Community Spotlight: Vernon Soos, Sr.

Vernon grew up in a three-room adobe house at Oak and 92 street with his mom and dad and eight brothers and sisters.

When he was young, a tornado came through and took half of the main room. He also remembers that a fire burned down their house. He then went to live with his grandma around Dobson and Indian School.

His grandma and grandpa had four horses and he liked to ride them. They also had a little horse wagon they would use to go out, explore and pick up wood.

As Vernon grew older, he become daring.

“I used to take my grandpa’s bike which was hard because he would always lock it up, but I figured out how to get into his room and I tried all his keys until I found the right one,” recalled Vernon. “I’d ride that bike around all day but I always took it back before grandpa got home. If he caught me, it would be a spanking, but he never did catch me.”

Vernon attended day school in the community and elementary school at Carson Junior High where he enjoyed playing football and baseball.

Later, most of Vernon’s friends attended out-of-state boarding school in Nevada or California, but Vernon was to attend high school in mesa.

While in high school, Vernon’s dad had to have surgery. He remembers visiting him in the hospital with tubes everywhere.

“I watched my dad work and work all his life and I remember thinking there’s no way my dad can work now. There is no money coming in. There are no groceries. I am the oldest so I need to work and get groceries for the family,” said Vernon.

At 15, Vernon got his first job. He drove a big tractor for farming. He loved it…being out in the open and getting dirty.

He worked 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at a local farm.

“I remember I made 75 cents an hour when I first started,” said Vernon.

He drove tractors for many years and then in his early 20s, he joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He drove the big tractors grading roads in the community.

“I’d drive them on the canal all the way to Fort McDowell and go around Red Mountain and back into our community. There was a dirt road back then,” recalled Vernon.

He also operated heavy equipment dredging the canals to remove debris and silt.

It was also during this time that he attended a dance in the community building and a man he knew with the police force was providing security for the event. He encouraged Vernon to apply for the police reserves. Vernon did and soon began picking security jobs in the evenings and on weekends, in addition to his work with the bureau.

Eventually many of his friends left the force. In 1997, after 25 years of service, he also retired from the bureau.

Never idle, Vernon was again driving big equipment cutting and baling alfalfa. He was leaving work one Friday when a friend asked if he would like to keep his friend company on a drive to Mexico for the weekend. Vernon said sure.

They stayed with his friend’s sister in Mexico, Ramona. She cooked their meals and enjoyed hearing their stories through her brother. Though he didn’t say anything at the time, Vernon was quite taken with Ramona. When he returned home, he found a way to keep the connection with her.

“I didn’t speak Spanish and she had no English, so I’d ask my friend to come over so I could call and talk to her,” remembers Vernon.

He’d call a couple of times a week when his friend was available to translate. He also wrote letters. Within six months, Ramona and her 4-year-old daughter, Laura, from a previous marriage, moved in with Vernon and his extended family.

It was a full house with Vernon’s five sons and daughters, as well as his son Junior’s girlfriend and three children. Their five-room home is not far from where he grew up on Oak and 92nd Street.

Today, Vernon is 72 and still going strong. He is “retired retired” and enjoys going on outings with Senior Services, especially to billiards with the men’s group. He also likes to bowl and to garden. He grows watermelon, squash, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Vernon likes the serenity and open spaces of the community.

“In the city, you are too close to others. I like the free space where I can do what I want,” he said. “It’s just open. I can see the mountains all the way around and I can breathe.”