Calvin Wright turns 100

[Michael Brunelle]

[Michael Brunelle]

When Cal turned 78 I sent him a check for $78, I hear he got a kick out of that.

Speaking of checks, there is a story about how Andy stuck a picture of Buckwheat from the Little Rascals over grampa's driver's license picture. Apparently he was as surprised as the bank teller when he produced his ID to cash a check.

[Nick Brunelle]

And don't forget Manley's.
Gramp's treated me and friends (Rod, Ballard & Folger) to huge plates of meatloaf & pie ala mode on occasion (usually after a tough loss).
JB's BigBoy was also a big treat.

[Kathleen Brawn]

I can't beleive Grandpa would be 100 now! I remember most how much family meant to Grandpa and how he'd visit distant cousins in remote towns and EVERY cemetery where family members were buried, throughout his life!! If anyone wants any pictures or info on the genealogy of the Wright family I've got plenty to share including pictures of Grandpa growing up with all his siblings and even pictures of Lee Wright and his siblings growing up.

Love to all,
Kathy Wright Brawn

[T-Bird]

He was the king of power napping. He would come home from work every day at lunch, get undressed and go to bed. He would get up about 30 minutes later and start the second half of his day fresh. It was a treat when once in a great while he would put on his old maroon swimsuit and come swimming with us at his apartment. He would pull weeds in the garden until there was sweat running off the tip of his nose. I spent hours studying the faded and strange looking tatoo on his arm. The black and white paisley design floor mats in his car were yellowed and covered with ashes. (What can I say? I guess I'm a visual thinker.) He was always thinking about other people. I was impressed with the way he managed to have an impact on so many lives. You could never go anywhere without someone stopping to talk to him. I always asked him afterward who the person was. Most of the time he would still be smiling and say through his teeth "I don't know". Kathy, Lisa and I all remembered how he called up to Lewiston to the motel we were meeting at and had the manager fill our rooms with snack food. He always did that kind of stuff. My friends got a kick out of letting me know when they had seen him driving around town with one foot on the brake going about 15 mph. Yet he would drive over 100 miles an hour on the way to Twin, Pokey and Idaho Falls. He's still around, don't you think?

[Lisa Johnston]

One of my favorite pictures. "Grandpa and Tommy"

[Nick Brunelle]

Cal's Cars
My earliest memory was of an old Packard (dark gray maybe?) & then a sleek light blue '64 or '65 Ford Galaxie 500. As luck would have it, he won a different Ford (Falcon?) in a raffle that was announced over the radio during a Boise Braves minor league baseball game (a neighbor called to alert him) just after the Galaxie acquisition. He kept the Galaxie.
Then the Chrysler Newport I think? 1971? I had it up to 110 mph back in the day and also a speeding ticket!

[Michael Brunelle]

I think it would have been a '68 or '69. I got my driver's license in 1969 (in Idaho you could do this at 14 years old!), and Cal let me drive it that Fall and maybe even late summer. It had a big engine and probably a great big gas tank. He used to take Gwen around town to stores and the beauty parlor. I have no memory of her driving, but she had driven years before, because she used to drive Cal and other candidates around the state when they were campaigning for office. Anyway, Cal would wait patiently in the car while Gwen did her shopping, and he always had a cigarette in his mouth. Sometimes he would pay us a buck to clean his windows, on the inside, because they turned yellow from all the smoke. Tinted windows were not an option when he bought the Chrysler, but he usually had them.

[Nick Brunelle]

Barney will confirm but I think it was a '60's model (now I'm thinking "67).
Grandma Gwen never drove (I'm told)).

[Michael Brunelle]

She told me she drove a lot on campaign trips. She stopped when her license expired, I think she was tired of it. She also quit smoking from one day to the next in the early sixties, remember?

[John Brunelle]

Cal made good use of the US Postal service and never missed the chance to send a postcard, usually with a joke included.