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Steven Pirozzi, a lifelong resident of Mastic and Shirley, is known by locals mainly because he’s grown up with so many of them.
What many people don’t know is that Pirozzi, 51, is the man behind the popular Facebook page, The Shirley Drive In, which was started in 2011 to share nostalgic photos and memories and now has more than 30,400 followers.
“I figured no one would know we had a drive-in,” said Pirozzi, who would attend movies with family and friends in the property that is now the South Port Shopping Center in Shirley.
When superstorm Sandy hit, Pirozzi, who never lost power, started sharing information with followers about where to get items like food, water, clothes and gas.
That’s when things started to change with the group, and for Pirozzi.
“You’re doing such a good job, why don’t you stay with that,” he recalled a friend saying.
Someone showed him how to make memes, which are a combination of comments over photos, and people started liking those. He now shares everything from calendar items to stories by local news outlets or other groups, like Long Island Sun Chasers.
If it’s a heart-warming, he’ll share a story that doesn’t have a specific local connection.
“I check every local newspaper to see what’s going on,” he said, starting his day at 5:30 a.m.
His wife, Stephanie, who gets annoyed sometimes when he interrupts dinner to post a “breaking” story, has encouraged him to expand his reach beyond the Shirley-Mastic area if he’s getting interesting tips.
“I have positives and negatives,” Stephanie said of Steven’s participation in the page. “I think it’s good for the community to have a conversation in a forum where they are not judged.” The big negative is when people get angry about when they are mentioned in less-than-flattering posts such as local arrests, which, she stresses, are public information.
“People say, ‘I can’t believe you did that, that’s disrespectful.’ I think people take that personally. It’s not meant to be personal.”
And while she does get occasionally get annoyed if Pirozzi spends too much time on the page, she says she can’t get angry, because she has her own activities that keep her from the house. “So it’s a trade-off.”
At one time, Pirozzi was sharing information about local DWI arrests, but he stopped doing that after receiving some death threats.
“What I do I do for free,” said Pirozzi, who started the page while working at a press operation that printed a number of local papers.
“I know the neighborhood. Sometimes I‘d see something that wasn’t accurate.” He said he wanted to start something where readers would think, “He knows the community. He knows the facts.”
“I heard people refer to me as Long Island’s community page,” said Pirozzi, who considers Harry Chapin, who started the Long Island Cares food bank, as a role model.
Pirozzi said he’d love to have different historical photos of the area to share, including those of the drive in, which ran from 1953 to 1988, and any photos of the former Skippy’s restaurant, which was located in the space occupied by the current Ralph’s Famous Italian Ices & Ice Cream across from the South Port Shopping Center.
He’d also love to get a picture with Billy Joel. “Everybody has a Billy Joel story. I’d love a Billy Joel story.”
Pirozzi gets annoyed when people knock the area and when they complain and don’t do something about it.
“I hear the people crying, ‘I wish there was something I can do about that’ …. Take the initiative. You can’t do anything by just complaining. You have to get involved.”
For the first time, Pirozzi is going to go in front of The Shirley Drive In followers tomorrow around noon for a live chat to get feedback.
“The people in the neighborhood are going to tell you what they are thinking,” he said. “I’d rather get feedback from people in the neighborhood than a politician.”
