Locust Point Reunion planned

Locust Point is getting ready for a homecoming that has been years in the making.

The Locust Point Reunion the weekend before Labor Day, beginning on the evening of Friday, August 26 and continuing on to afternoon and evening of activities on Saturday, August 27, promises to bring back many familiar faces to the Locust Point Civic Association for the Locust Point Reunion.

Organized by Wayne Gurman and LPCA president Jerry Landi, the reunion has been attempted several times over the past five years and is finally coming to fruition, with former residents from as far away as Florida and the mid-west planning to attend.

“A couple of people in Locust Point have tried to organize this reunion over the past five years, but it hasn’t happened until now,” Gurman said. “Locust Point was the best place in the world to grow up. I had a great childhood and to see many of the people again who were apart of it is going to be a great feeling.”

This attempt to reunite current and former Locust Point residents who lived in the area from the 1940s on was aided greatly by Facebook, Gurman said. A crowd of 200 to 300 is expected, he said.

Friday night will be optional and will include screenings of filmmaker James McSherry’s Poetry Man and a video montage of photographs created by Landi of Locust Point’s Labor Day parades spanning 60 years from the 1930s to the 1980s, as well as other historical photos of the Point.

Landi’s 20-minute film, set to music, has been a project he has been working on for several years, and the reunion finally gave him the opportunity to finish it, he said.

“The film tells the story of the growth of Locust Point through photos of our Labor Day parades over the course of many years,” Landi said. “You can actually see Locust Point growing, with more and more houses lining the parade route, in what had originally been a bungalow resort community.”

He hopes that people will recognize former neighbors in the photographs in film, which has the working title Locust Point Through the Years. The film screenings will be held under the moonlight at the LPCA’s beach house at 3300 Tierney Place. Donations for the Friday night event will be $5 at the door.

The main attraction will be a day filled with festivities on August 27 that will include a continuous barbecue, games and entertainment similar to those once a part of massive Labor Day festivities at the Point, and an over-40 basketball tournament at 3 p.m.

Donations for August 27 are $20 in advance or $30 at the door for adults, with children under 10 gaining admission for $10. Donation by check or money order can be mailed to the civic at 3200 Giegerich Place, Bronx, N.Y. 10465 and made out to the L.P.C.A. Once received, your name will be placed on a list and your admittance will be reserved.