‘She had tears in her eyes’
Lehigh Valley widow is reunited with her husband’s old scrapbook
Ernie Vargo was quite the farmer, even in his younger years. In 1939, at age 20, he went to the national 4-H competition in Tennessee. He won a gold watch and $680.
His family didn’t know about that honor until recently — and only because of the kindness of a stranger who ended up with Vargo’s 4-H scrapbook.
“My father was very humble,” said his daughter, Kathy Dempsey of Forks Township. “He never told us any of this stuff.”
The book of photos, awards and newspaper clippings could have ended up in the trash several times. But everyone whose hands its passed through felt it was interesting enough to save.
It was returned to the family, appropriately at Christmastime, three years ago. Now the heirlooms are being used to create new scrapbooks for Vargo’s two grandsons.
They can thank Pete Raskovic for that.
Raskovic lives in Wisconsin. He operates a dairy farm, along with an auto sales and repair shop. He collects farm memorabilia, and acquired Vargo’s 4-H book in 2010.
Raskovic grew up in Easton. His grandfather had a farm in Nazareth. He moved west in 2004 because his wife is from Wisconsin.
He’s kept up with his local connections, including with a friend who is an auctioneer. His friend visits him every few years, bringing items that he thinks Raskovic might enjoy.
It was his friend who found Vargo’s 4-H book, a beaten-up binder, while cleaning out the attic of a house in Phillipsburg. He gave it to Raskovic during a visit in 2010.
Raskovic found the book interesting but not particularly compelling, as he didn’t know Vargo. He slid it under his bed with some other books. About
seven years passed before he looked at it again.
He almost tossed it.
“There were a lot of cool pictures, but it didn’t mean anything to me,” Raskovic told me. “Then I sat there and I looked at and I said, ‘You know what, this is somebody’s family heirloom.’ ”
His kids participated in 4-H, and he recalled those good times.
“I can tell you that’s why I was so reluctant on just pitching it. If someone found my daughter’s or son’s 4-H record 80 years from now, I would hope they would return it, because there’s so many good memories in it.”
In December 2017, he went online to see if he could find Vargo. He found his obituary.
Vargo died in December 2008, at age 84, at his home in Palmer Township.
The obituary listed two grandsons. One of them was Scott Dempsey. Raskovic found Dempsey on Facebook and sent him a message.
“Scott, please call me,” the message said. “I have acquired a scrapbook that I believe belonged to your grandfather Ernie Vargo.”
That’s where the story almost ended.
Dempsey is a police officer who has seen his share of scams that start with unsolicited Facebook messages. So he was suspicious.
This one, though, seemed different. “For some reason,” he told his wife, “I think I may respond to this.”
Dempsey looked up Raskovic on Facebook. With Raskovic’s local roots, they had a few mutual friends. So he wrote back the next day. Then they talked by phone.
He told Raskovic that his message came at the perfect time. The ninth anniversary of his grandfather’s death was coming up in about a week. His grandmother, Blanche Vargo, was really down. This seemed like a way to cheer her up.
The retirement center where she lives, Country Meadows in Forks Township, was having a holiday party and he wanted to surprise her with the book.
“She misses my grandfather like you wouldn’t believe,” Dempsey said.
Raskovic shipped the book. Dempsey had it within a week, and his grandmother had it soon after.
“She had some tears in her eyes looking at it,” Dempsey told me. “It was very emotional. Just to see the look on her face when she opened it. She saw these old photos of my grandfather back from when he was a teenager.”
Blanche met Ernie when she was 15.
They started dating when she was 19 and they were married when she was 20. They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary — “not long enough,” Blanche told me — a few months before Ernie passed away.
“He was a wonderful husband ,” she said.
He ran the family dairy farm, which was in Alpha, NewJersey, and she kept the books. He loved his time in 4-H and they would regularly attend reunion dinners. Ernie Vargo sold the farm when he retired.
Manyof the photos in his longlost scrapbook hadn’t been seen by the family before, including some with his sister, who also was involved in 4-H.
“It was nice looking at it,” Blanche, 92, told me.
Kathy Dempsey now has the book, and is dividing up its contents into books for her sons, Scott and Erik.
“I was very touched by it,” she said.
Nearly 900 miles away in Wisconsin, that makes Raskovic smile.
“It’s really theirs, it’s not mine,” he said. “You can read this and you could get the feel of this guy, Vargo. It’s so complete.”