He’s called the
”
pastry picker-upper
”
– an important position to senior citizens who frequent the
Morgan Hill Senior Center. His mission is to drive five times a
week to two Morgan Hill Starbucks, and to one other on weekends.
Earle Dart, 86, leaves his Hacienda Valley Mobile Home Estates home
every morning and picks up the day-old go
odies.
He’s called the “pastry picker-upper” – an important position to senior citizens who frequent the Morgan Hill Senior Center. His mission is to drive five times a week to two Morgan Hill Starbucks, and to one other on weekends. Earle Dart, 86, leaves his Hacienda Valley Mobile Home Estates home every morning and picks up the day-old goodies. He then heads to the senior center and unloads the pastries, usually by 10 a.m. On weekends, he accesses the center and places the sweets, which are loaded in plastic boxes, in a refrigerator, ready for the Monday morning crowd.
About 100 pieces of pastry are available daily. Dart says there is little concern about fat-free or not.
“They eat ’em right up,” he said. Muffins, lots of muffins, doughnuts and Danish are really popular, he adds. Let’s face it. There is nothing as good as a gooey apple turnover, covered with icing or a raspberry Danish, oozing jam or a moist, berry-laden blueberry muffin. Add a cup of good, hot coffee and it doesn’t matter how old you are or how young; this is good living.
How did Dart happen to land this volunteer job? “Well, the first guy went on vacation and I filled in – it turned out to be long lasting,” he grins. Dart is an engaging man, smiling often and ready to laugh. Nattily turned out in a spotless white golf cap and polo shirt, he is tanned from spending time outdoors.
He started playing golf when he was 50 and still gets out on the links two or three times a week. He says that he still loves the game and needs the exercise and companionship. Using a cart is imperative – he just can’t walk as much any more. While he used to be a “pretty good player,” now he’s slowed down by limited walking ability. A recent operation to increase blood flow to his legs was “very successful,” according to the doctor. Dart is not so sure – he often has to stop walking when cramps and pain occur. Not a complainer, Dart just tells it as he sees it.
His family moved from Grass Valley to Sacramento when he was 6. The oldest and only male of four siblings, he said he experienced a “generally good childhood.” Enlisting in the Army in the mid-40s, Dart was eventually posted to Biloxi, MI. “A terrible place, not fit to live in,” he recalls. He landed in the Army Air Corps but changed to infantry after a year and a half. Being a grunt was preferable; he had a fear of heights.
Leaving the Army after three-plus years, Dart returned to Sacramento, married and worked in the group department of an insurance company for a few years. Then, with a partner, he formed a home improvement business, mostly specialty jobs to include patio construction and covered areas. During the late 1950s, he adds, the partnership dissolved and he moved to San Jose, where he did the same sort of work, on a much bigger scale.
After losing his wife, Dart married again. Ironically, both women died from congestive heart disease – as did his dog. The little poodle was ill and Dart brought it to the vet, where it died a few hours later. Upon being informed of the cause of the animal’s death, Dart said his reaction was “Indeed.”
He lives alone now. When asked if he had any intentions of looking for another wife, the answer was a resounding, “NO.” He considers the situation and adds that he hasn’t given up on all female association. “I like having a girlfriend or two.”
Dart also enjoys gardening. He cuts weeds as if they were grass and experiments with wild flower cultivation. They would probably do better, he observes, if it weren’t for the shade from the peach and cherry trees.
Golf and gardening fill empty hours, particularly in good weather. But like so many Morgan Hill seniors, Dart depends on the senior center for stimulation and socialization. In addition to being the pastry picker-upper, this congenial man takes an arthritis exercise class. And, according to Dart, seniors need to volunteer; it reduces loneliness to be a positive part of other people’s lives. The center provides friends, food – the lunches are terrific and quite inexpensive – and by the way, the TV corner in the lounge is home to a lot of guys. And he’s on target with this comment. There were four men, with coffee and newspapers, sitting in front of the TV.
Just like home used to be.
