On Friday June 13th, our 2014 Summer Solstice”, the last Pony Express rider rode home to join his wife and family. Harold kleymann was a husband a father of three and brother to four boys and one sister. Starting life as a small farm boy in Kansas and finally ending up here in San Diego California Harold led an amazing life. The tales I herd, I am sure are just a few of many. Here are a few that outline this character and love one. Grandpa grew up a farm boy in Kansas. As a boy he worked with his family driving tractors to help the family business turning soil on peoples farms to prevent it from blowing away during the great “Dust Bowl Era”. Harold was a victim of polio as a young boy, but, that didn’t stop him. Harold loved and excelled at basketball, becoming a star player for his school. As a Young boy, Harold rode for the pony express out of “Old Saint Mary’s” where he set a speed record delivering mail on hoarse-back. At the request of the president of the United States, 15 year old Harold rode his horse up to the back of a moving train, dismounted his hoarse, stepped on to the train and sat down with the President to spend over an hour visiting and talking bout horses. During his youth and the prohibition era, Harold and his brothers did a little flirting with the law and even ran a little booze across the state line for their parties. He used to tell me a story of how he and his brothers would travel across the state line to pick up some whisky for a party they were planning. On the way home they noticed the Sherriff coming down the road after them. Grandpa and his brothers drove off the road and angled through the drainage ditch and into a wheat field to try and lose the sheriff. After driving for a bit they notice the sheriff was not following. They stopped and looked for him, but, he was nowhere in sight. Wondering what may have happened to him, the boys turned around and went in search of the sheriff. When they found him, he was stuck in the drainage ditch. The Keymann Boys pushed the sheriff and his car out of the ditch and back on to the road. The sheriff thanked the boys and said, “look, I know you boys are running whisky. Before I go, could I get a sip?” The kleymann boys and the sheriff sat down together on the bumper of the sheriff’s car and had a few sips together, laughed and went bout their separate ways. Farming, basketball, delivering mail on horseback and running booze across the state line, Harold still found time to fall in love with his wife of 58+ years. Betty Pauliine Fisher. Grandma and Grandpa used to tell me how Grandma would run up to the back of a tractor grandpa was driving climb on board and visit. At times they would lie out a table cloth on the back of the tractor and have lunch. All of this without stopping the tractor. Grandma and Grandpa would refer to those moments as their first dates”. As time went on Harold and Betty found themselves in san Diego. Grandpa worked for General Dynamics during WWII and transformed the assembly line increasing their out put of 8 airplanes a month, to 8 airplane a week. Working as an engineer, I was told Harold invented a fuel injection system used on rocket engines. After the war Harold opened up a gas station near Adams Avenue here in San Diego. I hear he built a few racecars. Yes, Harold and Betty took the time to raise a family, 2 boys and a girl, but, they adopted many more. They said that they always had a home for the local “Strays”. They opened their home to a lot of the neighbor’s kids. I know this for a fact. My mother at age 15, ran away from home and was taken in by my grandparents were she met my father. I know there are a whole lot more stories I’m sure. Harold had an eventful, maybe even a “Heroic” life. I’m going to miss my grandfather, as well as I’m sure, many others will.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 18:45:00 +0000
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