Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1935, Carol was the youngest of four children of Alma Wilson and Albert Bryan Varble.  Gene, Phyllis, Tom and Carol were raised in the Belmont section of Dayton; in the summer of 1941, the family moved to Oakwood, a suburb of Dayton, into an English Tudor-style home located at 1408 Schantz Ave.  Gene became a freshman at Purdue University, while Phyl started 10th grade, Tom 8th grade, and Carol 2nd grade at the Oakwood Senior High, Junior High and Elementary schools.  After graduation from Oakwood High School in 1953, Carol went on to college at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.  She spent her junior year of college at the University of Madrid, Spain, living with a Spanish family for the year.  After graduation from DePauw in 1957, Carol headed West to San Francisco with her long-time friend for the summer.  Carol and many roommates coming and going lived in the North Beach area of San Francisco, just when the "Beatniks" were being born.  At the end of summer, Carol met Ron Zaitz, also a "mid-westerner" and decided to remain in San Francisco.  Ron and Carol were married May 2, 1958, in the Highlands Inn Chapel in Carmel, California, witnessed by three of Ron's San Francisco roommates and three of Carol's San Francisco roommates.    

RONALD L. ZAITZ

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1930, Ron was the only child of Colman and Irma (Koeber) Zaitz.  The family moved from Cleveland to the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, in 1935.  He attended grade school in Westchester, IL. The family moved again in 1944 to Port Washington, Wisconsin where Ron attended high school.  The senior Zaitz's moved to Crystal Lake, IL, in 1950, and Ron remained in Madison, WI, where he attended the University of Wisconsin, graduating in the spring of 1953 with a B.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering.  He was immediately called to active duty in the USAF as a Second Lt. and was sent to Japan after completing Aircraft Maintenance Officers training at Chanute AFB, IL.  Upon return from the service, he went to work for General Motors in Indianapolis, IN, where he remained until 1957 when he took a job with the US Navy Dept. at Alameda Naval Base in California.  While he was living in San Francisco, Ron met Carol at a party. All is history from there, as described previously.

THE FAMILY

Our family started in Saratoga, CA, where we bought our first home.  Our three sons Doug, Dave and Scott were born in 1959, 1960 and 1963 respectively.  Ron was working for Lockheed Missiles and Space, and Carol had brief jobs at KNTV Channel 11 San Jose, United Technology and Lockheed.  In 1964 we moved to a larger home with swimming pool and within walking distance of downtown Saratoga.

Ron and Carol made a major decision in March of 1970:  to leave the "rat race" in the Bay Area (now known as "Silicon Valley") and introduce the family including three sons and two dogs to the small-town environment of Weaverville, CA, population 2500.  No more engineering, traveling, freeway commuting, hauling kids and dogs; just the pleasure of becoming merchants in a rural community where you can walk anywhere you need to go!  Doug entered 6th grade, Dave 5th grade and Scott 2nd grade at Weaverville Elementary School, just a couple of blocks from home.  Our retail home improvement store was also located just a couple of blocks from home.  And the beautiful snow covered Trinity Alps mountains can be viewed from our very own kitchen window.

We just celebrated thirty years in Weaverville  (population now is 3500!) and over 28 years in our home.  After graduation from Trinity High School, both Doug and Scott went on to Chico State University to obtain Mechanical Engineering and Biochemistry degrees respectively, and Dave attended Butte Jr. college only to end up becoming the family computer Guru, whom Ron calls for advice on a regular basis. 

After we closed our retail store in 1982, Ron worked part time for various merchants over the years, while Carol spent almost 11 years doing payroll for the county hospital until retiring early in 1998.  Carol now spends a great deal of her time volunteering for the local senior center, while Ron is busy learning "Html" computer language so that he can create web sites.