Marge was born in the original homestead house on a Jersey dairy farm, across the creek from where she and George now live. Life included helping with the milking, washing bottles, and bottling and delivering milk door-to-door in New Castle. George grew up a city boy in Kansas City with all the luxuries of city life. His dad’s company manufactured steel-rolling doors.

They met at Colorado University. George’s parents were a bit appalled that their young gentleman was so taken with a girl straight off the farm. Their suspicions were confirmed when they visited the “ranch” and found outdoor privies and not quite enough beds for everyone. On the other side, Marge’s brothers said “Well I guess you could do worse.”

George’s parents interrupted the courtship by sending George to Hawaii to live with his uncle and finish college at the University of Hawaii. Somehow the year went by on the beach and he never found time to enroll in the University.

Their life continued on separate paths, George in the Navy and Marge in nursing. Six years later, they were married with the blessings of both sides of the family. Now it was time for George to learn about life in the mountains with help from Marge’s brothers. On an early hunting trip, they left him to find his own way back to hunting camp in a blinding blizzard. Another time, he heard voices in front of him saying: “Is George still in back of us?” “Yeah, I heard him fall a while ago.” Not surprisingly, George doesn’t hunt any more.

George’s career was with the FAA—eventually settling at the Eagle airport as a Flight Service Specialist, taking flight plans, giving weather advisories, and guiding pilots to Eagle in adverse situations. The airport had a grass runway. A man filled the badger holes every night so the planes could land. Marge worked at the Vail Clinic and then took a Nurse Practitioners course in Salt Lake City. At that time Eagle had no resident doctor.

When their three girls were teens, George took them to see some of the places he had visited in the Navy. They boarded a container ship in Seattle and sailed to Yokohama. The container ship could carry only twelve passengers, five of whom were Chandlers. It was an interesting experience for the teen-age girls and also for the crew. Marge tried to learn some Japanese. But when she tried to ask a server the way to the bathroom, the smiling server brought her a plate of pickled ginger. “I’d never eaten pickled ginger before, but thought I’d better, since I had obviously asked for it.” At another meal Marge spotted something that looked like cabbage slaw. She was about to take a bite when her daughter Kathy objected: “But Mother! It has eyes!”

Now, the Chandlers are retired and living back where Marge started (but now with indoor plumbing). George sometimes thinks life was easier before he retired. His present life of irrigating and managing the chores on forty-five acres, plus looking after his daughter’s cows, three horses, a mule, and “Benny” the llama, is more than a nine-to-five job. They both still love the outdoors and like to travel as much as the budget allows. And they both love the 100 Club and the good people they have met there.