1978 - MY COACHING CAREER This was the year I started my coaching career. I remember the guys from Glendora Youth Soccer called me to get me to coach Kevin’s team. I didn’t think I could because I didn’t even know how many players there were on a soccer team. They said they were desperate and they would give me some tapes and books on how to play the game. I ended up loving the game of soccer. My coaching career ended up lasting 8 years. There were a couple of years that they were on the same team. The years they were not together I would alternate. We won a couple pf championships, but most of all we had a lot of fun. The same with Little League. It’s a kick to be involved in the lives of your kids. Being involved with your children has to be one of life’s little gifts bestows on us as a surprise. You don’t realize you’re having so much fun until you’re not having it any more.

SUMMER OF 1978 - A FUNNY THING HAPPENED It was a warm Saturday morning the summer of 1978, Kevin was 7 and Rick was 5. I was in the family room and Jean was fixing breakfast in the kitchen. She was looking out the window and told me to come and take a look. Well, there on the lawn in the sun in the back yard was a four foot snake. At first I thought it might be a rattle snake, but on further inspection it appeared to be a king snake. One thing I did know was the king snake is one of the good guys. They help keep the rodent and rattle snake population under control. By then all kids in the neighborhood were in our back yard. Not being fond of snakes myself, I grabbed my gloves, a brown shopping bag, and proceeded to put the snake in the bag. He was a good size snake, and strong. It was a battle to get him into the bag. I walked into the garage and Jean came into the garage from the kitchen. By this time all of the kids are in garage, wanting to see the snake. As I recall there were a couple of neighbors there also. Everyone wanted to see the snake. I was holding the bag closed at the top with my left hand. I loosened my grip slightly and that snake came straight up out of that bag. I tightened my grip with the left hand and caught the snake in the air right back of his head with my right hand. He was really quick and strong. Jean hit the back bedroom in record time. The kids and neighbors were all on the move. It was all I could do to hold on to that squirming reptile. No way was I going to get that thing back in that bag. We walked up in the hills behind us and set him free.

SUMMER OF 1980 - OUR FIRST HOUSE BOAT ADVENTURE TO THE DELTA One day in the late 1970’s, Jean and the boys were out scouting for more friends for the boys to play with. On their little adventure they hit pay dirt. They met two boys about Kevin and Rick’s age. Their names were Derek and Duane Knapp. That led us to meet Tim and Marianne, who have been our very good friends ever since. Over the years we have found that we travel well together and we always have a good time. Tim and Marianne were both teachers and Jean became that important person whom the kids would report to after school. The kids were very close. Kevin and Duane kind of drifted apart when they reached high school, but Rick and Derek are still like brothers, they went to San Diego State together. We refer to Derek as our third son. Anyway, one night in 1980, we were having dinner at the Knapps and they mentioned that a couple of the teachers they worked with had rented a house boat on the Sacramento Delta and how much fun they had. The more we talked the better it sounded. Marianne called the marina in Stockton and reserved a 48 foot house boat. We had not a clue what we were doing. They asked if we had experience and we made it clear that we were newcomers. They told us to yell when we were ready and the harbor master would give us lessons. We yelled and one of the guys dropped his broom and jumped on board. We went about a quarter of a mile and made a left 360 degree turn around a little island. Then he had both Tim and I do the same thing in both directions. He ordained us ready to go, and he gave us a chart and jumped off. We were on our own to sail to exotic places like Locke and Walnut Grove. We had a ball like we always do with the Knapp’s. The Delta is miles of channels with high berms on each side giving you the impression you are in the middle of the jungle miles from civilization. You also have the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers to navigate

1980 - OUR FIRST CRUISE In November 1980 we went on our first cruise with Gary and Phylles. They say that the first is always the best and in this case it was absolutely true. We went to the Caribbean on Sitmar’s FairWind. It was a fairly small ship, 25,000 tons, and the service was wonderful. We flew to Fort Lauderdale were we boarded the Fair Wind to sail the Caribbean to St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Barbados, Martinique.

That was the first of 18 cruises we have taken to date. We have sailed to Caribbean again several times and twice went through the Panama Canal. We have done the Mexican Riviera at least a half dozen times. Alaska, we have only done once, but it was great . We boarded the ship in Long Beach and cruised north to Anchorage. Then we took the inland cruise on a combination of bus and train to Fairbanks. We had a fantastic cruise to Hawaii and back. We have cruised to the Bahamas, Cozumel and the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean cruise was part of a fabulous 32 day European vacation in 2006, which is detailed later. All of these trips are with a variety of cruise lines. Some are better than others, but none are bad. If you don’t enjoy a cruise, you’re not paying attention.

SUMMER OF 1981 - TRIP THROUGH ZION, NORTH GRAND CANYON, AND BRYCE (The Loop) We took our first trip through the parks, Zion, North Rim of the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon the first time in the summer of 1975 with Kevin and Rick. The loop as I call it, never loses it’s fascination. We made the trip again with the Shepherds, and again a couple of years later with the Knapp’s, Then with Wilma and Deanna, and it’s always worth the trip. My cousin Cullen (Red) Williams owned and operated the mule ride down into the canyon for several years. He had a bunch of real cowboys that lead you down a narrow trail to the river at the bottom. The morning we went on the ride, we walked down to where you get on the mules, and the wranglers were squatted around the fire drinking coffee and Jean told them I was a cousin of Red’s. One of them turned to the others and said, there’s a lady who has the nerve to claim Red as a relative. They have one wrangler leading about six tourists. The trail is narrow and the mules walk right on the berm. These guys entertain you all the way. We were really impressed with this loop through these parks. The scenery is magnificent. The lodges are nice and each one is unique to itself. The kids got a little tired of the canyons.

1981 - MICHELE MARRIED VINCE MERCURIO On November 7, 1981 Vince Mercurio married my daughter Michele. Way back when I was playing football at Citrus, my coach was Blas Mercurio. That was 27 years ago. Vince was just a babe in arms. Who would have ever guessed we would end up as co-grand parents. A beautiful baby girl, I might add. Here we are 27 years later, breaking bread with the head man himself.

1981 - OUR TRIP TO CLUB MED CANCUN In November of 1981 we decided to take a trip with Tim and Marianne Knapp to a new vacation development by the Mexican Government. It was an area at the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula called Cancun. There were three hotels, a flea market and miles of white sandy beaches. We stayed at Club Med. It was an unspoiled place in paradise at that time. Today the whole coast going south past The Mayan Ruins at Tulum is solid with tourism. In 1981 it was an area chosen by the Mexican government as the ideal place to develop a vacation wonderland. The water clarity is remarkable and perfect for smoking and diving. The sand is a beautiful white and never gets hot. It turned out to be a great decision. Cancun and the Mayan Coast is today, is one of the most popular vacation spots in the world.

They had some interesting games. There’s a picture on the next page of a ring of people standing in the water. You bounce a volley ball across the ring in the air and if you miss you must take a shot of tequila. Well, my buddy time got in the game. He just happened to be next to a little gal from Yorba Linda in a tiny white biqeny that was everyone was trying to fill with teqiula. Unfortunately Tim was missing more than her and he got plowed. He spent that afternoon laying in the shower. But he did get a standing ovation at diner

1982 - DAD RETIRED Back in Carson City, Nevada, on the 1st of May 1982, my father decided to retire as a Building Superintendent for the State of Nevada and move back to Beaver. Most of their closest friends in Carson had retired and moved and the family in Beaver was working on them to move back home. After being away for over forty years they moved home to Beaver. Dad was more for the move than my mother. He liked to hang out with his boyhood pals like Raymond Hutchings (Hutch) and Ray Easton. He and Ray were particularly close. They would fish and hunt and ride the range on their steeds. Unfortunately Hutch died less than a year after they moved back to Beaver. Then Ray died suddenly only couple of years later. Losing those two really took the fun out of retirement for him. He still had his horse, Jeff, but it was never the same. To top it off, he had always figured he would go before my mother. Well it didn’t turn out the way he planned. He was left without her for over 5 years. It was a sad ending for a true gentleman He will always be my hero.

1982 - THE KIDS GET THEIR FIRST SKIING LESSONS FROM THE COACH George gave Kevin and Rick skiing lessons at his place at Green Valley in January and Gary Shepherd gave me lessons at Big Bear in February and then declared that I would never make it as a skier. I was 47 and never skied before. It turned out to be the start of a great love affair with skiing. I wish I had started when I was younger. It would have given me the time to develop more skills. After my lesson with Gary Shepherd someone told me that the only way to learn to ski is to dedicate a week to skiing and go horn to horn. So we booked a week at Brian Head Ski Resort in Southern Utah. We had more lessons anhow to ski.

OUR 1ST GRANDCHILD, MARCI JEAN MERCURIO WAS BORN JUNE 7, 1982 TO VINCE MERCURIO AND MICHELE LYNN MERCURIO. Marci was our first grandchild and she was beautiful.

1983 - WE CAUGHT THE SKIING BUG With the skiing lessons we had from George and Gary Shepherd, Jean and I and the kids, hauled ourselves up to Brian Head, Utah to learn how to ski. I’d been told by a reliable source that the only way to learn to ski is to do it. So we took a week and learned to ski. Brian Head is the place to do that. We took more professional lessons. The good thing about Brian Head is there are no long lift lines and the snow is wonderfully dry. I might add that Brian Head was once owned by my uncle Bill Thorley. It was a very large sheep and cattle ranch. He is the husband of my mother’s oldest sister, and he owned half of Cedar City. By the way Brian Head is about thirty miles south of Beaver up the hill out of Parowan. I might add that the next time we skied with Gary Shepherd. I left him in my wake. After Brian Head we skied Elk Meadows out of Beaver Utah many times ( my uncle Dan operated the concessions and we got free lift tickets and the snow is wonderfully dry in Utah. Over the next few years we skied Mammoth and June Mountain in the California Sierra’s along with Yosemite and all of the ski resorts at Lake Tahoe including Heavenly and Squaw Valley. We have spent time skiing Colorado resorts like Breckenridge, Aspen. Of course we skied the local area’s such as Big Bear, Snow Valley and Wrightwood. Skiing like golf gets you places would never reach without them .We loved the sport, but I have one regret. I should have started sooner

1983 - HUTCH DIED

RAYMOND ISAAC HUTCHINGS (HUTCH)
b. May 31, 1915 d. May 16, 1983
Hutch was 15 days shy of 68. Proof that the good die young. Uncle Raymond was married to Aunt Louise. Hutch had the most wonderful sense of humor on the planet. He loved a good joke, and he had a bunch. Another time when we in Beaver, Dan and Raymond had gone to the dentist in Cedar City and had all of their teeth extracted. They were both fitted for dentures. They were to receive them in the mail. Well lucky for us the packages arrived while we were there. So everyone was notified to meet at Dan’s for the fitting. When everyone was assembled, they opened their boxes. Dan went first. His teeth fit like a dream. Applause. Now it was Hutch’s turn. He put them in, and when he opened his mouth, they clanked together. Well, being Hutch he put on a show. He claimed they made a mistake and fit them for his horse. He had us in stitches. His memory will always be cherished. He was also the father of my sidekick, Monte.

1983 - OFF TO TAHITI Jean and I had always wanted to go to Tahiti, so in October 1983 we booked a trip for a week to Club Med at Bora Bora and a week at Moorea. Originally Gary and Phylles were going, at the last minute they had to cancel, but Jim and Mary Cornellison went in their place. Jim and Mary both worked with me at Honeywell. Jim and I started as draftsmen at Aerojet about the same time and made the move over to Honeywell with several draftsmen and engineers.

Jim and Mary loved to travel and when I mentioned, while playing cards at lunch, that Gary and Phylles had to cancel on our trip to Tahiti, they offered to take their place. Jim and Mary were a little older, eight or ten years , then Jean and I, but they proved to be easy/fun traveling partners. We flew into Papeete, arriving at about four in the morning. Then we got into about an eight passenger airplane and flew, with a stop at Rangaroa, then on to Bora Bora, landing on a runway on a coral reef about a hundred miles from Papeete. The island is completely surrounded by the reef. To get to the Club Med village we took a boat that reminded you of the one in the movie, The African Queen. They threw our luggage on the top, in the rain, and we went chug-a-chug around the island to the village. At the village we were housed in thatched roof huts on stilts over the water. You could dive off your porch into the lagoon. It was beautiful water. We snorkeled off of outriggers and there was a small island in the lagoon called Moto Tupu. It was about 1/2 a mile to the island, and the beach on the island was a nude beach. It was a good place to relax and take in the sights. There was one road around the island of Bora Bora. You could go around the whole island on a bike in about forty-five minutes. At Club Med everything is included, including beer and wine at dinner, but the drinks at the bar you paid for, and it could get expensive. Bora Bora was one of our favorite places. The people were wonderful.

We were at Bora Bora for seven days. Then they flew us back to Papeete and took us by boat, about twenty miles to Moorea. We entered Moorea at Cooks Bay and, not exaggerating, that has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. The flowing plants are abundant and two or three times as big as anywhere else. Oh, I forgot to tell you how Club Med is operated. First when you arrive you put all of your valuables in the bank. You pay for things with pop beads, like chips the denominations are different colors. If you run out of beads you simply go to the desk and sign for more. At the end of the trip you go to the desk, they add up what you signed for and you must pay up before you get your airline tickets. Each village is run by a Chief and the workers are called G.O.’s (Gentile Organizers). They do everything including put on the shows and organize the games and activities. It actually works pretty well. We had a great trip.

This year was my mother and dad’s Golden Wedding Anniversary (50th). They were married July 14, 1934 in Parowan, Utah. They had been back in Beaver for a couple of years after my father retired. Dad’s family put on one great party. Everyone in both dad’s and mother’s family that were still living were there. Of course we were there along with my old friends Gary and Phylles and George and Carole. The move back to Beaver turned out to have good and some negative aspects. They bought a house right up the street from Dan and Louise and before they even got settled, they had a property line dispute with the neighbor. It really upset dad and took some of the fun out of the move. On the positive side, Ray Easton, my grandmother’s brother (Dad’s uncle) and Dad were very close to the same age and very good friends. It was like they were kids again. Dad got a horse (Jeff) and he and Ray rode all over the mountain. They fished and did whatever retired friends do. Then just when everything was going right, Ray had a heart attack and died. I don’t think Dad ever got over that.

SUMMER OF 1984 – HOUSEBOAT TRIP TO THE DELTA, WITH THE SHEPHERDS Ever since our house boat trip with the Knapps in July of 1982, Gary Shepherd had been talking about getting our families together and going to the Delta. So, in the summer of 1984 we put together a trip to the Sacramento delta. We rented a fifty-two foot houseboat that was fully air-conditioned. Had a kitchen better equipped than we had at home. On our boat was Gary and Linda, Brian and Bruce plus Jean and I and Kevin and Rick. The Shepherds two older boys Scott and Steve rented another boat with their friends. Gary brought his skj boat along as a runabout. The older boys had so much beer on board we thought they might sink. As we usually did in this wondrous place, we had a ball.

SUMMER OF 1985 OUR FIRST TRIP TO HAWAII Jean and I had never been to Hawaii and it seemed like everyone else had, so not wanting to be left behind, in the summer of 1985, we scheduled a vacation to the islands. First we went to Oahu and stayed on the beach at Waikiki. We visited The USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Then we spent a week at the Kahanapali Beach Hotel in Maui. We topped it off with another week on the island of Kauai at the beautiful Poipu Beach Hotel.

SUMMER OF 1986 - WE BOUGHT A 1965 CORVAIR The idea was born over lunch in the Honeywell cafeteria. I don’t remember how we got on the subject, but Charlie Waldhauer, one of the engineers I worked with, was relating to us a story of about this 1965 Corvair convertible he had purchased with intent to restore. The first thing I noticed was it didn’t look like a Corvair. GM had changed the body lines and improved the suspension to make it quite attractive But ,Charlie decided it was more trouble than it was worth. He lived by me in Glendora, and he had shown me the car before. I remembered we had a heck of a time getting it started. Kevin was coming up on his sixteenth birthday and I thought restoring this might be a fun project for the boy’s and I. Charlie had a catalog from a place on the east coast that you could get original parts and materials to restore this car. We also discovered that there was a national Corvair Club. He said he would sell me this thing for $300 and throw in consulting for nothing. What a deal.

We got it home and proceeded to strip it down to bare metal. We had it painted the original color. Then we replaced the seats, floor mats, door panels. The convertible top and storage cover were replaced. In a nutshell, we restored everything except the engine and transmission to original condition. We did come back later and had the engine rebuilt by a Corvair mechanic that was a member of the club. It turned out to be a beautiful car, and it was a wonderful learning experience for all three of us. Kevin and Rick. drove it all the way through high school and college. After Kevin and Rick graduated from college it was parked in my garage with a car cover. It was a lot of fun to drive and it turned a lot of heads,. I drove it once in a while, but it took a lot of fiddling to keep it running right. When we moved to the Colony we had a Chevrolet Astro Van, a Ford Probe and the Corvair. We sold all of them and bought a new Buick La Sabre. I have been sorry I sold the Corvair ever since..

1986 - FEBRUARY SKIING AT BRIAN HEAD In February 1986 we could not stand missing another skiing season so we took the kids and their friends to Brian Head again. We always got a ski in ski out condo and as usual the snow was perfect. The day before we left, Rick’s soccer team, which I was coaching had a game. Late in the game Rick got kicked in the foot. That night his foot had some pain and swelling, so we had Marianne Knapp take a look. She was a P.E. teacher. She didn’t think it was anything serious, just a bruise. We put ice on it and wrapped it with an Ace bandage. We were off to Brian Head the next morning. We skied for three days. When we got home his foot was still hurting, so we took him to the doctor. The foot was broken. Dr. Donaldson said the ski boot was as good as a cast and there was no harm done. No thanks to his coach.

NOVEMBER 9, 1986 UNCLE RAY DIEDThis is a sad story. When dad retired and moved back to Beaver one of the reasons was that two of his childhood friends he hung with was Ray Easton ( Uncle Ray) and Raymond Hutchings (Hutch). They were both fun guys to play with. Ray was dad’s uncle, his mother’s brother, but they were close to the same age. Hutch was dad’s sister Louise’s husband and just fun to be around. Dad retired in May of 1982 and Hutch died in May of 1983. Less than a year to enjoy each others retirement. Dad and Uncle Ray were really close. Dad bought his horse Jeff. These two cowboy’s rode the ranges together. Then suddenly in November of 1986 Ray had a heart attach and died. That kind of took the steam out of my dad.. Dad said he would never forgive Ray for dyeing on him like that.

NOVEMBER 1987 - THE NIGHT OUR HOUSE CAUGHT ON FIRE It was early November 1987 and a blustery night in Glendora. The Santa Ana winds howling. It was really dry and it was the fire season. There had been some brush fires in the area. Jean and the boys and I were sleeping soundly, when the smoke alarms went off. As soon as I opened my eyes I could smell smoke. I remember thinking one thing, get everyone out of the house. As I was running down the hall, I heard banging on my front door. When I opened the door, there were two firemen with a hose and ladder and they wanted to know where the attic access was. They were fogging the attic within a minute. There were another four guys ripping my shake shingle roof off. We were standing in the back yard by the pool and witnessed the roof literally explode, leaving a fifteen foot diameter hole. We were extremely lucky. In fact the fire chief asked me if I had bought a lottery ticket. He said he would if he were me. He said we and our neighbors had no idea how lucky we were that night. They were coming back to the station, which was about a half mile from us. The rear of our house faced Foothill Blvd and was about fifteen feet above the street. Foothill was just a two lane road in our area. You could not see the roof of my house from a car on Foothill. Remember this is three in the morning. Because they were elevated in the fire truck, one of the firemen just happened to see a spark on my roof. By the time they got around the corner, it was flaming. The Chief said in five more minutes the neighborhood would have been burning.

Page 9