Senior stories by Cogir: Chuck Thurston

Transcript

Dave: Hi, Chuck. How are you doing? 

Chuck: I’m doing fine. Thank you. 

Dave: Good. I just caught a little bit of that last story, and now I’m curious. What were you talking about? You were in the coast guard? 

Chuck: I was in the coast guard. Yep.

Dave: Tell me about that. 

Chuck: Well, when I got out of high school, I went to work for the Ingersoll Rand, a factory. It was in our hometown right out of high school. I had also sent in school news and everything to a daily newspaper in the area. And, when I went to work for Ingersoll Rand, they always had a lot of employee problems. They were either always on strike or having a walkout or some damn thing or other. So when they walked out, I’d go back to the newspaper and say, hey. You know, give me another job. And then the factory payed better. So when the factory went back to work, I told the newspaper I’ll be gone for a while. So I went back and forth between the factory and the newspaper there for a couple years, before my time came up for– 

Dave: the draft? 

Chuck: I could draft you. I mean, they you, you know, your number was coming up in September. 

Dave: Of course. 

Chuck: So if you didn’t do something before, then you were gonna go into the army. And I said, I don’t want the army, so I’ll join the coast guard. So I went into the coast guard, and I was in there for four years. And, I wound up in aviation, which is what I wanted to do. So I flew in the coast guard for three and a half years. I was stationed at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, and I spent a lot of time in one of these planes. So I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in one of those things and loved it. Absolutely loved it. I’d rather be flying than almost anything else. And, there’d be and we were out in all kinds of weather because if you’re in the coast guard, bad weather is when people get in trouble. So that’s when you go out. So when everybody else was hollering out there, oh, yeah. You know, it’s when you do well. Let’s go out there and find out what the problem is. You know? And I was married at the time, and hadn’t been very long. And, I come home sometimes and my wife say, ‘oh, that was a terrible, terrible storm we had last night.’ I’d say, yeah. I was out in it. She said, you were out there. She says and she told me later, she said, I never knew, you know, in our early days of our marriage what it was that you did exactly in the coast guard. And if I’d known that you were out and weather like that, she said, I’d have been scared stiff. You know? I I I would have been terribly worried about you. You see there’s a blue stripe below it. Why?

Dave: Yes. 

Chuck: A blue stripe to the right of it. And just to the right of that, blue stripe is a little porthole. And that was where I looked out on the world. 

Dave: Do you miss flying, Chuck?

Chuck: Oh, very much. Very much. Some years ago, after I’d gotten out, I was working for IBM, and I got a flight down to Dallas for some business or other. And there was a little black girl, maybe 10, 12 years old, that got in the seat right next to me, and she was just shaking and everything. And I said, well, what’s the matter, sweetheart? And she says, I’ve never flown before. I said, flying with somebody that’s spent half his life in a plane, you know. I said, here, have a half a stick of gum. And I always used to carry a stick of gum when I flew, but I never broke it in half and ate and chewed up half of it. I don’t know why. But then that keeps your ears, you know, from popping as you go back and forth over the different altitudes. So I said, Here, sweetheart, have a half a stick of gum. I said, “This will fix you right up.” And we were just chums all the way to Dallas. I mean, I had the best time of that little 

Dave: I love that. 

Chuck: No more than 10, 12 years old, you know, or something like a sweet little child and had a wonderful time. We just had a wonderful time. 

Dave: You’re a good guy, Chuck. You just sound like a good guy. 

Chuck: You know, you have a choice, I guess. You can be a jackass or, you know, you can do your best. I tell people I’m pretty mellow. I, you know, one of these days we’re all gonna go over the waterfall, you know. 

Dave: Chuck, you mentioned Brooklyn and being in the coast guard in Brooklyn. Where is your hometown?

Chuck: My hometown, I was, raised in, a couple of little valley towns up in Northern Pennsylvania right on the New York State line where the two rivers come together, the Susquehanna and the Chemung. And in between them are a couple of little river towns there, and that’s where I was born and raised, went to school and everything. My wife is from Denmark, but I met her when I was in the military. 

Dave: And then when did you get married? What year?

Chuck: We met in ’58. We married in ’59. Three? 

Dave: Wow. 

Chuck: And we were married for sixty two years. People said, well, how long have you been married? I should say, well, we’ve had sixty two wonderful years. And my wife used to say, I remember about forty of them. 

Dave: So that’s probably why you were happily married. Right?

Chuck: Yeah. Right. You know? 

Dave: I mean, the other twenty two years, she’ll let you off the hook for that. Okay?

Chuck: That’s right. 

Dave: So tell me about sixty two years. Give me the secret. Come on. Give me this give me the lovebirds secret to stay married for sixty two years.

Chuck: Oh, gee. You know? You know you’re in love. Okay? And you know you wanna make it work. You wanna make it last. Okay? But every now and then, you know, and she was a beautiful, beautiful woman. She was a Danish girl. She was blonde hair, blue eyed, you know.

Dave: Go Chuck. 

Chuck: Oh, she was gorgeous. Go to the sports car races up at Watkins Glen, New York, you know. And what was a bunch of guys for the most part? But one says, would you like to go up to see the sports? She says, oh, sure. The sports car races at Watkins Glen were wild and wooly. I mean, it was a weekend of gas fumes and roaring and hooting and hollering and took her up there one time. And we went, as we went on the front gate, there was a bunch of college guys that had parked a bus there, and they put lawn chairs along the top of it. And, they had signs up there. And as girls came in the gate, they say lift your tops cause we’re gonna ride them. So, you know, the girls would and so the girls would do it too. I said, well, there’s a 6.7, you know. Okay. And, here’s a 3.4. I said, the guys would do that and the girls would do it. I mean, so anyway, I told my wife, I said, hon, I say, you know, you’d be a good 8.5. I said, give my- And she slapped my face. 

Dave: I bet. Oh, you can’t leave a 1.5 on the table. You gotta give her a 10, Chuck. Good point.

Chuck: Good point. You can’t leave that on the table. 

Dave: Alright. So you went up to Watkins Glen, New York. So did you guys also go up to New York for Woodstock? Were you a hippie, Chuck? 

Chuck: You know something? My wife and I probably would have been, and we were in that era. But after we ran into each other and found out, you know, we gotta make this sucker last, We got married. And so there weren’t many married hippies, although we knew a bunch.

Dave: What type of music would you have been listening to? 

Chuck: I always like rock and roll pretty good. 

Dave: Like, what groups/what artist do you like? 

Chuck: Well, Loverboy, Waiting for the Weekend, you know, Grand Funk Railroad. 

Dave: There you go. We’re an American band, Grand Funk. 

Chuck: We’re an American band. Grand Funk Railroad. 

Dave: Locomotion. 

Chuck: Coming to your town, gonna party it down. We’re an American band. Oh, love Grand Funk. Yeah. And then, both of my boys were good musicians. And one of them played in a band, and he was a keyboard and lead vocals. And the other boy played electric guitar very, very well. So both my boys were good musicians, you know. 

Dave: Chuck, tell us about Solista, Charlotte, a Cogir community. 

Chuck: I’m in an independent living apartment because I get along by myself. I walk with a stick, but other than that, I’m good. So I have a what they call an independent living apartment. My own little apartment. It’s very, very nice one. Got a kitchenette, you know, separate bedroom, you know. And, I couldn’t ask for a better apartment. It’s got everything I need and nothing that I don’t need, and I enjoy it. There are lots of other people here. I think someone told me there’s a the population of retirees here is 10 people. 

Dave: Yeah. It’s a big community, and you made a lot of friends.

Chuck: I have some close friends among it, you know, as a couple of old geezers like me that I have lunch with about every day. And, one of em is 94 and I got to kid him – you know – he’s, I you know, I’m just a kid. 

Dave: Hey. He makes you feel young. That’s great.

Chuck: Yeah. 

Dave: Chuck, before I let you go, I wanted to ask you about mountain climbing. 

Chuck: Well, I used to backpack with a lot of guys, when I lived up north and I worked at IBM. And we had, there’s a lot of good hiking country up there. You’ve got the Catskills and you’ve got the Adirondacks, you know, and you’ve got a lot of really nice hiking country. So we had there were four or five of us that would get together. We all had a good backpack and gear, you know, good packs, good shoes, everything, you know. We had one guy, his name was Bill Terrell. And Bill was the kind of guy, you know, you always wanna have on a hike because we’d be sitting around at night and eating a cold sandwich and someone would say, god, little mustard would go good with this. And Bill would say, hey. Just a second. And he’d get in his pack. You know? And he’d have mustard or he had ketchup.

Dave: That’s a good friend to have. 

Chuck: I bet the guy’s got capers. You got capers? Capers would go good with– 

Dave: Shrimp cocktail, he had it all.

Chuck: That’s not all Friday. 

Dave: I love it. And Good for you though, Chuck. You’re still living your best life. You look great, and you still have your sense of humor, which I absolutely love. And I’ve enjoyed this conversation. 

Chuck: Thank you. I have too. I really have too. 

Dave: And we wish you the very best.

Chuck: Okay? Same here. You have a wonderful time out in Arizona. And if you wanna do this again sometime, I’m willing, you know. 

Dave: I’d love it.

Chuck: I’m not going anywhere.

Summary

Chuck, a resident at Solista Charlotte, shares highlights from his remarkable life—from serving in the U.S. Coast Guard as a flight crewman to raising a family, enjoying music, and exploring the outdoors. Originally from northern Pennsylvania, Chuck spent years flying search and rescue missions before building a long and successful career, which included time at IBM.

He reflects on his 62-year marriage, his love of classic rock and hiking, and his decision to move into an independent living apartment at Solista Charlotte. Today, he enjoys the freedom of his own space, good meals with friends, and a welcoming community that truly feels like home.