My Editor’s Window column in the July 3, 2026, edition of Fire Island News opens with the following paragraphs:
Fifty years ago, I was 10 years old, having my school picture taken. Unlike prior years, the students and I were instructed to hold a miniature replica of the Liberty Bell in recognition of the Bicentennial. How silly I felt holding that little thing. I remember it clearly, even though a half-century has somehow flown by.
Although I did not fully understand it at the time, perhaps I remember it so well because it was a shared experience. If you were alive then, you remember something about the Bicentennial. Now here we are, nearly full circle, and the Semiquincentennial, or America 250 as it is being referred to, is here.
We try to make every Fourth of July edition of Fire Island News special, but we took extra time to meet this tall order—because our visions of the American experience are both diverse and united by a common bond. Perhaps that is what our forefathers envisioned when they put pen to paper and signed the Declaration of Independence.
Of course, we strive to make the issue of Fire Island News that lands on the cusp of the Fourth of July fun and festive, but on this milestone year, flash and color simply were not enough. So, we set out to examine a fundamental question: What does America 250 mean to the people of Fire Island and Long Island’s South Shore? Each writer came to me with a different answer, creating a delightful patchwork that made perfect sense.
For longtime Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines columnist Robert Levine, that meant looking back to when he boarded a water taxi 50 years ago to become one of the founding “Invaders” of Fire Island Pines during the Bicentennial year, thereby founding a tradition now a half-century strong.
For veteran Long Island reporter Linda Leuzzi, that question was answered through a broader lens as she visited the Suffolk County Historical Society Museum in Riverhead, where a special exhibit explores the American Revolution from the perspective of the New York county where we live.
Leuzzi’s journey to SCHSM is how the cover artist, Marlene Weinstein, came to be featured, alongside 30 female artists exhibiting at the venue, each contributing their own unique voice and vision to the same question.
History columnist Christopher Verga sought answers in a slice of time on Long Island that reflected American life.
In our Behind the Dunes real estate section, that question is also answered by two architects and by the legacy of aesthetics they have built, one structure at a time, in Fire Island Pines.
This issue is not without its share of Fourth of July fun, however. Bestselling author Jane L. Rosen opens her beach bag to present you with a summer reading list. Brett Brubaker takes us to dinner and a show. Then, of course, Samantha Salerno and our stalwart team of interns present the most comprehensive list of where to go and what to do for this region of Long Island over Fourth of July Weekend and beyond.
On behalf of Fire Island News and Schneps Media, we wish you a safe and joyful summer holiday weekend, and God bless the United States of America.
