HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! Hope everyone had a great "holiday" season. We sure did with family coming from all over the place, and delicious meals with all of the trimmings. But now it’s back to work to bring you the news we heard on the grapevine...

CHRISTMAS TRAVELS. Joan and Bud St. John had a wonderful visit with their "California kids" Bobbin and her husband Arthur Auer and their children Kim and Greg of Santa  Cruz, California; Norma Louise Bennett of Pinehurst, North Carolina enjoyed a Christmas visit with her mother Bettie Hanse and her brothers, Rick and Lance; Gabriel Warren flew home from Beijing, to be with his family in Philadelphia and his grandparents, Jane and Millard Warren of Babylon; Tina and Jim Grange of St. Petersburg, Florida are visiting here with family and friends; Marge Burns had a fab time visiting with her son Mike and his wife Mary Ellen and their little daughter Abbigail Boylan and their Nantucket Island home, where Mike is the owner of a very successful UPS store; Peg Rendich got to meet her new granddaughter-in-law Carinne Daniels who visited with her husband Noah from their home in Washington, with his mother Renee Daniels of Arizona.

IT WAS A FIRST FOR GOOD SAM. The recent first Good Samaritan all-employee Christmas Party was happily a big success. The Brentwood County Club was beautifully decorated and their food abundant and delicious. Vivacious Kelly McLoughlin and Ted Mangione did a great job "chairing" and Ted proved quite a joke teller and wonderful emcee and dancing was non-stop to the DJ. Some familiar faces spotted at the festivities were Pharmacy’s Bill Ales, Public Relation’s Richard Helms, Ambulatory Surgery’s Ellen Mackey, Security’s John McLoughlin and his wife Jackie an Sam Miller and his wife Cynthia, ER’s nurse Jill Albergo, Admitting’s Bridget Murphy, Karen Miller and Robin Hilbert and her guest, Night Nurse Supervisor Sue Hughes and husband John, 3 South’s Manager Maureen Walsh, Plant Engineering’s Sean Duffy and Tim Sager, Or’s John McLoughlin, Jen Zachary and George Groudas, N.S.G. Admin-istration’s Dariene Peragine and her husband Bob and many others who help run our very much-needed neighborhood hospital.

FROM OUR CHRISTMAS MAILBAG: Thought we’d share some news of our friends from far away who used to live in Babylon. Remember John Maher? John used to be the Editor of the Leader and went on to write for Newsday. John moved to Arizona some years ago with his wife Mary, now deceased. You may remember Mary from her days in the Babylon Library. He’s doing fine and expects to come out to Babylon for a few days when he travels to New York in April...Merritt Thurlow, who lives in Tacoma Park, Maryland, with her daughter Betsey and her family spent the holidays with her daughter Molly and her three boys in their Granville, Ohio home...Nancy Bross Thompson spent Christmas in her Pennsylvania home with her husband Bob and their children and grandchildren, and Gloria and Terry McGuirk are fine and enjoyed Christmas in their Florida home with their children and grandchildren.

A SINGULAR HONOR. David Lawrence Jr., whose late father David Lawrence Sr. was a writer for the Leader some years ago before moving with his family to Florida where he was the political writer for the Orlando Sentinel, followed in his father’s footsteps and eventually became the Editor of the Miami Herald (ran ran briefly for Governor) has been involved in Education since his retirement. Now in acknowledgement of his distinguished career in education, he has had a Florida school named in his honor. We’re very proud of our native son!

SANTA WAS GOOD to the Village store owners. Talked to some Chamber members who said they had a very good season with lots of shoppers strolling down the streets and buying gifts in our beautiful Village. Right on!

WHAT’S IN A NAME? The new Deer Park restaurant is named Emersons, but we hear on the grapevine that the owner is French—the menu posted in the window is French, soooo, it must be French! This is the first French restaurant in the Village. We peeked in and the place looks terrific.

See next week’s column for New Year’s Eve news.