Editor, Gazette-Journal:

On Father’s Day many of us were reminded why raising children can be both hard and rewarding. To have decent law-abiding adults honor you with their calls, cards or just their company to say thanks is reward enough and if you are lucky, a small inexpensive gift doesn’t hurt either. Some were fortunate enough to celebrate high school graduation this year at this time. For a child to do well and have at least high school under their belts is a great family event. To those who did, congratulations and good luck.

For me and several neighbors on my road, Father’s Day also had a downside. Some social miscreant coming down Rt. 198 about noon decided our road was a great place to dump a truckload of party trash. Their Tervis Tumbler boxes, gift boxes from Williams-Sonoma mingled with loads of empty beer boxes (strangely the bottles and cans were gone, must be recyclers) and $300 worth of food scraps (found the signed receipt). I think there is a not-so-proud father out there who knows where it came from. We picked it up, talked to the sheriff’s deputy and went back home to continue our meals.

Gloucester’s Sheriff’s Department proved once again to be a waste of tax dollars since I could have said sorry to myself. I asked if they could be cited for littering. The response was only if he had seen them in the act. Our road is private so I asked if they could be cited for trespassing; again, only if he saw them. His only suggestion was if I could figure out who it was he would go talk to them. Big deal, my five-year-old granddaughter could do that. As a proud father I am glad none of my kids went into law non-enforcement.

S. J. Mehaffey

Gloucester, Va.