Friday, December 31, 2010
It’s been said that it is not how long we live, but how well we live. John LaGrou lived both long and well, and showed us how life should be lived- with honesty, hard work, love for family, friends and employees (who always felt more like family and friends anyway), and by giving back, time and again. Even in his passing, he set an example so that we might someday have the same dignity and grace that he showed.
When I first asked John for a job at Long Point Park back in 1970, I didn’t know what a wonderful world I was entering. Being able to watch people have fun all day riding the rides, sharing the food, enjoying each other’s company, and having a magical day at the lake was a joy, and it was the caring work by John and the rest of his family that made it possible. Without his labors, so many things wouldn’t have happened: the children that surmounted their fear by riding the Little Dipper for the first time, the parents that overcame their own fears by letting their toddler ride the little boats, the teenage boy who, by gently rocking the Ferris wheel car while it was stopped at the top, got the girl he liked to cling to him tighter, the family who couldn’t afford much, but who could afford the ride-all-night-for-$1.25 Fridays, the family reunions that would fill up the picnic pavilion, and would send large empty bowls to the French fry stand for filling, the girl who would impress her guy by skating backwards, the little boy who would beat his older sister at miniature golf who somehow, didn’t even get the par one on the eighteenth hole, the older couple who would sit on the bench by the merry-go-round and reminisce about their years on Conesus. These and thousands of other moments became fond memories for people who were touched in some way by their time at Long Point. What an amazing legacy to leave.
I’ll remember John, not as I saw him recently, but as he was in his early forties, at the park, wearing his plaid shirt, walking tall as he made sure things were going well, his eyes ready to sparkle with a smile that was often there. Unlike many of today’s businesses, he cared more about his customers than about the bottom line, and more about his employees than his profit. His wealth, whatever it was financially, was greatly exceeded by the wealth he had in family, friends, and experiences. And he made all of us the better for our time with him. It is an honor to have known and worked for John, and my thoughts and hopes are with Alice, Steve, Diana, Tom, and the rest of the family…….
