001thank you Gabe happy [Applause] birthday it's an honor to be able to be here and to celebrate Gabe turning 100 his history here in Ashland has been amazing and that is certainly seen by all of you being here to help celebrate Gabe turn 100 says whereas Gabriel Gabe majuan is being recognized on his remarkable occasion of celebrating his 100th birthday and whereas Gabe has reached the Milestone of 100 years of life signifying a remarkable Journey filled with contributions to our community and Beyond and whereas Gabe grew up in Ashland and attended Ashland Public School as a member of a class having 25 students and whereas Gabe enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 17 he was stationed in Brooklyn New York before returning to Ashland after World War World War II and
002where he's not that old now therefore we the select board do hereby Proclaim Thursday March 20th 2025 as Gabriel majuan day we encourage all family friends and residents to join us in recognizing and celebrating his contribution to our community and we wish you Gabe continued good health and good fortune thank you very much you know over my time here um I've gotten to know you have some uh colorful conversations with you um one thing I love about you is you will never ever ever sugar coat things um you always tell me like it is and that is so refreshing in this business let me tell you have something very special for and what that was was something called the Boston Post can now who has heard of the Boston Post cane raise your hands if
003you knew Tara Ward you definitely knew about it because that's all she could talk about for a few years but the Boston postc was given out by a newspaper about you know in 1909 actually um and it was given to every single City in town that's 351 in Massachusetts um actually I think there were four more at that time it's another story but uh and it was given to every oldest living human in each City in city in town in Massachusetts was to celebrate the oldest living resident and ours had disappeared over the years over the century go figure and until it was found uh by this uh resident given to Cliff who then gave it to terara Ward and that was her crowning achievement as this town but u g I am here to
004present this to you today as ashlin's oldest living resid and I have a cane for you from the Ashy and this one you can have happy birthday my and then word of your birthday got out and so we have a couple more citations uh but read this one Dave citations are good things it doesn't that's true uh okay he was getting his wallet out though so you yeah I missed my opportunity uh so the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the House of Representatives be it hereby known to all that the Massachusetts House of Representatives offers it sincer congratulations to get in recognition of your 100th birthday the entire membership extends its very best wishes and expresses the hope for Future Good Fortune and continued success in all Endeavors given on this 20th of March 2025 uh signed
005by myself your State Rep uh and the Speaker of the House congratulations I mentioned word got out the governor and the lieutenant governor all also signed uh their own uh citation celebrating your birthday uh I I'll read a line from it your 100 years are a testament to the power of love and beauty of a well-lived journey the Commonwealth celebrates you on this joyous occasion and wishes you all the best in years to come signed on this 20th day of March 2025 signed by Mory and Kim Driscoll this one at least looks like a birthday card uh this is from uh us Senator Elizabeth Warren uh throughout your life you have displayed strength of character and commitment to your family and Community people like you are what makes Massachusetts so special uh signed by our
006us Senator Elizabeth Warren and last but not [Applause] least we have one from Senator Ed Marque as well in celebration of a remarkable life on this occasion of your 100th birthday and in recognition of outstanding and invaluable service to your community congratulations and then we have one last one from the Senate President so on behalf of the Senate President we also have a citation I'm not going to read all of it for you but we just want to recognize your 100th birthday and everything you do for our community I never thought I was that well known and Tom anyhow I want to thank everybody for coming and thank you for everything you've done for me thank you very much hello everyone we are here at the Ashland Senior Center celebrating Gabriel majuan uh Gabe he
007turns 100 today how are you feeling at 100 Gabe good yeah good and old yeah good and old good and old so I noticed that they gave you at some point they gave you an honorary high school diploma just after the war because I didn't go to I didn't graduate right right and I had they gave me the town gave me a high school diploma Y at the uh School up here what's that what's now the middle school well I I saw the picture of it and the the pr the superintendent at this time was Richard Hoffman yeah that's right okay yeah okay wow so what was that like going back and getting that and well it's to have a diploma you know because you know you miss all the prom and all that stuff
008you know right right right what what has been I mean you've gone through a 100 years of life what has been your favorite thing or what what in your life has given you the most Joy horse horse horse okay I love horses uhhuh that's when I bought that horse with the uh bonus money they gave us from the service yep they gave us $200 I think was and that's when I bought the hor for $2 right and I had them for a couple years and I love to ride horses just love horses and I was when I was growing up only English I knew was from the radio M cuz my folks would talk to a regular the language they know you know y so is that what Italian or no Armenian Armenian okay so
009English ad was from the radio listen to The Lone Ranger okay yeah oh wow so when I went to school that's when I picked up the English but I I didn't know no English at all the to's grown see when I was growing up there was I I think maybe 1500 people in town yeah and it was tree s wi yep and then uh one police chief yeah and I had a lot of trouble with him and then there was um it was hardly any hardly anybody here yeah and and when you came back did you have any interest in getting involved in either the local government or running for a board or yeah I ran for um I ran for planning board once uhhuh and um there was five other guys running too oh
010wow and the guy that run was the one that owned crossy Grove you ever heard of that I have heard of that it was gone before I came to town but he's the he's the one that won the planning board oh wow and I for me being a young guy I still got 200 and some OD votes surpr good for you and you never decided to run for anything else again no no no too busy we had a farm we had thousands of chickens you know oh wow thousands of chickens I didn't realize that oh yeah we we had 5,000 bruts oh my goodness yeah I wish should the egg price were higher Now 50 cents a dozen right right yeah how things have changeed yeah yeah yeah well Gabe it's it's been a pleasure
011for me getting to know you over these years thank you and happy to see you hit a 100 yeah me too yeah and uh yeah keep celebrating okay we'll celebrate again at 101 yeah okay I don't know if I'll make it then well let's I'll try yeah sounds good well that's our interview with Gabe uh also has been called Mr Ashland um and many other things