Key Statistics

• Born in Los Angeles, California at Southside Hospital in the Watts Area
• Date 12 April 1936
• Time was 2350 Hours
• Stats are 21" Long, 6 lbs. 11 ozs., Brown Eyes And Dark Hair

Seventy-Five+ years of playing with guns, hanging off high buildings, creative writing, riding on trains, programing computers, shortwave radio, wearing a badge, boating, scuba diving, hypnotherapy, and Walking with the Lord.

It Has Been A Good Life

I spent the first year in Banning, California where my father was a construction worker on the aqueduct that brings water into the L.A. basin from the Colorado River. Wages then were $1.50 per day, but you could buy a full cut of round steak for $.25. My sister was born a 16 months later. With my step brother and sister, that made 4 kids in the family.

We moved to the San Francisco area and I started school there. The big war started in 1941 and my father took a job working in ship repair. I can remember laying on the floor on a Sunday afternoon and eating iced, cracked Crab. They were three for a dollar then. That lasted until 1946 when we came back to Los Angeles.

Our family business had been Roofing. My grandfather started the Sunbeam Roof Company in Los Angeles in 1922. My dad again worked for his father as a roofer, and I tagged along as grandpa's 'Little Helper'.

We finally settled in Whittier, California. I learned to put on roofs and that was where I got my spending money. I paid for my first car by working for my dad and grandpa. It was a 1935 Ford Coupe. It was black with red spoked wheels and wide white walls. I was a junior at Whittier High School and thought I was really hot. I dressed in the typical 1950's fashion which was levi's, white 'T' shirt, loafers and a leather jacket. I belonged to the "Juggers of Whittier" and my car plaque told everybody.My course of study was in journalism and printing. I loved printshop and worked on the school newspaper.

Just before my senior year, we moved to Bell, California (East L.A.) where I enrolled in the same type classes at Bell High School. My dad took employment in the Lathing industry since my grandfather had retired and closed out the roofing business. I started my Lathing apprenticeship when I graduated from high school in the summer of 1955.

I worked as a Lather for the next few years, which included hanging off tall buildings. During this time I developed a love for the old west and old styled guns. I hung around Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California and eventually started robbing the stage coach. Well I pretended to rob it. I joined the Buscaderos Fast Draw Club and was on the board of directors of the American Fast Draw Association. When I won the Fastest Gun Alive contest sponsored by Jerry's Bar-B-que, I felt great. As an added hobby, I developed an interest in boats. I joined the United States Power Squadron, a boating organization, and eventually became the editor of their newsletter. My writing talent was put to good use.

I married Judy Spathelf in October of 1960 and we went to Hawaii on our honeymoon. I took my tools and we stayed for a year. I was building apartments at Waikiki. When lathing slowed down, I hired on with Hudson Roofing. Yep, the old family business paid off. Judy started to get big with the first child so we flew back to the mainland. I continued lathing through the second pregnancy and went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1969 we decided that the Los Angeles area was getting just too big and we moved to Oregon.

I wanted to drop out. I was tired of work and I was tired of the hassle of driving around the Los Angeles area. The Hippy lifestyle of Southern Oregon was pretty neat. I bought a gentleman ranch of 11 acres and paid $7500 for it. It had two old line shack type cabins on it. We built on, to connect them and it was pretty comfortable. Well for me, that is. My wife and 2 daughters didn't like the outhouse or the outside shower. And with the third daughter on the way, things were getting tight. I just did day work and was deeply involved with friend at the church that helped me get by.

In July of 1972, I crossed the line.

I had tested for the Josephine County Sheriff's Department twice and was finally put on the roster. I was a resident Deputy stationed at the substation in Cave Junction, Oregon. Judy says of these times, "Well, you always wanted a job where you could wear cowboy boots, cowboy hat, and carry a gun. You finally did it." I hate it when I am so transparent.

I worked as a Deputy Sheriff for 7 years. During this time I was involved in the local REACT radio group, wrote a weekly column for the local newspaper, and was the Charter President of the Illinois Valley Kiwanis Club. I participated in just about every local civic function. My family even painted all the fire hydrants red, white, and blue for the Bi-Centenial celebration in 1976.

My wife and I had our third daughter and things were going well. I bought my first computer, a TRS-80 from Radio Skack. It had 16k of memory on the CPU and you had to save your work on a cassette player. I was the envy of the neighborhood.

Then I got the bug to run for Sheriff in the upcoming election. It was a family effort and plenty of friends supported me. But in the end, I lost in the primary. When the new Sheriff took over, I was on my way out.

Since my time with the Sheriff's Department was growing to a close, the family moved to Pleasant Grove Utah. I secured a job as a Correctional Officer at the Utah State Prison.

Things were shaping up. While some of the kids were still at home, we spent time at Lake Powell on our 24' Reinell cabin cruiser. We snorkeled and SCUBA dived. Sometimes we would spend as much as 6 weeks on the lake at a time. In my fathers last years, he cruised with us; even diving off the bow of the boat at age "85" to go swimming. I plan to stay that active.

I developed an interest in hypnotherapy and was certified by the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners in 1988. This led to becoming more aware of my subconcious. I eventually wrote 24 short stories and two movie scripts. Some of my skills were used to record and market Hypnosis tapes for Might I Suggest Institute in American Fork, Utah. I continue to use covert hypnosis in my everyday life. This has led me to study Yoga through the Self-Realization Fellowship in California.

I retired on January 15, 2K, and my wife retired the following March. We started traveling most of the time in our RV. In July we signed up to build houses for Habitat For Humanity. What a pleasure to give our time to a worthy cause. We left Gillette, Wyoming the end of July and headed toward Des Moines for Habitat. We enjoyed the 'Bridges of Madison County' in Iowa. We continued to Branson, Missouri then to a Habitat build in Jackson, Wyoming.

We returned home to Salt Lake City, Utah for the holidays. I upgraded my amateur radio license to general class, since I had passed the exams years ago. Then I decided to study for my extra class license and passed it. I obtained a new call sign, KC7CO. I retuned an old ham radio my dad had given me and bought a 'screwdriver' antenna for the RV. I keep in contact with the RV Service Net and a few others.

While working, my vacations were used to visit in Las Vegas, and to roam the Anasasi ruins in New Mexico. I really love Chaco Canyon. I have included photos of Chaco Canyon on the photo page. You might want to take a look.

I currently travel with my wife Judy, KC7JO (KE5KRJ), in a 38' motorhome. We've both retired from law enforcement in Salt Lake Utah and are now on the road fulltime doing our volunteer work. We have built homes for Habitat For Humanity, working on over 100 homes. We were also involved with the Jimmy Carter work project in Anaston Alabama. At that time we built 35 homes in 1 week. There was a few over 4000 people there from all over the world.
We also volunteered at the National Parks in the "Volunteers in Parks" program. we have spent over 1500 hours taking people on tour through the cave and giving lectures around the campfire.

We found that we needed some exercise as we were becoming more seditary. That is when we got involved in Geocaching. It is an adult hide and seek game throughout the world. We currently have found over 4000 caches in all 50 states and a few in Canada/Mexico.

Thanks for taking the time to check this page out.
Chuck
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