Vanderbilt Cup Races

In the spring of 1983 I was 16 years old and got a job as a busboy in Wheatley Hill Golf Club.  I saw old maps there leading the parkway south over Hillside Ave.  The next Sunday morning, I went to church early, and set out on my bicycle following the parkway and the power lines south.  From the south I saw the LIRR bridge.  I went around and approached it from the north.  I climbed dangerously out on a barbed wire ledge from the parking lot of 1 Old Country Rd.  Down under powerlines through brush to the base of the bridge.  I climbed the side wall from the north end.  I remember my knee was scraped and bloddy.  As soon as I stood on the bridge I swore it swayed.  So to test my theory I jump up high and let myself stomp down.  No doubt, that bridge moved.  Unlike the LIRR LIMP bridge in Albertson which was 100% solid.  I remember the steel side walls of the bridge being lower that Albertson.  In Albertson I could lean against the side, and my center of gravity was far below the steel side walls.  Here, I was too afraid to even go near the edge.  The were pot holes where I could look down and see rebar.  My clearest memory was the south side.  The motor parkway and the cement sidewalk (as I used to call them as a kid) extended off the bridge, but the land underneath was gone.  So the roadway was just hanging there.  The blacktop part had seperated from the sidewalk.  The sidewalks extending further away from the bridge than the road part, before sagging with gravity.  A train was approaching from the east.  As it came close, the conductor or that trains eyes and mine locked, until he disappeared under me.  The entire brigde shook.  I did not have to be a genius to know I was in a place that was unsafe.  I climbed down, made it back to my bicycle, and headed home.  I remember I stopped by the bridge in Albertson on the way home.
About two weeks later, my dad and I were in the car as my mom was shopping in the center just oppostie Voice Rd on the eastern side of Glen Cove Road.  I told my dad to take a ride, I wanted to show him something.  We drove down Voice Road, back behind the building at the far northern end of Voice Road to where we could see the bridge.  There was a work crew taking it down.  I used to joke with friends that I was probably the last person to climb on that bridge before it was dismantled. 
Thanks to you and Ron for the pictures. 
Your Fan
-joe o

From From the Ron Ridolph Collection- Demolition of the Mineola LIRR Motor Parkway Bridge

Hi Gene:

Thanks for the positive feedback!

Stay cool!

Howard

From Garden City Patch: Article & Video "Black Beast Wins Indy 500 ... Sort Of...100 Years Later"

Hi Walt:

Thanks for the information!

Howard

From In Search of Alcos: The Missing Alcos Last Seen In California

HOWARD, THAT WAS GREAT I WATCHED IT WHEN TO FIRST SENT IT AND JUST WATCHED IT AGAIN TODAY. i WILL HAVE TO FORWARD IT TO ALL MY FRIENDS
THANKS
GENE

From Garden City Patch: Article & Video "Black Beast Wins Indy 500 ... Sort Of...100 Years Later"

Howard…just wondering…

can I change my e mail contact to

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

so much easier to share then with my son gram. He looks forward to your signature on his !ndy 500 program. We watch the winning lap endlessly. Priceless experience…the car…the lap…your excitment…

From Update #4: Damage to the Old Bethpage Village Restoration Motor Parkway Bridge

There is a lot of sage advice in the article, particularly when it comes to how long it takes to restore a car and about “doing your homework/research”, being patient to buy a car and restore one, and not letting your ego over ride your brain. 
The value mentioned for the yellow 1934 Packard is more then optimistic to say the least, if anyone would pay that for it then there is a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell to them as well.

From Images from the Milhous Collection and Tips on Car Collecting

Hi Howard,  I guess you know the Joel Naive car is the car that is on L. I. now with rear doors added.  Walter

From In Search of Alcos: The Missing Alcos Last Seen In California

Having been a resident of East Hills for 40 years, now residing in Estates 1, Manhasset, was nice to see you and Mayor Koblenz
driving old no. 8!  Keep touring and showing, your joy!
Robert Levine

From The Black Beast Celebrates the 4th of July in East Hills

Good morning Joey,
With apologies for missing yours of the 20th February this year but I had a “mis-hap” in my apartment which has since laid me quite low as they say.
That said, you are correct, travelling on the LIMP you would have crosed Broad Hollow Road, continuing Eastward over the Ruland Road bridge, then over the confluence of Pinelawn Road which continued in an Eastwardly direction parallel to Colonial Springs Road (no marked by LILCO poles on a Google map houdse between Colonial Springs Pinelawn Roads, with the first house in from the corner previously belonoing to our former Commission of Elections, Robert Hairston.
As I am now running out of space, the question that I have is:  how does this septuagenarian’s memory (74 years of age) compare with yours… Fotos are always helpful; especially, any dealing with the Cross-Island Trolley line at or about Ruland Road, which would put that then at St. Rose Industrial Home for Girls, with the same Religious nuns in Farmingdale operating the Nazareth Trade School for Boys which remained opened till well into WW2.
Cordially, Edith
Edith Patricia Klarmann

From A Favorite Website: Long Island Ruins & Remnants

Wow 130 golf courses, 400 miles of beach, thirty wineries & 60 vineyards. This all sounds great but the place where motorsports started in America now boast 1 facility where there were once 40, a museum of L.I.‘s motorsports history rusts away outdoors because it can’t find a home. Thank you Howard Kroplick for doing your part to preserve our past. We at LIDragRacing.com seek to work with anyone willing to help solve the lack of a safe legal option to those that race on the streets and to our motorsports community at large. We have the people willing to do this, we just need a community to agree to where. We seek an answer as to where or why not, it’s all we ask.

From Press Conference: “Long Island: The World’s Largest Resort” Interactive Exhibit

Hi Walt:

The Cradle of Aviation Cruises start on July 7th:

http://www.cradleofaviation.org/car_meets/Welcome.html

Howard

From 2019 Long Island Cruises (Updated: July 26, 2019)

Hi Howard
A friend went over to the Cradle of Aviation for the cruise on June 30, last night,at 8pm, and no one was there. Has this ended?

From 2019 Long Island Cruises (Updated: July 26, 2019)

Does anyone know if Barney Oldfield had a riding mechanic when he broke the 100 mph record at IMS and, if so, who it was? I’ve been told it was my late grandfather Eugene Taylor.

From Saturday Request: Information on the Christie Racers from Barney Oldfield's Great-Great -Nephew

I’ve long admired Mr Helck’s work, first shown to me by my grandfather in the 1940’s.  His painting of the old race cars especialy caught my eye, and I could pick them out in many areas.  One question has been on my mind for years—I grew up in Columbia county NY, and met a delightful kid at the Taconic state park swimming area.  Her name was Bernice and I was told by someone that she was Peter’s granddaughter.  We had fun in those short times and I’e thought of those days often.  Could I have been wrong or does such a person really exist?

From A Tribute to Peter Helck (1893-1988), the Great American Artist

Hi Gerry & Greg:
Thanks for the comments.

Welcome to the Long Island Motor Preservation Society!

Howard

From First Meeting of the Long Island Motor Parkway Preservation Society

I sure hope the sidelights are not gasoline! Manny is a good guy, and real collector.

From Providence Journal: "Rehoboth’s Manny Souza's Alco got a piece of the 500"

Howard, this is wonderful!  I just finished a painting for the 2011 Dayton Ohio Concours poster, in the painting is the #32 Marmom Wasp with Ray Harroun.  Also a 1911 Cadillac with Charles Kettering and Edward Deeds, Daton residents who invented the electric ignition (tested in a 1911 Cadillac).  The theme of the poster is a celebration of these events 100 years ago.  I will send you a photo.  Best wishes, Chris Osborne

From In the Indy Formula One Garage and On the Track: The Marmon Wasp that Won the 1911 Indy 500

Congrats Howard!
  The “Beast” deserved this after the unfortunate problems back in 1911. This time the ALCO came in ahead of the “Marmon Wasp”
  You will be getting the centerfold of the GEAA Gazette this coming month.
Your Fan,
Rick A. Jorgensen
Editor & Founder of GEAA

From Newsday: "Vintage race cars celebrated at Indy 500"

Perhaps some county owned land within the Motor Parkway right of way could be set aside by Nassau County as a county park named after William K. Vanderbilt, Jr.  That would also be a fitting memorial for both the Motor Parkway and Mr. Vanderbilt.

From First Meeting of the Long Island Motor Parkway Preservation Society

If the plot of land on the western shore of Lake Ronkonkoma that was the eastern terminus of the Motor Parkway is still owned by Suffolk County I would like to see that plot become a county park named after William K. Vanderbilt, Jr.  That would be a fitting memorial for both the Motor Parkway and Mr. Vanderbilt himself.

From First Meeting of the Long Island Motor Parkway Preservation Society