You Can't Keep A Good Family Down

Thank you to Gordy Arlin for submitting this to the Mukilteo Beacon. Highlight of my day!
Mukilteo Beacon Online Letter

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TUESDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2009 19:33

In 1975, Emory Cole was my employer. He hired our band to play at his Lake Forest Park nightclub/restaurant several times for weeklong engagements, and he was always our favorite club honcho.

As a club boss, he set himself apart by being immediately friendly, gracious, soft spoken and upbeat. He would welcome us by our first names.

Always a sharply dressed man, too, Emory was just plain classy.

Later, he was my host at the wonderful and greatly missed Seahorse Restaurant in beautiful downtown Mukilteo. He and his dear family were five-star restaurateurs who welcomed us like old friends and fed us like kings.


More than a hundred times I delightedly devoured their entrée-sized spinach salad! Crunchy, slivered almonds throughout and that killer salad dressing!

And how about that Sunday brunch?? Don’t get me started.

When Emory and Molly relocated to Silver Lake, they did it again, another knockout premium restaurant, fortunately just a skip and jump away. Beautiful view, too!

Again they endeared themselves to their new community, who were doubtless pleasantly surprised to realize the degree of hospitality and world class cuisine that the Coles had just dropped on their doorsteps.

Emory’s became Silver Lake’s number one cozy fireplace, neighborhood good meeting place. No surprise.

And how about Mayor Emory? I loved that stuff. To this day I think that the perfect government for Mukilteo would be Doug Kimball as president and Emory Cole as vice-principal – a stern vice-principal with a paddle in his office that he wasn’t afraid to use. Then Mukilteo would again move forward smartly

Our hearts broke when we learned of the destroying fire. I can’t imagine the oppression that the Coles are now compelled to function under – 50 dear friends unemployed and assets in ashes.

I add my heartfelt prayers to yours for the mitigation of their suffering. I pray also for a blessed, smooth and rapid swing back into full battle array on every front for Emory and his dear family. When many people pray, marvelous things occur quickly.

Here is what is going to happen. The Coles will man up and excel. The pall will pass within days rather than months.

After addressing all of the emergency concerns and helping to find jobs for his 50 friends, Emory will take one day off to catch his breath and count his blessings.

He will allow himself a nightcap of some fine cognac.

He will sleep in late the following morning. He will savor a cup of coffee and a muffin.

He’ll put some Mancini on the stereo, and retire to his den.

He will don a green, see-thru visor, light a cigar, and deliciously sit down at his drawing board to conceive and design the restaurant of his dreams.

It will be realized and constructed in a trice.

Many of the old staff will joyously return to the fold, and the joint will be jumpin’, Captain Emory beaming at the helm.

The grand opening will be a weeklong party, and the happily exhausted Coles will then offer a toast to the universe, saying: “This is even better than before!”

You can’t keep a good family down. Dear Emory, we love you and are rooting for you and yours in prayer every day!

Gordy Arlin
and Mukilteo friends