Making Wantagh Home Again
If you had asked me ten years ago where I’d be raising my family, I never would have said Wantagh. Both my husband and I grew up here, so the thought of staying in the same town felt all too familiar.
When we started our home search we were constrained by the commuter train to Manhattan as that’s where both our jobs were at the time. We met with real estate agents and looked at homes throughout Westchester and even back on Long Island in Rockville Centre. Nothing felt quite right so we paused our search and stayed in the city.
About a year later, after having our first child, we were living in Astoria, Queens, and the opportunity came up to buy my grandmother’s house—in Wantagh. We went through the pros and cons and decided it was the right move, but it would be temporary. We moved in the week of our son’s first birthday, in October 2019.
Just a few months later, Covid changed everything.
I was pregnant with our second child. We were stuck at home, scared. Our jobs were now fully remote until we were told otherwise. We had visits with our parents through the glass storm door. We didn’t know what to do, or not to do to keep our family safe.
Even in those dark times, friendships managed to blossom on socially distanced walks with neighbors who would turn into close friends. We could feel ourselves settling in and putting down roots. And all of a sudden our temporary situation started to feel permanent.
When we first moved in, the house was still “grandmother’s house.” It took about two years for us to really feel like it was our home, to put our fingerprint on it. But there’s a comforting legacy in this home that will always be here while we layer on our own memories and traditions.
And this town; while some things have changed since I was growing up here—goodbye Hemingways and Wantagh 5&10, and don’t call the school Beech Street, it’s now Wantagh El— so much has remained the same. The supportive community and pride in living here is even more than I remember, strengthened by things that bring people together such as the summer Thursday Night Lives and places like Workshop.
The familiarity which I used to see as a con, has become a pro. While there are the occasional and unavoidable run-ins with former teachers at The Irish Poet, we’ve found our village here, of both old and new friends that have helped us rediscover this town as parents. So here we are, home again in Wantagh, and we couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
By: Jackie Kuron
Jackie & her family | Photo by Saltwater Smiles
