Letters/EMail

Dear John:

Thank you for your letter of 3/31/04 and the letter from Gaspar Cipolla. It really brought back memories. I and my brother were at Sparkill from about 1935 to 1937. I was a Junior then at Tappan Zee high. I graduated in 1937 and I was 16 1/2 at that time.

In Gaspar's letter he mentioned seeing two men in a boat beating the ice trying to find a little boy. I remember that very well, only it wasn't night time but a dark dreary Sunday afternoon. We were living in the cottages when we heard the commotion and we ran around the lake where the Sparkill firemen were trying to find the boy.

One or two of us volunteered to go into the lake to find the boy. Bill O'Rourke was the first one. We tied a rope around him and he broke through the ice to where the boy fell in. He was about frozen when they pulled him back. I was next and they told me it was no use, so I didn't go into the lake.

Later they tore the spillway out to lowered the lake and then found his body. I remember the fireman carrying him to the convent but is was too late.

What great memories he brought back when he watched the football team with Bum Fontana. I was on the team with him. We had some great guys and because we were small and poor we played our hearts out. Our great feat that year we tied New York Military Academy and would have won, but had the refs and time keeper, it was the longest last four minutes of the game.

The coach Jim Faulk sent me over to watch the time keeper. In those days if you came out of the game you could not go until the next quarter and I was taken out in the 4th quarter so I could check the time.

Some of the names I remember for the football team were Bill and Phil O'Rourke, Aldo Elliot, Bill Callahan, Phil Simms, Alvah McCoy and a few others.

I thank you for the pictures. Sorry to say I never went back after I left, even though I kept in touch with some of guys until I enlisted in the Army in 1942. From there I came to St. Louis and married my wife who I met while Stationed here for a while, I spent 18 months overseas and was in the 34th Division in Italy as a BAR man.

Again thank you for your letter and lets keep in touch.