My wife and I have resided in the same house in Manhasset for 50-plus years.
It is a great place to live and bring up ones children. We have seen our town go through vast changes.
Manhasset is considered to be an upper middle class community. This was then true as well as today. It provides an excellent commute train to Manhattan. Thus it is the residence of many who are employed in Manhattan.
During this period we have seen the number of cars increase drastically. The LIRR parking lot contains about 600 spaces which one of the park commissioners told me that in the 1960s this was sufficient. Most wives were homemakers. Families owned one car. Wives often dropped husbands off at the LIRR thus reducing the parking problem.
Today virtually all families own at least two cars. Families with teen age children often have three or four cars.
There is no practical way to enlarge the parking lot. It has been estimated that it would take nearly 3000 spaces to alleviate the parking problem. Adding to the overall problem is that quite a few wives from beyond Manhasset drop their husbands off at our RR station as it is such a great commute.
Many years ago a multistory parking facility was proposed.
A referendum was conducted which was so soundly defeated that the then North Hempstead Supervisor, May Neuberger, vowed that she would never ever bring that up again.
We have all learned that many solutions may temporarily alleviate a problem but in the longer term actually compound it.
Also 50 years ago no teenager drove a car to school. Today parking is a serious problem at our high school. There are in place some restrictions on teen age parking a the high school.
The next very noticeable difference is in lawn care.
I don’t recall then ever seeing a lawn care maintenance vehicle. Everyone had a power lawnmower and often hedge clippers. We took care of our own lawns.
If one was inclined to, or could not not work, a kid was hired to cut the lawn. Today lawn maintenance vehicles are ubiquitous.
Also Christmas house decorations have mushroomed.
In the “old days” if one was inclined to decorate their home it was done personally. There was a committee from the Historic Onderdonk House (in North Strathmore) that went around the our community just before Christmas and selected the best decorated house. Today decorations are massive, few if any done by the homeowner.
Theodore Theodorsen
Manhasset
