May 2024 Newsletter

May 1, 2024    News   

Something To Look Forward To

A Visit With Lou Kimball

By Dale Dauten
I suppose it must happen sometime in your nineties when people start asking you the “secret to a long life.” It came up when I’d stopped to visit with Louis “Lou” Kimball, who is 96, and I was lucky enough to come by his place at The Resort when his daughter, Kim, was in town. She summed up the longevity lessons she’d learned from her dad by saying, “He never seems to fight the waves of life; he just rides them.” That analogy is fitting, given that Kim and her husband spend much of their time on their boat, and last year Lou flew down to La Paz, Mexico to join in, as you can see in the photo of Lou and Kim below…
That “riding the waves” is an appealing image, but when Lou talked about living a long life, he said the secret was “to have something to look forward to, every day.” Then, with a twinkle in his eye, added, “And some days that’s 4 PM and having a bourbon at Happy Hour.”

 

But you don’t need to have a Happy Hour by yourself when you’re at The Resort. Lou loves to host them at his place – there’s an example in the photo below.
Lou admitted that, years ago now, he’d almost given up his place at The Resort. All his visits had consisted of traveling down from Colorado with his wife, Audrey; and, when she had passed away, he wondered if it was time to just stay in Colorado fulltime. However, he ultimately decided to keep coming to The Resort and his daughter, Kim, thinks it’s one of the decisions that has kept him happy: “He keeps on living a full life. He exercises every day and he always has new crafts in the works. He’s always busy. He joined the woodworking club at The Resort and loves being involved.” (Kim shared with us photos of Lou with the lathe for making bowls he got for the house back in Colorado, and with some of his carving work.)
Lou says of The Resort, “Every year we get new people and I enjoy meeting them. I have more friends now than I’ve ever had.” Kim adds, “It’s wonderful to see how everyone treats my dad. They are always asking, ‘What can I do to help you, Lou?’”

 

“SEE THAT GIRL?” — LIFE BEFORE THE RESORT

Let’s back up and fill in what we learned about Lou’s early life. He was born in Greeley, Colorado and went to Greeley Central High before enrolling at Colorado State University in nearby Fort Collins.

 

It was there, at CSU, sitting with a friend in the school’s café, that he spotted a coed at a nearby table, and something made him announce, “See that girl. I’m going to marry her one day.” And he set about making it happen. There was a delay – World War Two was just ending and he had a stint in the Navy to get through — but then Lou and “that girl,” Audrey, were married in 1949. They had 52 years together. (Lou and Audrey in 1991.)
As for his career, Lou describes himself as the “fourth-generation of people in the Post Office.” After his military service, he joined the post office, starting as a “sub,” then, as he put it, “carrying a pouch,” followed by “20 years inside” and then a rural route – a total of 42 years.

 

Along the way, Lou and Audrey had three Kimball “K” kids: in addition to Kim, there was Kathy and Kent.
Once he’d retired, Lou and Audrey took off to see the country, pulling a trailer. That led them to visit friends from Greeley at The Resort, and we all know what happens after that: they wanted to own a place at The Resort to come back to every season. That was 37 years ago.