I think the first time I ever met him was on the front lawn of our house on Elm Road about 1952. My brother Butch had got pretty sick with the measles and although Doc Calabro was not our regular family physician (Dr. Remy in Center Moriches was) he may of been the only one around that made house calls. He came rolling up in a huge black early '50's Buick. When he got out he looked like the most authorative figure I ever met, in his grey pinstriped suit and black bag. ( at 6 years old I didn't even know what the word authorative meant, but Doc sure looked important) He said hello to me, asked how I was and went inside to check out my brother. I stayed outside and thoroughly checked out his Buick. The grille was like a silver dollar grin. When he came back out he told me my brother was going to be fine, but for me not to play with him for a few days or he might have to "come back to give me a shot"

Well I ducked Doc's shot that time. He didn't have to come back for me then, but a year or so later, one very early morning around 3 or 4 he returned our house again. This time it was for me. I had been up up most of the night with an awful earache. He came upstairs to my sleeping loft and it turned out I had an abscess. I got a shot of penicillin! I can still see him filling his needle in the darkened room ZAP .....OUCH! I got better in a day.

One Sunday afternoon in 1954, Kenny Vitellaro was playing baseball at his house on Baybright Dr. As he ran into the weeds chasing the ball he stepped on a broken bottle. His father Dan immediately realized that it was not a minor cut. They took him to Bayview and Doc realized that it was not minor cut too. Kenny's tendon was severed. Doc decided to call Doctor Remy in to do the surgery as Remy a recent immigrant from Germany, had extensive surgery experience from the German Army during WWII. Kenny got to spend a whole week in the Bayview mansion.

Doc liked kids....and kids knew it. He even had a "beautiful baby pageant" on the front lawn of the hospital in the early '50's. A few years later another kid would spend a week at Doc's place while the entire world watched. His name was Benny Hooper. In May of 1957 Benny was just a second grader in Manorville (a farm town about ten miles from Mastic Beach) playing in his backyard with his pal Michael. His father had just dug a new well and Benny tried to jump over it. He didn't make it. He wound up stuck 20 feet down in a narrow shaft that was threatning to cave in at any time. The story captivated the entire nation as 200 people worked against all odds for 24 hours to get him out. They had to dig a seperate hole and then tunnel over to where they thought he was. By then the media of the world were camped out en mass at the rescue scene When they did pull him from the well, they rushed him to Bayview Hospital where he spent a week or so recuperating and the media followed covering his daily progress. Kenny Vitellaro who was around ten back then recalls riding his bike over to see Benny and he came to the window and waved. "He was in the same room that I was when I cut my foot"

Gary Messinetti recalls the incident vividly too, as Benny got well (no pun intended) in Gary's back yard. "There was a knock at our door and a very polite man asked if he could use our phone. My mothers face lit up! It was the Reverend Billy Graham, who had come to town pray for Benny ".

I remember that they got him out the Friday night that we went to the brand new Howard Johnson's in Shirley. My mother and sister both worked there and the boy stuck in the well was all the talk all through the restaurant. A week or so later Ed Sullivan had Benny on his Sunday night show. He was a celebrity of sorts for awhile, but I understand Hooper who still lives on Long Island does not want to even talk about it to anyone today. Here are but a few of the clippings (the coverage was huge) from the New York Times from May of 1957 .