank Castanza and Christa File for the DP aerial photos! And thanks to all of you who have responded to the site and all your positive comments!
THANK YOU VISITING, HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT AND DO RETURN!
VISIT ALL OF THE PAGES AND SEND YOUR COMMENTS!
HOPE TO SEE Y'ALL AROUND TOWN or ELSEWHERE!
SINCERELY, DENIS BYRNE DPHS 1979
site last updated on December 26, 2008
To e-mail me use: [email protected]
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