Girls Tennis LI Champs!

The Schreiber High School girls tennis team captured the Long Island Championship!

Here is an article in Newsday

Sports Heartbreak

The undefeated Schreiber High School boys soccer team lost a heart breaker in the Nassau County semi-finals at Mitchell Field on Friday night. Leading Syosset 2-0, with approx. 6 minutes left in the game, they gave up a goal on a long range blast from outside the 18 yard box. Within a minute of that goal, Syosset was awarded an penalty kick, possibly on a foul by Port's goalie while coming out on a cross, and the score was tied 2-2.

Neither team could score during the rest of regulation or in the two 10 minute overtimes or in the two 5 minute, "golden goal" periods. So, it all came down to the best out of 5 PK's to decide the match. Unfortunately, Port did not score on its first 3 attempts (one hit the upright, one was saved, and one missed). Syosset converted on 3 of their four attempts to win the game and advance to the county finals.

Thanks for Nothing LIRR

Am I the only one who thinks the LIRR must hate Port Washington? First, years ago, they overshadow our cute station with a monstrous, space age, UGLY roof. Then, recently, they install industrial grade green fencing fit for a prison. What the heck do they have against us? Why are they trying to despoil our Main Street area? (If they provided decent train service, and covering over the platforms that actually kept the rain out, maybe it wouldn't seem so bad. Nah. It's seriously ugly any way you look at it.)

Big Fire

The fire last night, Saturday, August 25th, covered the Main Street area around the train station with dark smoke that smelled of burning chemicals. According to Newsday, Body Magic, an auto body shop on South Bayles, went up in flames.

UPDATE: I passed by the site this afternoon and the building is completely destroyed. Amazingly, there does not seem to be much damage to the office building right next door.

Port Summer Show

Another great tradition in town is the Port Summer Show. It features students who are entering the 7th grade through those who have just graduated from high school.

This year's play is "Smile", a Broadway musical from the mid 80's about a beauty pageant coming to a small California town. The music is by Marvin Hamlisch and the book and lyrics are by Howard Ashman.

Come out and see the talented Port kids sing and dance their hearts out! (One of them is my younger son so instead of watching, this year I'm probably working the props. :-)

The Port Summer Show Presents
"Smile" The Musical
Thursday, August 2nd, Friday, August 3rd, and Saturday, August 4th
at 8:00 PM
Sunday, August 5th
at 2:00 PM
Weber Middle School Auditorium

Cinema on the Bay

Cinema on the Bay is quickly becoming a must-do event in Port Washington. Tonight's show, "Night at the Museum", really brought out the crowds. The lawn at the Sousa Band Shell was packed with families, seniors, and couples on blankets and beach chairs. I have great memories of going to the Drive-In and this is the next best thing. It was a wonderful way to spend the evening (despite the fact that I really do not like Ben Stiller and I'd heard the movie was a clunker. :-)

A big thank you goes out to the sponsors, Residents For A More Beautiful Port Washington.

The next movie is "Field of Dreams" on Saturday, August 25th, 2007 at 9:00 PM.

Merchant Hall of Shame

The Chamber of Commerce urges us to, "Shop Port First". Instead of us all driving off to the big box retailers or the mall, we're supposed to support out local merchants. Hey, I run PortWashington.com so I get it.

However, some of the stores around town treat their customers like dirt. Most do a fine job but a few have made me pretty angry recently. So angry in fact, that I'm breaking a self imposed rule to avoid using the site (and this blog) to dump on the businesses that get me ticked off. So, here goes.

The first inductees into the Merchant Hall of Shame are the BP gas station on Port Blvd. and King Kullen.

The guy behind the counter at the BP station was on the phone with tech support trying to fix his cash register or lotto machine when I walked in. Did he acknowledge my presence? No. Did he tell me how long he was going to be working on his problem? No. Did he apologize for making me wait? Nope. Did he totally ignore me for minutes while I stood there? Yep. So, I walked out. All it would have taken was one quick sentence to let me know if I should wait but apparently that's a little too much effort. No more gas at BP for me.

My wife and I usually go to Stop and Shop. However, we happened to be at Payless Shoes, and needed some milk, so we bought a gallon at King Kullen. The milk was sour when I opened it; way beyond drinkable despite not being past its Sell By Date. To my mind that means it was not refrigerated properly. My wife took it back the next day for a refund. We've returned things to Stop and Shop occasionally and have never had the slightest problem. The surly woman behind the "Courtesy" counter at King Kullen decided somewhere along the line that customers are to be treated as criminals. First she said the milk look like water (accusing us of drinking the milk and refilling the container). Then she said that they didn't sell that brand (but my wife had the receipt). She then dropped a big ledger book on the counter, without explanation, and turned around to continue her conversation with a co-worker. My wife had to ask what she was supposed to do. After filling out some information, my wife was finally given her refund (all of $3.80). Of course there was no apology for inconveniencing us. No more shopping at King Kullen for us.

Port is a small town. People talk. I run a nice web site that gets lots of hits and is the number one Google listing when you search for "Port Washington". I'm angry and I don't care who knows it.

So congratulations to BP and King Kullen for providing terrible customer service and making it in to the Merchant Hall of Shame.

Paul D. Schreiber Class of 2007

Well, my older son has just graduated from Schreiber and I'm feeling rather old. :-) It was REALLY strange talking at the ceremony with some of the people I graduated with back in 1976 who also had children graduating. In many ways Port is such a small town.