Leonard Gokey

I can remember when I was just a kid  ,and all the political scandals with Richard Nixon and Watergate . I remember you sitting in your chair in the livingroom watching the TV and the hearings. It seems as though it were just yesterday that I would say good night to you and you would stay up to see how each of the elections would turn out. In the end I guess that somehow you having such an intrest in the elections and the politics of the country may have shaped each one of us as to our intrest in the elections. I can remember you and Mom going over to the Grange Hall around the corner to vote. I pay alot of attention to the elections now, somehow it has come to me to realize just how important they are.  I will be sitting up late on election night to find out who we'll have for the next President. and through that night I sure that I'll be thinking about those times that you had shown such a strong interest in them.

Well we returned home a couple Days ago , Iit was a good time and we enjoyed being able to see Mom. While there Ted and I was able to install some crown Moldings in the living room. I guess that is when It seemed that you have never really left us, You have such a presence in that house and of coarse there are many pictures of your life through-out the house and Mom has your picture right there by her side , Everyone who enters there speaks of your name as though you may be expected in through the door at any second. I am glad to have made the trip and to have spent time with Mom,  but in a way I feel as though we were able to spend a little time with you as well, and it was the same at camp on the Lake . We had Mom and Marge up for a day and we all had a good time, I remember when I we would get Aunt Stellla from the Dawn and spend the Day there with her.  Our memories of you there and the storys you told lived on in our hearts and our heads, and it was as though you were right there with us.

Linda ,Ted ,and I are off to camp for the first time in a few years , since you have left us.  We will enjoy a week visiting with Mom and the rest of the Family , just relaxing and taking it easy for a change will be nice , it has been a busy summer for us this year.  Even with all of the people we will be visiting it will be tough to know that it will be a week at camp without you coming up to spend time with us ,playing cards , having a barbeque, or just sitting around a fire listening to the stories that you would tell. It sure was some of the best times that we ever have had with you and Mom . I know that far away that it may feel that you are from us , You will be right by all of our sides helping us remember all those times and putting a smile on our faces with the thought of you sitting back having a cigar and telling a story.  Love you Dad , and we miss you everyday !

The Fair In Malone started this week and it has always pr oven to be a busy week for the Little town of Malone. Busy for us at Roby Street as well , I can remember early on before I could work at the fair helping Mom grind up the peppers and onions for the Michigan sauce, that sauce would simmer in a big kettle and in the end She would divide it all up into gallon size containers to be used each day at the families " DOG STAND".  I remember how exciting it was to have the opportunity to work there at the fair , it came only as one of my older brothers stepped away and there was then a shortage of help.  I guess it may have been when my brother John could no longer work the fair that I was able to then step in and work along side and learn from David how to handle this hungry mob.  It was always just before and after a grandstand show that we would need to be prepared and ready for the floods of fair-goers that would fill the mid-way in front of our stand and before you knew it they were standing three and four deep asking for one of those glazier dogs with some of Mom's Michigan sauce!  This all started years and years before when Mom and Dad would set up and run this stand , and originally they would not even be set up in the fair ground gates ,it was located at first on the corner of the Main street and Raymond Street in front of where the 340 Club was. Then in later years they moved it in to the Mid-Way inside the gates where through the years all the brothers had there opportunity to try there hand at being an entrepreneur . I think that this must have been where Dad first came up with the saying " We don't make a lot of money but we have a lot of fun "  ,I was never quit sure about the fun part because it sure was a lot of long hours and hard work to get ready for it ,run it ,and then clean it all up in the end. There must have been something that kept bringing us back year after year, maybe it was the people , it sure brought them out of the hills.  I remember one character that ended up becoming somewhat of a family friend to us all , "Gomer" now he was a real character , originally from Malone area he left with the fair and traveled with them for a number of years, whenever the fair returned to Malone he was certain to come and eat at the " Dog House" usually a few times a day and toward the end it would be after he had a few at the Beer tent. One time he ordered a Michigan and proceeded to eat it along with the napkin it had been wrapped in.  After his time with the fair , he ended up there in Malone and would often show up at Roby Street to help Dad with any number of jobs and tasks that dad would have him help with.  He was a good guy and passed away a few years before Dad did.  Trust me if Heaven has oil tanks ,right now Dad is delivering one and he has a helper by the name of Gomer.  The Fair had its good days and bad , Later in the years after we had  all retired from the Dog House, Dad continued his ventures there at the fair with the Dunking Tank , The High Striker , and Sales. While there one year caring on with his business he witnessed a shooting that took place right on the mid-way. Dad loved his time there at the Fair and I think sometimes it was as much" the people and the excitement" as it was the money.  This week David carries on Dad's tradition of being a part of the fair.  The "DOG HOUSE" has long been gone now but its memories and the experience that it provided for all of us helped us all become businessmen in later years.  I wonder if Dad had any idea that what he had started back more than 60 years before would still be carried on this fair week so many year later. When Dad passed away a few years ago He was Honored and Memorialized during the time of his death, The Fair Association let everyone know that the Franklin County Fair had just lost a very valuable asset to the fair when the put on the electronic marquee a Condolence and a tribute to his passing.

Well its July and another fourth has passed us by , and the heat of the summer is here . I was thinking about those times we spent together at the fireman's fieldays . Its funny how those days and times stick in my head and help me remember some of the simplest times that we had with you but yet seem so important to remember today!   I remember something you always would say  " We don't make a lot of money but we have a lot of fun "  Maybe you were trying to tell us something ...that being ,we still have the memories of all the fun , and certainly if we had made lots more money we no doubt would have spent it by now .     I guess having those memories are now worth all the money in the world and something I would never trade away for anything or any amount of money.  Its to bad to see today the number of people  that put money ahead of those good  time memories......money isn't everything.  As the summer heat rolls on I Will find some solace in those memories that I have of you back in them days with the high striker and the dunking tank , your apron and your cigar , listening and telling stories to the passer- by and eventually selling a few swings of the mallet or throws of the ball . They were the best days ! A dozen steamed little necks ,  corn on the cob , a Michigan dog, and a cold beer. 
This summer seems to be passing us by pretty quickly as we get closer to August , we will all  have some great new memories to hold on to this year as your  Great-Grandson Liam Edward has made his debut ,  and your Granddaughter Christine has become Mrs Chris Landry .
I guess the important thing is that  I need to remember is that no matter how much financial and monetary riches I may acquire through-out my years they will be shadowed by the wealth that have in the memories of the fun we have experienced with each other and our families .