Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Glenbrook Park & Lake Olympia Collection

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Title: Vince Seck Biography Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Glenbrook Park & Lake Olympia Collection # of Pages: 2 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-09-28 16:46:51 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 05:54:08 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 05:54:08

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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What a great day that was, September 7, 1931. My mother was so proud as she gazed down into my face. We were at the Vallejo General Hospital, Vallejo, California. I was the second born, preceeded by an older brother of 21 months and followed by another brother seven years later and a sister seven after that. They were all accidents but I was intentional and mom always liked me best. We lived in Vallejo until 1947. World War II had a tremendous impact on Vallejo. Thousands of people were brought in to build and repair ships at Mare Island. The schools had two shifts, 6:30 a.m. to noon and 1:00 to 6 p.m. A lot of my school chums lived in government housing which were prefabricated plywood boxes erected for the duration of the war. The hill sides were imbedded with antiaircraft guns. The vacant lots in this neighborhood were equipped with blimps with long cables hanging down to deter dive bombers. Dad was the neighborhood air-raid warden. When the siren went off he grabbed his helmet and flashlight and went out to make sure all lights were out. From Vallejo we moved to Berkeley so my older brother could attend pre-med school at U.C. After the first year he moved to a fraternity house. This is where he met Pete and Pat Ingram. Their father was Robert Ingram, the editor of the ‘Union’ and there lies the Grass Valley connection. I attended Berkeley High for a year, St Mary’s High one year and then joined the merchant marine, working tankers for Standard Oil Co. After a year I returned to St. Mary’s and graduated in 1950. Dad purchased Lake Olympia that year. We moved there and started repairs and opened for the 1951 season with swimming, boating, dancing, roller skating, bar and picnicking. March 1952 I was drafted into the U.S. Marines. I fought the battles of southern California and 29 Palms in an artillery unit as a 50 Cal. Machine gun instructor. After discharge in March of 1954 I returned to Grass Valley. Lake Olympia was not a lucrative venture so we all had second jobs. I was employed at Dewitt State Hospital (mental institution) where I probably picked up some of my idiosyncrasies. I was then employed by Berliner and McGines Print Shop in Nevada City. During that time I met and married my wife Janet Qualls, a local girl. For the next three years each June, a child was born. For the following five years I must have had to work on my birthday as the forth child did not arrive until 1964. I now have eight grandchildren. While working at the print shop I used to look out the front window and watch the Nevada City Policemen as they walked around town talking to people. I would think “gee, it must be nice getting paid for talking to people!” I looked out the window too often so the boss painted the windows. In March 1958 I went to work for Grass Valley police Department. In 1961 I got itchy feet and joined the Nevada County Sheriff's Department. I was brought on board to initiate the first night patrol in Nevada County. In 1963 the big money beckoned me so I went to work at Aerojet General. Two years later in 1965 Aerojet almost folded and their 180 man department was reduced to a very few people and I was unemployed. In 1958 after 57 years of operation Lake Olympia closed up. October 14, 1958 I was covering my first suicide when I was notified that the skating rink had burned to the ground. The bath house collapsed under the snow that winter and the dam washed out from heavy rains. My parents had sold the lake and bought a small hotel on Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz. They were ready for a rest so in 1965 we packed the kids up and