Toolin’ Around Town: Martha Mello’s ‘zest for life’

Reminiscing with native-born Martha Mello, who’s still enjoying an active life at 93, feels like taking a time machine trip through Petaluma history, as she recalls long-closed businesses where she was employed. Many things have changed around here since she was born in 1926, in a town of 7,000 residents, the second oldest of George and Martha Kruse’s five daughters.

One thing that hasn’t changed is her infectious smile, lively spirit and zest for life.

Martha’s adventurous nature was apparent by the time she was 10, when she and a daring group of young girl explorers descended into the pitch-black subterranean world beneath city streets known as the F Street tunnel. The tunnel, now tightly secured, is actually a pair of concrete-covered culverts enclosing Thompson Creek and Kelly Creek that merge beneath F Street and flow about one mile before draining into the Petaluma River. Cleansed by rainfall, the tunnel was usually dry in the summer months.

“The tunnel was exciting and very spooky,” she said, of the dark, dank underground adventure. “We used candles to light the way. We could hear the cars driving above us.”

Her father, an employee of Cochrane Lumber Yard, helped build the cabins at the Pioneer Motel on Old Redwood Highway, and another at Odd Fellows Park along the Russian River, where the family vacationed. While there, she enjoyed the famous bands that played at Mirabel Park, Rio Nido and Monte Rio.

“I was really thrilled to see Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.”

The Kruses moved to Penngrove for several years before returning to Petaluma, but not before Martha was awarded a gold medal from the American Legion, for her essay on World War II.

Sociable and outgoing, she embodies the friendly traits of a waitress, which she became as a teenager working for Captain Schette at the Green Mill Inn.

“Working at the Green Mill was quite enjoyable. It was on the route to the Russian River, which was really a big deal back then,” she said. “Growing up during the Depression, money was very tight. My clothes were all hand-sewn by my mother. I didn’t get my first store-bought dress until I was in the sixth grade.”

Martha married Dick Vogensen, a long-time employee of Golden Eagle Milling Co., when she was 18. They were together for about 11 years and had four children - Larry, Bonnie, Leona and Leonard. During and after her marriage she worked at several cafés and restaurants including Three Cooks, The Coffee Pot and Sailboat Café, all of them located on Third or Main Street, the thoroughfare through Petaluma at the time. At Petaluma Laundry Co., which washed the laundry from Hamilton Field, she operated a shirt-ironing machine.

“After my divorce, I really scrimped to get by,” she said. “I was working at the Sailboat Café when Bill Mello came in for breakfast. He was an Army veteran and a good man. He was a hard-working heavy construction worker and member of the Operating Engineers Union. We were married in 1961 and raised two children together, Billy and Lorena.”

The couple lived on Crinella Drive, before moving to rural property in 1972, where Martha still resides. Bill died in 2003.

During her marriage, Martha worked at Kresky Manufacturing, making musical Christmas tree stands.

“It was a good job,” she said. “I operated an electric screwdriver. It was fun.”

Another enjoyable job was in the engineering department of Fairchild Semiconductor in San Rafael. The company was a pioneer in the manufacturing of transistors and integrated circuits and made the first silicon integrated circuit.

“I had a good position at Fairchild. We did experimental work,” she said. “I operated a copy machine that was as big as a refrigerator. When they moved to Silicon Valley, I didn’t want to commute.”

As a young girl, Martha remembers riding the train and the ferry to visit the Golden Gate International Exposition held at San Francisco’s Treasure Island, a World’s Fair celebrating, among other things, the city’s two newly built bridges.

“Martha loves life,” said Mello’s niece and companion June Samuels, who accompanies her on thrift store shopping trips and excursions to Graton Casino, where Mello enjoys playing the slot machines.

“I like going to the casino because after my husband died, going to the casino became therapeutic for me,” Mello explained. “It gave me a reason to get up in the morning and get out of the house. It’s a great way to get out and see people.”

In the spring, she plants a big vegetable garden, with enough tomatoes, zucchini, kale and cucumbers for her daughter to can for wintertime use.

And as a regular routine, Mello walks her lane, cheerfully greeting her neighbors.

(Harlan Osborne’s ‘Toolin’ Around Town’ runs every other week. You can reach him at harlan@sonic.net)