She lived to be 108.

Frances Abbracciamento, a Breezy Point legend, died on Sunday, July 25.

Though born in 1913, Mrs. A, as she was lovingly called, was far more than just a number. She was a wife to the late Sal Abbracciamento, a matriarch—a mother to four children, grandmother to nine grandchildren and a great grandmother to more than fifteen great grandchildren. Together the couple owned and operated several well-known restaurants, including the famous Abbracciamento on the Pier on

The Graybeards Family Run is back! There will be fun for the whole family this Friday, July 30.

This annual fundraising run is a way to bring the community together and help support the Graybeards organization, which does so much for those in need in the community. On Friday, there will be running events for the whole family.

The Kids Run begins at 6:30 p.m. with a two-block race for those seven and under, and a three-block race for those 8-10. The Special Olympics run will follow at 6:45

And then there were three. And there was one. That’s how it will happen this Friday, July 30 at Caracas on the boardwalk when The Rockaway Times Photo Contest concludes with a celebration. 

After receiving more than 1,300 entries, judges had the near-impossible task of whittling the number down to a Top 30 in the 2021 Rockaway Times Photo Contest. These fantastic photos were enlarged to poster-size and placed on the boardwalk railing ahead of Memorial Day for all the world to see and

According to the official website, “National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie. National Night Out enhances the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while bringing back a true sense of community. Furthermore, it provides a great opportunity to bring police and neighbors together under positive circumstances.”  This year, it’s being held on Tuesday, August 3, and both of Rockaway’s NYPD

The Rockaway Times Sandcastle Contest is back! After a hiatus last year due to Covid-19, the 5th Annual Rockaway Sandcastle Contest will be held this Sunday, August 1.

On Sunday, head to Beach 117th Street for all the action. Registration will begin at 11:30 a.m. on the boardwalk. The contest begins promptly at 12:30 p.m. on the beach. Participants will have two hours (until 2:30 p.m.) to create whatever they want, whether it’s a sculpture or castle. As things start to wrap up, the judges will

 They had the right train, but the wrong station. A couple walks into a house for a friend’s dinner party. Seeing some familiar faces, they shake hands and greet each other. All was well. Until a few minutes in, the couple learns—they were in the wrong house. But in one of those “only in Rockaway stories,” this mishap ended with some true Rockaway hospitality, lots of laughs, and some new friendships formed.

On Sunday, July 25, local resident John Reinhardt and his wife, Patrice Gay-Reinhardt

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Don’t look now, but August starts this weekend.

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The Rockaway Times Photo Contest Final will be tomorrow Friday, July 30 at 5 p.m. at Caracas at Beach 106th on the Boardwalk. All Top 30 finalists are invited (there will be happy hour prices courtesy of the sponsors Jamaica Bay Rockaway Parks Conservancy, NYC Ferry, The Rockaway Times and NY Parks). Top 30 photographers can pick up their photos that day, after the winner is chosen. See you there!

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The Rockaway Times

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The Rockaway Times Photo Contest Final will be Friday, July 30 at 5 p.m. at Caracas at Beach 106th on the Boardwalk. All Top 30 finalists are invited (there will be happy hour prices courtesy of the sponsors Jamaica Bay Rockaway Parks Conservancy, NYC Ferry, The Rockaway Times and NYC Parks). Top 30 photographers can pick up their photos that day after the winner is chosen. See you there!

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Elizabeth Crowley conceded the Borough President race after finishing a very close second to

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It might not be a word, but this summer's weather is underratedly bad.

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And then there were ten. At the start, we had to consider more than 1,300 photos which were submitted to the (fantastic!) Rockaway Times Photo Contest and after many rounds, nine judges eventually settled on a Top 30 and those photos were made poster-sized and placed on the boardwalk railing around Beach 95th Street. Next, we had the nearly impossible task of selecting the ten best. Our Facebook page has more

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Somebody’s gonna say otherwise, but we’re saying NYC Parks deserves a lot of praise for cleaning up so well after the 4th of July.

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Our Sandcastle contest is postponed. The date is TBA but please do not show up for the contest this Sunday, July 11!

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We jumped the shark! Previously at 2.7M, our video of Tess Howley's welcome home parade has officially reached more than 3 million people on Facebook. Wild.

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Have a splash! The 4th Annual Jamaica Bay Festival on City of

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The Rockaway Times wishes everyone a safe and Happy 4th of July!

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Two and a half million plus. 2.7 million and counting. That’s a lot of people. And that’s how many people viewed a Facebook post we put up last week. Katie McFadden shot a video of the parade for Tess Howley, who’d just returned from the Olympic trials in Omaha, Nebraska.

The wonderfully supportive community display clearly touched a lot of people, even worldwide. The comments and praise for Tess and Rockaway gave

Happy anniversary to…US! The Rockaway Times turns 7 on June 26. When we first published, the other Times, the New York one, called us “an unusual start-up,” since a good old fashioned newspaper was so different than many other media and internet start-ups.

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The National Park Service (NPS) runs Gateway National Park and Recreation Area. It sure seems like they forget the recreation part. The Rockaway Beach Volleyball League is still prohibited from running the Wednesday evening tradition

 Dear Editor:

McVeigh (Factologist Sean McVeigh) crushed it today: who knew about pumpernickel, Walmart bananas and the fact that Froot Loops is spelled “froot” not fruit was an absolute eye opener for me! Otters fact fur wasn’t bad either! He’s carrying your paper!

Chris Boyle 

(Editor’s Note: letter writer is himself a fruit loop. And as good as Mr. McVeigh is, he neglected to mention that all froot loops, no matter their color, all taste the same ).

 Dear Editor:  

(Regarding High Tide item about New Park pizza) Nope. New Park Pizza, which serves a very fine slice, is not in Broad Channel. ‘New Park,' as it is locally known, is and has been for 65 years in Howard Beach, at the corner of Cross Bay Blvd. and 157th Ave. On Cross Bay, yes. In Broad Channel, no.

Broad Channel has the longstanding (and very good) Tommy's Pizza. For a while we also had Rocco's Pizza, which was about one door away from Tommy's.

I know. There was even a Broad

 Dear Editor:

While stuck at home during the pandemic, I developed a bad habit. I watch the ABC evening local and national news. Conservatives like the late Rush Limbaugh have long accused the mainstream media of being biased toward the left. I often hear the ABC reporters inject editorializing comments like "outrageous," and recognizing this bias, I ignore it. But this past Monday evening, ABC crossed the line, in my opinion. They led with a story that the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine

 Dear Editor:

Projects that will make our community more resilient to storms and more accessible to the disabled are vital, but their planning must be an inclusive process with input from all those affected. The concrete path and ramps proposed by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) must be reconsidered.

It is an outrage that The Rockaway Civic Association, Belle Harbor Property Owners Association and the Neponsit Property Owners Association were excluded from the foundational steps of

Dear Editor:

I could not miss the seventh anniversary of our peninsula’s beloved local newspaper, The Rockaway Times, without wishing you heartfelt congratulations! As you stated in 2014, “Print publications aren’t failing in small towns if they reflect the community they serve.” Together with your amazing staff, you have gone above and beyond to reflect and serve our community. Therefore, I am confident that The Rockaway Times will be here to report the news for many years to come. As a free

Dear Editor:

On July 4th, I went to the end of the boardwalk on Beach 126th St, expecting to see some simple rockets and fireworks—only to be treated to more than two hours of the most beautiful and complex fireworks coming from the beach—from clusters of people, who must have chipped in quite a bit of money to put on a display of fireworks the likes of which I've never before experienced.

In my mind it singled out that, yes, Covid has almost been vanquished—and, also, yes, we are living in a

Over the years my family, friends and I have all worked in the restaurant industry. I used to say everyone should have to do a semester of hospitality work to become empathetic with the workers and understand walking a mile in their shoes. Unfortunately, not everyone has taken that semester of working in the restaurant industry, so a lesson in restaurant etiquette is needed. Since I know so many people in the industry, I sent out a few texts to servers from local restaurants and this is what

Thank you so much for all of your emails this past week. Everyone seems to be on the same page with people needing beach etiquette. I just want to note these rules are for everyone, not just our visitors. I just am so sad we had such a poor weather weekend that we could not try to implement the rules. 

Here are some we ran out of room for last week:

Rule 4: PDA. Our beach is a public beach, not a private beach on a romantic getaway. You may hold hands but do not make out in the water or on

I should have had this column in last week, but I did not know it was going to be such a spectacular weekend. I usually do not go swimming this early in the year and I almost went in for a dip!

Here is my annual beach etiquette column and it is for all of our new residents and our visitors that were pouring off of the ferry this past week. One loyal reader said Kevin should place my column as one of the photos on the boardwalk, but my suggestion has been ignored! 

Rule 1: When you get to the

For those of you who read my column regularly, you know I am a high school English teacher. One of the reasons I love being an English teacher is I get paid to do what I love: teaching reading and writing and oftentimes spreading that love to my students. Being an English teacher is challenging, but there is nothing greater than when students inform you about their enjoyment for a novel or short story you just finished.

During the last month of “regular school” in 2020, my ninth grade class

Mother’s Day has a long history. According of History.com, the Greeks and Romans had festivals honoring mothers and England had celebrations during Lent to honor mothers. The American holiday can be traced back to Anna Jarvis from West Virginia, who around the time of the Civil War, started “Mother’s Day Work Clubs,” which helped mothers learn skills to raise their children. Ms. Jarvis then changed the focus of the club to “Mother’s Friendship Day,” where mothers of former Confederate and Union

During the last year, many of us have realized that the news media is sensationalized. I think we always knew that it was, but the events of the last year have really brought it out. I remember as a young elementary school student learning about yellow journalism, and I feel that has truly taken hold in our mainstream news media. Not all news publications have great covers such as “Smells Like Summer” or “April Fools: No Joke Connolly’s to Reopen!”

I have taken to Twitter quite often to see