Ed Ryan's Experience on Oak Neck Lane, West Islip, New York

When I was in school back in the 70s we called Oak Neck Lane “The Lane”. We had a lot of friends down there. We, of course, is me and a lot of friends was more like I knew some people who lived down there, but I did spend a lot of time there back in my day, hiking with Mike Tornabene in Gardiners Park or Kayaking in Trues Creek behind Monica Powells house. But it wasn’t until I was a little older that I realized there were some pretty amazing people living on “The Lane”. There was also some pretty amazing characters. Most everyone I knew from ONL knew “Uncle Zack”. He was the guy with the opera pit in his living room. Zack was from Greece and he really was my friend Nicks’ uncle. Zack had an opera house right inside his house and members of the New York City Opera would allegedly come to visit him and sing in his living room for him.

One of my favorite ONL personalities of all time was my friend “Walter”, yes my friend, I really was friends with Walter. Walter’s in-laws owned what we knew as True Harbor, a 12+ Acre waterfront retreat on the East side of Oak Neck lane, at the foot of Trues Creek. I met Walter when we had the listing on True Harbor. It was by far the most expensive (and therefore the most important) listing we had at that time. Well I was fortunate enough to get a binder on Walters property and that’s when I saw how really hard it was to keep a big deal going. We had a contract signed by the buyer 3 different times with 2 different attorneys and still we couldn’t keep Walters family happy. My job was to keep walter happy. Jim Netter would give me $50 and say to go buy Walter some beer and chicken wings. Walter liked hanging out at Frankie BZs’ so I would go down and get hammered with Walter and keep my deal going for at least another day. Well my deal never did close (story for another day) but it took a long time to develop (and then undeveloped). So, Walter and I got to drink a lot of beers and eat a lot of wings together.

Today the face of Oak Neck Lane has changed. There are scores of fabulous new "mansions" and very few original owners. If you are looking to purchase a home on "The Lane" give me a call! I just happen to have a couple of great ones "FOR SALE" and who knows, maybe you’ll meet some interesting people too.

Call Ed Ryan Today! (631) 661-5100

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