I was a loss for words when I read the comment of Great Neck Plaza merchant at a business improvement meeting featuring the upcoming Auto Fest and street festival.
Especially, Steven Dann, who owns a shoe store and restaurant, calling 20,000 attendees ” a bunch of hicks,” from G_d knows where and should not set foot in our town, as we are high end “upper class” and they can’t afford his prices.
It might come as a surprise to you Dann, but we have hicks living in Great Neck, me being one.
G-d put hicks in GN because he couldn’t stand snobs.
Good job, Dann, and the other opposing merchants didn’t live or work here in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Horrors!!! We had a 5 & 10, dime store, a cheap coffee shop to meet up with out of towners, a great place for hicks.
It was fortunate for me when the Claremont Hotel in Roslyn, who hosted the Mary W. Newburger, Women Roll of Honor Awards last week, that they didn’t expel me from the door.
I didn’t wear an expensive outfit. I wore a $20 top and Thom Mcann shoes.
Guess where I bought them. Yet I received lovely comments from town officials, not bad for a Kmart hick.
It’s not how expensive ones clothes or shoes are, that makes a person, a lesson you need to learn.
Auto Fest is not put on by BID just to attract customers for one day for boutique shopping, but maybe another day they will say, that was a nice town, I would like to see more of it.
The Old Village of Great Neck, has a fair each May.
Thousands of people from out of town attend.
They crowd the street, it is a noisy, chaotic day, but we don’t put a label on who attends.
We uptowners continue to do it, because it is a festive day.
For a few short hours, people get together and have fun.
Heaven knows in today’s world, we can all use it.
Jean Pierce
Great Neck
