Rose Levine Sings Her Signature Song

Honors For A Special Cherry Grove Resident

PHOTO: The canine football team of Bradley and Cleo on the beach here in Cherry Grove. The dogs really do enjoy the beach.

Last evening in Cherry Grove I went to the "This Is Your Life" tribute to Amelia Migliaccio, a woman who has been active in the community for several decades. MC Dell Harbin read blurbs about Amelia's life in the Grove and various speakers added their stories. The people who spoke while I was there included: The Freedner Twins; Charity (in full drag); RaeDeStefano; Matt Baney; Panzi (not in drag); Lynn Tunderman; and Sal Piro. At one point about half a dozen Suffolk County policemen came on stage including one dressed in a kilt and playing a bagpipe - which they used to do every year at the annual volleyball game. Amelia really has been at the center of a lot of Cherry Grove traditions. She originated the annual community vs. police Volleyball game: she organized the first Cherry Grove gay pride parade; and of course, she was one of the participants in the very first Invasion Of The Pines back in 1976. As one of the speakers noted, Amelia should have been honored a long time ago. The event was free with only a suggested $20 donation to your favorite Grove charity. Afterward there was a buffet and desserts. Congratulations, Amelia!

Jim

A Cherry Grove Talent For Over 50 Years!

This is Cherry Grove's famous drag diva Rose Levine, who has been performing in the Grove for over 50 years. The occasion was a solo show at the Cherry Grove Community House under the auspices of the Arts Project Of Cherry Grove. Rose was terrific!

Jim

Build Schools, Then Bridges, Not Bombs!

The annual Cherry Grove Art Show was held at the community house last weekend. This event gives local artists a chance to showcase their work and it is usually very well attended. Here's a photo of our friend Michael and his paintings on display at the show.

The horrific bridge collapse in Minneapolis is an indication of the deteriorating state of the infrastructure of this country, but it's not an isolated incident. Rather, it's just the latest example of how we're letting our own country disintegrate while spending billions of dollars every month in Iraq. The steam pipe explosion in New York City recently shed a lot of light on that city's aging infrastructure. Now we learn that we have 756 bridges in this country (truss bridges) that are similar to the one that collapsed in the Midwest. Bridges and pipes are important, but how will we ever get to them when we've let our children down with sub-standard schools? Our nation's priorities are dead wrong. Our oil driven greed is coming home to bite us. Look for more of these tragic incidents in the coming years.

Jim

Interesting Ideas For Cherry Grove Organizations

Here's a shot of one of the beautiful beaches of Southern Brazil that I took back in February. Our cruise took us from Buenos Aires to Rio DeJaniero with stops along the coast on the way North. We have a beautiful beach here in Cherry Grove, one of the finest I've seen in the world, but the mountains that serve as the backdrop for the beaches of Brazil certainly add a spectacular backdrop for beach goers to enjoy.

In regard to the financial and membership woes of the Cherry Grove Community Association and The Arts Project Of Cherry Grove, a reader writes:

I think some of the problems with the groups are developing into a situation of genuine urgency, and if left unsolved, I see them leading to a collapse of the organizations primarily caused by the inability of the groups to sustain the cost of improving, and even merely maintaining, the Community House....I think that the best way for the organizations to survive will be for them to merge into the following entities: CGPOA as a 501c(4) politically engaged force in both Cherry Grove and Brookhaven and the CGCAI and APCG as a single 501c(3) charitable organization that pools its membership and labor pool as well as property and financial resources and has several different committees: arts, finance, funding and fundraising, civic association, environmental, etc...I also think that the costs of maintaining a self-described "band aid clinic" (the Doctor's House) are disproportionate to the meager benefits derived therefrom... Healthcare is delivered substantially differently today from the way it was in 1957 (and on the island, the EMS and Suffolk County Marine Police with EMT's and rapid boats to the South Shore make redundant the clinic and its often hard-to-find physician)... (the Doctor's House) would be better used as a revenue-producing rental property for the CGPOA/CGCAI.

I think the writer makes some good points. On the Doctor's House, the community has been struggling for years to staff it with physicians and to come up with the funds to maintain it. While it might be convenient to get first aid for minor medical woes here on the island, I agree with my reader that the cost of maintaining the facility is out of proportion to the benefits of having it.

I also like this reader's idea of "circling the wagons" by combining the two major community organizations. That is a suggestion that makes great sense in the face of a dwindling local pool of both people willing to volunteer and financial resources.

Maintenance and preservation of our Cherry Grove Community House (a separate structure from the Doctor's House) should be of paramount importance to our community organizations. I am concerned that the focus of some of our movers and shakers seems to be shifting to the fate of a commercial structure downtown, the Top Of The Bay structure, which is vacant. I have heard about a proposal to float a bond to purchase it, which would increase our taxes. I suspect that we will have our hands full just keeping the Community House afloat. I would prefer to focus on our own Community House and let the bank who owns Top Of The Bay or the Cherry Grove business community sort out the disposition of this private commercial property. If our taxes have to go up to support revitalization, let's insure that the residents reap the benefits.

Jim

Small Town Social Dynamics

I wonder if the social dynamics of all small towns are like those here in Cherry Grove. Here we have a number of long established social groupings organized around shared interests in things like entertainment, drag, and various community volunteer organizations, such as the volunteer fire department, the community association, etc. For the newcomer, while most of these groups are open to anyone, some of these groupings are harder to break into than others. A few are, for all intents and purposes, closed to new members. All of them share in common a group dynamic that requires conformity on the part of members and one that is to some degree or another, hostile to individuality. As a result, not everyone who calls Cherry Grove home is a member of one of these social groupings. Some people who have lived here for decades appear to not be connected to any of the established groups. Two of the long-established high profile groups in the Grove, the Arts Project Of Cherry Grove (est. 1948,) and the community association have in recent years been experiencing hard times in terms of membership numbers and finances. Both groups seem powerless to change course and reverse the downward trends in which they are entrapped. One dynamic that is affecting all of the groups in the Grove is the basic fact that there are simply less people here today. The town is no longer quite as popular as a resort destination as it once was. There are a number of reasons for this, but it is a reality that groups should take into account as they struggle to remain viable. With less of a base of people to draw from, it becomes even more important for these groups to be more open and welcoming, and to suppress the natural tendency of the group to demand conformity. They can no longer afford to be quite so choosy in terms of who to admit to the group. It will be interesting to see if these groups are successful in turning things around. It will require jettisoning some old attitudes.

Photo: a scan of an old post card showing Cherry Grove in the 1960s

Jim