Michael D'Amico:  

The photo is of me, my wife Luci, and my 17-Year old daughter Madeline in West Melbourne, Florida. My Story: The first time I met some of my CHSS classmates was at Long Acers Grammar school in 1967. I remember Mark Pizzolato, Danny Forth, Candy LiCausi, Steve Dworkin, Steve Bassett, Jim Harnish, Laurie Greenfield, Karen Detrict, and Awilda Hernandez were in my 6th grade class. Our teachers were Mr. Shats and Mr. Pine (Mr. Shats left mid year; Pine took over). Mark Pizzolato remained my best friend for years, but we lost touch when he went to Commack North, and I went to Commack South. I went on to J.F.K. Junior High School and that's where I was friends with classmates Steve Andriani, Danny Forth, Richard Spinos, and Joe Bunura (many more, but can't remember them all right now). Steve Andriani, a friend who I stayed in contact with (until his unfortunate death in 2014) was responsible for getting me interested in listening to music, which, in time, turned out to be one of my favorite hobbies. I remember being interested in learning the details of how to make sound recordings using a reel to reel tape recorder. My God Father gave me the used "Wilcox Gay" tape recorder when I was about 13 years old, so I figured I should learn to use it. I asked Steve, who road with me on the bus to J.F.K. one day, if he had the 45 record "Dizzy" which I used as a subject for my first music recording. Steve lent me the record, and then came over one day with about four albums of his. We then recorded all of the albums on the reel to reel tape. It was during these many hours we spent together recording that music where I actually took a liking to actually "listening to music". Before this I had very little interest in playing music on a stereo! In fact, I didn't even own a real "stereo" prior to this; only the reel to reel which had its own internal speakers. When my dad learned I wanted to play records, he gave me some old "tube" amplifiers he built and a Gerrard turn table. We wired it all up in a used stereo cabinet I found and that became my first stereo. Steve and I must have spent hundreds of hours playing records on it down stairs in my basement. BTW, Steve introduced me to the music of Elton John, who's songs I now love to sing to. I also sing them when doing Karaoke once in a while; my wife and I both use to sing karaoke together. Another band Steve introduced me to was "America", when he bought me the album "Horse with no name" for my 18th birthday. Ricky Spinos, another friend of mine who I knew at Long Acers, J.F.K, CHSS, and the Boy Scouts, taught me how to play guitar. I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to tell him how much I appreciated the favor. When I went into the Air Force later on in life, playing my guitar turned out to be a real benefit when it came to making friends and being popular. I remember the first song Richard tried to teach me how to play was Secret Agent Man. My second song, which I liked more, was Proud Mary. I still play guitar once in a while, but with me now being retired I have many other hobbies and ways to keep me busy. The Rock songs I like to play are songs like "Wild Horses", "Heart of Gold", "Behind Blue Eyes", and Tequila Sunrise, ECT. When I went on the Commack High School South, it was a big shock to me because the seniors actually looked like adults, though some of them were still pretty much goofy, mean, and immature. I could remember on one of my first days at CHSS, a guy named Ken Plete asked me to borrow a book of mine for a few minutes while we were hanging out in the "Dial Access" or "AV Room" in the Library (I joined the AV Squad). I...Expand for more