Memories of Chuck Cole
I first met Chuck Cole in June, 1934. Chuck had just been born at the hospital in Auburn, California. The United States was in a deep depression. In 1934, times were tough and a few bucks could be made mining for gold in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. Chuck’s mother, Alma Josefina Hellgren Cole, owned the Amazon mine. The Amazon was located near the small village of Kelsey, not far from Placerville, California. I believe the Amazon Mine had produced gold back to the Gold Rush days. She had a crew of two or three men working the mine. They probably worked for a bunk to sleep on, a little grub, and a share of the gold from the mine.
Alma cooked for the mining crew and needed help so she could take care of Baby Chuck. Her kid sister, Hulda Elizabeth Hellgren Sorensen, lived in San Mateo, California, and owed Alma a few favors, so was called upon to come to the mine and cook.
Well, that was okay, but Hulda had two kids, my sister Betty and me. So we had to tag along. I remember that my Dad (Chris Sorensen) drove us to the Ferry Building in San Francisco, where we took a ferry across the Bay to Oakland. In 1934, the Bay Bridge was about half finished. The towers were up; the big cables were spun; and the suspender cables were in place. As a six year old kid, I was fascinated by all the boat traffic on the Bay. Without most of today’s bridges, a lot of people and goods were moved around by boat.
About half way across the Bay, a poor fellow decided he had enough of the Depression and jumped overboard to end it all. I remember seeing his hat on a bench with his suicide note in it. The ferry captain was fit to be tied. It ruined his schedule for the rest of the day. As for the jumper, when he hit the cold water of the Bay, he started swimming and was picked up by a life boat lowered by the Captain.
The ferry left us off at the Southern Pacific Mole in Oakland. The Mole consisted of a myriad of wood-pile ferry slips with piers connecting them with the rail lines on shore. Here Dad put us on a train that took us to Auburn where we visited Alma and Chuck in the hospital. Alma’s husband, Chester Cole (Chuck’s father), picked us up in his 1934 tan Chevrolet coupe that had a single bench seat for the four of us. After visiting Alma, we took Highway 49 to the mine. It was a very winding road, and Betty got car sick on the way, a little awkward considering the crowded conditions.
I’ll relive Betty's and my experiences at the mine to give you an idea of where Chuck spent most of the first three or four years of his life.
I believe the mine was on about 40 acres of land. There must have been at least three “cabins” on the property - none of them very substantial. The largest was where Alma, Chester, and Chuck resided. One was for Alma’s brother, David and his wife, Irene. And one was probably a bunk house for the crew. When Betty and I were there with our mother, we would take an occasional bath in a four-foot galvanized tub that was set outdoors in the sun to heat the water. I believe the toilet was an outhouse. Mom and Alma had bedrooms in the house. Uncle Chester slept at one end of the covered porch in front of the house, Betty and I at the other end.
Occasionally we would hike a mile or so to the Madsens, our neighbors. We were warned to look out for rattlesnakes on the way. Uncle Chester kept rabbits in hutches and we would sometimes have rabbit for dinner. I imagine weekly trips were made to Placerville for provisions. I suspect we ate a lot of venison, but didn’t know it. They were afraid the kids might blab about deer being shot out of season.
I recall that the mine shaft went down a couple of hundred feet at an angle of about 45 degrees. Betty and I were absolutely forbidden to go near the mine shaft. I would call that an invitation, wouldn’t you? Betty says she remembers that we grabbed hold of a metal bar that hung from above and swung out over the shaft.
The mine did produce a little gold for the Coles. I recall our Uncle Dave showing me a small vial filled with the yellow stuff. The rock tailings from the mine were used for a gold-panning exhibition at the centennial celebration held in Placerville in 1949.
I believe that Chuck finally split the mine property into parcels and sold them.
The summers were very hot and dry at the mine, and Alma and Chester would rent a furnished flat in the San Francisco tenderloin district to escape the heat. It also give Alma a chance to play poker, a game she loved to play.
When it got close to school time for Chuck, it was time to move closer to good schools. Alma was a gambler and investor at heart. When San Carlos was being subdivided, probably in the twenties, Alma had invested in two beautiful creek-side lots. In 1938 or so, Alma’s brother, Dave, built a three bedroom house for Alma and Chester on the lots and this is where Chuck finished growing up. Alma was a wonderful cook and became a professional chef. She was the chef for the Gymkana Club (for horseback riding) in Menlo Park. She also prepared special meals for people. For example, she would cook Christmas dinners for Mr. and Mrs. Davies. He made billions on Indonesion oil. Mrs. Davies gave away millions on things like Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco
I don’t know too much about Chester’s early life. I know that the Coles go back to the early days in San Francisco. He worked as a stage electrician (handling spotlights, etc.) As a result of his working around the stage, he had a great love of music.
Chester was in the Army during World War I and served in France. He came down with tuberculosis that virtually destroyed his lungs. He received a full-disability pension for the rest of his life.
Chester loved watching baseball and football games. He watched the neighborhood kids play baseball at the local park. He attended all of the 49er games while he was still mobile... first at Kezar, then at Candle Stick.
Chester had a son, Bob, from a previous marriage. Bob sold carpets for a living. Chuck once tried to help Bob by buying some carpet. Unfortunately, Bob took the money but didn’t deliver the carpet. So much for helping out a brother.
As youngsters, Chuck, Betty, and I, were always very close. I would like to close with a few vignettes of things we did together.
When the movie, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” first came out, it was shown first in San Francisco at one of the big movie palaces. This was about 1940. I was about twelve and Chuck about six. I talked Alma and Chester into letting me take Chuck on the Greyhound bus from San Carlos to the City to see “Snow White”. Well, we were having a great time and it was still pretty early, so why don’t we take the street car to Playland at the Beach (a large amusement park, now long gone) and enjoy some of the rides. We were way late getting home. Uncle Chester was furious (one of two times I ever saw him angry).
When Chuck got his first motorcycle (I think he was about fourteen) he rode it from his family’s home in San Carlos to my family’s home in San Mateo and wouldn’t leave until I rode it. I have to admit I really enjoyed it.
Around 1948, Chuck had talked his Dad into giving him their old 1939 four-door tan Chevy when his dad got a new car. He then talked his parents into letting him, a fourteen-year-old, take the car to Yosemite with a friend. Well, they approved the trip if I would provide a little adult guidance. I was twenty at the time. I guess they got some “adult guidance” from me, except for the three days I took off on my own and hiked from Tuolumne Meadows (where Chuck had dropped me off) down to Yosemite Valley.
Around 1941, Chuck and I built homemade coasters together. For some reason Chuck was staying with us in San Mateo. We called them “Skates” and “Scoots.” “Skates” was a wooden apple box nailed to one end of a two-by-four with a two-by-two nailed to the top for handle bars and with salvaged roller-skate wheels. “Scoots” was a little larger. Probably a wooden orange crate on a two-by-four frame with wheels salvaged from an old wheeled toy. I remember it even had a brake that sort of worked.
Our two families were always very close. We usually spent Christmas Eve together. Alma would usually cook dinner for a wealthy family on Christmas Day. For example, she cooked Christmas dinners for Mr. and Mrs. Davies, the wealthy couple referenced earlier.
As youngsters, the bond between Chuck and my sister Betty and me was much closer than typical first cousins. To me, Chuck will always be my kid brother.
I really miss him.
