And we have moved

 If you look at a biography of  Billy Joel, it will tell you that Billy was raised in Hicksville, NY.  But if  you ask  Billy, he will tell you he grew up in Levittown.More properly he grew up in the Levittown section of Hicksville.

Levittown is the quintessential postwar suburban development.  Real  estate developers Levitt & Sons purchased potato fields in what was then Island Trees, NY in order to build a planned suburban community for veterans returning from WW II.  The houses were built assembly-line style on 60 x 100 plots.

There were two house plans.  The 750 sq. ft. cape featured a kitchen at the front of the house, two bedrooms and a bathroom at the back of the house, and the living room off to the side, with a loft above for expansion.  Slab foundation, so no basement, and no garage.  

At 800 sq, ft., the ranch was slightly larger, with the living room at the back of the house and two bedrooms on the side.

(Over the years people have built upwards and outwards, so when Levittown celebrated its 75th anniversary a few years ago, no one could find an original, unaltered Levitt home.)

This being a planned community, the Levitts also included small shopping centers that a housewife could walk to when her husband took the family car to work.  They also added playgrounds, parks and community pools.  (When Billy sings “Do you remember those days hanging out at the  village Green?”  he’s talking about a shopping center and community pool …)

The original houses were built in what’s now known as Levittown, but eventually the Levitts expanded into neighboring communities, including Hicksville.

Why am I telling you this history?

Well,  because until recently Drew lived in Levittown, in a house that was built in 1948 — the first wave of the development.   My apartment in North Wantagh was the converted loft of a Levitt house.

 And now we live in a Levitt house in Hicksville, just a few blocks from the  village Green …