Bellport High School Class of 1977


Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we'd choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way


It was more than thirty years ago, the year was 1977 and we had just graduated from Bellport High School. We were 17 or 18 years old. We were looking forward to:

  • going to college or
  • beginning our careers or
  • getting married or
  • beginning a family
  • moving out of Bellport or maybe to putting down roots there.

It’s been a long journey since then. This is a space where you can walk down memory lane.


Click here to see pictures from High School and since then

Coming Soon! Click here to see pictures from the 2008 ‘Mini’ Reunion (July, 2008)

30th Class Reunion

Bellport High School Class of 1977

Click below to see pictures from our 30th Reunion (July, 2007)

Click on any photo below to enlarge

30th Reunion   30th Reunion   30th Reunion
     
30th Reunion   30th Reunion   30th Reunion

Highlights From The Year 1977

State of "The Arts" Sports Headlines
In The News Economics
Breakthroughs In Medicine

State of "The Arts"

Nonfiction:
  • Dispatches by New York author Michael Herr, who covered the Vietnam war for Esquire magazine and uses some fictional devices
  • Samuel Johnson by Harvard scholar W. Jackson Bate
  • The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by Chicago-born historian David McCullough
  • The Limits of Altruism by Garrett Hardin
  • One-L: An Account of Life in the First Year of Harvard Law School by Chicago author Scott (Frederic) Turow, 28, who uses his legal training to inform novels
  • The Complete Book of Running by New York-born writer James Fuller "Jim" Fixx, 45, who capitalizes on passion for jogging
Fiction:
  • The Flounder (Der Butt) by Günter Grass
  • Daniel Martin by John Fowles
  • The Thorn Birds by Australian novelist Colleen McCullough
  • A Season in Purgatory by Thomas Keneally
  • Lancelot by Walker Percy
  • The Professor of Desire by Philip Roth
  • Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
  • Beggarman, Thief by Irwin Shaw
  • The Golden Child by English novelist Penelope Fitzgerald
  • The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien
  • The Shining by Stephen King
  • Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler
  • A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion
  • Property of by New York novelist Alice Hoffman
  • Death of an Expert Witness by P. D. James
  • The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré
Poetry:
  • A Part of Speech by Leningrad-born poet Joseph (Aleksandrovich) Brodsky
  • This Body Is Made of Camphor and Gopherwood by Robert Bly
  • The Venetian Vespers by Anthony Hecht
Painting:
  • Looking at Pictures on a Screen and My Parents by David Hockney
  • Nude in Profile by Balthus
  • Untitled Film Stills (black-and-white photos) by NJ artist Cindy Sherman
  • Self-Portrait by photo-realist Chuck Close
  • Ocean Park by Richard Diebenkorn - continued a series begun in 1967
  • Figures in Landscape by Roy Lichtenstein
  • From a Day with Juan by Georgia O'Keeffe
Theater:
  • The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel by David Rabe 4/24 at New York's Longacre Theater, with Al Pacino, 117 perfs.
  • Gemini by Philadelphia-born playwright Albert Innaurato, 28, 5/21 at New York's Little Theater, with New York-born actor Danny Aiello, 43, 1,789 perfs.
  • Da by Irish playwright Hugh Leonard (John Keyes Byrne), 49, 7/18 at the King's Head Theatre, London, with Eamon Kelly, Tony Doyle, Mike McCabe
  • The Gin Game by East Baltimore-born Dallas adman-playwright D. L. (Donald Lee) Coburn, 36, 10/6 at New York's John Golden Theater, with Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, 518 perfs.
  • A Life in the Theater by David Mamet 10/20 at Theater de Lys, with Ellis Rabb, Peter Evans, 288 perfs.
  • Dracula adapted by playwright Hamilton Deane 10/20 at New York's Martin Beck Theater, with Frank Langella, 925 perfs.
  • The Elephant Man by Brooklyn, N.Y.-born playwright Bernard Pomerance, 36, 11/17 at London's Hampstead Theater, with David Schofield as John Merrick
  • Chapter Two by Neil Simon 12/4 at New York's Imperial Theater, with Cliff Gorman, Anita Gillette, Judd Hirsch, Ann Wedgeworth, 857 perfs.
  • Annie 4/21 at the Alvin Theater, with Philadelphia-born actress Andrea McArdle, 13, as the cartoon character "Little Orphan Annie", Boston-born actress Dorothy Loudon 43, as Miss Hannigan, music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, songs that include "Little Girls," 2,377 perfs.
Television:
  • Donny and Marie 1/23 with Marie and Donny Osmond
  • Roots 1/27-30 with LeVar Burton, Cicely Tyson, Maya Angelou, Ben Vereen
  • Eight Is Enough 3/15 on ABC with Dick Van Patten, Diana Hyland (later Betty Buckley)
  • Three's Company 3/15 with John Ritter, Suzanne Somers
  • Soap 9/13 with Katherine Helmond, Robert Guillaume, comedian Billy Crystal
  • CHIPS 9/15 with Larry Wilcox, Erik Estrada
  • Logan's Run 9/16 with Michael York, Richard Jordan, Jenny Agutter, Neva Patterson in a sci-fi series
  • Lou Grant 9/20 with Ed Asner, a spinoff of the Mary Tyler Moore Show
  • The Love Boat 9/24 with Gavin McLeod
Films:
  • Woody Allen's Annie Hall with Allen, Diane Keaton, Shelley Duvall
  • Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind with Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut Fred Zinnemann's Julia with Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards
  • Herbert Ross's The Goodbye Girl with Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason
  • Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 with Robert De Niro, Gerard Depardieu, Donald Sutherland, Burt Lancaster, Dominique Sanda, Sterling Hayden
  • George Lucas's Star Wars with Peter Cushing
  • Herbert Ross’s The Turning Point, written by Arthur Laurents and starring Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Tom Skerritt
  • Badham's Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta, music and lyrics by The Bee Gees, include "Stayin' Alive," "How Deep Is Your Love," and title song
  • Martin Scorsese's documentary The Last Waltz about The Band's farewell concert at Thanksgiving, 1976
Popular Songs:
  • "You Light Up My Life" by Joe Brooks, (title song for film); You Light Up My Life (album) by Debbie Boone, 21
  • Rumours (album) by Fleetwood Mac becomes the largest-selling pop album
  • "Fly Like an Eagle" by Dallas-born rock singer-composer Steve Miller
  • "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffet;
  • "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols, banned by the British media.
  • My Aim Is True (album) Elvis Costello, includes the single "Alison"
  • Songs in the Key of Life (album) by Stevie Wonder
  • Blondie (album) and Plastic Letters (album) by the New York "New Wave" rock group Blondie
  • Reba McEntire (album)
The Top 40 Singles of 1977:
  1. "You Light Up My Life" - Debby Boone (First chart appearance: 9/17/77; Highest position: #1)
  2. "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" - Andy Gibb (5/28/77; #1)
  3. "Evergreen" - Barbra Streisand (1/8/77; #1)
  4. "Undercover Angel" - Alan O'Day (5/7/77; #1)
  5. "I Like Dreamin'" - Kenny Nolan (12/11/76; #3)
  6. "Dancing Queen" - Abba (1/22/77; #1)
  7. "Torn Between Two Lovers" - Mary MacGregor (12/25/76; #1)
  8. "Higher And Higher" - Rita Coolidge (6/11/77; #2)
  9. "Best Of My Love" - The Emotions (7/2/77; #1)
  10. "Southern Nights" - Glen Campbell (3/5/77; #1)
  11. "Angel In Your Arms" - Hot (4/2/77; #6)
  12. "Don't Leave Me This Way" - Thelma Houston (1/29/77; #1)
  13. "I'm Your Boogie Man" - K.C. & the Sunshine Band (4/2/77; #1)
  14. "Margaritaville" - Jimmy Buffett (5/7/77; #8)
  15. "When I Need You" - Leo Sayer (3/26/77; #1)
  16. "Telephone Line" - Electric Light Orchestra (7/9/77; #7)
  17. "Rich Girl" - Hall and Oates (2/5/77; #1)
  18. "Slow Dancin'" - Johnny Rivers (7/30/77; #10)
  19. "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" - Meco (8/22/77; #1)
  20. "Rocky (Gonna Fly Now)" - Bill Conti (5/7/77; #1)
  21. "Things We Do For Love" - 10cc (1/29/77; #5)
  22. "Weekend In New England" - Barry Manilow (12/25/76; #10)
  23. "Hotel California" - Eagles (3/12/77; #1)
  24. "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" - Leo Sayer (11/6/76; #1)
  25. "Nobody Does It Better" - Carly Simon (8/27/77; #2)
  26. "Whatcha Gonna Do" - Pablo Cruise (6/11/77; #6)
  27. "I've Got Love On My Mind" - Natalie Cole (2/26/77; #5)
  28. "On And On" - Stephen Bishop (7/23/77; #11)
  29. "Do You Wanna Make Love" - Peter McCann (5/21/77; #5)
  30. "Sir Duke" - Stevie Wonder (4/16/77; #1)
  31. "Got To Give It Up" - Marvin Gaye (4/23/77; #1)
  32. "Dreams" - Fleetwood Mac (4/30/77; #1)
  33. "Carry On Wayward Son" - Kansas (2/5/77; #11)
  34. "Easy" - Commodores (6/25/77; #4)
  35. "Lonely Boy" - Andrew Gold (4/16/77; #7)
  36. "Feels Like The First Time" - Foreigner (4/23/77; #4)
  37. "You And Me" - Alice Cooper (6/11/77; #9)
  38. "Car Wash" - Rose Royce (12/11/76; #1)
  39. "Keep It Comin' Love" - K.C. & the Sunshine Band (8/13/77; #2)
  40. "Don't Give Up On Us" - David Soul (2/19/77; #1)

In The News

  • Steven Paul Jobs and Stephen Wozniak introduce the Apple II, the first personal computer. Displaying color on a TV set used as a monitor, the Apple II with eight expansion slots becomes the best-selling personal computer until the IBM PC.
  • A baby mammoth frozen in ice for 40,000 years is recovered in good shape in the Soviet Union.
  • General Telephone and Electronics uses optical fiber cables to transmit live telephone calls in the first large-scale trial of fiber optics.
  • The first linked ATMs are introduced by a Denver-based credit card processor.
  • A cyclone and flood from the Bay of Bengal November 19 leaves 7,000 to 10,000 dead in India's Andhra Pradesh State.
  • Congress amends the Clean Air Act of 1970, setting new dates for achieving air-quality standards with new restrictions on air pollution; the amendments allow California to set even stricter limits in an effort to reduce smog. Automakers install catalytic converters to reduce tailpipe emissions by 90% to meet the California law.
  • Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, 36, goes before a firing squad at his own request January 17 at Utah State Prison after a 10-year moratorium on capital punishment in America. Four shots are fired into his heart. His execution will be followed by 150 more in the next 15 years.
  • New York's .44-caliber killer continues his murders, shooting 8 and killing 6 of his victims. Police arrest psychotic Yonkers postal worker David Berkowitz, 24, August 10; he claims he has acted on orders from the dog of his neighbor Sam Carr, 64, who does not know him.
  • TV comedian Freddie Prinz dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at Los Angeles January 29 at age 22.
  • CIA director George H. W. Bush resigns January 20 and President Carter appoints Chicago-born four-star admiral Stansfield Turner, 52, to succeed him.
  • President Carter proposes a national energy program as import of foreign oil continues to rise despite higher prices. Calling the situation "the moral equivalent of war," Carter urges conservation efforts coupled with waste reduction and higher fuel prices to discourage consumption, but millions of Americans insist that the "energy crisis" has been fabricated by large oil companies to obtain price increases. Gas prices average less than 70¢ per gallon in most areas.
  • A power failure worse than that of the 1965 blackout New York occurs on July 13 and continues for 25 hours during a heat wave. Looters break into shops and business loss from theft and property damage come to nearly $150 million. Con Edison will be found guilty of negligence.
  • The Orient Express that began service in 1883 makes its last trip into Istanbul from Paris May 22. Most travelers prefer to cover the 1,900 miles in 3 hours by air rather than take 60 hours by rail.
  • A KLM Boeing 747 pilot misreads tower control instructions at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands March 27 and collides on takeoff with a fog-shrouded Pan American 747 still on the ground. The accident kills all 249 aboard the KLM jet plus 333 of the 394 aboard the Pan Am jet.
  • Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen win a lawsuit against Altair 8800 creator H. Edward Roberts and retain rights to their software programs when Roberts sells his company. Microsoft grows to become the world's largest seller of computer software, making Gates a billionaire before he is 30.
  • Ethnologist-adventurer Thor Heyerdahl constructs a reed ship named the Tigris in Iraq and embarks with an international crew for a 4-month, 4,000-mile expedition to test Heyerdahl's theory that ancient Sumerians may have come down the Tigris River, proceeded down the Persian Gulf, crossed the Arabian Sea to what is now Pakistan, and wound up on the Red Sea, thereby spreading their culture throughout southwest Asia and the Arabian Peninsula.
  • The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence by Brooklyn, N.Y.-born Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan, 42, widens public interest in astronomy.
  • Elvis Presley dies at 42 at Graceland on Tuesday, August 16, 1977 having earned 55 gold singles and 24 gold albums, and sold more than 600 million records around the world.

Breakthroughs In Medicine

  • Balloon angioplasty begins to revolutionize treatment of coronary heart disease. The first such procedure on a human is performed during bypass surgery in May at St. Mary's Hospital, San Francisco. By 1995 more than 400,000 patients per year will receive the procedure in the US alone.
  • Amsterdam surgeon Henk de Kok publishes the first article on laparoscopic appendectomy, a technique he invented in 1971 and has used on 30 patients.
  • The first MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanner is tested July 2 by Brooklyn, N.Y., medical researcher Raymond V. Damadian, 39, whose diagnostic tool will be widely used to detect cancer tumors and other abnormalities without exposing patients to X-ray radiation or exploratory surgery. The FDA will approve commercial sale of MRI scanners in 1984.
  • The world's last known natural case of smallpox is reported October 26, in Somalia. When no further cases are reported after 2 years, the disease that once killed an estimated 500,000 people per year will be considered eradicated, but biological weapons laboratories will retain samples of the virus.
  • US scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium that caused the "Legionnaire's disease" first reported last year.
  • Mammography for breast-cancer detection increases with the use of new film/screen techniques employing very low X-ray radiation doses and a Xerox process that produces breast images on charged selenium-contact aluminum plates that are then transferred to special paper. Women are encouraged to self-examine their breasts, consult a physician if any suspicious lumps are felt, have biopsies if their mammograms indicate any abnormality.
  • US scientists report May 23 that they have produced insulin from bacteria in the laboratory, using recombinant DNA techniques of genetic engineering to change the bacteria.
  • The American Cancer Society sponsors the first Great American Smokeout in November. The event will be held hereafter on the third Thursday of each November and will be instrumental in helping thousands of Americans give up the habit.

Sports Headlines:

  • Oakland beats Minnesota 32 to 14 at Pasadena January 9 in Super Bowl XI.
  • Björn Borg wins in men's singles at Wimbledon, Virginia Wade in women's singles; Guillermo Villas, 25, (Arg) wins in U.S. Open men's singles, Chris Evert in women's singles.
  • Philip Morris sponsors the first Virginia Slims tennis tournament to promote a cigarette brand whose advertising targets women.
  • The New York Yankees win the World Series, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 4 games to 2.
  • Seattle Slew wins U.S. horse racing's Triple Crown.
  • The Portland Trailblazers beat the Philadelphia '76ers 4 games to 2.
  • The Montreal Canadians beat the Boston Bruins 4 games to 0.

Economics:

  • US GDP (1998 dollars) - $2,026.90 billion
  • Federal spending - $409.22 billion
  • Federal debt - $706.4 billion
  • Median Household Income - (current dollars): $13,572
  • Consumer Price Index - 60.6
  • Unemployment - 7.1%
  • Cost of a first-class stamp - $0.13