‘Aren’t We All’ discusses love, loss and life in Mineola

Rebecca Klar

Every night at 9:30, Michael Gallagher would sit down with his father, John, to talk about his day.

Michael would discuss patients who came into his Mineola-based physical therapy practice, whom his father knew from his years of living in the area.

The conversations often felt one-sided Michael said, because his father, who later died, suffered from a stroke and couldn’t communicate well.

“But it really wasn’t one-sided … he got just as much out of it, if not more out of it, than I did,” Michael said. “My dad’s biggest asset was his ability to tell a story, and his ability to talk to people. So the scariest thing to be taken away from you at that point is your voice, so then I kind of became his voice.”

Those talks turned into recordings Michael made driving to and from work to retell his children.

Michael ended up with a bag of 52 tapes, he said.

From there, he put it all together in a book titled “Aren’t We All,” which was self-published.

“These stories are not any great revelation, they’re just stories about an American family, a Long Island family, and its ups and downs, the good and the bads,” Michael said.

Michael was raised in Mineola, as was his mother. His father was raised in Williston Park.

Michael has since moved to Cold Spring Harbor, but with his practice based in Mineola he said he feels as if he never left.

The book is packed with stories about life growing up in the area, Michael said. There’s a part recounting how John played basketball for St. Aidan’s, Corpus Christi and Mineola High School all on the same day, “because the priest lied about where he lived,” he said.

There are other tales about John’s time working as a soda jerk at Hildebrandt’s on Hillside Avenue.

A photo of the Gallagher family on a trip to the Jersey Shore, shortly before John Gallagher’s stroke.
(Photo courtesy of Michael Gallagher)

However, there’s also an emphasis on a carousel on the Jersey Shore.

Although Michael and his family have deep Long Island roots, they spend summers in a house on the Jersey Shore – a tradition started by John’s parents.

“His mother and father would pack him up every summer and send him down to his Aunt Ruth’s house, as he repeated the story a million times, ‘On the corner of Carter Edge Street, for the whole summer,'” Michael said.

As a boy, John loved the carousel, Michael said. He had one quarter to ride it, and would spend the rest of his time just watching it circle around.

John continued that tradition with his own children. His family would rent a bungalow, “with mismatched plates and sand in the sheets,” for two weeks each summer, Michael said.

John would only be able to come by on the weekends because he spent most of those two weeks working, Michael said.

Michael, as a way of giving back to his parents and continuing the tradition, eventually bought a house on the shore where his parents spent a great deal of time, he said.

Michael even bought and named a carousel horse after his dad for his 50th birthday.

The carousel is also metaphorical, Michael said.

“We are really on this crazy ride,” Michael said. “There’s ups and downs, but you only get one shot so you have to take the ride.”

Although the book is centered on Michael’s family members and their experiences, he’s found it resonates with readers and their lives, he said.

Michael said 35 strangers, people who didn’t know him but picked up the book, have reached out to him to tell him their favorite part.

Each one has been different, he said.

“So that’s been kind of neat, something written in passing that I didn’t pay much attention to touched somebody else,” Michael said.

Whether it’s reminding someone of the time he went fishing on the Jersey Shore, or reminding him of his first basketball game with his father, Michael said the book reaches out beyond one family’s experience.

He also said that while the book has a backdrop of a horrific event, overall it is a positive story.

“How do you write a book that starts with a stroke and ends with a funeral and make people want to read it?” Michael said. “And I think it’s because it’s a story of everybody’s life.”

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