Gulchin' Out

Born in 1918, Vince Garrod lived on the family property in Saratoga, CA his entire life. He, his brother and his sister grew up without running water and without cars. He learned to drive when he was 8 and got his license at 14. He grew up picking prunes and cutting apricots. He stacked trays and hauled hay. He watched the world put a man on the moon and learn to communicate instantly via email. In the 1960s he moved the family business from prunes and apricots to horses and vineyards,...
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Born in 1918, Vince Garrod lived on the family property in Saratoga, CA his entire life. He, his brother and his sister grew up without running water and without cars. He learned to drive when he was 8 and got his license at 14. He grew up picking prunes and cutting apricots. He stacked trays and hauled hay. He watched the world put a man on the moon and learn to communicate instantly via email. In the 1960s he moved the family business from prunes and apricots to horses and vineyards, and later wine. In 1970 he fell off a haystack and broke a hip, so during his forced inactivity he bought himself an Osborne computer and taught himself how to use it. He never sat back and expected something to change-if he wanted something different he created it. He could tell you how much fruit an orchard should produce, and could identify insect pests and fungus. He could hitch up a horse and milk a cow. He could grow tomatoes and catch gophers. Vince loved the land and was an advocate of conservation his entire life, and served on several conservation district boards and open space land trusts. He was an active community member and served on the local school board, as a 4-H leader, and fire commissioner. Everyone who met him liked him right away. There was a way about him-an easy smile, an interested question, and wise response. And he liked everyone. As part of his interest in conservation, he also thought family history was important. These stories he wrote from memories of his youth. They are stories of friends and with friends. They are stories of a different time, when kids walked home from school and made kites by hand and played marbles. They are also stories of a man who didn't begrudge time moving forward and understood after all that people are just people trying to do what they know how to do, and make their lives a little bit better.