Our Dad, Marvin Neal Brandt was born June 17, 1926 in Reedley (Fresno County), California. He was the second oldest of six children born to Jacob and Agatha (Neufeld) Brandt. Marjorie was the oldest followed by Marvin, Donald, Richard, Eulalia and Allen James “Jim”. They lived in Central California until he was six years old, in the areas of Modesto, Reedley and Dos Palos. The family attended First Mennonite Church in Reedley.
Looking for work, Jake moved the family to Cucamonga where Dad was unable to attend Kindergarten as the town did not offer it. Moving to Alta Loma the following year he began first grade at Alta Loma Elementary School located on the Northwest corner of 19th Street and Amethyst, where he completed his elementary school education. Between school and at First Mennonite Church on Campus Avenue in Upland where the family became members, he met lifelong friends Bob Orchard, Roy Cabe, Dick Clark, and Helen Krehbiel. They lived in many different homes, always renting. They were poor and at one time, lived on Shack Alley, which Monte Vista Street was known as at that time. He recalls getting a 5 cent car for Christmas.
Dad was quiet and had the responsibility of looking after his younger siblings. He began stuttering at age 10 and smoking at age 13. After school the boys would walk out to join their dad in the field where he worked for Dave Dahlem, Roy Cabe’s uncle, plowing 20 acres of land with a horse and single plow, working back and forth doing a single row at a time, until the field was plowed. The boys would walk along beside him. Jake was to rid the field of gophers. He drove his old pick-up to the field, and the boys helped him run a hose from the tailpipe into a gopher hole and start the pickup. With the truck running, the exhaust would fill the hole with fumes. When they saw smoke coming from holes across the field, the boys would run and plug the holes in order to gas the gophers. They stuck the hose in the next gopher hole and began the process over again. Jake planted that 20 acres single handedly in citrus trees.
Dad cleaned the 5th – 8th grade classrooms at his elementary school for 10 cents a room and hoed weeds at the principal’s home for 15 cents an hour. He saved his money to buy his first bicycle for $12 at the bike shop in downtown Upland. He was a Boy Scout with the Old Baldy Council.
Many trips were made between Alta Loma and Reedley where his maternal grandmother, Helena Neufeld lived, along with many Friesen aunts, uncles and cousins from his dad’s side of the family. He remembers Grandma Neufeld’s olive barrel where he ate many an olive and recalls many good times with his cousins Vernon and Harlan Friesen.
Youth activities at First Mennonite Church included Youth Fellowships with other General Conference Mennonite churches in Southern California. Dad drove up with other church youth and ditched as much of the fellowship as he could get away with. He attended summer youth camp at Camp Gaines in the Sequoia National Park.
Dad attended Chaffey High School in Ontario, and although he did not do well in school, he did get B’s in Woodshop. He dropped out in 1943 in his Sophomore year. Dad worked for Schneider Packing House and held other short time jobs. He worked for Citrus Pest Control, a tree spraying company, for a couple of seasons. He drove a water truck and eventually was given his own spraying rig. It took 3 men per rig to do the spraying. He doesn’t know why they were assigned to him, but he was in charge of 3 German War Prisoners around his own age who were brought up each day with their packed lunches from Camp Ayers located at the Chino Prison to work in the groves. Dad said they all got along well.
During WW II Dad served as a Private in the California State Guard Reserves in Upland. He was considered a 4F and was not accepted into the actual Armed Forces due to his stutter, for which he felt ashamed. He joined the Reserves for a year’s term on March 1, 1945. They drove out to San Bernardino for rifle practice and weekly meetings, plus a 2-week training camp in the summer. Their service consisted of guarding a bridge in Fontana. He received no benefits for his service and received no recognition for being in the Armed Forces. He was honorably discharged January 5, 1946.
Cousins Vernon and Harlan would drive down from Reedley and just drop in unannounced at Jake and Agatha’s at lunch time. Grandma would quickly have to add green beans, onions or anything she had, to make enough tuna for sandwiches. Dad and his cousins kept up their close relationship their entire lives.
In November 1945 at age 19, Dad began working for W.C. Cline Co. in Upland. He began as a laborer for $1/hr., moved up to driver, and after two years began cement work, eventually becoming a finisher for $3/hr. As a cement mason foreman he built gas stations for Mobil and Atlantic Richfield. He worked for Cline’s until it was sold in 1968. At age 95 he was the last living Cline employee.
Dad met and began dating Elizabeth Hamilton where she worked as a counter girl and waitress at Zenn’s Café (later known as Neva’s Café) in downtown Upland. He had a 1944 Harley Davidson and a 1937 Chevy Coupe with loud pipes, which cousin Harlan installed for him on a trip to Reedley. When he would drop her off at home, she could always tell from those pipes whether he was headed home or back to town.
Three months after meeting, Dad proposed at Bixby’s Drive-In on Holt Blvd. in Pomona and they eloped to Yuma, Arizona on December 30, 1945. It was a quick trip as they were unable to leave until Liz (mom) finished her evening work shift. When they arrived at Lute’s Wedding Chapel in Yuma in the early morning hours, Dad found out he was under the legal age for a male to marry and needed parental consent. His parents were in Reedley and unaware of their elopement. Dad phoned home and got his brother Donald out of bed and told him to go down to the telegraph office which was located in the Train Depot in downtown Upland where Marvin’s good friend, Lefty, worked. Together, they wired approval for him to get married, signing Jake’s name. Mom bought her own wedding ring for $33 as she was the only one at the time with money. Immediately after their ceremony they drove back home to attend the wedding of Dad’s longtime friend, Helen Krehbiel to Herman Rempel, who were to be married later that same day. Arriving home in the wee morning hours, they found cousin Harlan asleep in dad’s bed and had to roust him out! They wired Dad’s parents in Reedley to let them know they had gotten married. It was years before Jake and Agatha found out what had taken place in the telegraph office.
Dad and mom lived with Dad’s parents for three weeks, after which they lived in several different rentals for a couple of years. Dad recalled one day as he was pulling into his parent’s yard after work, he had to wait for an oncoming car to pass. His little brother Jimmy who was about 2 years old was standing in the yard between two hedges and Dad lifted his arm to let Jimmy know he saw him. Thinking Dad was waving him to come out to the car, Jimmy started to run out into the street. Dad had to quickly jump out of his truck to stop the oncoming car or Jimmy would have been hit.
His friends nicknamed him “Whitey” due to his light blonde hair. His father-in-law, John Hamilton, called him “Cotton”, as he could not remember Dad’s name.
In 1947 Dad sold his Chevy Coupe and after a couple of late 1950’s Buicks, bought a 1928 Model A. One time they putt-putted to Reedley in it. They recall people staring at them, and smiled back as they passed the many vapor-locked cars up the Grapevine. A short time later he sold his Harley Davidson. He was coming down from Mt. Baldy and passed a friend of his driving down in his car. Dad looked back at him, and as he turned back around, he had drifted to the left side of the road, his front wheel was already going up onto the berm where he would have gone down the 50 foot drop. He decided it was time to let the bike go. Interestingly enough, he sold it to a guy who had just gotten out of the service whose father was a cousin of Jake Brandt’s, and had been told to look them up. He heard about the bike and wanted to buy it to ride home to Kansas. Dad sold it to him for $75. What was the guy’s name? Marvin Brandt.
They started their family with the birth of their first child, Sharyn Beth on October 25, 1948, followed by Marlys Diane on February 12, 1951 and four years to the day, Darryl Marvin was born on February 12, 1955. Laura Lynn was born on October 1, 1959.
Shortly before Sharyn’s birth, they moved into a small trailer for six weeks, living behind his parent’s home, then in the street in front of mom’s nephew C.J. Hamilton’s house, and on to her sister Leona’s gas station property on Holt Blvd. near Pomona. They soon realized the trailer was too small with a baby and rented a home on Miramonte Street in Ontario. There was a place in L.A. that could sell their trailer for $800 but they had to take it there. While towing it to L.A., mom looked down to see that Sharyn had turned blue. They pulled into a gas station and Dad ran inside to have them call an ambulance. After being released that same day, a policeman took them back to the truck and trailer and they continued to L.A. It took 6 months for the trailer to sell, but they got their $800.
They purchased a lot on Vineyard in Ontario where they intended to build a home. It cost $800 and they paid it off by making $15/month payments. Dad was earning $3/hr at the time. In 1950 they changed their minds about building a home on the Ontario property and began renting a house at 346 W. Baseline Rd (later renumbered to 9188 Baseline Road), in Alta Loma for $15/month. When they decided to purchase the home for $8,500 in 1951, they gave the landlord, Mr. Gollnick, their paid off lot worth $1,000 as down payment. By then dad was earning $5/hr and their house payments were $50/month.
The property consisted of 2.5 acres and their small 24’ x 24’ home with 4 rooms. It sat back from the road with a single detached garage. The lot was wider on the east side, with a one-acre Valencia orange grove on the north end of the property. Across the north property line was a Eucalyptus windbreak and tall standpipe from which he irrigated the grove. There were small concrete weirs at the top of each furrow. He would lift the small gates on each to let the water flow down each furrow. He tried selling the fruit to an LA packing house but found it not to be worthwhile. The trees were eventually pulled out to make room for a pasture.
Dad began working the property, disking it with a small tractor, and remodeling their small house. He poured the long driveway from the street to the garage, did the plumbing, electrical, building, framing, and most everything else. He had never done stucco so Bill Rappatoni, a Cline employee, came and taught him how to stucco. Dad completed the stucco with the help of cousin Vernon at one point, although he had never done stucco either. Gil Cline built the living room fireplace. Dad added a master bedroom and living room - with the original living room becoming their dining room -, enlarged the kitchen, enlarged the bathroom and remodeled the back bedroom, and added a service porch, second bathroom and large family room with a stone fireplace. From all the years of working and bringing home leftover building materials, he used what he had and they never owed anything on the additions they made. There is no drywall in the house; it is all plaster. In some rooms he covered the lath and plaster, added a board over it and did plaster over that. Sheet rock was not available at that time. He built a detached, enclosed patio with a barbecue and built a block wall between it and the garage to close in the backyard. Dad unearthed an intact Indian clay bowl, only to be broken by a neighborhood child.
Dad planted fruit trees and he and mom planted a garden, which they used for eating, freezing, canning, baking and making jams. They raised their own beef. Dad purchased calves from his brother-in-law, Leonard Imbach, raised them and eventually had them butchered. Marlys and I had the job of feeding them grain once a day. We would go out to the feed shed, open the door and jump back, waiting for the mice to scatter before we ran in, filled a pail with grain, fed the calf(s), ran back out and slammed the door.
Through the years he also raised pheasants, rabbits, and chickens. Our big freezer was always full. Mom’s nephew C.J. rented part of the property to also raise calves and corral the horses he rented out to Girl Scouts and other organizations. One and a half acres were eventually sold and the back property became a storage area for things that he brought home from jobs or was given which he “might use” someday. Dad was a saver.
The citrus groves had to be smudged when the weather got too cold so the citrus did not freeze. Dad helped his childhood friend, Roy Cabe, smudge the 20 acres his uncle owned, and which grandpa Jake had planted years ago. He and Roy built a bunk house on the property to sleep in while the smudging took place. At the time, the entire valley was full of citrus groves and during smudging season, the area was filled with a heavy oily smoke which Dad said made it hard to see to drive. We kids would wake up each morning with black soot in our noses.
Dad had his hair cut in a flattop, wore English Leather after shave and smoked Winston cigarettes. We kids had our baths out on the cold service porch in a large, deep sink. I recall running in after my bath and dad would wrap me snuggly in my bath towel, sit me on his lap in his recliner until I warmed up from my bath. When I had an earache he blew smoke into my ear which calmed the pain.
When I was little, I would watch for his truck from our front window when mom told me it was about time for daddy to be home. As soon as I saw his work truck pull into the driveway, I ran out the back door and down the long drive. He would be so tired, and stooped as he slowly trudged up the drive. He would be in his dirty, cement encrusted tan work pants and shirt, wearing his metal hard hat, and carrying his lunch pail. I would yell “daddy” and fly into his arms. As he lifted me up, I would grab his dirty hard hat and place it on my head, after deeply sniffing that great sweaty hat band, and up the drive and into the house we went.
Marlys and I and probably Darryl and Lori also, spent many Saturdays tucked in beside Dad on the seat of his small tractor as he disked the property of weeds. When mom or Dad filled our wagon full of weeds, we would pull it down to the burn pile for him. Darryl got to ride on top of the weeds in the wheelbarrow. We also looked forward to Saturdays when we could ride in daddy’s truck down to the Cline yard or to check on one of his jobs. Darryl recalls being in Gil Cline’s office and seeing a giant Panic Button on his desk. He always wondered whether it was real and what would happen if you pressed it! If we were lucky, we could sometimes talk him into an ice cream cone. Some weeks he would bring home one of the old, smelly, greasy work dump trucks which he had used on a job and Saturday it would need to be taken back to the yard. You had to be careful not to touch anything or your hands would end up dirty and greasy but I think we all enjoyed getting a ride in those old trucks.
Marlys remembers Dad building us a Teeter Totter, etching us a hopscotch game in the driveway, building us wooden stilts to walk on, and making us a playhouse in the back room of the garage, which he wall papered, and installed an outside door to the backyard. He built 4 chin-up bars; one for himself, Marlys, Darryl and I. Lori was too little at the time. He taught all of us girls to play baseball like a boy, as he taught us to throw, bat and field. Our incentive was a nickel or dime for each fly ball we caught! We each have different memories with Dad, but I think we all felt important when we were able to help him on whichever project he was working on. As Lori says, we enjoyed being his gofer. He taught us so many things from tying knots, to riding a bicycle, building a campfire, rigging a fishing pole, to tie hooks and clean fish, and learning to drive. He gave us many wonderful adventures.
Our yard was always full of neighborhood kids, but when dad arrived home from a hard day’s work, he wanted quiet with no neighborhood kids in the yard. Normally we knew when to send everyone home; however, a few times he came home earlier than expected and would yell at the kids to “Get Home!” If they saw him coming, they dropped whatever they were playing with and scattered.
Long-time, close neighbors were Milt & Ann Hill, Martin & Dorothy Davis and mom’s nephew C. J. & Geneva Hamilton and Guy & Jeannie Wheatley. Many great neighborhood barbecue get-togethers took place at the Wheatley’s. Their yard was full of activity with all the adults and kids.
We did a lot of camping with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends in local mountains, the Sierras and Sequoias. We had the old style canvas tents and when we crawled into our canvas sleeping bags and dad tucked us in, it was a pretty secure feeling.
There were family excursions for picnics, hiking, climbing huge rock outcroppings, and fishing in stocked ponds. Many trips were made to Reedley, Calico, Knott’s Berry Farm for an annual chicken dinner, and in 1966 we pulled our trailer to Indiana to visit Mom’s sister Ramona, stopping at the Grand Canyon and other tourist sites. Other than eloping to Arizona, this was Dad’s first time out of California.
If we could talk Dad and mom out of their Sunday afternoon naps, we took drives around northern Alta Loma and listened to Dad tell us whose property we were passing and any history it had. Many Sunday evening meals were spent with Dad’s parents, our Grandpa Jake and Grandma Aggie, for the German Mennonite meal called fespa, a simple meal of zwieback, deli meat, cheese, and pickles. Dad loved veranika, another German dish which grandma would sometimes make. We had many family gatherings with Dad’s brothers, sisters and spouses.
Dad and Mom were part of the Young Married group at church and were active in rummage sales, church workdays, smorgasbords, and ice cream socials. The comradery, friendships, cutting up and fun they had was incredible to be around. Dick & Ann Clark, Bill & Marilyn Kirk, Herman & Helen Rempel, and Roy & Jean Cabe were couples they spent numerous years with together, playing Canasta with the Clark’s and Cabe’s, having dinner, and camping.
The young men of the church would get together weekly, form teams and play against other churches in various sports. They played volleyball on the outside church court, basketball at a school gym and softball at Upland Memorial Park where Dad pitched, played shortstop and second base. He was very athletic, coordinated and competitive. He had the team’s best batting average, was lead-off batter and almost always got on base with a base hit or a double.
Our family went to most of these games, and we usually got to stop at the Frosty Freeze on Foothill Blvd. for ice cream on the way home. Dad remembered hitting a double and his sister-in-law Jo Anne’s sister, Carol, running out on the field to give him a kiss on the cheek because it was his birthday. He also recalls spraining his ankle running to third base. He was still playing when son-in-law Rich and brother Arnie joined the team and they played together for a time until Dad decided he was too old to play. Dad was also a life-long Dodgers fan. He was on bowling leagues for many years and enjoyed golfing.
Most of Cline’s jobs were in the desert, where they were tearing down or building gas stations for Mobil and Atlantic Richfield. He would head out Monday morning with his laborer and good friend, Johnny Ramirez, and return Friday night. He always phoned home on Wednesday nights and usually brought us some little surprise when he returned home. Sometimes it was a pack of chewing gum, a candy bar, rocks he had found for our rock collections, bracelets for us girls, a Kangaroo Rat (who lived beneath our back porch for years), a garter snake coiled in a coffee can waiting for us to open the lid and scream, and other interesting items. Two favorites were a 4” clay pitcher painted gold with tiny colored rocks covering the body, and when I turned 16, a “Sweet 16” gold bracelet with a red heart stone. We never knew just what to expect, but the excitement always mounted when he pulled in the driveway. (To this day, Marlys and I in our 70’s still scour antique and thrift stores looking for one of those pitchers.)
At age 17, Darryl worked one summer with one of dad’s crews as a laborer, working under our Dad’s brother Jim, who also did some work for Cline, and some under Johnny Ramirez. Dad’s brother Don also did some work for Cline for a short time. We heard that with Dad wearing his hard hat, cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and one eye squinted to keep the curling smoke out of it, he was a pretty fearsome man as he would lay into a younger worker for not doing something properly. They were very wary of him.
Dad shared that he, cousin Vernon and Johnny Ramirez were doing a job out in Desert Center. Gil Cline had rented a small trailer to sleep in, which they towed to the desert. A restaurant and service station were all that were at that location. They ate all their meals at the restaurant and backed the trailer up against a shed at the station. They put a 50 gallon drum of water on top of the shed, attached a long pipe to it and added a spout. The weather was so hot during the day that it kept the water warm and that is where they took their nightly showers.
At another job in Desert Center when building a gas station, they had just lowered the two big empty gas tanks into the ground when it began to rain heavily, causing a flash flood. Dad happened to look up and saw a two-foot wall of water coming down the road straight at them. He quickly jumped on the skip loader, hollered at the other two and they began filling the hole around the tanks as quickly as possible. He had no idea how the tanks did not float to the top because they could not get the dirt in fast enough to completely bury them. The water came right through the gas station and by the time they had finished they were completely soaked. They stayed on top of the skip loader so they didn’t get washed away.
While working in the desert Dad would come home every weekend, but for some reason he does not recall, they stayed there one Fourth of July weekend. Dad did not drink, although would occasionally have one beer. They went over to the restaurant that day and started drinking beer. They sat there all day drinking. He does not know how they did not get drunk and recalls no problems getting back to the trailer. The three of them all worked the next day he said, so they must not have had hangovers. He chuckled as he related this in his 90’s as it was the first time he had ever told anyone about that day as he was embarrassed by it.
In November 1968 he began work as a Project Superintendent for Morgan Lupher Company in Los Angeles. He ran the Union jobs, until the company decided to discontinue Union projects, and was laid off on December 30, 1981. He retired at age 56. In 1979 he had received his 30 year gold card from the Union for his many years in the profession.
Mom was still working when Dad retired. She came home one afternoon and found a freshly baked pie on the counter. Dad had tried his hand at baking, bought a ready-made crust, and the pie turned out well. Mom would not believe Dad had made it and figured a neighbor had given it to them. It took a while to convince her. Little by little he tried his hand at cooking, making jam, canning and baking.
Dad had three of pretty much each tool; one for himself, one to loan out and an extra if the person didn’t return the one borrowed. From a career of construction, helping friends clean out their garage or property (and bringing a lot home), and Yucca Valley swap meets, he amassed a huge amount of “stuff”. Everyone knew to call Marvin if they wanted to get rid of things! He was a saver, and he just never knew when he might need something!
He wasn’t one to be idle and began remodeling his garage in 1978, making it into a machine shop. He purchased machines to sharpen saws, lawnmowers and many other blades. Dad and mom took upholstery classes and reupholstered several pieces of their own furniture, in addition to furniture for other people. Dad began to do remodeling, building, and odd jobs for friends to keep busy. He noticed two neighbors, Don Armstrong and Leon Winberry, pouring front steps and having problems with it setting. Dad went over and let them know they were using the wrong type of concrete and helped them complete the project. They also became good friends. He built a home for his friend and chiropractor, Doc and Betty Klinger, when they moved to Lucerne Valley, and a house for friends Jim and Betty Platt in Yucca. At 80 he laid tile for church friend, Alice Lichti, was still up on his roof many times in his 80’s and early 90’s, and installed wood flooring in his dining room at 90.
Dad and mom had several trailers and motorhomes over the years, a dune buggy, dirt bike and a 6-1/2 ft fishing boat. Our family camped in Death Valley with the Karl and Sarah Klaassen family, out in the middle of the sand dunes which you could do at the time. There were 15 of us in all. Dad had his yellow 1968 GMC pick-up, which we used to get up Mosaic Canyon, which was a 4-wheel drive road. We packed the cab and bed with all of us in it, and with the weight, made it all the way up. People were shocked that the truck was able to get up that road.
They took many camping vacations with Marj and Len, and Jim and Jo Anne, along with other family members joining, to June Lake and Twin Lakes. Dad loved to fish and that was his idea of a vacation. He normally caught more fish than anyone else, and enjoyed shore, boat or deep-sea fishing.
They took a road trip with their trailer to Canada to visit Karl and Sarah Klaassen, and another to Pennsylvania with friends Jim and Betty Platt. They flew to Hawaii twice, and with lifelong friends Dick and Ann Clark they visited England. Dad and mom joined a couple of RV groups where they met Joe and Mab Hoover who they did a lot with and reconnected in their later years with Bill and Marilyn Kirk.
In May 1980 Dad began a vacation house on the 5-acre Yucca Valley property they purchased on Ducor Lane. Until the house was built, most weekends were spent building the two-bedroom home. He put all his own efforts into this project; clearing land, staking, digging, running ground lines, pouring the foundation, framing, building, plumbing, roofing, etc. House construction began in September. A company built the roof trusses for him, but he used old framing lumber and used 2x4s to build the framing for the rest of the house. He made 8’ wide panels that were stood end to end and nailed together. He took the bottom boards out to Yucca and prefit them together, drilled holes for the bolts coming up from the foundation, then took the bottom boards back to Alta Loma and used them as a template to build each panel. He could not go beyond 8’ as that’s the widest Rick Pirdy’s trailer could haul.
When the framing walls were ready, he got as many family members as possible to help and Rick trucked them all out to Yucca in his semi and trailer. There was a lot of help to stand up the framing. Mom and Marj helped put down sealant tape between the foundation and bottom of the framing. Uncle Jim didn’t think it could be done in one day, but the framing all went up. Dad only missed one bolt hole! We all went out periodically to help with the house. I enjoyed helping with roofing on my 32nd birthday!
The family’s first Thanksgiving dinner in the Yucca house was held in 1981. Each year there were new additions or changes to the yard and property. From then on until 1997 when the house was sold, every Thanksgiving was spent at Yucca. Family began arriving Wednesday, surrounding the back and side of the house with trailers and motor homes, bringing dune buggies, dirt bikes, and toys. Dad supplied the grandchildren with go carts made from old lawn mowers and other small equipment. Any time one would quit running, Dad was called over to get them going again. What great and memorable family gatherings were enjoyed over the years.
A few years later the large motor home shed and garage were built. He built a 36’ motor home shed, as that was the longest RV he would ever own. When he bought a 36’ Holiday Rambler, he wasn’t aware a 36’ was generally 36’10” long and the door wouldn’t close once the RV was inside. What a big disappointment that was!
Mom and Dad were very active at First Mennonite Church over the years and were on the church Council. Dad headed the Building Committee for many years and did a lot of work for the church, even installing an elevator to the basement. For any building need or issue, Dad was called. He felt honored to be chosen to remove and replace the church cornerstone for both the 75th and Centennial Anniversary celebrations. Following retirement, he and Darryl worked together to build the church sign which still stands in front of the church.
After “collecting” lots of what the family referred to as “old stuff” over the years, both properties at Yucca and Alta Loma were full of things. Of course once the Yucca home was sold, all his collections from there were added to everything in Alta Loma. Dad had large yard sales, bringing in the money. He bought low and sold high. The size of his yard sales were pretty epic.
Other than kidney trouble in his 30’s, he stayed pretty healthy. After many times of trying to quit smoking, he finally quit in his 60’s when his doctor noticed something black on one of his lungs. Fortunately, it turned out to be nothing, but the scare was enough to cause him to finally quit. He got Meniere’s Disease in 1990 and hearing aids in 1991.
When mom became ill it drastically changed both of their lives. There was no more traveling, and over time they became home bound. Dad was very angry as that was not how he had foreseen his retirement years. He became a caregiver and could be quite gruff at times. It was very stressful and tiring, and it took its toll on him as mom was ill for so many years. To keep busy he did the cooking and baking, cured olives, tried pickled beets and made pickles. He would have his mornings to get away from home and do errands he needed to do, but afternoons and evenings he took care of mom until she became more of an invalid.
Dad and Mom celebrated their 60th anniversary in December 2005. We held a special luncheon for them in January 2006 in Redlands. Fifty guests of family members, lifelong First Mennonite Church friends and others attended. Even Cousin Harlan and Louise came down from Reedley. They thoroughly enjoyed their anniversary celebration.
Dad and Jim Platt used to take fishing trips to Panguitch Lake in Utah. After Jim passed away Darryl took Dad on those trips to enjoy some father/son time. We girls looked after mom at home for those 5 days. The trout were good size, about 1-1/4 lb. and they always caught more than their limit. They either took Darryl’s motorhome or Dad’s Fifth Wheel and fished mostly at Otter Creek Reservoir. They stayed in Stateline on the way out and back so Dad could drop some nickels in the Slots, which he enjoyed. They released most of the fish they caught as the limit was only 4 fish each, including any you had in the freezer. As the Game Warden was right across the street, they also took along quads or golf clubs to deter the warden from looking too closely at their catch! Darryl says that on one of those trips is the one and only time he got a hole-in-one! One year they were catching so many fish, Darryl said, that he was laying on his back in the little Valco aluminum boat they bought together, pulling in fish and not even using a net. As he pulled one in, he suddenly realized it was not a regular sized fish and yelled at Dad to grab the net. He said he pulled in a monster fish. I assume they kept that one! They kept up their yearly trip until the doctor told Dad he could no longer go above the altitude of 5,000’.
They had been married for 72 years when mom passed away. Dad continued living in their home in Alta Loma where he wanted to live out his life. As he said, he was a putterer and if he was in a senior home, he would die as he would have nothing to do.
He golfed weekly until 91, was still climbing ladders, using a chain saw and rototilling. It took some doing to convince him to finally stay off ladders. His good friend and neighbor, Paul Enyeart, would holler at him over to fence telling him to get off that ladder! At age 91, he was the oldest patient of the heart doctor, to have a pacemaker and defibrillator put in. It was a slow climb back to health, but he made it.
He finally decided it was time to clean up the property and get rid of stuff he no longer needed. Some things he came across, he didn’t remember having, or wondered why he thought he needed them. With us kids and spouses helping, he filled 5 trailer loads which were hauled to the dump and two big yard sales eventually took place.
In 2020 he received his 70 year plaque from the Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ Union Local 500. Dad was the oldest surviving Union member with the most years in the Union. What an honor it was for him, and for us to share it with him.
At ages 94-95 Dad enjoyed being out on the property in his electric scooter, he put in another garden that year, planted more trees, did a lot of trimming, sometimes with our help, and still kept busy. He rented out spaces for RV’s on his back property for $30-50/month for many years so he had people coming and going to keep him occupied. Lori suggested he put together jigsaw puzzles which he used to enjoy and that new indoor interest kept him busy and consumed a lot of his days as he began going outside less.
He still drove at 95, although when Covid hit, we began doing his grocery shopping and errands. He was considering giving up driving and selling the car but couldn’t quite do it. Lori helped him apply for his driver’s license renewal online, and surprisingly to us, even with entering his birthdate, he was not called in for a test and his license was renewed until age 100!
No matter where we were with him in the car, Dad would point out where he built his first gas station, where he poured the reservoir foundation for old man Tolstoy, pointed out a block wall he did for someone, where he put in cabinets for a friend, and on and on. We listened to old stories and remembrances and knew that someday we would miss hearing about them. He had seen the area change drastically in his 92 years living in the same area, and he had so much knowledge and area history in his head.
He was indeed a work horse. He could do most anything as far as construction was concerned. He was down on himself as he always felt he never made much of himself. Boy do we disagree!
Throughout his life, Dad was always well-liked and respected by his peers. However, his sense of humor left a lot to be desired as he could belittle or put people down, which he thought of as humorous.
In June 2022 he turned 96. He was intent on reconnecting with his brother Dick’s second wife, Donna, and one of Dick’s sons, Barry, from his first marriage. We were able to make that happen, and he had many good conversations with Donna, and Barry and wife, Cindy, joined us for dad’s 96th birthday which we all enjoyed tremendously, and were able to do a lot of catching up.
At the end of June that year Dad had surgery to replace the battery in his defibrillator which went well. However, shortly thereafter it was followed by a stroke which left him with losses of short term memory and recall, confusion and hallucinations, peripheral vision issues and brain disconnect where he could no longer read. He had to give up driving, began using a walker and needed to have constant care.
As time went on, Dad began to be content just to sit in his chair. He went outside less and less, and wondered why he was still here. In April 2024 at the age of 97 and 10 months Dad had another stroke which took most of his abilities. He lived for 6 days and passed away in his home on April 29 with several family members, caregivers and friends stopping in to let him know he was loved and to say good-by.
I read a very true statement which said: “When the elderly die, a library is lost and a volume of wisdom and knowledge are gone.”
Written by Daughter
Sharyn Klassen
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