Toto, we're definitely not in Brooklyn anymore

Thirty years ago, I gave up my Brooklyn rent-controlled apartment that was in my family for four generations to move to Long Island.

My wife was pregnant with our second child, and we needed more space. We grew up in one-bedroom apartments. We went from living vertically to horizontally. I miss having a superintendent on the premises.

We had some basic requirements: a parking spot for our car, three bedrooms, and at least 1½ baths. When we moved into our home in East Meadow, I finally had a backyard where I could barbecue. I found humor in telling relatives that we lived so close to a bowling alley that I could hear the pins drop.

We enrolled our children, Amanda and Lathan, in the local public schools. They both attended Nassau Community College and Hofstra University. My daughter was inspired to become a pre-K teacher on Long Island, and my son pursued a career in marketing. We heard Sen. Chuck Schumer so often at local graduations talk about "losing" his girlfriend as a young man that my son could recite the story verbatim.

My wife, Lauren, and I were determined to utilize as much as Long Island had to offer. Our children learned to swim at the Veterans Memorial Park Pool in East Meadow. The first time they went off the high dive, my heart skipped a beat. Adventureland reminded me of Nellie Bly Amusement Park in Brooklyn.

I discovered Long Island bagels are better than Brooklyn bagels. The Cradle of Aviation Museum provided me with an understanding of Long Island's contributions to the race to the moon. We attend as many community events and street fairs as possible, learning about neighboring communities. It is comforting to know, when I press "home," my GPS will take me to East Meadow.

My children learned to drive practicing in empty Long Island parking lots. We went from watching the various holiday parades as residents to my wife and I watching our children march as Scouts or play clarinet in the East Meadow High School marching band. I was never a football fan, but I attended every home game when they were students there. When a parent asked me what position my child played, I responded "clarinet."

My family mourned the loss of the Islanders when they left for Brooklyn. Seeing the Barn, Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, sitting dormant during hockey season is depressing. The chance to see major league sports and concerts on a five-minute drive from our home, depending on the traffic lights on Hempstead Turnpike, is sorely missed.

Most important for me was finding a local temple where I could connect to my Jewish identity and my community. I learned the importance of volunteering in back-to-school donation programs, cooking meals at Ronald McDonald House, and donating food to those experiencing food insecurity on Long Island.

There is still so much on Long Island to experience beyond Jones Beach Field 4. From one generation to the next, the Long Island experience will start again when I walk my daughter down the aisle in Huntington in November. Then she will start a new part of her life together with her husband in Suffolk County.

Reader Howard Lev lives in East Meadow.