Voting for Miss Rheingold at the Greenlawn Fireman’s Fair….  Who remembers this???  

My first recollection of the Greenlawn Fireman’s fair was when I first moved to Centerport in 1956 and had just spent a lazy summer of fun with my best friend Barbara where I grew up on Mallard Cove and we spent the summer rowing our boat around Northport Harbor and leisurely would row to Northport Village Dock and get greasy french fries in a paper bag  from the little deli on the corner of Main Street Northport, then rowed back over to the Centerport Yacht Club and sunned on the dock while chowing down on these grease balls and then headed back home to her dock on Mallard Cove where we listened and sang our favorite songs of the times… Blue Suede Shoes and all…..  Wow life was good then… the summer passed and Barbara said we had to go to the Greenlawn Fireman’s Fair………. this was at the tail end of the Summer of ’56 and we were going to be the first class in the NEW school of Harborfields…….  We called it Taylor Avenue School because Harborfields had not been named yet….  more about that later…. 

Do you remember voting for Miss Rheingold????  My first recollection of the Greenlawn Fireman’s Fair was that Labor Day….  the year that we had moved to Mallard Cove in Centerport….  That Labor day was the year that Harborfields School District was formed and we were days away from “Centerport Kids” meeting the “Greenlawn Kids”….  It was so exciting that we were going to the fair and seeing the kids that we would eventually graduate from High School with. 

It was more than a fair for sure….  It was a social event that was so much a part of our lives!  It was where you went to spend your money on fun rides, cotton candy, fun games, taking chances on live stock (pigs, chickens, goats) pets (dogs and cats) … you always came home with a winner, even if it just was a Gold Fish … The game was throwing a ping pong ball in a fishbowl and you would win the fish that was in the bowl… they would take the bowl with the fish and pour in a plastic bag that you would bring home.  In the morning your Mom would have to take you to the Pet Store to buy a bowl, sand, little plastic things for the bowl, fake grass, gold fish food, and many $ later you would bring home your set up and put your little fish inside just hoping it would last thru the following week!!!! 

But more than a four day event, always beginning with a parade on the Thursday evening before Labor Day the Greenlawn Fireman’s fair was our big social event of the year.  We would go there to meet friends after not seeing most of them during the summer… there was a big thing that always happened at the Fireman’s Fair.  It was seeing the candidates for “Miss Rheingold”… this was huge!  It was like having Angelina Jolie in your home town!!!  This was a nation wide vote for Miss Rheingold!  They were all pretty girls that were running for the title of Miss Rheingold! 

Once graduating from High School we always went to the Greenlawn Fireman’s fair.  As we went to college this was always the place come back and meet your friends…. even if you had to travel acoss country, people would congregate at the Beer Tent, once over 18 years old, and that’s where you would meet…..  As the years passed and you married and had kids, this was the place to bring your kids, people would flock to the fair.  Then your kids would do the same, and then bring their kids and the tradition would carry on, and on, and on.  Our grandsons now go back and do exactly what we did oh so many years ago!!!

Now wouldn’t you want to buy a house in this community and send your kids to Harborfields?  If you would call Suzanne & Brian Asher, the Winning Team in Real Estate…. Nobody knows the area like we do!!!  Send an e-mail to:  sasher@signaturepremier.com

Menu for LINKS

Menu for LINKS

Links Log Cabin

Menu for LINKS

Menu for LINKS

Links Log Cabin

Fine steaks and $1 burgers and fries…Centerport, New York!  Boy do Suzanne & Brian Asher have great memories and stories to share!!!

There was this great restaurant in Centerport.  It was called Links Log Cabin.  Here during in the 50’s and probably before and after that, people from all over the island would come to enjoy a great dinner here in Centerport! It was a very popular place, and you would usually have to wait on line to get in!!!  Our family went to Links when we came out to Centerort to “visit” our home being built on Mallard Cove.  My Dad would get his traditional burger, while my Mom would chow down on a big lobster and suck every morsel out of that baby!!!  (Currently at this spot there are condos.  Links burned down in 1965 ..  Now is a development called “Courtyard Circle”.)

Brian’s brother Randy worked there for a time while in High School.  Randy went for a job interview at Links and they asked if he could open clams.  He said “sure” (he was a pro at opening Clams because Brian was a clam digger as he made his way thru Harvard and younger brother Randy was his “cul boy”/helper)…  and he was immediately hired for the job in the kitchen.  When he showed he head of the kitchen how fast and efficient he was at opening clams, he was so proud, only to have the boss say it wasn’t right!!!?  What do you mean I didn’t do it right?  At this resstaurant, they took one clam and cut it in half then ut each half in the two clam shells!!!  So much for old fashioned “value”….  and who in their right mind who is eating raw clams actually LOOK at the clam they are about to eat???!!!!!

Still in all, this was a fun place to go to eat….. and even tho they skimped on the clams, the burgers were THE BEST!!!!  

If you would like a copy of the LINKS LOG CABIN menu from the 50’s, just e-mail me at sasher@signaturepremier.com and I will send or drop off the menu to you!!!