GARY'S LIFE IN DELAWARE

Gary with Pastor Ingram at a picnic in the Worthington's back yard.

GARY’S LIFE IN DELAWARE
[Abridged Version]
Gary was transferred when he lived in Pennsylvania to Delaware by the Firestone store that he worked for in Trenton, he had asked for the transfer.
He moved into an apartment in Dover and worked at the Firestone store in Dover and later bought a trailer in Dover. He was soon dissatisfied with that job and started applying for jobs in the area. He applied at George & Lynch a concrete plant as a truck mechanic. He was hired and started working there, he then started looking for a house in the area.
He bought a run down farmhouse on two large lots in the area and moved into it. The house was barely livable so he started to make improvements. Before he was done he had completely gutted the house and rebuilt it inside, he sided the outside of the house with vinyl siding and put in new windows.

DON & MARSHA LaDuc

During this time he had met Don & Marsha LaDuc, Don ran a surplus store for Nanticoke Home’s, a home builder in the area. Don and Gary became best friends. Gary would stop at the store often and buy surplus building supplies from Don This made the renovating of the house much cheaper. I think he sided the whole house with siding he bought at the surplus store. Every time they would finish a house they would bring all the leftover supplies to the store and Don would sell them.
George & lynch were supplying concrete for new runways at the Dover air base, whenever the concrete was rejected the drivers would call Gary at work and he would rush home and meet them there where he had already formed a new driveway at his house and a slab for the garage. This way he poured all this concrete for just tips to the drivers. It was a lot of concrete, a very large driveway and a 28’ x 28” slab for the garage.

Gary could figure most things out, but building the garage scared him so he called his brother Jack in Michigan to come down and help him. Gary sent the plans to Jack and he made up a material list and Gary had all the material delivered to the site.

Jack came down with a couple of friends and put up the shell of the garage. Gary made a second floor he wanted us [Helen & Me] to move into when I retired, which we did before we moved to Florida. Gary worked hard with a lot of help, and covered the shell with plywood siding, and put a roof on it. He later sided the garage with vinyl siding from Don's surplus store

The building was now closed in and the inside could be finished at a more leisurely pace. Helen and I would go down almost every weekend and stay and help him then go to church with Gary and his family Sunday then drive back to Pennsylvania Sunday evening.
I could not begin the name all the friends that helped Gary with this project. Gary had a lot of friends that he had helped with various projects and they helped him whenever he needed help.
After this he decided to replace a small room on the side of the house and make it into a master bedroom with a bath, this was a big job but that didn't faze Gary, he went ahead at nights and weekends and finished it. He and I also put central heat in the house, it only had a kerosene heater in the living room when he moved in.
One day on a Sunday we were in the driveway and Gary looked up at the house and said that bedroom on the second floor needs a window, He said “come-on lets go up to Lowe's and get one“, before I went back to Pennsylvania that evening that bedroom had a window. If you would give Gary a bucket of drywall mud and a couple tubes of caulk he could do any home improvement. This is just the way Gary did things.
I know I have left a lot out of this story, but I don’t want to make it to long.

Shirley and Pastor Ingram at the Space Center, notice the launch pad in the background.

Comment by Shirley Ingram I remember a lot of the Delaware story, it seemed Gary was his happiest when he had a project in process. But it was always fun to get the grand tour after the completion, he was really excited and rightly so. I am Pastor Ingrams wife and we enjoyed the Kenney family in our church for many years. Gary always ready to help or give advice to assist in any need. He had many friends and will be missed. Shirley Ingram