Oral History Guarantees Memories Will Never Be Forgotten

Interviews with dozens of elderly Babylon residents, hours of research and editing have culminated in a finished product for posterity: the Town of Babylon's oral history project initiative is close to complete.

The goldmine for residents and history buffs is ready to be explored, housed in the history museum in the old town hall building in Babylon Village.

The project consists of 60 videos with four more in progress. Highlights from the videos are presented on a large touch screen in the museum, with each video clip organized on a map of where the resident lived.

The video archives have been excerpted and highlighted for museum-goers, and first person accounts of life from the turn of the century until the suburban boom of the 1950s and 1960s have been preserved on hours of video accessible to researchers and students.

The residents, representing each hamlet in the town, recount their memories of daily life and the forgotten details of place.

Mary Cascone, town archivist, helped direct the program, initiated by Town Supervisor Steve Bellone. Senator Owen Johnson was also involved and recommended a dozen people who had compelling life stories.

"We think we know everything about life back then but hearing it from a good storyteller means they can really paint a picture so it's easy to imagine what life was like then. When a resident talks about day trips they took with their family on a Sunday, driving to Bay Shore or Patchogue for an exciting outing, you can really visualize what it was like around here," Cascone explained.

Cascone laughed as she remembers that "some storytellers were a little too good, incorporating colorful details" that had to be edited for the benefit of the many school and scout groups that come through the museum.

The project also involved scanning hundreds of old family photos that have historical relevance. Some of the first-person accounts were preserved in the nick of time.

West Gilgo Beach resident Dr. Lyman Fussell recorded his memories at the age of 106, still able to recount with precision his memories of his childhood summer home in the barrier beach community of High Hill, which was forced in 1940 to relocate from its original Jones Beach location by the formation of the new Jones Beach State Park.

Fussell tells how the homes were floated down the bay to become what is now known as West Gilgo Beach. When he describes the isolated summer refuges, the rural nature of Babylon before the population boom of mid-century becomes clear--which wasone of Bellone and Cascone's original goals for the project.

"It's easy to find people who remember things from each town post-1950, " Cascone points out. "What's been hard has been finding, say West Babylon or North Babylon residents who lived in those very rural communities before the suburban era."

The project leaders tried hard to find storytellers from each hamlet, however, and one of the videos that Cascone counts as the most interesting took place in North Babylon.

Judge Patrick Henry recalls being a young boy being taken by his father to an old house on Phelps Lane to meet one of the last Union soldiers on Long Island. The man shook his hand and told him that he was shaking a hand that shook Abraham Lincoln's hand.

The oral history table has been a hit with local residents who like to find stories from their particular neighborhoods, said Cascone, and a steady stream of young people have learned about the past through presentations she does in local schools, incorporating the videos.

The project is always looking for additional participants, and especially for people who have any unique memories from before 1950.

Every family that participates gets their own DVD copy of the oral history to keep for their family's legacy. But Cascone thinks the benefit of the oral history project goes beyond the family level.

"If we have a shared community history, it leads to pride in our community."