FORGOTTEN TIMES
by Dick Graves
Last week I promised to somewhat reveal a glimpse into the lives of Presque Isle’s two well-traveled gentlemen who find their modes of transportation a wee bit different than ours.
Photo courtesy of Dick GravesEarl Brown and Frank Whittaker, pictured here, can often be seen traveling around Presque Isle in their motorized wheelchairs.
Before my wife was stricken with cancer and a subsequent loss of a leg, the very idea that a member of my family would ever need a wheelchair was an extremely remote one; cancer, wheelchairs, confinement, etc. happened to other families, not mine. I admit that it was a horribly naïve idea (cancer, wheelchairs, confinement, etc.) that only others would be, could be effected. Things happen. When we first heard a physician utter the words cancer and amputation all in one sentence, shockwaves rumbled through like an earthquake. Now, fast-forwarding, it’s six weeks post-op. Surgery harvested clean margins and the future looks bright. In fact, that brings me to Frank and Earl, two gentlemen my wife has never met but has seen a few times traveling up and down the local highways in wheelchairs, miles and miles away from their apartments at Leisure Gardens – no home confinement for them.
Nothing I can tell you has given my wife more hope for her future than seeing these two highly-functional elderly gentlemen get into their saddles, if you will, and ride out, sometimes gone for hours, by themselves, needing no assistance, doing errands, and basically enjoying their newly-found freedom rather than wilting like old flowers in stale water. It’s nothing short of inspirational.
Almost any day, except rainy ones, of course, you can see Frank Whittaker and Earl Brown riding side by side on their motorized wheelchairs up and down the local streets, running errands, escaping the confinement of their apartments, enjoying themselves. Frank and Earl began their lives out on the Egypt Road, neighbors of sorts, a few miles apart and despite knowing of each other’s families, really didn’t meet and become friends until 80 plus years after. Earl was born in 1924 and went to the Ross rural school on the Egypt Road and Frank was born three years later and attended Whittaker School a few miles away. Both gave service to their country during WW II.
Frank left home at the early age of 12. When 16, he went to work for the railroad in Derby. In 1945 he was drafted and discharged in December, six months after the war ended. Soon after, he joined the Air Force and served in Italy until 1947 when he disengaged from active duty, joined the reserves and returned to the Presque Isle area. He had a variety of jobs which included selling cars for C.C. DeLong, farmed with his brother, John, and in the 1950s worked on the Owen Smith farm on the State Road for several years. Later, he returned to his brother’s farm on the Easton Road, worked a spell and finally purchased the operation. On that farm he raised seven children, many still living in the area. He has lost much use of his legs due to spinal degeneration.
Earl joined the service in 1943 at the age of 17. Two years later in 1945 when the war was over, he was discharged, but not before he earned two Purple Hearts. On one occasion, Earl sustained head injuries from shrapnel. On the second occasion, he received machine gun fire in the leg. But, perhaps worse, he froze both feet on the German front. This caused a permanent loss of sensation. He is able to walk, but slowly, having little sense of the position of his feet. After the war, Earl helped build the road from Howland to Milo. He worked on the Hemphill farm on the Easton Road and soon thereafter was employed at Indianhead Plywood. His wife worked at Don Aucoin’s bakery and in 1965, he and his wife bought Don’s Bakery on North Main St. He later in 1977 moved the bakery to the Egypt Road just where that road and the Easton Road meet. His wife passed on in 2006. They had three children: Tim, Earla and Cindy.
So, in 2006 these two acquaintances found themselves in the same retirement facility with the same disability and both getting around in electric wheelchairs. Somehow, they discovered, together, that they had the ability to leave their apartments and go motoring for two hours without a charge. Frank told me that the two-hour charge gives them about eight miles on the road. The amazing thing is that many times during the winter, the two wheelchairers jump into their snowsuits and away they go.
Frank and Earl are and, if not, should be, highly inspirational to others who are confined to wheelchairs. They have freed themselves from the bondage of relative immobility. Reckon they should be awarded the civilian version of the Medal of Freedom. In the near future, we should see my wife strolling down Academy on her way to her new shop. Just like Frank and Earl …
