November 2018: William, Billy Boy, Bill, Dr. Kreutter, Dad

Gathered here are photos of my father, Bill Kreutter & words I wrote down while talking with him throughout the last five to seven years of his life.  As his short-term memory faded, then was gone & dementia took hold, a few memories persisted right up until he died in August, 2018: his mother, father, sister, wife & two daughters, 'The Lord is My Shepherd' prayer, the lyrics to 'As Time Goes By,' climbing Colorado's mountains & perhaps most vividly, Monarch Lake.    

He lived a full, good life & I am happy to have inherited his genes!  (Everything is attributed to genes, according to him.)  He was a marvelous man because he always acknowledged the good side of things, so gently embraced the natural world & the people/things around him, was always looking to laugh, listen or sing, help others & expect nothing.

 IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou.

(Denver, Colorado ~1939)

"At Cheeseman Park they used to have ponds.  I'd go wading there with my Mom & practice swimming because it was shallow....maybe one & a half or two feet deep.  You could put one hand at the bottom of the pool and raise the other one up to look like you were swimming.  I used to get goldfish there too.  You could sit at the edge & use a strainer to bring up one or two of the fish, put them in a jar & take them home.  I would put them in my room & feed them.  I used to have guppies too, but I got those at a store."

(Lake Geneva, Wisconsin ~1942)

"We had relatives in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.  Uncle Hans & Aunt Gladys.  They had a very nice home near a lake & it was fun to visit.  I think I learned to swim there.  We would go for a month or more in the summer.  We would drive out from Denver & it was so hot!  We would take a block of ice in the car & put it in the front & back seat so you could cool your hands & feet.  There weren't Interstates back then, just highways.  It wasn't fast travel & we had to stay overnight in towns.  My cousins Ed & Gordon had a clubhouse in the woods & there was a path you could follow which was fun for a kid.  I think Ed showed me a gun.  He wanted me to keep it a secret & I did.  He also had some artistic creations he made from magazines.  He would trace a newspaper cartoon from a light box.  In the comic, the characters were clothed but he would make them naked & draw in hair wherever it was needed.  Actually, it was probably in his bedroom, not in the clubhouse because that's where I would sleep.  He showed it to me because he knew if I found it on my own, he would get in trouble.  Anyway, I wasn't too shocked, but it was interesting.  I never took up the habit on my own."

(Monarch Lake, Colorado ~1946)

"Drew McGill & Stan Wright started a fishing company.  They fished with my Dad (mostly just Drew) up at Monarch Lake near Granby.  On the Colorado River too.  We didn't swim at Monarch Lake unless it was a really hot summer--you could go out a little way.  It was always cold, mountain water year-round.  I first started fly fishing with a fly there.  When you’re young, you fish with worms and salmon eggs.  That was ok, bait fishing.  Fly fishing was kinda interesting…cause they liked it.  They taught me how to do it, casting off the boat."  

(Denver, Colorado 1955-56)

"I worked as a busboy at a fancy restaurant called Henritzi's on South Colorado Blvd.  I started as a busboy taking stuff off the table, pouring water, clearing dishes.  There was a weekend night when I was working & a lady had propped the menu up against a glass of water, at the very edge of the table.  She wasn't holding the menu in her hands but was looking at something on the menu.  I ended up pouring the water right in her lap!  The boss had told me not to work so slowly, that I had to work faster, clearing the dishes.  I was there for three years.  I worked my way up to a waiter & learned how to carry big trays against my shoulder."

(Okinawa, Japan 1966-68)

"In Okinawa, there was a huge hospital with a pediatric unit.  Everyone took a rotation in the emergency room.  It wasn't combat emergency, more like a normal hospital that helped families of Americans stationed there.  I worked in adult & child ER, but it was all pretty minor stuff.  I primarily worked in the pediatric unit.  There was a case of Reye's Syndrome, something I'd never heard about because it was a recently discovered disease.  There was a child that came to the ER who was lethargic & non-responsive.  I don't know if he had a fever or not, but I had to draw blood, start an IV & do a spinal tap.  I started antibiotics & fluid to stabilize blood pressure.  It turned out his blood sugar was very low.  His spinal tap was normal, but he had to be flown to a bigger hospital.  They found out he had chicken pox earlier on & was still getting over that.  I never found out what happened to him."  

(Okinawa, Japan 1966-68)

"When I was in medical school, a friend & I went to Germany & France, the only time I ever went to Europe.  I had such a terrible sense of direction but he didn't.  He knew how to get around everywhere.  He was a heavy drinker & had a sharp memory.  There was another guy, Bill Lloyd, who was older than me but he could go to lectures, never take a note & remember everything.  I could ask him about a lecture & he would know it.  It's quite an awakening when you run into someone like that." 

(Florida 1968)

"After visiting my Dad in Buffalo for my one free flight after serving in the army, I went to visit my sister Betty & her family in Florida in 1968.  Del, her husband, was stationed in Homestead, so that's where we went."

(Colorado ~1974)

"I got into hiking with Dave Hutchison.  Climbing 14ers.  That was kinda fun, pretty taxing.  You'd get short of breath.  We climbed Capitol Peak.  Up at the very top, there's a knife edge they call it, where there's no path & you have to sit on a mountain that's like sitting on a roof of a house and it's a steep little thing.  It's not very far, it goes maybe four or five yards.  You slide across it, sitting so you can be balanced.  Straddling, like riding a horse.  That was fun.  So many...gosh, I've forgotten some, but that was one of the best ones I did." 

(Colorado ~1976)

"I remember my Dad talking about Satchel Paige."

(Denver, Colorado 1982)

"One time, I was on a swing in the backyard of someone else's house.  It was a Catholic family that had several kids & there was a little fence between our yards, like three or four feet tall.  We would swing on the swing & jump off it.  I did this once, hit my right arm & broke it.  I was alone so I ran home & we went to the doctor.  I had to get a cast near the joint.  It was x-rayed & set but to this day, I don't have the range of motion like my left arm."

(Fraser, Colorado ~1996)

"I played basketball growing up.  In the early days it was just in the alley on Dexter & Cherry St.  I didn't play on a team until I went to high school at East.  I didn't play my freshman year, I probably wasn't good enough.  It was fun getting to improve my skills versus working my way up to be the best.  I liked that you could play with the guys that were very good & they would teach you a little bit.  The training was good--different moves to make & different types of defense, covering guys & certain areas of the court.  I also played tennis in high school.  I wasn't really good, but I learned how to play.  When I first started, it was all one-handed tennis...that's how you hit the ball, just with one hand, even the backhand.  One guy said a backhand is like bringing a sword out of a sheath.  Another guy showed me how to serve & how to get over-spin so the ball bounces really high.  I remember learning where to serve in the court.  We played different high schools.  Our basketball team was much better than our tennis team so we had play-offs."

(Wheat Ridge, Colorado 2006)

"I remember one case where a little baby came in for a six week check-up.  I don't think I had seen him before, or maybe I had seen him once, but never in the hospital.  I saw him making a little twitch or two, just a little shaking.  I thought, this could be a seizure.  I think we gotta check this out.  So I said, 'You should take him to the emergency room at Children's because something is fishy.'  They checked him & I got a call back where they told me, 'We did a CT scan on the head & there was bleeding under the skull, a subdural hematoma.'  Turns out it was a shaken baby & he was admitted to the hospital, then removed from the family.  Sometimes you find fractures on a patient, so you have to think of someone hurting the child instead of it being an accident.  This incident was a good wake-up call to that aspect of medicine."

(Portland, Oregon 2008)

"As kids, we had butterfly nets.  I remember chasing bugs & butterflies in some of the vacant lots around our house because my sister had a program at school where they did an insect study.  You'd put the bugs in a jar with a fuse or fume thing that would kill them quickly so they didn't suffer.  Then you'd mount them on a board & name them."

(Rocky Mtn. National Park, Colorado 2012)

"My parents would put the Christmas tree up after we went to bed on Christmas Eve.  When I was older, I helped decorate the tree with lights, bulbs & tinsel.  I once got a BB gun for Christmas, a Daisy BB Gun.  I never had any incidences of shooting it cause I probably prized it rather than shot it.  I never shot any animals but one time I shot & killed a bird...it was like 10 feet away.  I was so surprised that I actually killed it!  I realized that wasn't much fun & I felt bad."

(Granby, Colorado 2013)

"I love beer.  They used to give it to me as a kid, you know, just a little to gain weight."

(Denver, Colorado 2017)

"Poker was the game my Dad liked at The Denver Athletic Club.  He'd tell me they would bet & there would be some guys that lost too much money so they couldn't play anymore.  My Dad was good cause he never got in the hole where you would owe somebody something.  He was smart in that way, knowing when to do what."

(Denver, Colorado 2018)

"That's life!  Everybody's gotta go.  I love you."