Growing Old in Ely

Portraits

by John Ratzloff

“I could grow old in Ely, so give me a porch with a view.” Those lyrics from a song by Ted Feyder express the dream-come-true of many Ely elders and the hope of many younger life-long residents and newcomers. Although the dominant culture in modern America regards aging and the elderly with opprobrium, here in Ely such negativity is less common. Perhaps that’s because, at a median age of 51 compared to the national median of 38, so many Ely area residents are closer to old age than the American average. 23% of the 55731 zip code population is over 60.

Old age in Ely is something to look forward to, according to the five nonagenarians and one centenarian who share their thoughts here. All these lively seniors have some things in common. Staying active and engaged is one. Whether it’s church, visiting the family cabin, watching wildlife, helping neighbors, playing cards with friends, or taking a drive, they get plenty of socialization and changes of scenery. They each have an exercise routine to keep them mobile and healthy, and they can’t say enough good things about the health care they receive in Ely. None of them wants to live anyplace else and they don’t leave for warmer climes in the winter. They are grateful for the help of friends and family, for the natural beauty around them, and for life.

Meet Tom and Arlene Trembath, both born and raised Elyites who are 94 years young. Tom is best known in Ely for his work at Trembath Welding, which his Dad started in the building that is now the Ely Echo. An inventer and engineer, Tom built Jacob Pete’s first houseboat at Hoist Bay, hauling the materials over 4-Mile Portage. In 1961 he designed and built the rolling docks that are now produced by Docks on Wheels. He installed the fire escapes that are still in use on the backsides of the Ely Theater and The Boathouse, and he repaired the Birch Lake dam gates. Tom worked until he was 90, and would still be there today except his son Keith took over the business and likes being independent.

Arlene raised the family and knitted heavy wool cardigan sweaters that sold in Canadian Waters and Dayton’s in Minneapolis. When her children were grown, she opened The Spinning Wheel, where more than 100 Ely crafters and sewers sold their creations. She had a loyal tourist customer base, with some visitors saying her shop was the first stop they made when coming to town. Now Mary’s Spinning Wheel, the store still does a good business selling fabric and sewing supplies.

Jo Pruse is one of the most cheerful people you’ll ever meet. Born to the Spreitzer family on June 1, 1924, she was their 12th of 14 children. Their Chapman Street house still has the big, well-tended garden she worked in as a child. The family also farmed the 40-acre plot still known as Spreitzer Field, located just south of Boundary Street and 8th Avenue. They had horses and raised pigs and chickens. “We fared well,” she states. “Our parents were good providers.” Jo’s father was an immigrant from Cornwall, recruited by Captain Trezona to work in the Ely mines. He found that too dangerous and took a job as an engineer with the city waterworks. Her mother was also an immigrant, arriving from Slovenia when she was a young child.

Jo worked as a dental technician for Dr. Call in Ely until her husband took a position in Mendota Heights as a fine finishing carpenter. They maintained a cabin on White Iron Lake, where they retired. Jo lived on there after her husband’s death, but a broken leg and slow recovery landed her in a facility in the Cities close to her children. She missed Ely and her friends, so moved into Carefree Living and is content there. Although

Jo, age 99 legally blind from macular degeneration, she bakes cookies for the other residents. “My hands aren’t blind,” she says, explaining that she can bake by feel and remembers the recipes. Her favorite activity is going to the cabin on White Iron when her kids come.

Jo likes to be of service to others. As a volunteer with the former Hospital Auxiliary, she was the juice lady, taking the cart around in the afternoon to offer juice to patients and their visitors, who called it “Pruse Juice.” A devout Catholic and active member of St. Anthony’s church, she has fond memories of traveling to Italy and the Vatican. A prized possession is the certificate of a blessing bestowed on her by Pope John Paul II. It reads “For continued divine protection,” which seems to have been a blessing fulfilled, given her good health and spirited demeanor.

Donald Hoover’s home overlooks Shagawa River, and he spends many hours watching the wildlife and weather. He always has a smile on his face, which once got him in trouble during his stint in the Army. He was called out by his commander who asked, “Why are you smiling all the time?” in an unappreciative tone of voice. “Wipe that smile off your face,” he demanded. But Don had trouble doing that. The commander repeated his demand. But still Don smiled. “Take your hand and wipe that smile off your face!” the man growled. Don did and managed to go a few seconds without smiling to avoid punishment for being such a happy person.

Don’s uncle gave him a 1931 Chevy when he was 12 and knew nothing about cars. To get it started he had to hook it up to his horse! He learned a lot about engines and machinery starting with that car. Don left ninth grade to work as a “cookie” in a lumber camp. His mechanical skills served him well when he came to Ely at age 20 and worked on logging operations and again in the Army during the Korean War, when he stayed state side working as an engineer building airports in Arizona and California.

His wife, Rosie, didn’t want to move so far into the woods as Forest

Center for logging work, so Don took jobs closer to town. He tried Reserve Mining for a few months, but much preferred working for Johnsons Logging and stayed with them until he was 70. After that he helped out at the Boy Scout base and did some skidding on his own. In retirement he built a couple hundred bird houses, but working with cedar started to make him cough, so he doesn’t do much of that now.

Donald bought the two lots where his house stands for $70 in 1960. He put in the basement and did the inside finishing, but claims he’s just a little bit of a carpenter, so had help with the framing and roof.

A happy-go-lucky guy, Don advises those who want to get to be 90 to be lucky. However his luck might be genetic; his sister lived to be 96, and an aunt to 101. He once drank a bit on weekends, but quit that. And he claims he used to get angry, but it gave him a headache so he stopped that too. It seems some good choices have been a big part of Donald’s “luck.”

Barbara Kollar has made headlines in Ely newspapers with her birthday celebrations, learning to drive a dogsled at Wintergreen. A gym teacher and coach most of her life, she was an avid skier, but in her early 90s skiing was getting to be too much. She loves to be out and active, so dogsledding seemed like a good alternative. She did her first trip at age 98, earning her “degree” by 99, a PhD at 100, and at 101 as a post-doc she had to teach someone else, so she took along the director of Boundary Waters Care Center, where she lives, and taught him the basics. Needing fresh adventures, she took up ice fishing last winter, going out with SnoBear Ice Fishing and bringing home enough crappies for a meal.

Barbara first came to Ely on a vacation 16 years ago, enjoying time at the Honeymoon Cabin at Timber

Trail Resort with her family. She quickly came to love it here, especially enjoying the live music at the Front Porch and Silver Rapids. Pat Surface and Barb Hall were her favorites. Although she can’t do what she used to—no more hiking the Himalayas—she enjoys her life in Ely and looks forward to her daughter Cindy’s daily visits.

Byron Moren moved to Ely in 1958 with his new bride, Alice, who didn’t care for Ely at first. Byron says “It only took a week” for her to make friends and change her mind, largely due to their social life at Grace Lutheran Church. They’ve been here ever since, finding it “A wonderful place to raise kids.”

Byron has had an impressive variety of work situations. At age 18 he dropped out of high school to enlist in the Air Force where he was a teletype operator in Japan and Korea. He claims “That was one of the best things I ever did,” partly because he quit smoking since he could get so much money for cigarettes on the black market, and the veterans benefits have been invaluable. As a young man he drove trucks for a mine, sold Electrolux vacuum cleaners, played bass fiddle at bar gigs, and was a printer for Mesabi Daily News. His first Ely job, and the reason he came here, was as a business teacher at the high school, teaching shorthand, typing, and business machines. As the demand for business skills diminished, Byron was promoted to Vocational Education Director for the school district, overseeing programs in Nursing, Home Ec, Auto Mechanics, and more. At age 70 he started his own company making customized signs for businesses and the model lighthouse outside his home.

A teacher’s salary didn’t allow for much financial comfort, but Byron found opportunities to procure a fine house, a cabin on Burntside, a sailboat and a houseboat. With lots of sweat equity and some offbeat transportation methods, he moved a DM&IR railroad station house from Aurora to Ely, a CCC cabin from Isabella to Burntside, and the sailboat from Lake Superior to the cabin. He still sails with his son as first mate, and the whole family enjoys the houseboat with new pontoons made by–you guessed it–Byron himself.

Byron’s advice for staying young: keep active (in moderation at 90+), enjoy hobbies (his are music, model trains, photography, sailing, and working on the cabin), and have a spiritual life. He hopes to finish making a film about Ely’s and his personal history using video he’s taken for many decades.

The Trembaths, Donald, and Byron still drive, which is helpful in keeping up their active social lives and being independent. (Did you know studies show that drivers ages 70 and up are safer than average? That’s because they are more likely to wear their seat belts and less likely to speed, consume alcohol before driving, or text while behind the wheel.)

These Ely elders look forward to activities, but not too far. “At our age we don’t make plans too far ahead,” says Tom. “We get up in the morning and say ‘What do we want to do today?’“ Jo has a happy anticipation of baking goodies for her neighbors. Don looks forward to each day’s view of Shagawa River out his big windows and visiting with his daughters. Byron and Alice are working on plans for their 4th of July parade float and also have a longer perspective, hoping to take a cruise soon. Barbara enjoys her daily visits with River, a young energetic pup who accompanies Cindy on her visits.

The elders who lived in Ely in the 50s and 60s have fond memories of the days when Ely had more stores, and recalled that there were also far more bars. “There was a grocery store every few blocks,” recalls Jo. In those days, she explains, most women didn’t drive. They walked to get groceries and sent the kids on foot or bike to pick up eggs, butter, sugar, or whatever ingredient they might be missing for supper preparation. Byron expressed his surprise on finding a bar or two on every block when he first arrived. Although he’d grown up in Biwabik and played his bass fiddle in bars across the Range, not known for a dearth of taverns by any means, he was impressed by the plethora of drinking establishments in Ely. Donald recalls that every brand of car had its own garage in town. Everyone expressed a hope that Ely’s future would include more shops for items they now buy out of town—clothing, shoes, and cars. Several expressed appreciation for the State Theater’s renovation and enjoyed attending the End of the Road Film Festival last winter.

Romance seems to be part of a long, satisfying life. Tom and Arlene graduated from Ely Memorial High School in 1947, but they were only slightly familiar with one another. Arlene played in the orchestra, Tom in the band. Their parents were good friends. Tom’s mother gave Arlene’s mother a lovely vase as a wedding gift. During their first and long-lasting marriages they became friends as couples, frequently enjoying social times together until their spouses died and they drifted apart. A few years later, at a mutual friend’s funeral, Arlene “screwed up all the courage” she could manage and approached Tom. “If you’d ever like to get together for coffee, you could call,” she ventured. He called later that same day. They shared coffee and occasional outings together for the next year, not so much as holding hands. But a more romantic attraction took hold, and they were married last year at age 94. The centerpiece for their reception table was the vase that had been a wedding gift nearly a century earlier.

A funeral was where Don Hoover met his bride-to-be, Rosie. She was only 13 at the time, but Don was smitten enough to pay her a call in Ely the next year on the way from his Michigan home to a job in North Dakota. Her appeal was greater than the work farther west, so he signed on with a logging operation on the Tomahawk Trail and paid a call to her whenever he had time off. Eventually, needing the work, he headed to North Dakota for a job building the Garrison Dam, but returned in a few months and found work closer to Rosie. This pattern went on for years: Don finding work near Ely for a few months, Rosie breaking up with him when he left for other employment and a stint in the Army. But finally, at the ripe old age of 22, she agreed to marry him and he agreed to stick around. Rosie died a few years ago, and Don continues to live in the house they built in Winton, close to their two daughters.

Jo and her husband, Bernie Pruse, were friends in high school. Bernie delivered groceries to their home, and Jo’s mother loved him. Jo and Bernie started dating, but when the war began he enlisted. He asked Jo to write to him and they exchanged letters for the 6 years he was gone, marrying on his leave a year before he was discharged. They were married 71 years.

Barbara met her husband on the tennis court, but the relationship was strictly tennis until she saw him at a dance. “I fell in love with his dancing,” she reminisces with a twinkle in her eye. Byron met the love of his life, Alice, in the teachers’ lounge of Cook County High School where she was the superintendent’s secretary. They were married on the shore of Lake Superior 65 years ago in July, and it’s obvious they still enjoy one another’s company.

There are many other elders in their 80s and 90s in Ely, bumping up that average age of Ely residents. Due to limited space here, we leave you to find them and hear their stories. Chat with them at your church, join them at the Senior Center for Bingo, or visit Carefree Living or the Boundary Waters Care Center. Podcasts are another great source for Ely elders’ stories. Find both My Ely Story and What’s Up Ely? podcasts online at ely.org/plan/podcast. Great listening for a road trip! Stick around the Ely area, find “a porch with a view,” and you could become a happy Ely elder too.

John Ratzloff

An outstanding portrait photographer, John’s exhibit “Indigenous Minnesota: Images of Survivance” will be on display in the MSP airport’s Concourse C for a year starting September 1st. From there the show will move to the Capitol building in St. Paul for three months. John has focused his work on people, sled dogs, the Steger Center, and Voyageur Outward Bound School. He occasionally does presentations at the Ely Folk School. This summer his work can be seen at Ely Folk School and the Hospital Gallery. An elder himself at 76, John was impressed by the strength, joy, and liveliness of these subjects and thoroughly enjoyed their Ely stories.

Ely’s Senior Center

A Community Space for All Ages

If you are 55 or older, you can be a member of the Ely Senior Center for just $20 a year. Joining can make you feel good about supporting a valuable Ely non-profit, but in truth most of the center’s programs are open to anyone, regardless of age or membership status. You can come and play Bingo (with coffee and dessert) on Wednesday afternoons in the company of up to 50 other seniors and their younger friends and family. You can access the many pamphlets with information on health services in the area, senior living, Medicare, and more. And you can rent space for meetings, parties, craft sales, and food preparation in their commercial kitchen. It would certainly be polite to become a member if you want to take advantage of their small library of books and puzzles, but there is no cop to stop you from contributing to it or borrowing from it. And the current board’s policy is very much “Everyone is Welcome!”

Formerly a garage, the building was purchased in 1980 to establish a

Free Services for all ages at Ely Community Health Center

Thursday Evening Clinic, 5:30-7

Dental Clinic, T,W,Th - by appt.

MnSure Navigation

BP checks at Senior Center

218-365-5678

33 E. Chapman St

ElyCommunityHealth.org place for seniors to socialize. The more than 300 members held many fundraisers and worked hard to accomplish all the remodeling, creating the kitchen, card room, and large social hall. In 1988 they opened the building to the public and soon began serving low-cost noon meals to about 25 people a day. A sharp decline in attendance during Covid made that program impractical, and meals are no longer served except for special occasions and rentals.

Today there are a variety of health activities there - Wellness Wednesdays with free blood pressure checks, Tasty Tuesdays that focus on nutrition and cooking, and a foot clinic. People of all ages gather for cards and other games several days a week. Community Education classes are held here plus craft fairs, driving tests, church services, senior exercise classes, and elections. (See Calendar on page 70 for dates and times.)

After 35 years, some renovation is needed including new kitchen appliances, making the bathrooms handi-cap accessible, and improving the front door entrance. If you are interested in helping out as a board member or volunteer, stop in at 27 South 1st Avenue East during open hours, M-F, 8am-1pm and later on Wednesdays.