A: I was born in Wellman, Iowa, to a country farmer. Our main crop was corn and soy, beans, oats and hay. We had horses, dairy cows and cattle. It was a small farm and had a little bit of everything you needed, so we only went to town once a week. In those days, we traded surplus for what you needed. I went to a country school, and the joke is – it was two miles up hill both ways. (Laughs) There were dirt roads and no electricity.

A: Oh, yes. I tell my kids I was born more in Abe Lincoln’s time. We did have a telephone: a party line with 13 people on it. This was before TV.

A: I wouldn’t trade it for a kid’s life nowadays. I spent a lot of time outdoors; I fished and was a sportsman. Being the only boy with three sisters is probably why I spent a lot of time outdoors. (Chuckles) I enjoyed building things and have ever since. I built my own toys – tractors, wagons, hay balers, birdhouses – and sold them to the neighbor kids.

A: My granddad did some carpentry. My sons tell me I was born with a natural talent for woodworking. 

A: Living out in the country, seven miles from town, you were your own mechanic, fence builder, etc. 

A: Not very. I do check the Internet for weather when I want to go out sport fishing . . . I go as far out in the bay as 40 miles and bring in albacore, salmon, etc.

A: Ruth and I went to Mennonite church for about a year, and then we moved to town and went to the United Christian and Baptist church . . . I tell people, “You should live every day and not feel that going to church one day a week (makes you a saint). What you are is what you should be seven days a week.

A: I started working young. I was going to go to Alaska, and then I met Ruth, and it took 40 years to finally get there (on our cruise). I studied very little but I consider myself educated. I learned what I wanted to learn and what interested me. I didn’t see the need to spend time in school. I enjoyed math because that was an easy one. I went through eighth grade and then I started business. I did take some high school correspondence. My parents always let me make my own decisions on anything.

A: My parents were kind and loving.

A: I can’t look at it that way. Some things I didn’t do until later on like travel, because my parents or grand parents didn’t travel. But I had a great grandfather who wintered in California from Iowa every year. Several generations are buried in a cemetery in Iowa.

A: To make my own decisions. My parents thought I knew better from worse, and I’d do what was right. They trusted me. 

A: One of my first jobs was when I was 14 and I wood-shingled a large turkey house. Later, the farmer built a new house and hired a contractor, who hired me. There were older contractors and they didn’t receive it that well. I helped build several houses; I got to do cabinet work, hang doors, etc. I did it until I went into the service.

A: As a Mennonite youth, you register for the draft, but you go as a conscientious objector and serve time, usually, in hospitals, etc.

A: It was in Evanston, Illinois. I started working in the kitchen and soon got into engineering, maintenance and special building projects at the hospital. I also remodeled a couple houses on the sideline, built kitchens, and then worked for a manufacturing firm.

A: Yes. (Chuckles) And my boss got jealous when I wanted to go on a date. He wanted me working every night. She was working at the hospital and we met in a tunnel between buildings. We were both going different ways, and after we passed, we both turned around and looked at each other. . . .

A: I actually knew of her. At first, she set me up with a date with a friend of hers. But that only lasted for a couple dates. (He shows me the recent anniversary news photo featuring Ruth and him: today and 50 years ago.) 

A: Oh, yes. They called me flat top.

A: We try not to quarrel much.

A: Yes. Ruth was in high school when I dated her. Her parents insisted she be 19 before we married, so we married the day after her birthday. She doesn’t like to celebrate them together, though.

A: And then she got her masters (Beaming). It took 10 years and then she taught nursing at the University of Iowa for several years.

A: I had a building business, contracting with my brother-in-law. That was in ’57 and we were together until ’73. While we lived in town, the kids had Amish nannies. Then I bought a farm between Wellman and Kalona. On my farm, I had 100 beef cows. I also bought Holstein dairy calves and my kids bottle fed 50 of them one summer . . . I kept doing building and working the farm, while Ruth was traveling all over the county as a pediatric nurse practitioner.

A: Brian was already living out here. He had bought a mattress company for his brother- in-law in Iowa. The farm economy in the Midwest was poor, so we moved here in ’84. My daughter and her husband were visiting for Christmas from California. The local mattress company had just gone out of business, and Brian and Keith went down to see it. They talked me into buying Mattresses of Monterey, which I changed to Monterey Mattress Company. 

A: I get to meet a lot of interesting people – even some high profile celebrities.

A: The largest bed we built was 10 feet wide and 9 feet long. We delivered it to a couple in Las Vegas. Another guy who ordered a bed joked that his check would bounce. I told him his old bed was probably stuffed with money. So, when we delivered his new bed, he found that I had sewn a little zippered pouch into it. We had a lot of fun with that.

A: That’s kind of a big joke! 

A: Sleeping is no problem, I’m so tired. We have an electric mattress. I do inspect mattresses when I stay in motels and hotels.

One time, I got down and looked under the bed and there was a card that said, “We even clean under the bed.”

A: I try to make the best of every day. I wanted to move to Alaska, in the old Wild West days before I met Ruth. But, finally, after we were married 40 years we flew up to Anchorage and rented a car and I fished. Then we went back one more time to the Inland Passage on a small cruise ship.

A: We’ve been traveling some. Ruth says at our age we’d better enjoy it while we can. That’s one thing no one can take away from you: your memories. We’ve been to Ireland, New Zealand, and Hawaii several times. In a couple weeks we’re going to Maine. I often join her for conferences she attends. She is active for maternal child health and had a traveling clinic for the county at one time. 

A: I move slower than I did. (Laughs) I always joke people and tell them my age is about 119, in work years. I’ve worked about a 70 hour week for 60 years. I said I’m going to have to live to be 100 to do everything I want to do, but now I think it’s going to have to be 200.

A: I like designing. If I live long enough, I’d like to do production runs of something I’ve designed. You make a run of 100 and start building up inventory and then sell them.

A: (Laughs) I never really thought about it too hard. Brian says I’m too negative, but I tell him I’m just cautious. People think of me as a perfectionist, but I just tell them there’s nothing on earth that couldn’t be bettered. There’s always room for improvement. If you think you have everything mastered, you have quite a lot to learn yet.