Gloria Agnes Giannola, of Port Jefferson, died on Oct. 19, 2021. She was 88.
Born in Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, NY on July 15, 1933 to Michael and Domenica (Sunday) Postiglione.
Gloria Agnes Giannola
Gloria attended Grover Cleveland High School, 1951, where she was a member of the Arista National Honor Society. She then attended Queens College and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1955, a year before “open enrollment” was instituted. Gloria worked for New York Life Insurance Company.
Gloria moved to Port Jefferson in 1966, to enroll her children Maria and Jack at the elementary school — specifically for Edna Louis Spear’s teaching methods. Gloria devoted her life to her family and home. She taught Confraternity of Christian Doctrine at Infant Jesus School as well as acting as troop leader for the Girls Scouts of Port Jefferson.
She was also an excellent cook, with neighbors coming over especially for her eggplant dishes. Gloria was strong, funny, wise in advice and kind. She was well loved by many and lived a full life with her roots in Port Jefferson.
Affectionately known as “Mama G” and “Nonna,” she is survived by her children Maria and Jack, her beloved granddaughter Nicolina, grandsons Tyler and Rocco, and by many loving nieces and nephews.
Arrangements for a private family service were entrusted to the Branch Funeral Home in Miller Place.
The historic Drowned Meadow Cottage Museum is open to the public. Photo by Wenhao Ma
*Please note this event has been postponed. Details to come.
Celebrating Our History
Join the Drowned Meadow Cottage Museum at the corner of West Broadway and Barnum Avenue, Port Jefferson for a Fall Heritage Festival on Saturday, Nov. 13 from noon to 4 p.m.
Bring your family for a walk through Revolutionary times with docent led tours through the home of Culper Spy Phillips Roe and taste slow cooked foods from historic recipes. Enjoy a wampum making demonstration, time period vendors, colonial story hour and an unveiling of new spy ring evidence. Free. Rain date is Nov. 14. Sponsored by the Village of Port Jefferson.
It’s the season of giving! Theatre Three and the Knights of Columbus Joan of Arc Council 1992 are teaming up this year to host a Thanksgiving Food Drive for the food pantry at Infant Jesus Church in Port Jefferson on Sunday, Nov. 14 from 9 a.m. to noon.
Please help those who are less fortunate enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with their loved ones.
The pantry is in need of stuffing, gravy, yams, cranberry sauce, certificates for turkeys, pies, sugar, Maseca corn flour, cooking oil, peanut butter, ketchup, mayonnaise, coffee, hot chocolate, rice (1# and 2# bags/boxes) canned fruit and healthy snacks.
Baby items are needed including diapers size 6, baby shampoo, baby wipes, baby powder, Desitin and lotion. Toiletries are also in low supply including shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, feminine pads and toilet paper.
Donations of grocery gift cards and cash to purchase whatever else is needed will also be accepted.
Volunteers will be set up in front of Infant Jesus Church, 110 Myrtle Ave., the convent building behind the church at 110 Hawkins Street, and Infant Jesus Chapel at St. Charles Hospital, 200 Belle Terre Road. For more information, call Brian at 631-938-6464.
A living room in one of the Overbay apartments in Port Jefferson. Photo from the Northwind Group
Throughout the last few weeks, we have been listening to what different candidates have to say when it comes to revitalization and development of our towns.
One of the biggest taglines of most elected officials is that they “want to keep young people on Long Island.”
That’s great, and young people appreciate the sentiment, but what many don’t realize is the stresses it takes to buy a house in today’s market.
Most young people — such as postgraduate professionals — would love to buy their own place at 24 or 25. Unfortunately, many cannot and instead choose to rent as a temporary solution.
While there are mother/daughter suites across Long Island, and plenty of accessory apartments that people utilize, legal and illegal, there are other options popping up from Huntington to Selden — larger apartment complexes, such as the ones built and being built alongside local train stations.
These developments have been instrumental in keeping young people in our area because, in many cases, the couple fall in love with the town and then proceed to buy a house there. The apartments are simply starter homes to give these new working professionals the freedoms they need to grow up.
A big argument that comes out of the development of different areas is that it makes the place “too urban.” While these complexes bring in more people — but not many — they are just adding a bit to an already developed community.
Take Huntington village or Port Jefferson — these two areas are already considered downtowns. Adding apartments to a place that resembles a small city isn’t completely out of the ordinary.
Embracing the development where appropriate can be good for our communities. It can help our children and our neighbors start their own lives. It may look a little different than 30 years ago, but this is the new normal.
With the revitalization of Upper Port along with the changes downtown, people are choosing to downsize in Port Jefferson or start up their lives in the new Port Jefferson apartments.
Rob Gitto, vice president of The Gitto Group, said that his sites — and other places developed by Tritec Real Estate (The Shipyard), Conifer Realty (Port Jefferson Crossing) and The Northwind Group (Overbay) — are here to help people.
“That’s one of the big things,” he said. “That we’re trying to keep people here instead of moving off of Long Island.”
The Gitto Group currently has three locations between Upper and Lower Port: The Hills at Port Jefferson, The Barnum House and the recent The Brookport.
In September, The Brookport officially opened at 52 Barnum Ave. — the former Cappy’s Carpets — featuring 44 apartments that were 100% leased. The building is mixed-use and will soon be home to Southdown Coffee on the lower level.
“By having these walkable apartment complexes, we’re helping the stores and the restaurants by bringing more people into the village without a strain on the parking,” Gitto said. “To me, that seems like a win-win.”
Photo from The Gitto Group
He said he knows the concern about parking, but his buildings — and those of other developers — have created their own spaces on premise that don’t interfere with the traffic within the village. In fact, he said, he knows many of his tenants are taking advantage of all Port Jeff village has to offer.
“I know that I have at least two tenants here that are taking tennis lessons at the country club,” he said. “They’ve already been here a couple months and are trying to become part of the community.”
Many of those tenants — across all three of his locations — either chose Port Jefferson to establish their roots or had a home in the area and decided to stay but downsize as empty nesters.
“I can’t tell you how many tenants we’ve had, especially in The Barnum House, that moved here with a significant other or met someone while they were here, got married and had a child or children,” he said. “As they got older, they grew out of the apartment, but they fell in love with the community and became part of the community, so they ended up buying a condo, a townhouse or a home here.”
Gitto said they are filling a need that was never met in the community — giving people the opportunity to start up or slow down.
The Barnum House, which opened 20 years ago this year, still has tenants who moved in originally in August 2001. A mixed building, he said many are young working professionals but quite a few empty nesters as well.
“You’re checking a lot of boxes,” he said. “It’s easy living.”
A benefit his older tenants mention often is that they don’t have to worry about upkeep — if an appliance breaks or there’s an issue, they don’t have to worry about fixing it. They don’t have to landscape outside, and they are creating a home base for snowbirds who split their time between here and the South.
The Hills at Port Jefferson, however, has some more turnover, Gitto said, due to the type of clientele the apartments attract.
Located in Upper Port, the Hills was one of the first projects as part of Port Jefferson’s master plan.
“I do see there being a nice community uptown,” he said. “That connection to Stony Brook University and the two hospitals right there, there’s no reason why that can’t be a secondary community.”
And in that 74-unit building, Gitto said the majority of tenants are young, working professionals — many of whom work at Mather Hospital, Northwell Health, St. Charles Hospital and Stony Brook University — a 10-minute train ride from the LIRR station across the street to campus.
That being said, Gitto noted that “a couple of units will turnover” because of the residency programs at these places.
“I would say 80 to 85% of the people that live there are affiliated with Stony Brook,” he said.
A fourth project with The Gitto Group is currently underway on the corner of Main Street and North Country Road, where the PJ Lobster House used to stand before relocating. Gitto said that building will be smaller — roughly 36 to 38 units — and planning should be finalized by March.
Gitto mentioned that there is often concern or comment about the IDA benefits developers receive to build these properties but noted that neighbors need to look at it long term.
“Although our property taxes might be lower to start out, eventually, when the IDA program is over, we’ll be paying a lot more than this property would have ever given in terms of taxes if it had remained a boatyard, or the carpet store that it was,” he said. “It’s important to people to look at the long term — this is really going to help the school districts to have these tax bases being thrown into the mix.”
While he can’t talk about the other developers’ properties, he said that the addition of families and people into the community isn’t causing a strain on the school district at all.
“In the Hills uptown, in the 74 units, I believe we have one child who goes to Comsewogue,” he said.
Overbay
The Overbay apartment complex, which finally opened in September, had been in the process of being built shortly after The Northwind Group purchased the former Islander Boat Center building in 2013 for $1.8 million.
James Tsunis, managing member of Northwind, said that his family was “really excited” to bring a new complex to the village.
Photo from The Northwind Group0
“The Northwind Group has been in the family business and we’ve lived in Port Jeff our whole life,” he said. “We were really happy to bring a boutique luxury apartment community here for Port Jefferson.”
Tsunis added that the complex also was planned to bring more positive traffic to the downtown retail shops and restaurants — especially since many struggled throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s a win for the village in general,” he said.
Located at 217 W. Broadway, the 54,000-square-foot “nautical style” apartment building consists of 52 rentals, with one-bedroom units ranging between $2,500 to $2,800 and two bedrooms starting at $3,500.
Each apartment features walk-in closets, custom built-ins, zero-entry showers with rain heads, a fireplace and a flat-screen TV. Other amenities include an 800-square-foot common room and a fitness facility.
The complex also contains an office area, concierge service and in-building parking with over 80 parking stalls for residents and their guests.
Leasing, Tsunis said, opened up in fall of last year, and sold out almost immediately.
“There was definitely a high demand for it,” he said. “We get calls about this every day and we have a long list of people waiting to get in here, which is good —it’s good for us and it’s also good for the village, because it means that people want to live here and that’s a very good sign.”
Jake Biro, Overbay’s property manager, said that like the other developments around the village, there is a good mix of different types of people living at Overbay.
“Honestly, it’s really diverse,” he said. “We have people all the way down to the undergrad at 19 or 20 years old to I think our oldest resident is about 94.”
Biro said the proximity to Stony Brook University and the hospitals helps.
“We get a lot of doctors and nurses,” he said. “But then we also have a bunch of empty nesters — people that are taking advantage of the real estate market and selling their houses right now, then renting for a year or two and reassessing.”
“Port Jefferson has been our home and we want our residents to call it their home,” Tsunis said. “We want to help them try to transition that process as hard as possible and as best as possible.”
Tritec and Conifer did not respond to requests for interviews by press time.
Have you ever watched someone who was cheering for their team at a sporting event?
Aside from the potential enormous and mindless consumption of calories in the form of hot dogs, chips and beverages, superfans scream at the players, tilt their heads when they want a ball to move in a particular direction, or beg a higher power to help their player outperform people on the other team whose fans are pleading for the opposite outcome.
As fans, we have little control over the result of a game, especially if we’re watching it on television. Sure, home field advantage likely helps some teams and players, as fans urging their favorites on, standing and shouting at the tops of their lungs could inspire athletes to raise their level of play.
But, really, all of that pleading, begging and cheering into the ether or at the blinking lights on our screens gives us the illusion of control, as if we have some way to influence games.
We generally don’t accept or give up control because we like to think that, somewhere, somehow, our wishes, goals and desires mean something to a deity, a guardian angel, or a fairy godmother. To be human is to hope to control the uncontrollable.
Give me the inspiration to pick the right lotto numbers, please! Let me ride the subway with my future spouse. Keep me from hitting the curb on my driver’s test!
Millions of Americans sit each night with a remote control in their hands, surfing channels, changing the volume and traveling, without getting up from the couch, from a program about ospreys to a fictional story about a female secretary of state who becomes an embattled president. We sometimes revel in the excitement that comes at the point that teeters between control and a lack of control. When we’re young, we ride a bike with both hands. At some point, we take one hand off the bike. Eventually, we learn to balance the bike with no hands, as we glide down the street with our hands on our hips or across our chest.
In our entertainment, we imagine people who have higher levels of control, like wizards with wands or superheroes who use the force to move objects.
When we become parents, we realize the unbelievable joy and fear that comes from trying to control/ help/ protect and direct the uncontrollable.
When our children are in their infancy, we might determine where they go and what they wear, but we generally can’t control the noises they make, even by finding and replacing their pacifiers. These noises are their way of preparing us for the limited control we have as they age.
They make numerous choices, some of which we feel might not be in their longer term best interest. We can see the bigger picture, which can be as simple as recognizing that taking eight classes while working part time at night and joining the marching band is likely creating anunsustainable schedule. We know how important the basics — sleeping, eating, exercising — are to their lives, even if they make impulse driven choices.
One of the hardest parts of parenting may be knowing when to give them the space and opportunity to make decisions for themselves and to encourage them to learn from their choices.
Parents are lifetime fans of their children, supporting and encouraging them, leaning to the left to keep a ball in play, to the right to keep it out of a goal, or higher when we want their voices to hit the highest notes in their range during a performance of “West Side Story.”
It’s no wonder so many parents are exhausted and exhilarated after a big moment in their children’s lives: we might not have done anything but sit in a seat and clap our hands, but we tried, from a distance and in our own way, to control the uncontrollable.
One hundred years ago, it was the “Roaring Twenties.”
The Flappers were the icons then. They were women who shortened their skirts and shortened their hair. They wore makeup and looser clothing, smoked cigarettes in public, drank alcohol, drove cars, and otherwise reveled in what would have been considered unacceptable behavior in the past.
Oh, and then there was a more liberal attitude toward sexual behavior. It was, in a couple of words, more relaxed. Or so they say.
It seemed that after the carnage and sacrifices of World War I, the goal was to have fun. The Great War had dramatically changed lives, bringing women for the first time into the factories to replace the men, forcing them to manage the farms, making them the breadwinners on a national scale. They won the right to vote. When the men returned, they carried with them from across the Atlantic some of European culture and broader horizons.
It was a time of positivity, of innovation. A key word was “Modern.” Labor saving devices were invented, like the washing machine and vacuum cleaner. The radio came into its own and into living rooms. Thanks to the Ford Model T at $260 in 1924, cars became affordable, offering more freedoms. Credit became cheap, and the economy surged. Presidents Harding and Coolidge issued tax cuts; the stock market took off; people flocked to the cities where they drank, danced new dances, thrilled to jazz and partied. With prohibition came the bootleggers, making it all more exciting. This also gave birth to organized crime figures like Chicago’s Al Capone. By the end of the decade, it was estimated that three-quarters of Americans went to the movies every week. F. Scott Fitzgerald chronicled the decade in his novels.
Life was not all fun, however. An anti-Communist “Red Scare” gave rise to nativism and anti-immigration movements. Quotas were set that limited Eastern Europeans and Asians in favor of Northern Europeans and Brits. The Great Migration of African Americans from the Southern countryside to Northern cities was seen as a threat and gave a couple of million people impetus to join the Ku Klux Klan by the middle of the decade. Discriminatory hiring and housing practices led to urban ghettos. The horrific Tulsa Race Massacre took place in 1921. The NAACP moved into higher gear. Finally, in 1928, the first African American congressman since Reconstruction was elected to the House from Chicago.
There was what historians call a “cultural Civil War” as well. This consisted of city-dwellers versus small town residents, Protestants versus Catholics, Blacks versus whites and “New Women” versus those with old-fashioned family values.
Many of these themes are repeated a century later. Women, of course, are still working toward a more equitable playing field in the workplace and in politics. Our society has become more liberal, embracing gay marriage, for example, and health care reform. Connectivity, thanks to the internet and social media, defines us in a much more sophisticated, two-way fashion than the radio did. And technology innovation advances at a faster speed than most of us can catch up. Just as the assembly line revolutionized the production of cars, electrically powered self-driving vehicles are taking to the road. While indoor plumbing was replacing outhouses, today’s toilets can be connected to the internet and send up-to-the-minute diagnostic urine samples to physicians.
Just as there were threats then, we see them now. Will artificial intelligence or AI put those with lower skills out of work? There are still outcries against immigrants, attributing fears to them from COVID to taking away jobs. Climate change is a more powerful catalyst for environmental protection than Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir. The stock market and the economy have reached unimaginable heights. And while nationalist groups are longing for the imagined glorious past, activists are working toward national ideals that have never quite been realized.
We are just emerging from a kind of world war a century later, the villainous COVID-19 pandemic. How will our decade be named?
An antiviral pill may be beneficial in treating COVID-19 in its early stage. Stock photo
When the pandemic first hit Suffolk County in March of 2020, health care providers tried what they could to treat COVID-19.
The treatment options may be on the verge of increasing, as Pfizer recently revealed the benefit of an antiviral pill they developed to treat the virus in its early stages.
The Pfizer pill, called paxlovid, “decreased hospitalization significantly,” said Dr. Bettina Fries, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Medicine. “That’s exciting.”
The Pfizer pill, which would still need Food and Drug Administration authorization before medical care providers can administer it to patients, comes just a few weeks after Merck announced its antiviral pill molnupiravir was effective in treating people who contracted COVID-19.
Indeed, at the end of last week, Britain became the first country to approve the use of molnupiravir for people with underlying medical conditions, including heart disease and obesity.
“There is more information on molnupiravir as this drug was approved in the [United Kingdom] last Thursday,” Dr. Adrian Popp, chair of Infection Control at Huntington Hospital explained in an email. “It will be administered as soon as possible following a positive COVID-19 test and within five days of the onset of symptoms.”
As for Pfizer, it has not yet released data about its clinical trials to the scientific community, which means independent researchers haven’t reviewed the information.
Still, the introduction of new antiviral treatments advances the battle against the virus on another front.
“They are novel medications,” Popp added. “The speed by which they are being developed is amazing.”
Popp added that the pace at which the new Pfizer drug eliminates the virus and its symptoms is unclear because of limited data.
Fries said the Pfizer and Merck drugs were in different classes and worked differently, which means they may be most effective in combination.
In terms of side effects, Fries wouldn’t expect anything dramatic from either treatment.
Taking pills that reduce the severity of the disease also aren’t likely to reduce the body’s natural immunity to the virus.
“The immune system has already seen enough of the virus by the time you take the drug,” Fries said. Some of the patients in the trial probably had the virus for about a week, which is enough time for the immune system to recognize the invader and develop a natural resistance.
The timing of treatment with antiviral drugs determines its effectiveness. Drugs like Tamiflu, which prevents the worst symptoms of the flu, become less effective the longer the virus is in a patient.
“If you give this drug later, it will likely have less effect,” Fries said.
Additionally, Fries cautioned about overusing these drugs in future months and years, which can lead to viral resistance.
Fries believes the virus, like the flu, will continue to stick around and will return in waves.
The authorization of vaccines for children ages five to 11 will likely reduce the threat from the virus.
“A lot of parents will schlep their kids right away, especially before Thanksgiving,” Fries said. “Physicians and people who have a deeper understanding of vaccines feel comfortable” with them.
Fries recently received her third shot.
While the likelihood of children developing the worst symptoms of the disease is low, they contribute to the spread of the virus.
Additionally, the virus can mutate, which could make it “potentially a lot worse. There is [also] a low but potentially significant risk of long covid syndromes,” Fries said. “You don’t want your kid to have that. Children should be super duper healthy, not just a little bit healthy.”
Thanksgiving preparation
In terms of preparing for Thanksgiving, Fries urged everybody over 65 to get a booster, particularly if they received their initial vaccines at least six months ago.
Stony Brook Hospital is admitting patients who have been vaccinated and are over 65, in part because their initial vaccinations were over half a year ago.
“We see more and more older people presenting with the disease again,” Fries added. “Do it now so you have antibodies for Thanksgiving” particularly if a family has children returning from college.
Additionally, Fries urged residents and their families to get tested before coming together, which will reduce the risk of household transmission.
Even though Pfizer and Merck have produced drugs that may improve the treatment of COVID-19, Fries urged people to continue to get vaccinated.
“This kind of drug treatment does not make us say, ‘Okay, you don’t need to get vaccinated,’ Fries said. “Absolutely not.”
Fries noted that those people unwilling to receive an mRNA vaccine might get another option before too long.
The Novavax vaccine has “performed really well” in clinical trials, Fries said. “It is more of a traditional vaccine.” The Novavax facilities have had production problems. Once they resolve those issues, the company could apply for emergency use authorization.
Steven Uihlein and Jeffrey Sanzel in a scene from 'A Christmas Carol'
Join Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson for the 37th annual production of A Christmas Carol from Nov. 13 to Dec. 26. Celebrate the season with Long Island’s own holiday tradition and broadwayworld.com winner for Best Play. Follow the miser Ebenezer Scrooge on a journey that teaches him the true meaning of Christmas — past, present and future. A complimentary sensory sensitive abridged performance will be held on Nov. 28 at 11 a.m. $20 tickets in November; December tickets are $35 adults, $28 seniors and students, $20 children ages 5 to 12. To order, call 928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.
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