Weekends with Arlie

I think every family has older relatives who have these remarkable tales. The wholeness of American history lies deep within all these stories. It would serve our current generations well to know the past. Our families collectively form the answers to many questions that we face in life. Our histories do matter. I feel like I struck gold when Arlie Linn Mathews moved into our home. Invited by his sister, my mother, he was a fantastic addition to our place. He had already had a profound impact on my life, but this time together was remarkable. I hope you can hear these stories through the raspy old man voice they were served up in. I hope you can find yourself or other relatives in these stories that are similar and enjoyable. I hope you find kindness and love inside these pages, because that was who Arlie Linn Mathews, and his wife Trecie were.

Arlie was a real-life cowboy in the mountain west state of Colorado. His time spent in the Gunnison valley tells tales of what a real cowboy was like. He spent time in the Navy during World War 2 in both the Mediterranean Theatre and the Pacific Theatre. He then came home to his wife Trecie in Wichita, Kansas. He went to work. He could fix anything, and if he needed a part to fix something he could usually make that too. His descriptions of what he did accomplish will jump off the page.

His job offered him the chance to move to Tempe, Arizona. This was a good career move for him and a good move for Trecie's health. They had a 73-year marriage and part of it, he was convinced, was due to the dry atmosphere healing her arthritis. He retired in Tempe, and this gave him more time in his workshop and his outdoor activities of hunting and fishing. His love of the game of basketball spanned a time from his childhood to having season tickets to the Phoenix Suns games.

Arlie Linn Mathews was the third of ten children and he lived to be 102 years old. The years moved quickly past and of all the siblings and in-laws the only two left were Vera, tenth and last born, and Arlie. Vera and my wife Edie took care of him, and I recorded stories. His tales are not uncommon, but his character was. He was a good man who lived by simple honest beliefs. His belief in God and his family and friends. These things caried him through to the end.