Chuck Peake: I grew up in Chanute during the Depression

I was married to my first wife for 37 years. I met her at a church social in Kansas City. I was 17, her name was Penny. There was a lake outside Kansas City, Lake Waukomas. It probably helped that I had my own car, a Model A Ford. They were all black, but I had mine painted gray. It stood out. We went for a ride in my car. I had that car 13 years. We got married at the Methodist Church. We had one boy and three girls.

I grew up in Chanute during the Depression. All the kids, if they wanted any money to buy a bicycle, or go out on a date, they had to get a job. There weren’t many jobs. I had two jobs, two paper routes: one morning and one evening route: the Chanute tribune and The Kansas City Star. It took me two hours to do my morning route. And two hours to do my evening route. I had 160 customers, I had to collect money from them too. Most of the people in town would pay up, but some of the ones out in the country, wouldn’t, or couldn’t. It was during the Depression, many folks had no money at all. It came out of our pockets if they didn’t pay up.

They say I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, only it turned into brass. My grandfather was a multi-millionaire but he lost it all during the Depression. It leveled the playing field. I eventually did collect the paper money from all my customers. I made $30 a month. When I began my route, I was 12, I was a little short guy, and ornery too! I rode my bicycle. I’d put the bag over my shoulder and I’d criss-cross the bags. My route was divided into two parts. I’d deliver half of the newspapers, I’d stash the other half and when I was done with the first half, I’d finish the second half. A lot of people didn’t have any money at all in those days. I was pretty lucky to have two jobs.

In those days, gas was 7 and a half cents a gallon. Pretty expensive in those days. I bought a car, a Model A Ford. It cost me $75. Boy you know it, that was a lot of money in those days. It took me at least a couple of years to save up for it. It was a 2-door sedan. In those days everything was bought used. I was a little used myself. What was so funny, was that it was 1937, my mother bought a brand new 1937 ford sedan for $750 and most of the time it wouldn’t run. A brand new car that wouldn’t run worth a dam. One time it died right in the middle of the road. She’d call me to come get her and I’d pick her up in my old Mode A ford.I had that car until 1960. My mother pretty much gave up on her car and drove my car while I was in the Navy. I finally sold it and bought a newer car but I missed it. She never did get that ’37 Ford to run right.

When my first wife died, I came to California to go to work for Aero General, they made space and airplane engines. I met someone in Sacramento. I married that gal in the 1960s, but that didn’t last very long so I fired her. She said she loved me but she didn’t. We called it quits after 6 years. Then, I met this gal here (Lael). I bought a place in Grass Valley on Highway 20. Most of the time we rented it out. I still have the place, it’s a big house, in the valley.

I worked at Tinsley Laboratories in Berkeley. But I lived in Sacra-tomato. I had a Cadillac, A '53 with the fins. I put 700,000 miles on it driving down to Berkeley. It didn’t need much by way of repairs. It just kept going and going like the energizer bunny. At Tinsley I helped build telescopes. I was a manager there. Tinsley was known for its telescopes. They built the one for Mt. Palomar, Mauna Kea, Mt. Hamilton. They built some pretty exotic lenses.

Then I was with Autodesk. When I joined them, there were only 38 people in the entire company. My job was to get things going in other countries. Eventually I had 150 people working for me. I told them I’d get them going but I was leaving—and so I did. They got worldwide they didn’t need me anymore. I retired and I still have stock in that company I helped build. 

—Chuck Peake


I was in the Navy 7 years, I was damned glad to get out of it. I went to midshipman school at Notre Dame in Indiana. I ended up a lieutenant. I was on a ship that came out of Washington, it was WW II, right after Pearl Harbor. I went all over the world. We were in Guam, Saipan, Tinjin—all over those islands. In China, we went 8 miles up the river before we got to shore, but we had to stay on the ship. We couldn’t get off. I did get to Beijing but I didn’t get to see Taiwan. It was cold as the dickens and we were all too busy, we had to pick up some sailors up there stranded by the war. It was 1945, we knew the war was over because the Japanese were pulling out. You could tell the war was almost over. All those invasions. My last invasion was Okinawa. I got discharged in Oakland. All my family was from Kansas City and Missouri. My family came out here, my sister came first. Her husband was a doctor in the Navy. They lived in San Mateo. I lived in Redwood City. We used to call it Deadwood City. I’ve lived all over. I was in the Navy on a ship for 5 years. At the end, they didn’t know what to do with me, so they let me go. I got along fine in the Navy but I didn’t like Navy life. My last stop was Northern China. 

 —Chuck Peake