Thursday, December 13, 2018
It is with great sadness that I learned of George's passing. He was my neighbor, my bus driver, my boss, a mentor, and perhaps to a friend. I learned an incredible work ethic from him. His sincerity, honesty, kindness, humor, and relentless commitment to his dairy farm are things I remember most about him. As a young kid growing on the incredibly sparse streets of Weeks Mills, whenever he would see me riding my bike, he would always swerve toward me, then pull away at the last minute. It happened for years. I grew to understand it was his way of saying "Hi" in a friendly way. He gave everyone "in town" the chance to work for him during the summer. Difficult work, yes, but he always paid us slightly more than minimum wage. It taught us to work for what we wanted. It showed incredible respect on his part to treat us ungrateful teenagers with far more respect than many of were worthy of at the time. Every day at 3pm, we loaded into his truck for a soda run, which he paid for. He opened up his barn to us during the winter so we had a place to play basketball. For all the years I lived in Weeks Mills, I only saw the good in George. There were two terrifying nights where he was at home -- once was a false alarm for a chimney fire and once while I watched the neighbor’s house burn. Even during hectic moments as those, his kind eyes reassured me things would be OK. As is far too common in life, we grow apart, move away and often fail to stay in touch with the people that matter to us. Just this past week, I was telling my own son of the stories and experiences of living around and work at "George's Farm". I had even talked to him about shipping him off there this next summer so that he too could learn a good work ethic. Sadly, my son will never know the wonderful man that so many of us did. George was an inspiration to hundreds, if not thousands, of people in a small community. He touched our lives at through various phases of our lives. Everyone knew him as a dairy farmer. How many people knew him as a town leader and surrogate father to all he oversaw? George, I wish I could have seen you once last time -- to tell you stories of my own children and to let you know your unspoken efforts did not go unnoticed or in vain. Thank you for everything. Mike Viens mikeviens@gmail.com
