My Uncle Lou

Had lunch today with Uncle Lou at “Toucan Charley’s.” To say that he is an interesting character would be a gross understatement. He was born in December of 1919 in Idaho to a father who was an accountant at a sugar refinery and a mother who had broken away from the Mormon Church to escape their polygamist values. When Lou was just a baby, the family moved to California thinking the climate would be better for the arthritis that was afflicting Lou’s father. It didn’t help.


While Lou was in high school he took up the trumpet and learned to play it very well. By the time he graduated from High School, he was playing with local bands on weekends to supplement his income and was the proverbial “Cool Cat” dressed in his zoot suit complete with watch and chain, and a felt hat with feather. Zoot suiters usually replaced the usual watch fob with a watch chain that dangled from the belt to the knee or below, then back to a side pocket.

Lou holds the distinction of having marched in the bands for the grand openings of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on November 12th, 1936, and then again, six months later, the Golden Gate Bridge on May 27th, 1937. He was a teen idol before Rock & Roll and had more than his share of groupies who were mesmerized by his flamboyant charm.

At 92 years young, Lou still has all his hair and faculties, still drives his own car, and is in better shape than most of us who are half his age. How does he do it? I don’t know, but if that devilish twinkle in his eye and his penchant for enjoying life are any clues then we would all do well to follow his example.