During their leave, vacations, any chance they could, Gill and Dawn Goering returned to the place they always thought of as home.
Gill Goering and Dawn Bell met in kindergarten at Clinton Central School. She lived on Elm Street with parents Gladys and Austin Bell, he on Kirkland Avenue with dad Red and mom Mary. The route between the two houses proved an easy distance to traverse when the two began dating the year before their high school graduation in 1959.
Both come from families with deep roots in the Clinton community. Gill’s great-grandfather helped construct the Kirkland Town Library, his grandfather served as mayor and his dad as fire chief.
These days they are back on Elm Street, living in the house where Dawn grew up. Getting there was a journey that took them around the United States and Europe as Gill spent 30 years in the U.S. Air Force.
“No matter where we were living,’’ Gill said, “if someone said where’s home it was always Clinton.’’
After high school, they dated long distance as Dawn headed to Oswego State to earn a teaching degree and Gill went to Brown University in Rhode Island. “I majored in…