________________ OYSTER BAY _______________
HERALD Senior center honors veterans
New leadership at True Life
What’s going on with the ferry?
Page 3
Page 4
Page 7
VOL. 124 NO. 48
NOVEMBER 25 - DECEMBER 1, 2022
$1.00
A history of giving thanks The story of Thanksgiving in the hamlet of Oyster Bay God for a bountiful harvest, a military victory or a similarly momentous event. T h a n k s g iv i n g , l i ke t h e Similar religious celebrations Fourth of July, is a distinctly likely occurred in Oyster Bay American holiday, although throughout its early history, there are similar celebrations in although there is no written evineighboring Canadence of this. The da and other counfirst of ficially tries, and the citirecorded public zens of Oyster Bay “thanksgiving celehave taken part in bration” in New this tradition nearYork occurred in ly as long as there 1759, as noted in have been resithe diary of Oyster dents in the hamBay schoolmaster let. It is part of a Zachariah Weekes. tradition dating to According to before the creation H a r r i e t C l a rk , of the United director of RaynStates, of giving ham Hall Museum thanks and apprein Oyster Bay, local c i at i o n fo r t h e historian Claire bounty the coun- THEODORE Bellerjeau discovtry provides and ROOSEVELT ered that Weekes’s the families and diary mentioned friends who come that Nov. 25 had together to share it. been declared a day of public Everyone knows the famous thanksgiving by the British govstory of the “first Thanksgiving” ernor of the New York Colony. in 1621, involving the Pilgrims Weekes wrote that this was to and the Wampanoag people of celebrate a British military vicwhat is now Massachusetts. Pub- tory, most likely the conquest of lic celebrations of thanks were Canada, which had been ruled already a well-established prac- by France, during the French tice in Puritan England, whose and Indian War only a few citizens would feast and thank CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
By WILL SHEELINE wsheeline@liherald.com
T
Courtesy Doerge family
PENNY DOERGE ENJOYED a day at the beach in Boca Grande, Florida, in 2021. Described as an ‘angel’ and someone who only saw the positive, her death leaves behind many who will miss her.
Medical issues never defined Penny Doerge’s short life By LAURA LANE llane@liherald.com
S
t. John’s of Lattingtown Episcopal Church’s Sunday school creates an Easter egg hunt for residents of the Glen Cove Housing Authority’s Glen Gardens every year. The children hide plastic eggs filled with candy on Mason Drive, behind bushes and trees. Last year, Penny Doerge saw an opportunity to do more. She created what Courtney Cal-
lahan called an art installation when she placed her plastic eggs and a stuffed bunny into the crevices of an unsightly 4-foot crumbling brick pillar. “To Penny, that brick was like a canvas,” explained Callahan, the director of children’s ministry and outreach at St. John’s. “The most amazing thing was Penny felt the cracks were full of beauty. The crumbling wall wasn’t like — this is how public housing is. Penny didn’t see it that way.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
he things of the body are good; the things of the intellect better; the best of all are the things of the soul.