Real and Replica Bobcat Machines Cover Day and Night

Young Dash Kowalonek developed two strong passions as a toddler: he loved watching his dad operate the family’s Bobcat® UW56 Toolcat™ utility work machine during the day, and he hated going to bed at night. His nighttime routine was the dread of the family’s home in the northeastern Pennsylvania town of Lake Hauto. If Dash didn’t sleep, no one in the house could either. His parents, business owners Luke and Kristy Kowalonek, resigned to let him sleep with them to provide a little peace. 

But something had to change.  

Like Father, Like Son 

The desire to work like dad runs deep in the Kowalonek family. Just as 2-year-old Dash loves to sit on a miniature Bobcat loader while he watches the real machine in action, his dad Luke grew up watching his own father work in a family business that is now in its fourth generation. It was through that business that he learned to use skid-steer loaders to unload shipments from the truck. Luke’s dream of buying a machine of his own came true after becoming a father, and that purchase fueled Dash’s passion for Bobcat machines. 

“I had always wanted my own Bobcat machine,” says Luke, who was experienced using equipment at work and the family’s home. In 2022, he went to his local dealership, Highway Equipment & Supply Co., to buy the Toolcat machine. “My wife asked me if it was as good as I thought it would be. I said, ‘Yeah! This is the best thing I ever bought!’”  

While the benefit to his work projects was obvious, he couldn’t have known his new machine would also inspire a solution to his son’s bedtime struggles. 

Family Links 

The Kowalonek’s family business goes back to March of 1911, when Joseph “Dziadzi” Kowalonek opened a small grocery store in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles west of Lake Hauto. The groceries themselves were not the big draw. It was the family’s homemade kielbasy, crafted in the kitchen next to the store, that attracted people from all over the area. The pork sausages were so popular, they became the namesake of the business: Kowalonek’s Kielbasy Shop. More than a century later, loyal customers make hours long drives to bring home the nostalgic flavors that remain unchanged since the beginning. 

“We have people drive to the store from Maryland, Virginia and other states just to get this kielbasy,” Kristy says. “There’s a line out the store that runs a block or more around the holidays.”  

The couple’s daughter, Vayda, says she wants to be the fifth generation to work at the shop when she grows up. The family business is in good hands. And the breakthrough to improve the family’s sleep situation at home was about to happen.