“My name is Michael Lonergan; everyone calls me Mikie or Irish Mike. I grew up in County Tipperary in Ireland. I was schooled in Cahir…So, I graduated school, and uh, I did college for a year. I did physical therapy, sports therapy, massage for a year in Cork. I did...
“My name is Brigit Butler. I live in Rockaway Beach, 129th Street in Belle Harbor, New York, and I go to the University of Tampa.” Brigit and I lifeguard together in the 17 shack during the summer. “Definitely the music at the DredSurfer: number one reason I'm a...
“I'm Jared Lachner. I grew up in Rockaway Beach. I’ve been living here my whole life, born and raised…I went to New Paltz, so I stayed in New York for another four years. Graduated from there, and then I came back home, and I’ve been here ever since…I got my own place...
“I grew up here. I lived in Bay Towers all my life, and when I moved out, I just moved to 97, and then I moved to 96. So I've never left the peninsula, I love it. This is my home. Like, the beach– love it, you know? And everybody's like, ‘Why do you live so far away?’...
“So they call me Wico, but my name is Luis Enrique. So my sister, she couldn’t say Luis Enrique, she’d be like ‘Wico’…so we switched it a little.” On Friday, I went with my friend Cathryn (hopefully a future Human of Rockaway) to the Rockaway Beach Surf Club, where...
“My name is Chad Cocuzza. I am a musician from Arlington, Texas. I was born in Long Island. I was born in Huntington, I lived in Greenlawn until I was 3 years old and moved to Texas in 1984.” I met Chad Cocuzza in Rogers on Saturday evening. We got to talking at the...
“We came here in 1980 once I started working for the city. To the bungalows…It was nice. Once we got working, we got the bungalows on 100th Street, Steeplechase Court, and that was it.” Stephen, “Steve,” or “Steve-o” Gifford, my neighbor, grew up in Greenpoint and moved to Rockaway at 19.
Katherine Ragazzino walked into Last Stop on Friday frenzied. Though we’d never met, she sat down and immediately began to explain her excited state. “I’m in the middle of a lawsuit. It’s really been going on for about five years. I’m in the process of dealing with a...
Laron Rhodie walked onto the beach at Beach 17th Street on Tuesday wearing an orange swim cap and a sleeveless wetsuit. He greeted the lifeguards who asked if he was going out for a swim. The water temperature was 56.3 degrees. He smiled and motioned to his suit and...
Walter Arcario was born and raised in Rockaway, “The whole thing,” he says. “I just had one brother, but the family—I don’t know, there must have been like twenty cousins—we all started here
