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From: Joanne Goodman
Email: rivetkng@aol.com
Date: 03 Jun 2000
Time: 22:12:38
Shelly! So great to see your post. I e mailed Eileen and it was great to hear from her. My cousin Cathy lives with her two grown sons in Plainview, Long Island, near my other cousin Susie Kunis. Sorry to hear about your brother, he was a great guy. I often think about the all of the great times I spent with Eileen and the rest of your family in your bungalow.
Your right it was the best years of my life too.
I have been looking with my brother Billy and my cousin Susie for property upstate, for a summer family retreat. Well today is a day which I will never forget. After seeing a home near the White Lake/Bethel border we decide to stop by Lapidus. This was not the first time that I have gone back. In the past, I have gone back with special people in my life, to visit my past , with my roomate at college, my ex husband, my children and my significant other. While all of those visits were special because I shared a part of my past with them it was not quite the same as today. Today when my brother, my cousin and I pulled into the back parking lot of Lapidus, just as we had done so many times all those years ago, parked the car and with chills up and down my spine we entered Lapidus. A grounds keeper looked at us but didn't stop us. We walked ever so slowly up the street toward our bungalows. First bungalow 60B then my cousins Cathy and Susie's bungalow(I dont remember their bungalow #). We then passed Mary and Leons bungalow, the laundry house, the mailbox then headed toward Gary Lapidus bungalow making our way to the pool, stage and casino. I stood at the pool whichs looks every bit as good as it did every Memorial Days weekend when they had finished painting the pool but had not filled it. I looked over the kiddie pool to your bungalow. What memories. It seemed like yesterday and I remembered everything like it was back in the 60's.
The stage is still there, but closed in to make a room but I could close my eyes and imagine the bands playing on the stage as if time had stopped and brought me back. Then the three of us, all from Lapidus, walked back toward the parking lot. My brother and I couldn't leave without getting closer to our last home there. We finally walked up to bungalow 85. This was the last bungalow we stayed in. The door was unlocked. The porch was painted the same grey. My brother opened the door and we walked in.... back in time thirty years. It looked the same. A bit more worn but the same. The highriser bed was in the kitchen just like it was when we stayed there. The kitchen appliances all the same. Even the pink paper towel holder my father put up thirty some years ago, is still there. The bedrooms look the same. Remember the headboard with the tacks across them. Believe it or not they are still there in the same places. How wonderful it was to walk through the bungalow. I was transported back in time to my childhood, truly a unique experience that I was able to share with my brother and my cousin. All three of us felt this. All of us shared the same memories, emotions. I can't really put it into words. It was as if we never had left.
To all my friends from Lapidus, I felt as if you were all there with me today. I miss all of you and wish you well.
Today was truly awesome.