‘I was excited when her son was born. I cried when her husband died. I feel like she’s my best friend.’

Hauppauge

“I live in Hauppauge but grew up in Commack after moving there in 1957 at age 5, when it was nothing but cabbage farms. When I was a fifth-grader, my older sister was given a pen pal project in school. And if you have an older sister, you know you have to do what she does, so she asked her teacher to give me a name to contact, and he did. Her name is Betty, and she’s from the London suburbs. We started writing each other, and 60 years later we’re still doing it!

I feel like she’s my best friend. It’s truly one of the treasures in my life.

“I’ve moved around, but no matter where I lived, we stayed in touch, writing each other 5, 6, 7, 8 times a year. Her son just set her up with an email address this year, but before that, we’ve literally written each other letters. She’s had an influence on me as she provides a viewpoint of this country from an outside perspective. It’s so interesting to see how other people look at this country. I have an unbelievable letter she sent me after the 9/11 attacks, an outpouring of love for the American people.

“We’ve met twice, both times over there: when I was in college in 1971, and again in 2012 when we both turned 60. Her son is trying to arrange a trip for her to come here this year. I recently got an email from him, and he told me she cherishes our friendship. I feel the same way. I was excited when her son was born. I cried when her husband died. I feel like she’s my best friend. It’s truly one of the treasures in my life.

“She wrote me in May to celebrate our 60th anniversary of writing each other, and it had this poem”:

For 60 years we’ve both written, ever since we were both 10;
   letters sent out to the States, and those written back again.
We tell of all life’s ups and downs, our sadness and our pain;
   and we write about the good times, and when the sun came out again.
We write of summer holidays, and all the things we’ve done;
   places that we’ve been to, and how we had such fun.
And now we email letters, it’s spontaneous and new;
   immediate conversation to say what we’ve been through.
We’re friends across the ocean, close yet miles apart;
   and every word we’ve written comes right from the heart.
It’s good to have a pen friend who is forever dear;

Interviewed by Ian J. Stark

‘I’m jokingly known as the guitar-playing chef.’

Huntington Station

“I began as a dishwasher and busboy making money so I could go out with friends. I kept at it and moved up the ranks. I was working as a waiter at Carlyle on the Green when I complained about how the kitchen needed more organization and systematic approaches. The owner liked it, so he made me a kitchen manager. It was a great learning experience.

Life’s a pendulum. You go back and forth, and somewhere in the middle is where you find happiness.

“One day, my friend said they needed someone at the restaurant where he worked because a cook had quit; they needed someone on the line. I did it and loved it, which led me to the culinary side. Then I became a kitchen manager at the New Hyde Park Inn. I was always going back and forth with types of kitchen jobs. It’s a brutal industry, but it’s also the most rewarding because you get to pursue your passion and creativity. I decided I wanted to move to something more sustainable so I’d have free time. I was playing the guitar alone at night because my schedule didn’t allow me to be in a band. I took on temp work at Northwell Health and worked as hard as I could. Within a month, they offered me a full-time job as a chef!

“I was finally able to play with other musicians. My friends and I started a band called Sound Creation Station. We play psychedelic rock and jazz/funk/fusion. It’s great that I can pursue both cooking and music. I think everybody’s purpose in this world is to create something positive. I love that I get to do that with food and help people in the hospital. The best part of the day for somebody recovering is when they get something that’s nutritious and looks beautiful.

“Playing music helps people find understanding and meaning. I’m jokingly known as the guitar-playing chef. I get right out of work and onstage, often around the corner from Huntington Hospital. I’ll be wearing my chef coat while I play bass guitar. It used to be difficult for me to accept failure, but it’s a critical part of learning. You have to fall before you can rise. Haters are your best critics. Take what they’re saying, try to better yourself and find something you can’t wait to do each day. I’m always excited to go to work. Life’s a pendulum. You go back and forth, and somewhere in the middle is where you find happiness.”

Interviewed by Iris Wiener

‘Making a career in the arts took a few detours.’

Great Neck

“Deep down, I had always wanted to be involved with the arts – particularly arts education – because my education in the arts was so integral in shaping me into the person I am today.

“As a child, I performed in hundreds of shows each year in New York City, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and once even on TV for the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Making a career in the arts took a few detours.

I was lucky enough to find the Gold Coast Arts Center.

“First, I worked in a large corporate law firm and then moved in-house to a publishing company. The reason I made this move was because the schedule was much more predictable and would allow me to pursue what I really wanted, becoming a cabaret singer!

“I stayed in publishing — and kept singing — for many years, had my first child, moved to Long Island, had my second child, and eventually got tired of the commute and wanted to be closer to home.

“While my goal wasn’t necessarily to get into film — my true loves are theater and music — I did know that I wanted to be involved in the arts, and ideally non-profit arts, where I could work to help provide arts opportunities like the ones I had as a child to children of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.

“I was lucky enough to find the Gold Coast Arts Center, which did just that through its school for the arts, outreach programs, and lots of other great programs for children and adults.

“Working in an organization with a small staff ensures that you get exposed to a lot of things, one of which was Gold Coast’s year-round film screening and discussion series.

“Being associated with these series made me realize the importance of film as an art form – and how much more accessible and less intimidating it could be to people than other art forms. I teamed up with our executive director to start the Gold Coast International Film Festival, which launched in 2011.

“While I am the associate director of the arts center as a whole, and work on almost everything we do, I have also been director of the film festival for the past several years, where we’ve welcomed hundreds of special guests. Among the most memorable: actor Hugh Grant, with whom I shared pizza and movie theater hotdogs! I’m glad I made the move to the arts!”

‘After 12th grade, we were still in bands and playing the clubs in Hempstead.’

Lattingtown

“When we started at West Hempstead High School, the first time we went into the school they were having auditions for the seventh-grade dance. You walk into the school and all along the walls were guitar cases and amps. It was a literal rock and roll high school. So many bands started at that school, and every year they would have these amazing talent shows. It was like an early version of ‘America’s Got Talent.’

“To give you an idea of how inspired we were, because the both of us have always loved music since we were very, very young, we immediately planned to start a band to audition for the talent show. And we wound up winning our first one by doing ‘Good Lovin’’ from the Rascals. Then weeks after the talent show, people would come up to us to tell us they heard our song on the radio. We had to tell them, ‘Not our record.’

Leslie took his guitar, went out there and smashed him in the head with it.

“In the early days, we used to play at Danny Mazur’s club, My House, in Plainview. The first time we ever played there we were opening up for the Hassles, who Danny managed, and that’s when Billy Joel would do this thing where he’d spin his head like a top. But we wound up having to go downstairs in the club. We were young; our father used to drive us to gigs. So we went downstairs, and there was this beautiful pool down there. But around the pool were all these beds and lighting. And we’re looking around like, ‘Why are there beds?’ Turned out they were doing porn down there! Our father was talking to Danny Mazur, who was explaining it all to him, and we went ‘What kind of movies, dad?’ And he was like, ‘Never mind!’

“Back in the late ’60s, there were all these college mixers on Long Beach at all the beach clubs. There was one night when we were opening up for the Vagrants, and somebody threw a bottle at our drummer. He started bleeding, and we had to stop the show. So Leslie West said to us, ‘Who did that?’ And we pointed to these three guys, including this big dude with blond hair who threw it. Leslie took his guitar, went out there and smashed him in the head with it.

“After 12th grade, we were still in bands and playing the clubs in Hempstead. Our high school asked us to be the special act for the talent show, which was really cool ’cause in the beginning, we won the talent show and now we wound up being the special guest.”

Interviewed by Ron Hart

‘I was raised in a home filled with art and beautiful colored glass objects. Beauty was everywhere exalted.’

East Meadow

“I grew up in East Meadow, and I consider where I grew up as my spot in the world. I was raised in a home filled with art and beautiful colored glass objects. Beauty was everywhere exalted. My mother transformed spaces with her creations. Even the mermaids she’d sculpt on Jones Beach were spectacular.

“Always an artist and writer, my mother Betty preferred figurative work, versus my preference for abstract. She was a ‘humanist expressionist.’ I was blessed with two creative, erudite, accomplished parents as my role models. Mom took me to every museum and gallery exhibition and gave me an art history education.

“When I went to Vassar for my undergraduate degree, I took art history and studio art courses. Mom was always urging me to pursue art and would enter my work in art shows — without my knowledge — and then announce to me that I won an award or was accepted in a show, including at the Firehouse Gallery, where only adults were supposed to be accepted. We exhibited together in Greenwich Village at Le Figaro Café while she was also showing at a gallery in SoHo.

I am currently a member of Huntington’s B.J. Spoke Gallery and represented by the West Hempstead Sunflower Fine Art Galleries.

“I attended the Art Students League in NYC with her as a teenager, and she asked Marshall Glasier what he thought of my potential, and he said that there was no limit to what I could achieve.

“At the age of 80, Mom’s health began to decline. She suffered through a house fire, a major car accident, open heart surgery, major dental infection, rheumatoid arthritis and then a vascular neurological disease. I took charge of Mom’s care, and that included hiring a licensed and recommended art therapist to help her express herself. I took up painting again after 25 years.

“Four years later, I won two national awards and have since built up a reputation as an exciting and accomplished original fine abstract artist on Long Island, and nationally, even winning awards in international juried exhibitions.

“I am currently a member of Huntington’s B.J. Spoke Gallery and represented by the West Hempstead Sunflower Fine Art Galleries. I have been a copywriter and marketing communications director and briefly a high school teacher and adjunct professor, and now I am happiest as an artist … My mother was right!”

Interviewed by Meagan Meehan

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