Robert Lamanna

Alfred G. Berner High School

Class of 1968

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Robert Lamanna - Class of 1968 - Alfred G. Berner High School

First Name	Robert
Last Name	Lamanna
Graduation Year	Class of 1968
Gender	Male
Current Location	Huntington, NY
Hometown	Huntington, and second house, also in Huntington, New York
Relationship Status	In a Relationship
About Me	Hi, All, After High school I went went to college for a year an a half, and was then, burnt in a fire, and could not take my second semester finals. With the summer off, and the first semester off, I started a carpentry business, that with in, 6 months, I realized, I would be making more than an industrial teacher, that I was going to school for. I did that for about, 9 years, and had, about 4 to 6 people working for me. Wanting to try something different, I got a group together, and, it was suggested, that I may like to be a model maker, for toy companies. If it didn't work out, I knew, I could always, go back to the carpentry business. So my First Job, was with Mego toys, ( at the time the 3d largest American toy manufacture). A year and a half later, I went to Ideal Toys, in Jamaica Still a model maker, I was promised a step up to management, after the next Toy fair, was over, only to be told, that, they could get someone, right out of college, and pay them less, then upgrading me. So instead of working for a 1000 plus, employee company, I took a job, with very small, Nasta Industries, who was privately owned, and only did a whopping 8 Million dollars a year. There I stayed, for 12 years, going form a Director of Research and Development, to a Vice President of R & D. When the company was sold, due to the owners retiring, we were now doing about 55 million dollars a year. My responsibilities, were product development, form, concept to production. Which, included, looks like samples, works like samples, for sales, mechanical development, electronic development, licensing, packaging, and the actual, tooling development, to produce the toys. This all, required me to travel all over the world, mostly to Hong Kong, ( about 85 to 95 times), around the Us, and Europe. Some times I spent as much as 6 months a year traveling. After that I became VP of R & D, For Tyco, Preschool, which was then, a 450 million dollar company. Eventually I got very tired of the rat race, and retired at 50, years old, just after 911, When the frightened public, were not spending as much, on non necessary spending. Enough of my business life, now is some of my personal side. I got married, in 1978, To a quite woman, that I thought were a very good mix, I was always very full of energy, and she helped to slow me down, and she being the quite type, really seemed to enjoy the excitement that always surrounded me. Unfortunately, we both reverted to being ourselves, I enjoyed traveling, and business, wanted her to go on trips with me to places like Hong Kong, but, all she wanted to do, is raise the kids. Michael was born in September of 1980, and Kim was born, in July of 83. After 10 years, I felt like the reason, we were together, was to have kids, and nothing else, no us! So she stayed home and read books, and raised the kids, and I traveled the world. Within a few years, we were divorced By then, I had a prominent job, enjoyed Sail boat racing, and Skiing. From club racing, to around Long Island races, where we never placed lower than third in our class, we then did longer cruses, from up to Main, to down to the Caribbean One of the best experiences of my life, was when a friend of mine bought a 45 foot sailboat, in marina Del Ray, California, and wanted me to sail it home with him. At first I didn't want to do the trip, because I had just started a new job, after trying to take a year off, which only lasted 3 or 4 months. My friend, blew in to some trouble, off the coast of Costa Rica, and called, me, and ask that I inquire about getting a new set of sails made for the boat. So in the time it took to have the sails made, I managed to get my self fired, on purpose, and flew down to Costa Rica, on a free, frequent flyer flight, which began, both me taking a year off, and also sailing from the west coast of Costa Rica, down to and threw the Panama canal, around to Grand Cayman, with two close buddies, where one guy had to leave, leaving just my friend and I to sail, from Grand Cayman, around Cuba, to Key West, then home to New York. Finally sailing, into New York Harbor, and up the East River, couldn't have been more exciting, unless, it was on the evening of the forth of July! Skiing was always, just a great amount of fun. From skiing, all over the east coast, on all that lovely ice, I finally went out to Colorado for a week. I couldn't leave the place. My first trip out, I wound up skiing, 17 consecutive days, before I came home. Out their, I skied places like The Wall at Arapahoe Basin, the upper bowls, of Keystone, Copper, and Breckenridge, Vail, Winter Park, Steamboat springs, and also places like the Black Forest, in Germany, and many more. Fast forward, many relationships later, I retired, at 50, and just did Antique car maintenance, for people, who had, some very nice, and rare, expensive cars. Some of those old customers, became, very close friends, to this day. Around June of 2006, I was helping, an old couple in the neighborhood, take down a tree on their property, and my life changed for ever. I was standing at 28 feet off the ground, on a ladder that was tied to the tree, and about 18 foot off the ground, the foot or so thick tree broke. ( there was a bowling ball size hollow, from a wood pecker, that none of us saw ). And down I came, smashing my L4 vertebrae, which lead to a 14 hour operation, to fuse my L3,L4, & L5 vertebrae, I also broke my left wrist. From June to December, I was in a hospital bed, today I'm still riddled with pain, I have good days, and bad days, but I'm alive, and I got to see, 5 Grand kids, born, so it's not all that bad, is it. Sad thing, is I can tell you when it's going to rain, way before, it ever starts. A year later I met Carol, we have been "contently " together ever since. Life's good, and as I get older, and older, I so much enjoy, restoring cars, I have nine to keep me busy, some I take out in parades, and show, some are totally apart, the one, I'm focusing on now, is a 1967 Jaguar, XKE, 4.2, series one. Once done, I want to break it in, then trailer it to places, like Lime Rock, in Connecticut, or Watkins Glen, upstate, New York, and run the ____ ouf of it! I'm as energetic as I was in high school, and weigh, almost exactly the same as then. Go Figure! To find out more, lets mee...(read more)