MY MOTHER USED TO SAY EVERYTHING in life has its plusses and minuses. Writing this column each week has two plusses. I get to interview interesting people; and when, in my opinion, the world has gone totally mad (i.e. the day we invaded Iraq) I have a place to vent. I’m like a poor man’s Howard Beale in “Network.” A minus is that venting week after week can get tedious for my readers. Another minus is that in the end Beale got assassinated. That’s actually a very big minus.
This is my 106th “Laughing Matters.” During the past two years I’ve written about dozens of my “neighbors.” The history of this city and its colorful citizens are the stuff of a Steinbeck novel.
Unfortunately, I’m no Steinbeck. I’m not even Andy Rooney. But, due to economics, we are losing bits of old Santa Monica every day.
We could wind up with a city of rich and poor, and everybody in the middle would be left out. I hope I’m wrong.
Among my columns was one about Robert, the homeless gardener, who magically turned a portion of a beach parking lot into a lush garden.
And Susan, an artist who has lived and worked on the boardwalk for over 30 years and teaches at Emeritus. Mary is a retired teacher whose students included Sean Penn and Charlie Sheen. Gee, I wonder if they ever caused any problems? Mary is such a sports maven she ought to be working for ESPN.
Malin is a remarkably fit Swedish-born instructor in Nordic walking, or power walking using ski poles. I always wonder, do they think it’s going to snow?
My favorite, however, is Joe Geletko who was a mailman in Santa Monica for 30 years. When Joe retired he began playing bit parts in movies and commercials. I first met him on the beach on a very warm November Saturday. Joe was 70 then but as fit as a 40-year-old — he collecting recyclables and listening to the USC-Notre Dame football game. We bonded because we were both rooting for Notre Dame (Yes, SC fans, I realize the Trojans won). Joe told me he picked up the recyclables when he wasn’t shooting a movie. I didn’t believe him but he was so charming I didn’t care.
Joe and I run into each other often as, even at 73, he surfs almost daily. We both hope UCLA will win another national basketball championship and that Bush will be impeached, or even better, tried, as in Vincent Bugliosi’s latest book, “"The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.”
But Joe has more important things on his mind right now.
Tomorrow is his and wife Kathy’s 50th wedding anniversary. To those of us not quite so successful in marital matters, that’s not a typo, that’s 50 years.
Joe and Kathy met in September 1957 at a St. Augustine’s Church club in Culver City, the “Sinners or Saints.” A very tolerant name for a church organization? Kathy remembers Joe’s opening line, “So, are you a sinner or a saint?”Women remember everything, which is part of why we men can never win an argument. And yet Joe’s line was pretty good if it’s still paying dividends 50 years later.
The Geletkos have lived in the same house for 44 years. Kathy was a stay-at-home-mom and Joe was a letter carrier but somehow they sent all five of their kids to UCLA. The kids are adults now, Joan, Joey, Judy, Janet, and Jane (I sense a “J” theme at work). Kathy notes when her children went to college they all had part-time jobs. Realistically, it’d be impossible for future Joe and Kathys to move here now, much less send five kids to college. And that’s a loss for all of us.
For every one of their anniversaries the Geletkos have celebrated at a different restaurant. “No repeats,” Kathy says proudly. This year they’re going to Palm Springs. And when they get back, on the 29th, the kids have a surprise planned. Stay tuned.
This is a very special year because the last 18 months have not been easy. Both Joe and Kathy have had cancer surgeries and radiation and have a little more scheduled. As Bette Davis said, “Getting old is not for sissies.” And yet when I talk to them there’s never a whisper of complaint. “Courageous” doesn’t begin to describe the Geletkos.
In their 70s, Joe and Kathy are an unbelievably cute couple. Holding hands, they’re a Norman Rockwell painting. So, as they celebrate their 50th anniversary, I’m celebrating them. Tomorrow will be golden for them, as hopefully will be all their tomorrows. All due respect to my late mother, with the Geletkos I see only plusses.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 20, 2008. Read the original PDF.