Lito remembers his Nana part 1
Nanna’s house Part 1. My father’s mother, my paternal grandmother, was Nanna. Nanna’s true name was Irene Henrietta Zoeller born from solid German stock at Brooklyn New York City on April 6th 1900. When I would ask Nanna how old she consistently replied “I’m as old as the year.” (like Nanna was 54 in 1954 the year I was born). Nanna lived in a two storey wood frame suburban house at 16 McKinley Avenue in Hicksville, Nassau County, Long Island, New York. The home had a basement with a coal chute to receive coal deliveries used to feed the furnace for space heating. Hicksville, New York was founded by and named after Valentine Hicks (1782–1850), a Quaker businessman and son-in-law of Elias Hicks. Valentine was a key figure in the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and he established the village of Hicksville when the railroad arrived in 1837. Hicksville is adjacent to Levittown where I grew up. It was only after moving away from NY did I find that use of the term “Hicksville” meant a bo...