The WHEEL By JOE FANELLI Back in 1889 , he fell from a fire escape four stories to the ground An account in the old New Yort World described the incident. His father expected his year-old sor to be dead , rushed down the stairs only to find him alive anc kicking. When this country entered World War One , he twice was rejected , finally got in , saw service on three major battle- grounds , came up with enough injuries and ailments any one oi which could have been fa ta l . Friday, our old Frank Fischer of 33 Burchell St., Bay Shore , stopped by to reminsce with the writer about the days of the old Bay Shore Journal . This one here was a schoolboy doing some writing, who also got pressed into service on Tuesdays and Wed- nesdays to collate the paper and to perform assorted other duties , all of them menial. Names like Clint Metz , Sparks , Jack DeCarmine crept into the conversation. It was rather hard to stop Frank. The talk drifted to the old minstrel show days at St. Luke ' s, the golden voice of Alan MacKinnon (he , like Frank , was a linotype operator) ; " we had more fun putting on the show than the audience that paid to see us perform , " Frank recalls. Yes , Frank was hard to stop. The fall fro m the fire escape , the war battles , must have toughened him. At age 82, he can pull out the 1889 clipping from the World , his service disability card , complain about how his legs ached back in 1919, and still walk a couple of miles a day ! • » » It must have been oldtimers ' week for this corner. Another visitor here was the Rev. Osca r L. Daley who formerly occupied the pulpit of the Islip Pres byterian Church when he wasn 't in the " pads " for a baseball game. We have con- sidered this crusty (don 't misconstrue) character a cherished friend for many, many years and hope to continue that relationship many more. To all intents and purposes , "Doc " is retired now but he manages to get about , dispensing his dry humor to old friends and acquaintances. He has what he calls a calling card which lists " every blessed number they 've given me , social security, home address , telephone number , they 're all on it. " The Rev. Oscar L. calls himself a "Contran tidisest ablishme n- tarian , " claims to be the only one. Explains: "You can drop a few letters here and there and still be agin ' something!" # # * Like one of the kids used to say : March! Comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamp! • * » International Motor Show opens today...in Geneva. Our Chases ' calendar also reports that on Sunday, beheading-of-the- goose-by-horseriders-for-the- title-of-emperor takes place in Antwerp, Belgium, and that' s rather rough on the goose. Also on Sunday, Expo ' 70 opens in Osaka , Japa n , and it launches National Foreign Language Week , National Poison Prevention Week and National Wildlife Week. Sunday, Caesar , is also the Ides of March. Our jaunty Irish friends will be glad to hear that March 17 is Camp Fire Girls ' Founders ' Day and "Evacuation Day " in Boston and Suffolk County...that' s Suffolk County, Mass. And a Happy St. Paddy 's Day to you! * » » Bay Shore High Class of '50 is planning a reunion for some date this summer. Mrs. Jerry (Beverly Brewster ) Jones heads the search committee to locate members of the class. Assisting are Mr. and Mrs. (Tater and Joyce ) Modderno (MO 5-2241) , Mrs. Arthur (Lillian Kruse) McCall (MO 6-5859 ) , and Mrs . James (Jackie Dowd) Costello (MO 5-8874). Telephone numbers are for convenience of anyone having knowledge of the whereabouts of some of the members of the class. The Greater Lake Charles (Louisiana ) Chamber of com- merce recently made a pitch to get new physician members by mailing the doctors a disposable hypodermic needle attached to its letterhead with the catchy phrase , "Join...or we'll needle you. " The letter started , "We intend to get more doctors to become members of the Chamber of Commerce and we are not above needlin' you until (Continued on Page 23 ) Paul Bailey ' s His toric Long Island Selected and Supp lemented />v (]a rl 4. Staracr Whaling From The Shore Early Long Islanders , often as- sisted by Indians , put out from shore to captu re whales long be- fore they outfitted oceangoing vessels and hunted the grea t mammals around the world. Al- though the east end of the island is more often associated with shore whaling it was also en- gaged in off the Grea t South Beach and Jones Beach. The east enders had the advantage of having the ocea n close to home so that word of whales close to shore reached them swiftly. The island- ers of present day Brookhaven , Islip, Babylon , Oyster Bay and Hempstead towns had to main- tain look outs on the beaches and cross wide bays in order to reach the scene of action . The Huntington tow n records have an entry of June 13 , 1793, in which one Nathaniel Wickes in a deposition sta tes tha t he recalls that there were two whale houses on the beach , between —Goos Island and Thatch Island , abou t opposite the opening of "Mas- sapague " Gut some sixty years earlier (1733). This would have been abou t opposite Huntington West Neck South , presentday Amityville , now in Babylon town. Charles R. Street , who com- piled three volumes of Hunting- ton town records in 1889, com- mented in connection with the " whale house " entry that it " reminds us of the fact tha t from earliest settlement of Long Island the caputre of whales for securing oil was carried on from the South Beach. Many from the North Side of the Island engaged in the business for a part of the year , and shared in the profits of the business. The writer , when a boy, listened to the stories told by his grandfather , Gilbert Scudder , of the exciting adventures of the latter while pursuing and cap- turing whales ." From Judge Henry P. Hedges history of East Hampton we learn that shore whaling was an im- portant iridustry in his home vil- lage of Wainscott when he was a boy. Born in 1817, he recalled a wigwam on the beach , used by local whalemen as a shelter. It was " constructed of oak saplings sharpened and forced down in the sand" , similar to the homes of the local Indians. There was also a 30-foot-high stage-pole; a tree set deep in the sand , with some of its branches left on and trimmed to permit easy climbing. From that van- tage point a watchman could search the sea for the sign of whales. The whaleboats , contain- ing all gear , rested bottom up on poles "laid in crutches driven in the sand" . At sight of a whale , wrote the Judge , "Men ran wild to gain the beach in time. Boys shouted with delight . For once our little world woke up!" An excellent work on American shore whaling is "Whale Off" , by Everett J. Edwards and his daughter , Jeannette Edward s Rattray, published in 1932. A Friendly Warning Mathew Harvey, town clerk of Oyster Bay, on July 5, 1669, which was just 16 years after the towns of Huntington and Oyster Bay were founded , sent the following notice to the Huntington town fathers: "Friends and neighbors of the tow n of Huntington . We once more desire you in a loving friendly way, to forbear mowing our neck of mea d ow , which you have presumptuously mowed these several years ; and if after so many friendly warnings you will not forbea r, you will force us, friends and neighbors , to seek our remedy in law , but resting your friends and neighbors ". We do not know whether the matter was taken to court . The meadow involved was on Lloyd Neck which was then in the tow n ol Oyster Bay although Huntington disputed the title and eventually proved its claim. That did not happen for more than 200 years when , in the 1870's, the a rea , originally known as H orse Neck , was relinquished by Oyster Bay town and became part of Hun- tington. The Cornells, Cornwells Cornell , Cornwell and Cornwall are the same family, members of which played many important roles in the island' s early history. They all stem , we understand , from Thomas and William Corn- well who migra ted to America from England in 1635. The for- mer 's son , Richard , was one of the founders of Flushing tow n in 1645 and twenty years later was a delegate to the Hempstea d As- sembly which framed the laws for the province of New York. In 1687 Richard purchased the lower end of the Rockaway peninsula and three years later became its firs t white inhabitant by establishing a fa rm at Far Rockaway. He died in 1693 but his original homestead farmhouse stood until 1833 when the fabulous Marine Pavilion was built on the site. Richard left five sons and three daughters. Ezra Cornell , for whom Cornell University is named , is of this family and an- other member founded Cornwall- On-Hudson. William S. Pettit , onetime president of the Nassau County Historical Society and himself a descendant , once wrote : "Prac- tically every respectable American family on Long Island who can trace its ancestry back to the 17th century, can find a Cornell in the line ". B y Lloyd Moreland Having dwelled too much in the last two issues on the field of sports , especially baseball, to the dismay of the distaff side , it occurs to me that I should broaden my horizons. Being a person of critical propensities (if you doubt this , ask my wife ) , it takes little prompting to discourse on a few aggravations which must be irritating to people more tolerant than I. One has to do with the banks and the interminable waiting that precedes getting to the teller to make a deposit or withdrawal , depending on your fiscal pligh t at the moment. None of my banker friends (of whom I now have very few , no longer being an in- fluential member of the com- munity ) should take personal offense at this , because it is not aimed at any one bank in par- ticular. It seems to apply to all , and it applies to the noon-time hours. There are many persons of moderate circumstances and controlled working hours whose only opportunity to visit their friendly neighborhood bank is during their lunch hour. It is very frustrating, therefore, when they arrive at the bank to find only two tellers on du ty to serve long lines of loya l , if not necessarily af- fluent , customers, who have to get back to their jobs before the sun sinks slowly in the west. This is not to imply that cashiers , tellers and all other bank personnel should abstain from lunch. They need the carories as much as any of us. It does seem , however , tha t a staggered schedule could be arranged so that the much publicized services of the banks which can take care of all your needs , could provide better teller service for the noon time throng. The solution of one unnamed bank official , "Let them come in Friday night" sounds very much like the ill advised rejoinder of the French monarch , "Let them eat cake. " It' s not a good way to win friends and attract depositors. The other gripe at the moment is aimed at service stations , and the owners or managers thereof should turn to Webster' s im- mediately to refresh themsel ves on the meaning of the word " service. " Here again , this is not aimed at any local station but appears to app ly to most , and the particular episode that touched me off recently took place in Babylon. I happened into tins nice , large clea n station. It was newly blacktopped and there was easy access to the pumps , unlike some stations where there are so many obstacles in the form of old cars and wreckers that the path to the pump is a dangerous one. I drove up early in the morning and there inside the office was not one but three uniformed attendants, each of whom glared at me for having the effrontery to bring them business. At long las t one surly youth emerged , and I , smiling friendly like , said , "Fill it with high tes t , please. " He growled something, thrust the hose into the gas tank , and strode promptly back to join his com- panions at their high level con- ference. Meanwhile another driver pulled in , and after receiving no attention from the triumvirate , drove off in a righteous huff . Soon a woman driver drove up to a pump, and eventually was waited on. Meanwhile my friendly dispenser of service, returned to my car , proceeded to overflow the tank (this is to keep down the dust) , and then growled $6.40. I smiled again and said, "Would you mind checking under the hood?" If looks could kill , George White would have had another stiff on his hands at that point . After having made him check the oil , and give the windshield a once over , I was tempted to ask him to check the pressure in the tires. But I refrained , realizing that I have come this far and should not blow the chance of making Social Security and medicaid , just because of the deficiencies of a gas station at- tendant. What appalled me most of all was that one of the three characters had to be the owner or the manager , because they just don 't hire three gas pumpers in'a station that size. If he isn 't in- terested in giving service, why should they ? Perhaps the incident I ran into is far fetched and not typical. There seems to be a growing tendency, however , for people whose main function is the dispensing of service to fail to render the service or to do it most begrudglngjy. Oh wel l , spring is just a round the corner , and its coming will ameliorate if not dissipate those problems of life which are ac- centu ated by winter. And a Happy Ides of March to you. Always on Thursday Ecli psed