Winner of Best Love Story of July

A Tribute to Dr. Seuss and Levittown

He originally thought it was the boots she was wearing the first time he saw her that initially attracted him to her.  But as the years passed, he’s come to realize that it was her beauty, not only that which she still projects on the surface, but more importantly that inner beauty she had and still possesses and shares with the world, a beauty that grows each day they spend together.

She, if you ask her, claims that she actually first became interested in him when she saw him performing in his sixth grade class’s production of The Mikado at Abbey Lane Elementary School, an interest that was rekindled when she saw him one day in the hallway at Wisdom Lane Junior High School.

This past June 29^th Carole Mary Desidero (class of ’64) and Martin Charles Vogt (class of ’62) celebrated their first date for the 49th straight year.  This time, however, they returned to a special Italian restaurant in California they both enjoyed prior to his departure to Vietnam.  But next year, God willing, they intend to return to “the Island” to once again dine at Dick & Dora’s, commemorating the 50 years that have passed since their first date. 

On that first date, they also went to the movies at the Meadowbrook where they enjoyed 3 Coins in the Fountain AND Love is a Many Splendored Thing – yes, believe it or not, an actual double feature.  This part, however, they won’t be able to recreate because they’ve heard that the theater that they once knew is no longer there.

After Marty graduated in ’62, he went away to the University of Bridgeport for a year before coming back to Levittown and transferring to CW Post, where he received his B.A. three years later.  During this time, these two young people from opposite sides of the “track” - Gardiner’s Avenue, to be exact - continued to date, and opposites they were. To begin with, she is for the most part Italian, while he is primarily Irish.  At that time, her actually dating a non-Italian essentially constituted “diversity” in Levittown.

Marty grew up on Acorn Lane, spending most of his time playing ball everyday at the South Village Green with Mike Vollkommer, Gerry O’Reilly, Buddy Saul, Jack Sergi, Bob “Brute” Armstrong, Bobby Bothun and Richie Capria.  At the same time, Carole Mary played and hung around in her Harvest Lane neighborhood with Gloria and Ira Gaffin, Joyce Wiskemann, Bruce Gordon, Jay Goldberg, Steve Ashwal, Kathy McCullough and at school with Pat Parent, Susan Lindquist, and Phyllis Hastings, among many others. 

Growing up, she participated in Brownies, Girl Scouts, chorus, band and student government, continuing these endeavors into junior and senior high school.  He, on the other hand, played Little League baseball, PBC basketball and Red Devil football, also continuing his participation in these sports throughout junior and senior high school.  She worked at Genovese Drugs and attended St. Bernard’s down the street from her house.  He, as might’ve been expected, worked at the South Village Green, his second home, at Abe’s Deli and attended St. James.

So what was it then that would eventually not only bring this Italian girl from Brooklyn and this Irish boy from the Bronx together but also keep them together all these years?  In one word, Levittown.

For the two of them, Levittown would always be home, a place to return.  So, after honeymooning in Bermuda, they went home to Levittown to prepare for Marty’s departure for the Marine Corps a week later—they had actually planned their date of marriage based on his report date to the Corps. 

After he’d left for Quantico, she remained in Levittown at her childhood home, continuing to work and waiting for the opportunity to be able to join him after his completion of Officer Candidate School (OCS).  Once he’d finished OCS, she joined him when he was assigned to The Basic School at Quantico.  Even though Alexandria, Virginia, would essentially be their real first home, Levittown, nevertheless, would still be “home” to them and was listed as Marty’s home of record on his Marine Corps profile.  And so, that’s where they began their married life together, what turned out to be a wonderful journey through life, a long TDY (temporary duty) to use the Marine vernacular. 

Following Dr. Seuss’s advice, “Oh, the places you’ll go,” that’s just what they did - from Levittown to Quantico, Virginia, to Pensacola, Florida, to NAS Glynco in Brunswick, Georgia, to El Toro, California.  And then, when Marty was ready to leave for Vietnam, once again he took Carole back to Levittown to rejoin her parents and to be “home” to bear their first child, one who would be born nine days after he left New York for Vietnam.  (You have to love the Corps!)  Levittown was physically home for six months this time until Carole decided to, with their six-month-old baby daughter, fly back to California in order for her to be with and have the support of other wives of husbands in his squadron who’d also been sent to Vietnam, and to wait there for his return.  And when he did return, Marty, Carole, and now one-year-old baby Toni went home to Levittown once again to spend some time with family before having to report to his next duty station at Cherry Point, North Carolina, where a second daughter, Jaimye, would be born two weeks prior to Marty being honorably discharged from the Marine Corps.

Their original plan had been to move back to Levittown after Marty was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps, but as the saying goes, “Man plans, God laughs.” The Lord had other plans for them, for they still had “places to go.”  And go, they did, this time off to Arizona for Marty to attend graduate school at the University of Arizona (UofA).  Again, the plan was for them to return to Levittown upon his completion of his Master’s program. But alas, Marty, with his M.Ed., was offered a teaching/coaching job in Tucson and shortly thereafter a similar position in Gilbert (near Phoenix); and so, because of their individual successes in their respective fields, days turned into months which soon became years.

And so they stayed in Arizona for 30 years, where Carole worked first for the UofA and then for Arizona State University (ASU).  After leaving Arizona because of health issues, they lived in Pennsylvania, where they’d had a second home for years.  And not to be forgotten was their three-and-a half years in Wisconsin (much too cold there!) after they’d retired.  And sure enough, even now, in retirement, children grown and with grandchildren on two coasts, they are finding they still have “places to go.” 

Wanting to get back in touch with their Levittown roots, in the summer of 2004, Carole and Marty decided once again to return to Long Island; this time, to “take a trip down memory lane.”  They also were going to use this as an opportunity to get together with Marty's brother and his family, who were at the time living in Suffolk County.  (Ironically, Marty’s brother, Charlie, once known at LMHS as Chucky V, class of ’65, is now living with his wife, known when she was a student at Memorial as Barbara Simpson, class of ’66, in Canyon Country, California, about an hour from them.)

Well, Levittown had changed quite a bit since their last visit.  On Acorn Lane, the Vogt house now looked like a toaster and the baseball bat fence was gone.   Even the South Village Green had changed.  Although the pool and bowling alley were still there, apartments had replaced the stores.  On Harvest Lane, the Desis’ famous vegetable garden was gone and many of the neighbors’ houses had experienced significant “facial” reconstruction.  And, of course, LMHS was no longer functioning as a high school but now was the central office for the district.  Even the Wheatley Hills Tavern, the site of their wedding reception, no longer existed. 

And yet, some things had not changed – John and Sally Jones still lived next door on Acorn Lane, Sylvia Gordon still lived across the street on Harvest Lane, and St. Bernard’s Catholic Church and school at the end of Harvest Lane were still thriving.

They like to think that it was their experiences while growing up in Levittown have given them the tenacity to deal with life’s usual challenges - cancer, heart attacks and serious health conditions, along with the ever-present ravages of Vietnam – the PTSD and the effects of Agent Orange that still afflict Marty to this day.  Although they’ve had to face these obstacles like so many others, they realize that in many ways they’ve been especially blessed. They have two wonderful daughters and five wonderful grandchildren, and most of all, they have each other and their shared memories of Levittown.