Bethpage-Tribune_1992-01-31

              KTHPAGE PUBLIC LIBRARY
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YOUR OFFICIAL HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER
Serving Bethpage, Island Trees, Plainedge, Seaford, Old Bethpage and Plainview
VOL 25 NO. 12 January 31 -February 6, 1992 25 CENTS
OUR 'JANES 3
The "Janes Who Made The Planes" are (standing L-R) Dorothy Nelson
Rabis, Janet Nohejt McGaughran, Lucille Bonagura Saccarechhia,
Alyce Armstrong Foote, Edith Nicholson and Margaret Cava Carvo.
They were stateside heroines of
World War i! ~ and a popular song
of the day paid tribute to them as
"The Janes Who Made The
Planes." A new exhibit at the New
York state Museum in Albany
shows what their lives were really
like.
With so many men called away
to active duty, women joined the
work force in earnest and by 1945,
there were a total of 19 million
working women nationwide.
Grumman employed close to
8,000 women at the height of the
war, of a total population of 25,000.
"Working at Grumman was the
most challenging and responsible
job I've ever had," says Edith
Nicholson of Plainview, L.I., who
left a job as a legal stenographer
in 1942 to work for Grumman.
Nicholson is one of nine women
all former Grumman employees
who attended the recent opening
of the new exhibit — which
includes historic photographs, a
rebuilt wing from an actual F4F
Wildcat, oral accounts from woen
workers, clothing, tools, and other
items of historical significance.
Hiring women was pure busi­ness
for Grumman, which desper­ately
needed workers to build
Avengers, Wildcats and Hellcats.
To attract as many women as
quickly as possible. Grumman
offered a generous wage, free 10-
week training course, child care,
and an errand service.
A typical work day ran from
eight in the morning until six at
night, five and a half days a week.
The work often was difficult and
repetitious. Grumman manage­ment
provided such morale boos­ters
as team sports and even
appearances by popular
entertainers.
"When I brought ^(me my first
paycheck, $42, I feff'like a milli­onaire,"
recalls Dorothy Rabis of
Bethpage, L.I. "But more impor­tant,
we wanted to help America
win the war."
Rabis was Dorothy Nelson In
those days, a single mother who
had to hire babysitters because
she didn't live near any of the four
company nurseries. Child care
became a constant headache, and
she quit working after she married
coworker Richard Rabis in 1944.
The common goal of cr^.eeting a
monthly quota tended to make for
mutual respect between the sexes
— with whistling the worst form of
iOmtimmi on pi^e H)
GRUMMAN OPTS
TO SELL LAND
Buyer to Construct CMUtreu Developmental Center
With many Bethpage residents
eager to hear about the status of
plans submitted by the Grumman
Corporation in regards to the
proposed Sterling Center Project,
the aerospace corporation
announced its plans to sell its land
which is located on South Oyster
Bay Road, near Merry Oldsmobile.
The five acre plot will be home to
two 20,000 square foot buildings,
one which will be used as an
administration building and the
other as a school for a Children's
Development Center.
The Development Center will
not have any live-in facilities, thus
all children will be bused in and
bused home. This project will be
a new construction and will con­sist
of 2 one story tali buildings
which will occupy 2.6 acres.
The construction of this school
could mean the avaiiabiiity of
some staffing positions at the
center and obviously construction
crews which in turn can generate
business. The one drawback,
however, is that this facility will be
BEWARE OF
SOLICITATIONS
tax-emempt and thus will not be
entered on the tax rolls.
Representatives for Grumman
have also assured the surrounding
community, which is not strictly ^
residential, that the building will
be quite attractive and will have
landscaping suitable for the area.
In the matter of the proposed
Sterling Center Project, i have
been informed that as of yet,
Grumman's has submitted all their
required studies to the Town of
Oyster Bay, who in turn is sche­duled
to discuss the findings by
the end of this month. Right now,
the ball seems to be in the Town's
court. No plans have yet been
made to begin construction and it
was said that all the suitors for the
proposed office part have gone by
the waste side.
Look for more information as it
unfolds in future issues of the
Tribune. We certainly will keep
you informed as to what is being
done in regards to this venture as
weil as any other undertakings by
the corporation.
Someone in the Bethpage area
is soliciting funds and stating that
they are representatives of the
VFW in Bethpage and are collect­ing
for a fundraising drive...NOT
TRUE-
! spoke with Vito DeStefano of
the VFW Butehorn Brothers Post
4987 and he informed me that no
one from the Bethpage VFW is
soliciting funds and that he does
not think that anyone from the
county Is soliciting funds either.
We are writing this to make sure
that if you do have someone enter
your store for the above menti­oned
purpose or any other fun­draiser
please do not donate
unless they show you identifica­tion.
No VFW fund raiser, is under
way and your money will not be
for the VFW or any of the many
worthwhile projects they sponsor
during the year. If you suspect
fraud please contact the Eighth
Precinct so that these individuals
or individual is stopped.
See Our New Communis Cmlemdmr
I On Page 3
For Upcoming Epemts mmdMeetirngs