SEPTEMBER 2019 5350 YEARS OF MEMORIES
time, ran his car on the old runways of a
decommissioned United States Air Force
base called Mitchel Field.
“We were more or less allowed to run
our cars down the old runways of Mitchel
Field, which is now the site of the Nassau
Veterans Coliseum. Incidentally, it’s also
next to the site where Charles Lindbergh
took off for his historic flight across the At-
lantic. We would run our cars, and as long
as we shut down before the area where
the remote-control airplane guys shared
the other end of the runway, everyone was
happy.”
Cruising with girls at his side, thunder-
ing down dragstrips, and blasting along
old runways was quite typical of the Long
Island car scene back in the day. But for a
stretch of time in 1969-1970, Pagliocca also
used his 409 in a very unusual way.
“That’s a funny story,” he recalls with a
hearty laugh. “The Impala was pressed into
service as a delivery truck for a while. In
1969 and ’70, my buddy Ed Rodgers and I
were working in the appliance department
of the local Times Square Stores depart-
ment store. Ed and I would get a whole five
dollars to deliver and then set up washers
and dryers. Getting the appliances to the
buyer’s home was our responsibility, andEd had a 1969 Olds 4-4-2. The appliances
obviously wouldn’t fit in a trunk of a 4-4-2,
but the deep trunk well of a ’63 Impala had
enough room! We would split the five dol-
lars, and with a gallon of gas costing around
33 cents, that would be half a tank of gas for
each of us. With the kind of fuel economy
4-4-2s and 409s got, every bit helped.”
When Pagliocca went off to Penn State
University, he took an Opel Kadett wagon
with him and left his beloved 409 in stor-
age at his parent’s house. But the Impala,
which he says is the most reliable car he
has ever owned, was pressed back into ser-
vice when the overly enthusiastic driver of Pagliocca, right, drove his girlfriend Sue,
his cousin Laura, and his friend Al to their
1969 high school prom in style. This Impala’s immaculate trunk holds a
few treasures from back in the day, including
Henry Pagliocca’s Class of ’69 Sewanhaka
High School shirt, a class winner trophy
earned in July 1969 at New York National
Speedway, and a drawing of the car he
created on February 25, 1970. After it was decommissioned as an Air
Force base and before much of the land
was consumed by the Nassau Coliseum
and other development, Mitchel Field was
a gathering place for car enthusiasts who
blasted down its old runways and just hung
out. Sadly, Pagliocca believes his SS409 is
the only car in this photo that still survives
to this day. In 1969-1970, Pagliocca worked in the
Major Appliances department of a now-de-
funct retailer called Times Square Stores,
and used his 1963 SS409 to haul the wash-
ing machines and other appliances to the
customers’ houses.