Gene had met Nila Fay Hungerford in grade school when he was about fourteen and she was twelve. They were sweethearts for several years until they graduated in 1951. Shortly thereafter they were married on Fay’s parents’ lawn. Gene was eighteen years old and Fay had just turned sixteen, three days before. 

As a young man, Gene worked at a local bowling alley as a pinsetter.  This was long before there were machines putting the pins in place. He has mentioned that sometimes the bowlers threw the ball so hard that pins would fly up and hit him in the legs and that other “smart-alecs” would bowl the ball before he was done setting the pins.  

Wanting to earn more money, Gene learned about sheet-rock and house-building. Seeing a large building boon all over Central New York, he built a company he called “Big G Drywall”. Over the course of 54 years, he worked on thousands of homes and would go on to teach all of his sons this important family trade.

In 1957 Gene bought a trailer park property on State Route 176 in South Hannibal, NY and put a house trailer on it for the then family of four. He pulled in rental income off the property and saved to buy 40 acres across the woods in South Hannibal from Adelbert “Del” Keller for which Keller Rd is named. Gene moved the trailer and the family to the new property in 1959 and began adding on extra rooms to accommodate his fast-growing family. In October of 1961, Gene and Fay welcomed the birth of their sixth child, Darren Karl - or as you may know him - That Dude. I just call him Dad. 

Even more space was needed to house all of those dang kids and in 1962, my grandfather put the finishing touches on ‘The Big House,’ which is where he still lives today. He went on to purchase more property from a neighbor farmer “Bob” Haws.  And when Bob retired, Gene purchased the farmhouse too. Through the years, he went on to build and build some more all while buying up more properties.

Once he purchased the fields and wooded area between The Big House and the Haws farmhouse, he decided to build his “Big G Lodge”, a space designated for family events and his long-running poker nights. This building was next to a small pond which had a pump that supplied water to the farmhouse. He filled this large building with antiques and oddities, tools, taxidermized animals, and things he picked up from the auctions he loved to frequent. A “gun room” was also included to store the varied collection of weapons he had acquired through auctions and purchases from friends.

One morning, someone saw smoke coming from The Lodge and found it engulfed with flames. It was found out later that some sparks from the fireplace had come through the screen during the night and caught the wooden structure ablaze. Very little was able to be saved from the conflagration.

A great insurance policy allowed for a speedy rebuild and that is The “G” Lodge as we have it now.

Darren keeps busy at the property, he can typically be found mounted upon the 4-wheeler, dragging entire trees from the woods for the massive bonfires he builds nearly every night of the festivals.

We invite you to come out and visit The “G” Lodge this season.

Thank you for taking the time to read about our family!

We look forward to seeing you at The “G” Lodge this year,

Cheers, Gabi Gauger