Amityville Old School Reunion: Friends show pride in hometown

The drive-in movie theater in Copiague was the place to be. Homecoming queens were the talk of the day. Bell-bottoms were in, and Marvin Gaye and Janis Joplin topped the soundtrack at the roller rink.

In other words, the good old days.

Lifelong friends took a trip down memory lane at Belmont Lake State Park for the 20th annual Amityville Old School Reunion on Saturday afternoon. More than 100 people, graduates of area high schools in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, danced, caught up, lit cigars and barbecued, coming together to show pride in their hometown.

“I love North Amityville,” said Terry Edwards, president of the North Amityville Old School Association, which organizes the reunion. But Edwards, 72, who still lives in North Amityville, recalled the pressures of growing up in the area. “This was a community that was ravished in the '70s and '80s by drugs. It was tough, but we found a way to get around it,” he said. “We used basketball as an escape.”

In the years to come, Edwards and his classmates drifted apart. They went off to college, started families, moved away from Long Island.

By the early 2000s, it dawned on them that as time passed, they were only seeing each other at funerals.

“One day, we were sitting in a row and said, you know, we’ve got to stop meeting like this,” said Gregory Pair, 70, who now lives in Baltimore.

Now, because of the annual picnic, their bond remains strong.

Guests came from all across Long Island and several states and said it’s an important obligation.

“This is our roots, this is the wound that bore us,” Labeeb Rasheed, 72, said. Rasheed, who now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, said he tries to make the reunion as often as he can because it’s a “joyous” and uplifting tradition. “We’re in our 70s. We were in kindergarten together, sharing cookies,” he said, chuckling.

Marilyn Fritz of Copiague brought stacks of photo albums, thumbing through the pages and faded photos with a smile. “My favorite part is seeing old, old friends getting together and uniting again,” Fritz, 74, said, lighting up each time she saw a familiar face.

Saturday’s picnic also served as a memorial for Edwards’ wife, Robin, who died last year, and remembrance for friends who have passed away.

“It’s rewarding, because you never know who you’re not going to see,” said Mary Payton Coward, 61, as she turned sausages on a charcoal grill. She later danced and swayed with old friend Sandra Torres.

Though the reunion may have started as an idea in a funeral home, now it’s a tradition all about slowing down and making time for loved ones.

“And being grateful to those of us who woke up and are able to come celebrate each other,” Coward said. “That’s the best gift.”