Star McCain found the website on Google—while looking for an ice-skating rink—and sends along an amusing story.

A dear friend of mine was Mike Zele, who died a few years ago at age 107. He immigrated to the US from Romania around 1907, and after being turned down by the military when he tried to enlist at the beginning of WWI, he studied at an industrial school in New York and met up with Buffalo Bill. Living for several years with the Indians (Crow, I believe) on the reservation in Montana, Mike ran whiskey across the border in Montana during the Prohibition Era.

When he came to California, a friend told him he should see the canals of Venice. His heavy accent was misunderstood, and the Red Car dumped him in Van Nuys somewhere near Sherman Way. He said that Van Nuys Blvd. was a long, straight stretch of dirt and gravel lined with the tents and shanties of homesteaders. You could pretty much see from one end of the Valley to the other. It was dotted with oak trees, [and] the shallow, wide river often flooded the valley, in which herds of elk still roamed free.

Someone asked Mike if he could farm sweet potatoes, he said “Why sure” and ended up on a farm over near Balboa Blvd. I remember that Mike told us he got married, but he didn’t seem to like her much and did not speak well of her. They did not have children. He gave up drinking after he lost his horse and plow in a poker game, and remained a loyal member of AA until his death. He lived for years in a tiny house just off of Sherman Way and the 405. I’m a bit fuzzy – I think he died in 1995, about a month after his wife’s nephew sent him to a nursing home, where he contracted pneumonia.

Your site has inspired me to find the miniDV movies and photos we have of Old Mike (as my family calls him) holding my baby in his lap, smoking his pipe, and telling us his stories. He was a darling, and full of simple wisdom, yet also feisty and stubborn, with old-world beliefs and new-world patriotism. I will never forget how he said, “Oh, there is always something you can find to like about the other guy.”

Thanks for the memories. We all need a chance to tell our stories, and an opportunity to become a part of each other’s stories.

Thank you for sharing.