_______ Lynbrook/east rockaway ______
HERALD
TAKE YOUR PICTURE WITH
Santa
SATURDAY, DECEMB ER
Also serving Bay Park
Holiday safety tips
Students give thanks in class
Page 4
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Vol. 31 No. 50
DECEMBER 5 - 11, 2024
14TH
Unicorn Jewels Inc
29 Atlantic Ave. Lynb rook 516-599-1979 HOT CHOCOLATE • SNACKS
20% OFF
$1.00
• GIFTS FOR CHILDREN ANY NEW PURCHASE WHILE SANTA IS HERE
11:00 - 2:00 PM
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E.R.’s Main Street magic Spend a day exploring small businesses visions to life. “We really try to work with them,” he said of his customers. The spa offers gift cards for a Residents of East Rockaway, and visitors, can spend a day variety of offerings, including sampling all that Main Street waxes, eyebrows tints and other has to offer, without having to cosmetic services. Reservations drive. are suggested, but walk-in cusBusinesses in the village tomers are also welcome. For offer lots of variety, each with more information, call (516) 887its own niche and 1221. ambience, ensuring When it’s time that you don’t have for lunch, Puerta to leave town to find Mexicana, at 141 eve r y t h i n g yo u Main St., offers need, or want, for Mexican cuisine the holidays. with an American A shopping jourtwist. The restauney can be gin at rant’s colorful inteColor Nails & Spa, rior pays homage to at 137 Main St., to the rich culture of add a polished look Mexico. Papel picafor the holiday seado banners, sheets s o n . T h e s h o p ’s TiNA KoSHy, of colorful paper owner, David Yang, Puerta Mexicana with intricate said that the Christ- customer designs, line the mas season is one walls and ceiling, of the spa’s busiest and customers say times of year. And while many the food matches the atmoclients opt for traditional nail sphere. colors, others get more creative “The food was absolutely for the holidays. One recent delicious, full of authentic flacustomer sported nails edged vors that left me craving more,” with animal prints and flowers. customer Tina Koshy wrote in a Yang said that clients can review on the restaurant’s bring in photos of what they’d Google page. “Every dish was like on their nails, and the fresh, well-seasoned and pershop’s artists will bring their
By Ainsley Martinez
amartinez@liherald.com
Courtesy Gerardo Filippone
When Gerardo Filippone and his family landed at Kennedy Airport in 1972 from Italy, they proceeded to Immigration and received green cards. They were “sponsored” by Filippone’s aunt and uncle.
A life steeped in tradition Italian immigrant Gerardo Filippone found a safe haven in Lynbrook’s Italian-American community By Ainsley Martinez amartinez@liherald.com
In January 1972, 7-year-old Gerardo Filippone and his family arrived at Kennedy Airport. Gerardo, who came from Frigento, Italy, a small town outside Naples, had never seen a big city before. “My uncle picked me up in a 1966 Oldsmobile,” Filippone, now 60, the 2nd vice president of Per Sempre Lodge No. 2344, in Lynbrook, recounted recently. “Do you know how big that car is? That car was bigger than a truck in Italy.” Gerardo’s aunt and uncle, Angelina and John Cirilli, sponsored the new immigrants — the boy’s parents and his three siblings — and the Cirillis’ house in Ozone Park,
Queens, became his home. Filippone’s parents had had trouble finding jobs in Italy, and commuted to jobs in Switzerland, but work dried up there too, he said. At the time, more than 1 million Italians — roughly 5 percent of the labor force — were reportedly unemployed. So the Filippones settled in a small home on Lafayette Street in Queens, where meatballs in sauce simmered on the kitchen stove alongside semolina bread on the counter. The aroma of fresh tomatoes, basil and garlic wafted into the dining room, where Gerardo did his homework. His mother regularly helped him with his English, and he admired how she managed to raise a family in a new country with a ConTInued on pAGe 3
T
he food was absolutely delicious, full of authentic flavors that left me craving more.
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