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Arts & Entertainment

Frank Lazzaro, A "diamond in the rough" living on Harvest Lane

He's just an ordinary all American Army Viet Nam Era Veteran living "laid-back style" on Levittown's  lovely Harvest Lane for over ten years.  He's friendly to all his neighbors who crosses his pathway on one of his daily walks to his day job as an activity coach for young people with special needs, or just shopping around in town. You can find him in the neighborhood Gym or on Sundays as an usher at St. Bernard's Church. This is the simple lifestyle pleasure  of someone living with just the basics, with no private transportation except the simple pleasures of riding a taxi, bus, train, rented car or a friend or stranger offering him a friendly lift to go somewhere. Frugal living? somewhat, more of a budget conscience senior living in this very fast high debt society.  That said, there is another side to this unique man in his early sixties that makes him a

"diamond in the rough"

. He once rubbed elbows with three Presidents, dined at the White House hundreds of times, lunched with First Ladies, met celebrities of that era and was ten feet from the Queen of England at The White House Bicentennial Celebration.  He's no other than Frank Lazzaro of Harvest Lane in Levittown, the former White House Christmas and State Dinner Floral Decorator during the Ford, Carter and Reagan Administrations. It took his surrounding neighbors more than five years to know who this quiet, unique gentleman carrying a  backpack and wearing a hooded sweater and army cap really was. How he got there at age 23 is amazing and told in his award winning online ebook at Frank Lazzaro. com - Today he is as active as ever and more popular among the people, young and old of Long Island than ever before with his Library and Senior Organizations Seminars talking about his experiences at The White House during the 1970's and 1980's. His Library seminars has sky-rocketed to fame in just a few years by also giving a tour with photographs from the White House Curator's Office. As for retirement, Mr. Lazzaro says, "There's no such thing as retirement in my life, this seminar vocation is my vacation and until I leave this world for the next, I will be presenting my White House years of recognition in floral designing,  to audiences all over New York, large and small. I love it so!

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