[Today’s run: 4.4 miles]
From late 1996 through the first month of 2007 we lived on Lexington Lane in Estes Park, CO. That came to mind this week as we saw in the news that a forest fire had caused the town to be evacuated and the national park closed.
It got me thinking about who I know still living in Estes. So I googled my old neighbors Carole and Marshall Hesler and found Marshall’s obituary from February 2019.
I was always kind of fuzzy about Marshall’s age or what he had done before retirement. I see now that he was a bit more than 20 years older than me. I was 40 in 2001, so he would have been in his sixties. That makes him a bit younger than my parents but of that generation.
My life at the time was complicated. We had two kids in school, I was heavily involved at church, and my wife was having some health problems that were frequently beyond what I could manage. Many times I went over to the Hesler house and sat on their sofa and drank a Sierra Mist and talked about whatever came to mind.
We didn’t have a lot of neighbors. The lot directly across the street was a seasonal residence, to the west (uphill) was a vacation house seldom occupied. To the east (downhill) was a vacant lot. The neighbors behind had some kids younger than ours and we didn’t interact very much. So I leaned on the church people and the Heslers for support quite a bit.
Short story: we were kind of a mess.
I remember one time the kids and I took a short trip and came back to find that mom was back in the hospital. The Heslers had driven her down to Ft. Collins and really helped out. Being kind of cross-grained myself, I was unhappy that she had to go back in while we were gone (she told me she would be fine, no problem). I was kind of grouchy about the whole thing. But I knew they had gone above duty taking care of her.
Marshall was one of those people who are a hub of social activity. He was involved with the library board and with the aeronautics club and generally knew everything that was happening in town. I liked to talk to him just to find out what was going on.
He never got into technology. He had dish TV and the remote control was about as technological as he wanted to go. While I was around they never had internet or computers or a cell phone. He had been really interested in Corvair cars and cars in general. But eventually he concluded that the oils and dirt of car repair were not healthy for him. In the fall he would rent a garage from one of the seasonal neighbors to store his restored Corvair. Fall and Spring he would tow it up the hill and coast down into the new position. I helped with that job at least once. He had a lot of tools. If I needed something he probably he had it.
In 2007 we decided to move, and got it accomplished in just a few weeks, packed up and gone. We had dinner with them once in Ft. Collins that I remember.
After we moved to Mississippi in 2009 I think we spoke on the phone a couple of times, did a bit of postcard/Christmas letter correspondence, and I visited once or twice while back in Colorado. On one visit I took this picture of them sitting on the rocks in front of their house.
I’m not a very good person for keeping track of other people.
So, Marshall and Carole were people that, when my life was difficult they were really a steady help. Good neighbors. They gave me something to aspire to, that I could be a neighbor like that.
