I have known Angelina & Salvatore's grandson Kenny Vitellaro since 1960 when he transferred over to William Floyd High from St. Johns elementary in Center Moriches. In the eleventh grade we were briefly in a dance combo together. He played accordion, and I played guitar along with two other Floyd students Bobby Green and Larry Schulz.
After High School I did not see him until the 1974 when he walked into The Long Island Potato a Westhampton night club that I was performing in.
After that I did not hear from him until one evening in 1997, when he called me here in Nashville,TN totally out of the blue. Since then we have remained in pretty close touch and when I started this Knapps Lived Here project in 2001,I have been a guest at his house in Shirley, Long Island many times. It was during this time that I learned he is the longest continuous Tangier / Mastic Acres / Shirley resident that ever came down the pike and still around to talk about it. In fact he talks so much about it that I have given him the moniker Kenny "Tangier" Vitellaro.
Kenny and his twin sister Gerry were born in "the city" on March 26, 1947. They spent their first few weeks in Brooklyn because there was no electricity yet at their parents home on the dirt road known as Baybright Drive. Today Kenny still lives on the same land his grandparents and parents bought and built their home on in 1947 in Unit 11-A Mastic Acres.
He has graciously supplied me with the documents and family photos you will see on this page.
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Baybright Drive is located on the southern border of the Tangier Smith's , Manor Of St. George property. Once the builders started in hammering they had a visit from Miss Eugenie Smith who was witnessing the first post war home within earshot of her manor to go up. It was at that time she struck up a conversation with Mr. Vitellaro regarding his horse.
Electrical service did not come to the area until late 1949 or 50. Although he was only three or four Kenny has vivid memories of roughing it. "There was a hand pump in our kitchen and we all went to bed pretty early"
Just like they were in the Home Guardian / Smadbeck developments of Mastic & Mastic Beach, Shirley's deed restrictions for Mastic Acres would become illegal by 1952 , but yet were discretely enforced throughout most that decade.
The home in this 1952 ad for Lord Calvert is virtually identical to the one the Vitellaro's had built. The major difference is their garage is located on the right. Kenny's Dad went to work for Walter as a handy man and contractor for Shirley, Long Island Inc. He would leave that job after a few years for one at Brookhaven Lab, before striking out on his own as a general contractor. Here is an interesting anecdote about that ad which appeared in Life Magazine. When Lord Calvert found out that Shirley was a tea toatler they wanted to pull the ad....ever the salesman and spin meister he told them, "Fellas If I Did Drink ... Lord Calvert Would Be My Brand!"
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Besides being a true blue friend and strong supporter of these forays of mine into Mastic Area History, Kenny is very knowledgable and deeply appreciative of the place he has always called home. Through all the name changes real and proposed for his area, he still considers himself a Mastic resident as he should. Because once upon a time before developments, land deeds, patents and all that jazz the original inhabitants just called it Mastic.
You can contact Kenny at KTangier@optonline.net tell him Old Stewball sent ya