Time Machine begins a series of occasional visits to sites of local events that made news far beyond Long Island. Rescue workers dug in shifts to reach the boy without causing more sand to fall on him. A hose was pushed down to supply oxygen. The well was filled in within days of the rescue. In the recent photo here, the well was to the left of the home.
Today there is nothing to mark the spot, which sits between mature oak and pine trees.
Frank Boncore, a former Islip town councilman who bought the house in 1988, says he did not connect his home with the 1957 incident until he found newspaper clippings in the attic and confirmed the events with a neighbor. The story is rarely discussed, Boncore says, unless reporters come around, or if he brings it up. The house in Manorville today. At left, an aerial photo shows the rescue in progress on May 17, 1957. Workers dug a parallel hole and removed sand by hand and with a special vacuum.