Long Island in the 1970s

President Gerald Ford speaks in front of a crowd of 16,000 people at the Nassau Coliseum on October 31, 1976, during a series of three campaign stops on Long Island. Ford lost to Jimmy Carter in November's election.

Musician Harry Chapin, center, at Coindre Hall in Huntington on June 7, 1974. Judi Parker, Lively Arts chairwoman, sits at Chapin's left, and William Pardue, coordinator of Huntington's theater series, sits at his right.

Trees and gardens dot the new Freeport Mall on South Main Street in Freeport on May 18, 1978. The concept of shutting off Main Street to traffic to create a pedestrian mall setting didn't pan out, and was abandoned in 1986.

Belmont Stakes contenders Alydar on the left and Affirmed on the right near the finish line at Belmont Park in Elmont on June 10, 1978. Affirmed won the Triple Crown.

Horses Alydar (left) and Affirmed (right) approach the 16th pole at the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont on June 10, 1978. Affirmed, with jockey Steve Cauthen, would go on to win the race and the Triple Crown.

Members of the Streisand family at their home in Great Neck on September 29, 1975. Shelly Streisand, center, is Barbara Streisand's brother. His daughter Erica sits at left, and his wife Ellen sits at right.

Looking east on Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown on September 21, 1972.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono appear at Supreme Court in Mineola for a custody hearing involving her daughter from a previous marriage on June 28, 1971.

Builder Robert Moses attends a ceremony renaming Freeport's town marina and Grove Street after bandleader Guy Lombardo on June 19,1978.

A jam-packed mall parking lot at Roosevelt Field in Garden City for the start of the Christmas shopping season on November 24, 1970.

Wagons wait for service as they sit tied up at the dock at Fair Harbor, Fire Island on May 3, 1970.

Sunbathing on the roof patio of their rental summer house overlooking Ocean Beach, Fire Island are Joel Silverberg and Deborah McGuan on July 26, 1975.

Jackie Clough of North Great River and Joanne Dunckelman of Wantagh search for tunes on a jukebox at Jabby's Tavern in Hicksville on Sept. 14, 1973.

Playwright Joseph Heller, who wrote the novel Catch-22, in Seaview, Fire Island on July 17, 1971.

After heavy rains, men work to clear a wash-out on Northern State Parkway in Hicksville on June 30, 1973.

A street flooded in about three feet of water in Wantagh on Oct. 20, 1977.

Flanked by two Suffolk County Homicide Squad detectives, 24-year-old Ronald DeFeo is led to his booking on multiple murder charges in Hauppauge on Nov. 11, 1974.

The house known as the "Amityville Horror," in which the DeFeo murders occurred, in Amityville on Nov.14, 1974.

January 9, 1974: A Nassau County patrolman and two commuters push a panel truck out of the snow and back onto the Long Island Expressway in Old Westbury.

Jan. 14, 1977: Main Street in Hempstead as seen during a winter snowstorm.

1978: Motorists stranded in the eastbound lane of the Long Island Expressway at Exit 49 in Melville.

View of Bayville Avenue on the west end of Bayville on April 4, 1971. The group of stores were referred to as "The Stands."

Stony Brook University student Kerry Soloway is the first student to vote on Nov. 2, 1971. A few months earlier, 18-year-olds were given the right to vote.

Investors stand in front of a flashing stock quotation sign at the Dean Witter & Co. building at on Franklin Avenue in Garden City on June 14, 1972.

From left, Barbie Natale, Christopher Antonello, 2, and Shannon Ciago, 1, watch the 1973 Ralph Osgood Elementary School parade in Kings Park.

Karen Hughes, 16, gets an autograph from Alex Haley during the "Roots" author's visit to Islip Junior High School on June 8, 1979. Haley visited the school after social studies teacher Paul Topagna had given him copies of family histories compiled by students who were inspired by Haley's work.

On Oct. 13, 1973, five women are inducted into the Coast Guard Reserve on the bow of the ship Point Herron, at the Fire Island Coast Guard Station. Some of the women pictured were among the first Long Islanders to join the Reserve under a ruling that allowed mothers to enter the Coast Guard Service. The five recruits are Karen Kozak of Hicksville, Joyce Wectawski of Rockville Centre, Joanne C. Zabatta of Hempstead, Veronica Kelly of Baldwin and Helen Woods of Fire Island. Capt. Mary Bachand administered the oath, and Boatswain's Mate Andrew Ware watches the ceremony.

Racers line up in the pit area at the Westhampton Speedway in Westhampton Beach, getting ready for the first go-kart race of the season on March 28, 1976.

President Gerald Ford speaks in front of a crowd of 16,000 people at the Nassau Coliseum on Oct. 31, 1976, during a series of three campaign stops on Long Island. Ford lost to Jimmy Carter in November's election.

John Ruskin, 18, of Roslyn, tries to break the world record for pogo stick jumping on June 11, 1974. Ruskin had just passed 10,000 hops when this photo was taken. As of 2015, the Guinness World Record for consecutive jumps on a pogo stick was 88,047 hops.

Connie Cevasco, Mildred Zolla and Francis Pollera, all of Malverne, sit outside of their cabana at Nassau Beach on Aug. 9, 1971. It cost them $500 to rent the cabana for the season.

Audrey Simmonds of Blue Point with her six children, who ranged in age from 7 weeks old to 8 years old on May 3, 1973. Simmonds was interview for a story about a study showing that stay-at-home mothers worked anywhere from 40 to 84 hours a week, depending on the ages and number of children that they had.

Heather Mahaffy, of Levittown, reads a story while Kathy Baxter, of Seaford, returns books to Herb Blinder on Aug. 7, 1972, at the Levittown Public Library Bookmobile parked on Bernice Road in Seaford. The library had started its bookmobile program in 1952 in order to bring to the library to the community.

Millie Brown waters plants in the back garden of her 11-room house in the Nineveh development of Sag Harbor village on Aug. 8, 1974.

Baymen hack through 12 inches of ice on the Great South Bay to collect clams about a half-mile off shore in West Islip on Jan. 31, 1970.

Up to 26 inches of snow fell across Long Island in a two-day storm on February 7 and 8th. Sal Pellegrino of Port Jefferson delivers bread in North Wantagh after the storm had passed.

A skater laces up his boots while kids play hockey and skate on a frozen Argyle Lake in Babylon Village on Feb. 1, 1972.

Musician Harry Chapin, center, at Coindre Hall in Huntington on June 7, 1974. Judi Parker, chair of Lively Arts, sits at Chapin's left, and William Pardue, coordinator of Huntington's theater series, sits at his right. Chapin was a dedicated to ending hunger in the United States and beyond. In 1981, he died in a crash on his way to perform a free concert at Eisenhower Park. He was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work.

Members of the Nomad Motorcycle Club in Selden on April 1, 1970. From left to right are Robert Lane, Bobby Caiola, Richard Sampson, Claudia Byers, Bill LaFord and Gino Hendrickson.

Cooking author and teacher Libby Hillman displays arrangement of Thanksgiving meal in her New Hyde Park home in 1979.

Alydar, left, and Affirmed battle in the Belmont Stakes. Affirmed would cross the finish line a head in front of Alydar and earn horse racing's Triple Crown on June 10, 1978.

The Foster family says grace at their Thanksgiving dinner table in Southampton on Nov. 22, 1973. Their ancestor Christopher Foster settled on Long Island in 1651.

The crowd lines up for hot dogs and soda on Feb. 11, 1972, during half-time at a Nets game in Nassau Coliseum.

Mail carrier Robert Knight of Patchogue delivers mail for the Sayville Post Office during a 1971 snowstorm.

Elvis Presley performs at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale. (June 22, 1973)

K. Yang tries to push her car into one of the gasoline lines in front of the Merit station at Oceanside Road and Sunrise Highway in Rockville Centre during the 1979 oil crisis. The woman had been waiting in what she thought was the correct line when her car ran out of gas.

On Memorial Day 1975, a veteran salutes his fallen comrades.

Residents make the best of an ice storm in Greenlawn in 1978.

Folks leave after a day at Hot Dog Beach on Dune Road on May 27, 1972. Hot Dog Beach was a popular spot for young people and could attract as many as 10,000 visitors a day, but was shut down in 1986 by the Suffolk County Health Department for lack of lifeguards, safety equipment, and toilets.

Lake Ronkonkoma residents Diane Schlotterbeck and Barbara Onufrak check a map on the side of a free bus that ran from Smith Point Park to Rocky Point on June 20, 1975.

Singer Harry Chapin performs at North Babylon High School on Dec. 19, 1974, during a UNICEF event to help fight hunger in India and Africa.

Donna Klecak smiles as she pumps gas in 1979 at the O.K. Petroleum gas station in West Babylon.

Overall view of the main terminal at Long Island MacArthur Airport in 1978. The airport, located in Ronkonkoma, opened in 1942 and began servicing commercial flights in 1960.

Commercial signs clutter Jericho Turnpike just east of Syosset Hospital on May 6, 1973.

Bandleader Guy Lombardo at Jones Beach theater in Wantagh on June 20, 1977.

Participants in the 1978 Earth Day Marathon enter Eisenhower Park.

A sign across Hampton Bay's Oak Beach Inn East (or OBI East) decried the Town of Southampton's push for its closure while promoting half-price beverages, in this May 28, 1974 photo.

Two men chat on a bench on the Long Beach boardwalk on Aug. 10, 1970.

Laura Carbone puts up some shade for the strawberries at her fruit stand in Water Mill on June 11, 1976.

A bike polo practice is underway at First Neck Lane in Southampton in the summer of 1971.

Beachgoers display their patriotism at Jones Beach on July 4, 1973.

Cars line up to board the ferry in Port Jefferson to Bridgeport, Conn., on June 11, 1972.

A 6-year-old delivers a message during a demonstration outside LILCO's Shoreham nuclear power plant site in 1979.

Bob Dylan plays guitar at a concert at the Nassau Coliseum on Jan. 28, 1974.

On July 22, 1972, the Suffolk Bicycle Riders took a 55-mile trip from Riverhead to Shelter Island (via the ferry) and back, taking the scenic routes along the way.

Terri Netrosio of Mount Vernon, N.Y., sells T-shirts at Hot Dog Beach, Dune Road, in Quogue on July 3, 1977.

A theater on Main Street in Farmingdale advertised seats for any movie for 77 cents on Feb. 15, 1978.

The Jack-in-the-Box sign on Deer Park Avenue in North Babylon on April 18, 1975.

The Jack-in-the-Box burger restaurant on East Main Street and Montauk Highway in Patchogue is seen on May 20, 1972.

The window display at the House of Costumes at 166 Jericho Tpke. in Mineola on Oct. 18, 1974. That year, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger masks were prominently displayed. Richard Nixon had resigned from the presidency a few months earlier.

Johan Von Kunst of the Southampton Polo Club executes a reverse shot during practice at First Neck Lane in Southampton in 1971.

Peter Pastore of North Massapequa is seen on May 17, 1975 in the observatory he contructed in his backyard. Pastore, a New York City firefighter, was a volunteer lunar and planetary observer for the Astronomical Society of Long Island.

Elaine Caputo, at the time of Seaford, sits under a new type of hair dryer on Jan. 21, 1970, at the Granada Beauty Salon in Massapequa. The dryer brought hot air through the tubes to the rollers, and was supposed to reduce drying time by half. A retired nurse, Caputo now lives in Ridge.

Customers at the Westbury Drive-In Theatre attend an Ape-a-Thon, which featured five of the "Planet of the Apes" movies on July 12, 1973. The one-day publicity stunt introduced the newest movie in the series, "Battle for the Planet of the Apes."

Workers at Islip's Town Hall bicycled to work as part of an Earth Day initiative on April 20, 1972. Islip Town supervisor Peter F. Cohalan and his wife Mary Lou are greeted by members of the Town Hall staff as they arrive at the Oconee East Diner, one block from their offices.

The Rev. J. Harold Hadley stands at the podium inside the North Shore Unitarian Church in Plandome while folksinger Peter Pierce of Wallkill, N.Y., leads the congregation in a closing hymn. In honor of Earth Day, the church held an anti-pollution service on April 19, 1970.

On March 13, 1971, pizza cost 25 cents a slice at Pizza D'Amore in the Mid-Island Shopping Plaza in Hicksville.

A musician plays at the Ultra-Sonic recording studio on North Franklin Street in Hempstead on May 26, 1971. Ultra-Sonic, owned by Garden City resident William Stahl, was one of the few independent recording studios on Long Island, and had recently hosted the disparate sounds of Guy Lombardo and Mott the Hoople.

Shoppers on line at McCrory's Department store in the Smith Haven Mall on Aug. 30, 1972, a day before the sales tax was set to increase by 1 percent.

A student wearing star-spangled sneakers participates in a walk-a-thon with a group from St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Hauppauge on March 24, 1973.

Brendan Mann, 8, and John Hingher, 9, of Merrick, play with walkie-talkies on Feb. 9, 1977.

A little boy rides a tricycle April 28, 1979, in Park Circle in Great Neck.

In July 1971, the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in the United States. Here, a group of 18- to 21-year-olds wait on line to register to vote at the East Meadow Shopping Center.

A "Star Wars" theme pervades during the July 4th, 1978, parade on Wantagh Avenue in Wantagh.

Violet Di Tommaso and her daughter, Jo Ann, ride through the streets of Massapequa on March 26, 1971.

Main Street in Yaphank on Oct. 31, 1971. On the left is the Yaphank Garage and Post Office, and on the right is the Yaphank Community Shop.

Ed Bokina of Laurel ties crates of cauliflower onto his truck on Sept. 12, 1974 at the Long Island Cauliflower Association auction block on Route 58.

Connie Handler of Syosset and Lisa Carotenuto of Woodbury dance at the teen coffee house run in the community center at Woodbury Park on Dec. 15, 1973. Larry McNeill on drums and Vincent Haynes on bass were part of the group Changes, from Flushing, Queens.

Doris Pike, wife of Rep. Otis Pike, stands on the steps of her Riverhead home on Jan. 1, 1973. Doris Pike accepted a signed petition to end the war in Vietnam from Nancy Mitzman of Hauppauge. Mitzman and members of the activist group Women Strike for Peace held a silent vigil in front of the home.

The Twin Gulf gas station at Church and Smithtown Avenues in Lake Ronkonkoma is seen on Feb. 25, 1974. For several months that year, New York State was on an odd-even license plate gas rationing plan, hence the "Only Even Numbers Today" sign.

Allen Rossel, superintendent of parks and recreation for the Town of North Hempstead, looks over a map with Bay Constable Ira Freundlich at Bar Beach in Port Washington on June 8, 1971. The pair were reviewing areas that had been checked for surface pollution due to a garbage strike in New York City.

Michael Hirsch of Long Beach pushes the Long Beach Public Library's "beach mobile" along the boardwalk on July 23, 1974.

Denise Beckley of Port Washington sports an "I Love LI" T-shirt while out riding her bicycle on July 12, 1979.

Marilyn King and her daughter in the kitchen of their Levittown home on June 30, 1971.

Shoppers stroll along Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown on May 24, 1971.

A general view of the main street, Nassau Road in Roosevelt, on Oct. 20, 1975, looking north into the business section of town.

NYC Mayor John Lindsay walks the streets of Long Beach campaigning for Democratic candidates on Oct. 5, 1972. A sign behind him blames NYC for polluting the Long Island Sound.

East Main Street in Patchogue on Feb. 14, 1972.

Joe Namath heads for his room in street clothes at Hofstra dorms during New York Jets training camp in Hempstead on July 26, 1972.

Children walk out of Roosevelt Elementary School on March 23, 1972.

The Long Island Ducks and coach Ed Stankiewicz at the Long Island Arena in Commack on Oct. 13, 1971.

Former Democratic Rep. Allard K. Lowenstein speaks at the Register for Peace Rally on June 13, 1971 in Mineola.

The tug-barge Martha R. Ingram split in half and sank in the Port Jefferson Harbor several hours after it delivered 6 million gallons of gasoline and fuel oil on Jan. 10, 1972. Eventually, explosives were used to split the vessel entirely.

Locals attend a drive-in movie theater on Sunrise Highway in Valley Stream on Jan. 17, 1972.

Nassau County police instruct children at Safety Town in East Meadow at Eisenhower Park in 1972.

Wetson's, at Sunrise Highway and Rockaway Avenue in Valley Stream on May 20, 1972.

Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller during an election-year visit to Jones Beach in Wantagh in 1970.

Mike Epstein, foreground, and Jay Linehan, co-owners of My Father's Place in Roslyn, work the busy bar on Wednesday, June 2, 1971.

Michael Corio, 3, and William Corio, 6, line up for ice cream from Good Humor man Charles Deitch in Smithtown on June 16, 1973.

Lynn Singer, president of the Long Island chapter of Soviet Jewry; Mario Cuomo, New York secretary of state; and Eric Lane, president of the Law Department of Hofstra University, attend a tribunal for freedom for Anatoly Shcharansky on March 13, 1974.

Capt. David Baker, a returning prisoner of war, and his son, Dave, take a short walk away from the crowd at Kennedy Airport on March 16, 1973. The little guy looked at the man and asked, "Are you really my dad?"

Cars line up across Roosevelt Field waiting to get gas at the Cardace Mobil station. (Feb. 8, 1974)

Jockey Robyn C. Smith is shown aboard Gray Lawn Rabbit during the second race at Aqueduct. (June 24, 1974)

All eyes follow Nancy Wagner on her first day as the first female cadet at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point. (1974)

Jim Hannigan of Floral Park directs traffic with a flashlight at the intersection of Little Neck Parkway and Jericho Turnpike in Bellerose near the Nassau-Queens border during the New York City blackout on July 13, 1977.

With a storm raging at 11 a.m., Nassau police officers guide motorists near the scene of an accident on the Meadowbrook Parkway during the winter of 1978. That winter, two blizzards, two weeks apart in January and February, dumped a combined 40 inches on Long Island.

Alydar, left, and Affirmed battle in the Belmont Stakes. Affirmed would cross the finish line a head in front of Alydar and earn horse racing's Triple Crown on June 10, 1978.

Cars line up for gasoline at a Power Test station on Church Street in Ronkonkoma during the nation's oil crisis on June 18, 1979.

A clammer cuts the ice on the Great South Bay in Brightwaters in 1979.
[Don't forget to check out photos of LI in the 1960s: http://bit.ly/Y4Bcnf]