Pictured at age 88
Saturday my grandfather’s family and friends gathered in his home in Phelan to pay their last respects and share their memories and stories of this unique and wonderful man. I learned things about his life that I’d never known myself, and I enjoyed reading the obituary that had been printed in the Daily Press, his local newspaper. I’m posting it here in its entirety (the photos are mine). It’s kind of long, but then my grandfather packed more living into his life than most people do.
Otis W. Fosmo, son of Orin and Sadie Fosmo, was 90 years and 43 days old when he died from a lung tumor, in his bed, as he wished. He was being taken care of by close family members and the exceptional hospice employees through the Visiting Nurses Association. Thanks to all.
Otis chose to leave while he had a clear mind and a strong grip, and was still able to walk.
Otis was born in Burnett County, Webster, Wis. He was the oldest of eight children. He was the son of a successful farmer. When the depression hit the family hard, his father worked with the WPA.
Otis graduated from Milltown High School in 1935. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps after graduation, as he was too young for the Works Project Administration.
The family left for California in 1936, making it only as far as Denver, CO. While working for Gates Rubber Co., he met his future wife, Helen. They married May 29, 1940. After arriving in California in 1942, Otis left for Alaska to work on the Alaskan Highway as a carpenter. After 18 months he returned to California to join the United States Navy in the submarine service. After his discharge, Otis and his family settled in Woodcrest. Otis was very active in the community, being a charter member of the community club, and a member of the volunteer fire department. He was also a volunteer with the sheriff’s department.
When Otis became a widower in 1966, he moved to the Baldy Mesa Area in Phelan. He built his house and garage, fabricating the trusses for both. He was part of the Carpenter’s Union from 1942 to 1972, working on Inland Empire schools, churches, University of California at Riverside, University of Redlands, Kaiser Hospital, and the surveying of San Jacinto Community College. He also worked on Cajon Pass. His last job before retiring at age 54 was working on the bridges on the south side of Lake Silverwood.
He was fond of saying he “never stopped working, just no longer has a boss.”
In the 40 years he was in the Victor Valley area, he was active in the Phelan Phun Days Parade. Otis enjoyed many years of western dancing. He also enjoyed land sailing on El Mirage dry lake beds.
Otis drove a Meals On Wheels wheelchair van during his late sixties and early seventies, often filling in with extra weeks of driving.
In his middle seventies to middle eighties, he maintained approximately six miles of roadway along both sides of Highway 395 as part of the Adopt-A-Highway Program. Occasionally friends helped.
Even after giving up the highway, Otis continued to care for the earth he loved, becoming well known at recycling centers and the Victor Valley and Hesperia Hazardous Waste centers. Otis often referred to himself as an environmentalist and an advocate for recycling. In his later years, he often said that “the earth has been good to me, so let’s take care of it.”
Set free by retirement, Otis looked for ways to give new “life” to every discarded item he came upon. Many of his creations received the admiration of both family members and friends alike.
Otis expressed a gratefulness for the USA and its ability to recover from the Great Depression; the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Alaskan Highway, the US Navy during wartime and the Carpenters Union allowed Otis to fulfill his ambitions in his life. Social Security and the Carpenters Pension Fund provided a comfortable retirement.
As a father, he often spoke to his sons, Dana and Vaughn, of the joys of traveling, camping and boating.
During his twenty years as a father-in-law to Jaime Lynne, Otis developed a great admiration and appreciation for her. He often said, “You are so pleasant.”
Otis appreciated each day, from the sunrise, coffee, and and waiting to receive his first phone call in the morning, to the beautiful sunset at the end of the day. During moments of enthusiasm for life he would often say, “this is good,” or some variation of those words.
Otis will be greatly missed by all his family members and close friends.
Private services are being held by the family.
Categories: Death, Family, Life, Obituary 3 CommentsBook Review: The Dangerous Book For Boys
I found this book (and it’s companion volume, “The Daring Book For Girls”) while shopping for Christmas gifts. I glanced through its pages, loved the concept, and bought one of each for my son and daughter.
My kids opened them on Christmas morning, gave them a baffled once-over and a polite “Thank you,” and moved on to cooler stuff.
I didn’t mind; it was a natural reaction to what looked like a couple of 1940’s-era textbooks. I hadn’t expected them to appreciate this particular gift right away.
Later that day, as the excitement was winding down, I sat down with “The Dangerous Book For Boys,” and perused its pages from cover to cover. This book is an absolute treasure. It’s part how-to guide, part encyclopedia, part secret agent tutorial. It offers sage advice, inspiring poetry, and valuable information about the natural world. There are step-by-step instructions for how to make a paper airplane, paper hat, paper boat, or paper water bomb. It shows how to tie five different useful knots; how to build a great treehouse, a go-cart, a workbench, a real bow and arrow, or a periscope; how to build a simple battery or electromagnet or pocket light from easy-to-find objects. It includes the rules of 14 different sports and games; how to understand morse code or US Naval Flag Codes, how to encrypt and decipher secret messages. It offers the Navajo Code Talkers’ Dictionary, several Latin phrases everyone should know, as well as the basic rules of English grammar. There are instructions for how to learn to juggle, skip stones across water, fish, do coin tricks or grow a sunflower. The Declaration Of Independence is printed in its entirety, as are the Ten Commandments. The subject of astronomy is covered exhaustively. There are seven poems every boy should know, and a recommended reading list of books. There are several pages devoted to navigation, including how to find North in the dark, and a detailed explanation of why the sky is blue.
And I’m not even scratching the tip of the iceberg yet.
There’s a vast wealth of information and advice contained between the covers of this amazing tome. Everyone should own a copy of this book!
“The Daring Book For Girls” is a fun companion volume, but I found it to be rather less satisfying in its content choices. If I could only buy one or the other for my child, it would be one for boys — even if she were a girl.
‘Tis The Season…
I’ve been too busy with Christmas stuff (and visiting with Steve’s cousin out from NJ — fun!) to think of anything profound or inspiring to write about this week. I still enjoy reading other folks’ blogs whenever I get a spare minute, though, so in lieu of an actual post, here are a couple of entries that have made me think and/or smile today.
Categories: Christmas, Family, kids, Life 2 CommentsEight Things About Me
Aron has tagged me for the “8 Things About Me” meme.
So, here are eight random things about me.
1. I believe that a happy, fulfilling life cannot be achieved by approaching life as a competitive event. A well-lived life is a cooperative effort.
2. I am very concerned about the growing toxicity of our planet.
3. I’m a big believer in “abundance mentality.” There is enough joy and love and prosperity in the world to go around. One person’s happiness and success does not mean that there is any less happiness and success available for anyone else.
4. I really hate talking on the phone.
5. I can play sheet music, but only in treble clef. I understand the rules of bass clef, but despite years of effort my hands still can’t seem to coordinate with my brain on this one.
6. I am very concerned about the modern trend toward financial goals and the superficial trappings of wealth rather than the true nurturing of human hearts and spirits. So many people out there own all the latest gadgets, but are literally starving for real friendship and love and encouragement. The very real human need to be noticed and appreciated and emotionally connected is what drives spiritually bankrupt social outcasts to finally gain the attention of their fellow man by any means necessary, even if it means a bloodbath at a school or shopping mall.
7. I believe that every child enormously benefits from being read to every day, even well past the age when he is able to read on his own. This is a time for parents and children to share, reconnect, and refill that emotional tank that too often goes empty these days.
8. (This is going to be a long one. Bear with me.) My grandfather passed away unexpectedly Saturday morning. Or, no. ‘Unexpectedly’ isn’t really the right word — after all, the man was ninety years old and had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Certainly we knew he wouldn’t be around for very much longer.
Otis Fosmo was one of the most resourceful, creative, independent and just plain smart people that ever lived. He walked his own path, never followed the crowd, lived on his own terms. He dwelled in a house that he built himself with his own two hands; some of my warmest memories of childhood are set in that cozy place. He kept his body strong and his mind sharp. There was no weakness in him that I ever saw.
Cancer is an ugly thing. Anyone who has seen a loved one taken by this horrible disease knows what I mean: the way it robs its victims of their vitality and their dignity. I can only imagine what a blow it must have been to my strong, independent grandfather to learn that he was facing such a fate.
He wasn’t in any real physical pain. His mind was as sharp as ever, his body not yet ravaged by the cancer.
My father tells me that on Friday, Grandpa became very depressed about his situation. He said he wanted to die strong, not weak and helpless.
Saturday morning he did not awaken. He died, as he had lived, on his own terms.
He was an amazing man.
Rest in peace, Grandpa. I’m so very glad to have known you.
Categories: Death, Family, Life, Memes 6 Comments10 Books Every Child Should Read (Or Have Read To Them)
We have a “storytime” tradition in our home: every evening before bedtime the kids and I snuggle up together on the sofa and I read to them. When they were younger it was picture books, or anthologies of poetry or nursery rhymes. Now that they’re seven and nine we’ve moved on to chapter books, and I’m really enjoying introducing them to the classics that brought so much joy and inspiration to my own childhood.
This November we read Bambi — the original Felix Salten masterpiece, not the horribly watered-down rewrite by Janet Schulman, or any of those brightly-illustrated Disney versions. I want to emphasize that, because the original unabridged novel is a work of power and truth and beauty that for some reason modern editors and abridgers apparently find unsuitable for modern children. I could not disagree more. Yes, the original book is an unflinchingly realistic view of life in the forest (talking animals notwithstanding); yes, some scary and difficult things happen on its pages; yes, it causes kids to ask questions that require some thought and effort on the part of the parent to answer. Does that mean it’s unsuitable? Hardly. This is much more wholesome fare than most of the stuff published for the 8-to-12 crowd these days. It manages to educate the reader, inspire compassion and contemplation, and be absolutely riveting all at the same time. The abridgments and rewrites have taken everything of value from the tale, leaving it empty of appeal or flavor.
I noticed a similar trend when I was searching for a copy of Johanna Spyri’s “Heidi” a few years back. The original was written in German, and it seems like there’s a different English translation every time a new edition is printed. Some retain the native charm of Spryri’s story, while others seem more concerned with political correctness and watered-down digestibility than with preserving the lessons and values that the original sought to impart. (Although this can be a tricky line to walk: my personal favorite translation is by Louise Brooks, but when I tried to read it to Luke and Elizabeth, ages 6 and 8 at the time, they had a hard time with the rather exotic vocabulary. So I found another translation that used simpler phrasing without sacrificing much of the original flavor, and the kids loved it.)
I’ve been thinking lately about all the books that had such a profound influence on my young self, and wondering if kids these days even know about them. Surely a child who has snuggled up with his mom or dad and had “The Secret Garden” or “Charlotte’s Web” read to him could never grow up to someday open fire on a school or mall with an automatic rifle?
One can hope, anyway. And with that hope in mind, I’ve put together a list of ten books that every child should read, or have read to them. They are all suitable for children ages seven through twelve. Actually, teens and parents might enjoy these timeless treasures just as much as the younger crowd.
Like my list of Christmas read-aloud stories, they are listed in order of age of target audience. In other words, #1 is intended for children closest to the younger end of the scale, #10 is for children closer to the older end.
1. Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White.
2. The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
3. “Heidi,” by Johanna Spyri.
4. Half Magic, by Edward Eager.
5. Bambi, by Felix Salton.
6. The Jungle Books, by Rudyard Kipling.
7. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.
8. Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell.
9. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
10. Smoky The Cow Horse, by Will James.
These stories should be a treasured part of every childhood. Share them with love, remember them forever. :^)
An Invincible Summer 