By John Tozzi
Gallotta, 83, spent 40 years helping students at PS 162 cross the street there, retiring only last month before another cold winter set in in earnest.”You stand 40 years in one spot, everybody knows you,” Gallotta said this week. Gallotta was born in New York but went to Italy with her family when she was 5. There she went to school and became a teacher. When she came back to Queens after World War II, she was denied a teaching job because of her Italian accent. Instead, married and a mother of two, Gallotta applied to be a crossing guard at PS 162 when her children were going there. She lives just three blocks from the school on the border of Fresh Meadows and Bayside, and in her four decades of helping children cross, starting at 7 a.m., Gallotta has become a neighborhood fixture. “I've been crossing the children of the children,” she said.The job has changed since she started in June 1966, with more aggressive drivers and more students flooding into the streets.”There are more people, more children, more cars,” Gallotta said. “Sometimes I'd stand in front of the cars and tell them slow down. It's very dangerous.”Gallotta is not the only crossing guard who has worked 40 years in the area. Yolanda Cima has also had a four-decade tenure. The pair, and five others who have served between 11 and 28 years each, were honored by the 111th Precinct and Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) Tuesday. Gallotta had a grand send-off when she retired in January, with flowers and cards from students, parents and teachers.Over the years she has been honored with plaques, a watch and, after 30 years, a pin with three blue stones in it — one representing each decade of service.Gallotta said parents would often bring her cups of hot tea on chilly mornings. The personal connections she made sustained her through 40 cold winters.”I loved the people. You go there and you forget everything. I start to talk to people, and all the people are like, 'Good morning, Anna!'” she said.”I really had a beautiful job. If it weren't for the weather, I would never quit,” she said.Reach reporter John Tozzi by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300 Ext. 174.
