Charles Albert MYERS

"Charles A. [Myers] married Amy Bucksath in 1922 while they were both attending college; they have six children and many grandchildren." From "A Brief History of the Myers and Lynn Families," by C. Ross Myers, June 1974. ---------------- August 29, 1997 Charles A. Myers I believe: That there is a superior intelligence that we call God. That long before earth was formed God created our souls to be His companions. In exercising free will we gradually got further away from God began to think that we knew more than He did. God loved us all and despite our wayward ways he did not wish any of us to be lost. In order to give us a chance to use our own free will and see where we would end up, God created the world and established all the laws governing it, which we call natural laws. Jesus said, "with God a thousand years is as the blinking of an eye". If we put this statement in a differential equation and solve it for passage of time, it turns out that there is no passage of time at each extreme and that time is a variable and not a constant. The earth is the only place in the universe that has time as we know it. With God there is no passage of time. Time is not a factor in the dimension that God exists. Our knowledge at the present time is of four dimensions. How many more there are we can only guess. We can only express ourselves in the thought pattern "of the age in which we live, and what we express will be true for that time period". Genesis 2 verse 7 of Lamsa Addition is "and the Lord God formed Adam out of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (a soul) and man became a living being". You will note that man did not become a living being until some time after he was completed physically. How long after, 5000/ 10,000 earth years, we don't know but we do know that at the same time that man was being formed, primates were also being formed larger than man (see chapter 6 of Genesis) who began to intermarry with men. These primates were without souls. God saw that it was not good so God ordained that they vanish from the earth. We know that they did vanish like the mastadons, dinosaurs, etc. Later man attributes this to a flood. Man, thus was created physically before a soul was permitted to enter this physical form. Isn't it quite likely that his process is repeated with each birth? God gave us only one law. That is the "Law of Love", "Love God, love your fellow man and, love yourself". Any thought or deed contrary to this law is a sin. Great Things in Life: 1. The greatest joy in life is found in the unselfish service to others. 2. The greatest battle in life is the battle against oneself. 3. The greatest power in life is love. 4. The greatest virtue in life is patience. 5. The greatest evil in life is selfishness. 6. The greatest example we have to follow in life is that man who lived in Israel 2000 years ago. 7. The greatest encouragement we have in life is faith. 8. The greatest cleansing agent in life is accepting forgiveness and being willing to forgive. I think I will review certain things that happened in my early life that tended to make me what I am today. One incident that occurred even before I was born should be mentioned as it did have an effect on me. My mother and father had bought a farm near Norborne, Mo. and had their first child in 1892, who was named William Fredrick after my father and my mother's father. When he was 18 months old, my mother was scrubbing the floor using lye. She had set the can of lye on the edge of the table and was proceeding with the scrubbing. The baby toddling around investigating all strange things saw the can and reached up and tipped the can over and a considerable quantity went down his throat. He died a horrible death in about three days. My father, unthinking, blamed my mother. She never fully recovered from this ordeal the rest of her life. This lead to their selling the farm and moving out to Ouray, Colo, to get rich in the gold fields. I was born in Ouray on Aug. 29, 1900, their forth child. My father was a gold miner, and he found just enough gold to not quite make a living. The second child was born dead, The third child was given the same name as the first, William Fredrick. I was named Charles Albert after my uncles. Later, my sister, Mildred, was born, and another daughter that died at birth. The following incidents had a lasting effect on my life: 1. I ran with a group of older boys; 2. My mother read to me every evening; 3. I sold newspapers in a saloon and houses of pleasure; 4. We moved to a farm in Colona, Colo.; 5. Haley's Comet; 6. My brother and I started to school in 1910; 7. Home discipline; 8. My relations with my mother - we shot the chickens out of the tree; 9. I was kicked by a mule on Mar. 17, 1913; 10. I learned to live with a scar; 11. I met Amy in Nov. 1918 - first date in Feb, in a horse and buggy; 12. I decided to go to Central College (formally to become a preacher) disenchantment took 7 years to recover; 13. I entered Mo. U. to become an engineer. Waited on tables and washed dishes my 1st quarter. 14. Amy and I were married Dec. 27, 1922. My first recollections occurred before I was three years old. Dated by the fact that we moved to another house when I was three. We lived in the second house from the river at the end of a street. My mother said I was born in that house, but although I was present I do not remember the event. When I was three years old, we moved to another house that was on a corner lot and had a chicken yard. I remember that we had chickens and I used to feed them. The road that my father took to the mine was in sight of the mountain, and I sat and watched for him to come home. The boy next door had a Shetland pony, and it either threw him or kicked him so he had to have a doctor who gave him chloroform, which I can still smell. When I was four, we moved down to the end of a street, past the schoolhouse, into a three room house my father had bought. The house was at the foot of the mountains, and at some time past a large boulder had rolled down and lodged in the front yard. We had a small garden in back and raised rabbits in an open shed. One day two of the does got into a fight, and I reached in to separate them , and one of them bit me on the arm. I stil have a faint scar for my effort at peacekeeping. After we moved to the house at the end of the street when I was probably six years old, I started running with a gang of older boys. They took me along because I would fight, and they sicked me on any boy we met that was anywhere near my age. As I liked to fight and didn't mind getting hurt a little, it was alright with me. But, they soon ran out of opponents. One day we, my brother, a neighbor boy, and myself, found a 45 caliber revolver shell. They thought it would make a lot of noise if we pounded it off. So, they got me a hammer and put the shell on a rock, and they hid behind another boulder while I pounded the shell off. It made a loud bang, but I almost lost two fingers on my left hand. The little finger never did grow back full size. We used to go down along the river to gather dandelions to feed the rabbits. We would first use the pail to catch chipmunks. When we would see a chipmunk run into a hole under a rock, we would pour water down the hole until the chipmunk would come blinking to the surface. My brother would then grab him and put him in a can. We tried to build a cage to keep them in as pets, but we were never able to build one that would hold them, so they were soon at liberty again. The Sweedes used to have a yearly picnic at a park along the river with lots of beer and other goodies. We used to go down early the next morning to carry on salvage operations before they had time to pick up their barrels. I think that was the first beer I ever tasted. I sold newspapers at the saloons and to the two whorehouses on the back street. I liked selling papers to the girls as they would always smile and have something pleasant to say. I also learned all about sex. I found that I knew more about sex by the time I was eight than most boys knew by the time they were twenty. In the summer groups of people from down the river would come to Ouray and have picnics in Box Canyon Parks. We would get get candy and gum and sell them on commission with one of the stores. In order to keep us at home my mother began to read to us after supper each night; All the fairy tales, Robinson Crouso, adventure books of all types. She read about a book every week for over three years. When I was 1 years old my mother, my brother and myself lived in a tent next to the claim he was working at 9000 feet elevation. My mother said that after the snow covered the tent that an oil lamp would give off enough heat to make it comfortable. After my sister, Mildred, was born we lived in town during the summer when my father could walk back and forth to his claims. But, we moved back up near his claim during the snow period. This accounts for my not starting to school until I was ten years old. In the spring of the year I was 10 years old we moved from Ouray to Colony where my father had rented a farm. That was in 1910 when Haley's comet was clearly visible every evening. It was a beautiful sight. We moved from Ouray to Colony, a distance of 30 miles, with a team and wagon. It took all day. That fall my grandfather, John Myers, lent my father $1,000.00 to move back to Mo. When we arrived in Mo., School was already in progress so they took us up to school to start. The teachers didn't know where to put us but as to our age, my brother 12 and I 10. They put us in the third grade. After about a month they promoted my brother to the forth grade. I was rather confused the first year, but Abby Magruder was patient and I got along. The next year I had a red headed teacher, and I have never liked red headed people since. But, the next year they shoved me up to the fifth grade where Miss Leta Barly was the teacher. She was an excellent teacher and evidently she took a special interest in me for after that year I had no further trouble and became valedictorian in the eighth grade and also in high school. My grades in high school averaged 93.5 for the four years. This is getting a little ahead of our story. The way our mother raised us that when we asked to do anything she never said, "no", but she would say, "yes go ahead if we really wanted to", but she would then give reasons why she didn't think it was a good idea. Then she would say, "go ahead if we really wanted to", and she would help us out if we needed help. She would occasionally threaten to tell Papa. I don't think that was much of a threat as I was never whipped or even slapped. It must have been in 1912 when we shot the chickens out of the trees as it was before I got kicked by the mule. It is only noteworthy because this event changed my relationship with my mother. After this event I cannot remember ever doing anything that she disapproved. It occurred like this. My mother raised chickens and would take the eggs over to the grocery store to buy whatever we needed to live such as salt, pepper, flour, baking powder, and that was about all as we had our own meat and chicken to eat. She tried to make the chickens pay for everything we had to buy as we had no money. We got eight cents a dozen for eggs and a bucket would hold about 12 dozen. The chickens usually roosted in the chicken house except during the summer they would fly up into the trees. We had a 22 single shot rifle, and my brother and I would practice shooting 22 short shells at targets. We bought some 22 BB shells that are about the size of 22 shorts. As it was getting dark we couldn't see our targets. We looked up and saw the chickens roosting in the trees, and we thought it would be fun to see if we could hit them. My brother brought one down, and it being my turn I brought another one down. This continued until we had brought six hens down. At which point my mother hearing the squawking came out and saw what we had done. She said with tears running down her cheeks, "now we won't have enough eggs to buy the groceries". Then she said cut their heads off and bring the tub in the house. I will heat some water, and we will dress them. I won't tell your father. She didn't nor did she say anything to me about it until thirty years later when she said that was the worst thing we ever did while we were growing up. I never did figure out how we were able to eat six big hens before they spoiled as we didn't have refrigeration. My mother cooked on a wood stove and we burned corncobs most of the time as they didn't cost anything, and it was my job to go out to the barn and gather the cobs from the horses feed boxes. We had a cart made by mounting a feed box on a set of baby carriage wheels. On St. Patrick's day in March 1913 I took the cart through the gate into the horse lot. The horses and mules were loose in the lot as they were not working. We had one big mare mule that wanted to be a pet. She would follow us around to get a little petting. She followed me around to the barn door. The door was locked on the inside. I rattled the door for my brother to open it. When I did this the mule, Maude, whirled and kicked with both feet. One of the feet caught me a glancing blow on the left cheek and peeled the flesh off the bone. I went to the house, and my mother sent my brother for the doctor. When he came, he didn't have any painkiller, so he did the best he could and laid me on the kitchen table and sewed up the wound. That was the most painful part of the ordeal. In 1920 Amy, my wife, and I both graduated from Brunswick H.S. I was valedictorian. I went to Central College at Fayette for two years and then two years at Missouri U. with a B.S. in engineering. Later, I received a Master's degree in civil engineering from La. State University. Amy and I were married during my junior year at M. U. and Jo Ann, our oldest daughter was born in Columbia during my senior year. During 1924 -1925-1926 I worked as a structural detailer for the American Bridge Co. at Gary, Indiana. Our son, William, was born there in 1925. In 1926 we moved to Jacksonville, Ill. Where I worked as a structural steel checker for the Ill. Bridge Co. In 1927 I secured a position as bridge designer for the La. Highway Commission in Baton Rouge. I held the position for three years and was then promoted to Chief Bridge Designer and put in charge of the design and drawing up plans for all the large bridges built by the state. This began while Louis P. Long was governor of the Louisiana. They included four bridges over the Red River, one at Shreveport, one at Coshatta, one at Alexandria, and one at Misoula. Two bridges over the Atchafalaya River, the deepest river in the U.S., one at Krotz Springs and one at Morgan City. The piers of the Morgan City Bridge were the deepest piers ever constructed in the U.S. up to that time. A bridge of the Wax Lake Outlet to the Atchafalaya River basin, this bridge was the first bridge ever designed, up to that time, that the piers were designed to float on mud. A bridge over the Mississippi River above Baton Rouge. A 3 mile long concrete viaduct with four traffic lanes. I put a high concrete curb between the opposing lanes of traffic. This was the first time a high concrete curb was used between opposing traffic lanes. Many other fixed and movable bridges built by the state of Louisiana between 1930 and 1940. I attended LSU for 2 years, 1932 -1933, at night to meet the requirements for a Master's degree. J. C., our second son was born at McAllen, Texas in 1927. Charles, our third son, was born in Baton Rouge in 1931. Mary, our second daughter, was born in Baton Rouge in 1938. Amy, our third daughter, was born in Alexandria, La. in 1944. In 1940 I accepted a position with the J. G. White Engineering Corp. of N. Y. to design a shipyard in New Orleans. This shipyard was designed to build and side launch liberty ships, the ships were about 500x58 feet. This work was finished in 1942. I went into private practice in 1942 as President of the Pan American Engineers, and we moved to Alexandria, La. We designed storm drainage, sewer systems, water systems, gas systems, and street paving for various cities in Louisiana. We also did two large river surveys for the army engineers. In 1951 we moved to Brunswick, Missouri and bought a part of my grandfather's estate with J.C., Charles, and Jo Ann's husband as partners. In 1956 after Charles got out of the army and married, I decided I wanted to get back into engineering, so I turned the farms over to the three boys, and we moved to Atlanta, Ga. with our two youngest girls. Bill, our oldest son, was an engineer with the City of Los Angeles, Calif. At Atlanta I secured a position with the J.G. Hart Engineering Company for one year. I designed storage bins to store iron ore pellets for the expansion of a steel mill in Canada. In 1957 I started work for the firm of Robert & Co. Asso. Engineers and Architects. For ten years while there I designed bridges, viaducts, sewage disposal plants, incinerators, foundations for large machines for producing reactors for atomic energy plants. In 1968 I retired for 2 years, and we traveled in an airstream travel trailer to the Olympic games at Mexico City in 1968; All over Canada, the stampede at Calgary, frontier days at Edmonton; and to every state in the union. We also visited Amsterdam, Istanbul, Turkey, Cairo, Egypt, Athens, Greece, flying over with ?????. We also rented a car and drove from Amsterdam to Heilberg, Germany. In 1970 Robert and Co. opened a branch office in West Palm Beach, Florida and wrote me to see if I would come back to work and live at West Palm Beach. I accepted, and we moved down here in 1970. While here I designed an expansion to the water treatment plants at Tampa, Fl., and West Palm Beach, Fl.; a sewage treatment plant for the regional waste water treatment for all the north central section of Palm Beach County. This plant was designed as an extended aeration plant with a capacity of 44 million gal. per day. The effluent was disposed of in deep wells 24 feet in diameter and 3000 feet deep. To get my license to practice engineering here in Florida, I took a two day written examination at age 74. I retired in 1978 at the age of 78. We celebrated our golden wedding on December 27, 1972. Our children. Jo Ann, now married to Victor Ousley, is Vice President of the Bank of Commerce at Brunswick, Mo. William is retired and lives in Los Angeles, Calif. John Charles is an engineer with the Louisiana Highway Department and lives in Baton Rouge. Charles David lives at Lake Ozark, Mo., and is now president of the Bagnell Dam Board of Realtors. Mary married Jerry Mitchell and lives at Oxford, Georgia which is about 30 miles from Atlanta, Ga. Amy married Marvin Singer and lives in Atlanta, Ga. Article from the Columbia, Mo. Daily Tribune dated September 2, 2000. Charles Myers is a role model for me. He's a 100-year-old bowler with a 144 average. I refuse under protection of the Fifth Amendment to disclose my age or bowling average. Lets just say I have to do some catching up with Myers on both counts. Yes I am a bowler. My main claim to fame is longevity. I began bowling in my league back before any of our modern alleys were built. I've outlived every other bowler in my original league, and I'm working on the current newcomers. Other keglers who know my skill level are astonished to learn I'm a proud member of the Bowling Hall of Fame. Don't laugh. Are you a member? I'll confess factors other than raw skill entered into my unanimous and, I must say, enthusiastic selection. I had never bet on a game. Perhaps even more important, with the help of legendary Bill Clark, the father of local organized bowling and a former Tribune sports writer, our newspaper sponsored the creation of the Hall of Fame. Even so, my induction was not a foregone conclusion. After all, our revered local bowling archive is steeped in integrity. Nobody buys his or her way in. My entrée came through longevity, my unassailable accomplishment. I'm glad I didn't claim the world championship, however. It would have been embarrassing, to say the least, to have been peacocking around with my claim on my sleeve only to discover Charles Myers way out in front and still going strong. At one time I thought that, like Cal Ripkin, I might try for the all-time Iron Man record. Now that I've seen the real champ in action, I'll settle for admitted mediocrity, 40 years of competition and counting. Article from "Our Town: A weekly Portrait of Mid-Missouri" Thursday, July 13, 2000 On Aug. 29, the sons and daughters of Charles Myers will host a 100th birthday celebration for their dad at Terrace Apartments. Lady luck has already shined on the momentous event. Since the 29th falls on a Tuesday this year, Charles children won't have to juggle his weekly trip to the bowling alley into their plans. Charles goes bowling every Monday with his son at Oakland Plaza Lanes. It's just one activity this centenarian-to-be keeps on his calendar. Between reading and replying to his mail, doing his laundry, and making regular trips to the Terrace dining hall for meals, Charles squeezes in card games, chess matches, fishing trips and quiet moments with a good book. But for Charles bowling is where the action is. During the senior games two weeks ago Charles rolled his way to a first-place medal in his age division. "It gives you some exercise," he says "But you always prefer to bowl with somebody. If you bowl alone, it wears you out. It becomes work instead of pleasure. Charles still bowls his weight, averaging a score of 160, "or somewhere in that neighborhood." Charles was born in Ouray, Colo., in 1900. His father was a gold miner and his mother a housewife. The family moved to Brunswick in 1910, where he helped his father on their 1000-acre farm until he finished high school. Charles graduated from the University of Missouri in 1924 with a degree in engineering. He later earned a master's in the same field. He spent most of his career as the chief bridge engineer for the state of Louisiana, designing bridges of all shapes and sizes for railroads, cars and pipelines. He says his favorite memory is the bridge he designed to span the Red River near Shreveport. It's not the longest or shortest design he ever created, he just likes how his vision came to be. "It just went right on through," he says, with no red tape or flood of any kind. Looking back on his 100 years, Charles says the women in his life are the reason he's made it this far, this well. "I was very lucky to have known such good women," he says. There was his mother, "She just looked after me so well." Then there was his first wife, of 60 years, Amy. "She'd run all the little things. And she was a good leader. The women at church all liked to work with her." Finally, there was Archadean, his second wife, of 14 years. "She was just a good person." When Charles recently looked at a portrait of Archadean, who died three years ago, he was struck by how little she had changed from the time they had married to the time she died. She looked just the same. "If someone's happy, they don't age. My wife, I think she fell in love with me. We were married 14 years and the picture looks the same. She looked just the same." "If you can find a woman who falls in love with you … that makes a big difference." NEVER TOO OLD TO BOWL Story ran in the Tribune, August 30, 2000 The other members of the Senior Sunshine Bowling League had just lavished Charles Myers with an unusual amount of the birthday treatment. They sang "Happy Birthday" complete with background music and disco lights. They gave him a check that would be donated to the Special Olympics youth bowling in his name. And the Oakland Church Sewing League presented him with a lap robe. Then in the dwindling aftermath, the man who was a day away from his 100th birthday, sat in silence at Oakland Plaza Lanes and slowly ate a piece of marble cake which had said, "Keep Striking Charlie, Happy 100th Birthday." Occasionally a bowling comrade would interrupt to say how they wanted to be as healthy and active as he is at that age. They want to be bowling every Monday. They want to have an average of 144. He'd respond with a smile, a handshake, and a thank you and then seemingly drift away from the moment. Maybe he was thinking about that first game of the afternoon in which he bowled a 148. Maybe he was thinking about the 60 years he spent with his first wife, Amy, or the 14 years with his second wife, Archadean. Maybe he was thinking about that day 15 years ago when he was driving alone in the wilderness near Whitehorse, Alaska, and his car and trailer got stuck at a dead end. He had to spend the next four hours chopping down enough trees with his hatchet so he could turn his vehicle around. But whatever occupied the mind of this father of six, he seemed indifferent to the spotlight. When the loudspeaker erupted with the announcement that a local television station would be broadcasting his story, Myers perked up and asked what was said. The man told him and Myers responded with a quick "Oh." Then he went back to his cake, his face emotionless. Myers is humble and rarely uses the few words he speaks to boast. His friends and family marvel at his kindness and religious devotion. "There is hardly a religious book he hasn't read," his 70 year old son, Charles Myers, said of the man who helped found three Methodist churches. Because of his modest approach to life, Myers would have been content if the day before his 100th birthday was just another Monday. In many ways it was. He woke up at 5:30 a.m. He shaved. He put on almost all the usual attire - pants, button-down shirt and hat. Then he spiced up his look with a tie he got the day before at a birthday party thrown by his other Terrace Retirement Apartment residents. He walked to breakfast. He read from a book about the early settlement of America. And just like he'd done for the past five years, at 11:30 a.m. he got into a car with his son who drives in for the day from Osage Beach, to head for the lanes for another three games. It's a simple ritual; made remarkable by the age of the man who started bowling in 1927. "These people who are 80 are setting on the couch like potatoes, and he's walking out the door with me," says his son. Even more remarkable are the amount of pins he knocks down with the 12-pound ball. "He's just a steady as a rock," fellow bowler Jay Baldwin said. Myers won a first place medal at the Senior Games this summer. The year before, he got two first-place medals. Myers said years of practice have been the key. "Over the years you correct any mistakes you're making," he said. "Eventually you just get better. His son said his dad, who graduated from MU with an engineering degree in 1924 and later earned his Master's degree from LSU, learned how to play the angles on the lanes from the many years he spent designing sewers and bridges. Although Myers' bowling feats may make him seem bionic, he has slowed down recently. His balance is less steady and his energy level has dropped. Myers' son isn't certain their Monday ritual will last until the season's end in April. But even if he isn't bowling, this reserved man with the broad smile will still be special to the multitude of people who were eager to celebrate his long life. That's what happens when your heart is bigger than your presence. "I guarantee you this, when he dies he's going straight to heaven," his son said. "There is no better man in the world."

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