Levittown's Top 10

Story by Paul Manton.

I admit to being an obsessive maker of lists: the 10 best books and songs ever written, the 10 greatest people who ever lived, my 10 favorite zoo animals, the 10 places in the world I'd like to visit or reside...etc.

It's a daunting task this self-inflicted preoccupation because the need to give honorable mention to the 11th always give me a sense that the list is hopelessly incomplete without the 12th and 13th and 14th. So it is with growing up in Levittown in the late 1960's and 1970's.

Nevertheless, here's the list:

1. Pet Paradise Aquarium. It was like visiting a zoological garden or aquarium without leaving Levittown. Its humid, warm, dimly-lighted labyrinth festooned with an astonishing variety of exotic fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates made me feel like an explorer/naturalist from the days of yore.

2. Domenico's Restaurant. I had my first eggplant  dinner there on July 13, 1977 there. Albeit it was the night of the big New York City blackout when Son of Sam was still on the prowl, the meals there were - and still are - memorable to say the least.

3. Levittown Public Library.  Amid the books and periodicals I learned more there than I ever did in high school or college; there being something to be said for the dilettante scholar's untutored enthusiasm.

4. North Levittown Lanes. My home-away-from-home on Saturday afternoons.

5. The Old Motor. One of the last strips of rural, undeveloped land left in Levittown and a young entomologist's El Dorado.

6. Azalea Pool. No better way to beat the heat and socialize.

7. Vincent's Pizza. (Later called La Zingara). Home of the singing waiter, Italian ambiance, and pizza cut into 16ths which we had as a late night snack nearly every Friday.

8. Levittown Theater. The last movie I saw there was Raiders of the Lost Ark.

9. Polaris Field. The scene of countless Levittown Athletic Club baseball games and everything else good about summer.

10. The Sumps. They were mini-Walden Ponds by summer; Currier & Ives' sleigh-riding frolics by winter.

Want to learn more about the history of Levittown and the surrounding communities? Visit www.levittownhistoricalsociety.org.