Raconteur Remembered

By Michael Bromka

Larry Coalson groused that he’d retired five years too early. A sensible bean counter, he ascertained his income in retirement would match pulling down a salary. But he didn’t study a balance sheet on how he might invest his time.

He’d thrived in the Small Business Development Center, helping local entrepreneurs get up and running. Once retired, he mourned the shrinking of his nuts-and-bolts public relevance.

Larry devoted much time to Heights Lions. When someone applied for a wheelchair ramp, he visited the home, studied their humble financial documents, and measured the staging area.

Larry was a pitchman for the Lions. “Come to our Friday meeting at the Stevens. We’ve got a good speaker. I’ll buy you lunch.” Larry recruited me, Bernie Sanchez, Cathrynn Brown, and Lisa Self. Larry and Lisa were our two most energetic recruiters.

Larry was an eager breakfast-and-lunch man. By early afternoon, he was home checking on hens and gathering eggs. He talked up those eggs but preferred to eat out. “Always tip a fiver, and they’ll render top-notch service.”

The restaurants were humble mom-and-pop, never high-dollar or fast-food venues. On his diligent weight loss drive, he’d eat only half his meal. Never opted to take leftovers home.

Larry was self-appointed wrangler of “66ers”—CHS graduates, class of 1966. Among their regulars, only quiet Milton Limbert deployed to Vietnam, but all had served.

Larry also managed Friday Focus for a stretch. He read up and checked facts for his weekly “History Minute,” always overrunning 60 seconds. He brought photos, maps, or artifacts to illustrate the era.

Stopped at a traffic light near a prominent school some blocks from downtown, Larry gestured to an open field, playground, and jungle gym. “In the late 1800s, this was an encampment. A lonely young workman could buy himself a drink and comfort with a soiled dove.” A what? “Part of the service economy then.”

In rangier years, Larry jaunted off to European battlegrounds, having read up on mayhem and courage. More recently, he would reminisce about good eatin’ in France, Italy, and Deutschland. From Amazon, he ordered Roquefort cheese, escargot, bruschetta, British crackers, German cookies, and Belgian preserves. When shelves grew overstocked, he invited visitors to help themselves to cans, jars, or boxes of delicacies to take home.

From farm chores as a kid to ranch work in his teens to Army, college, Boy Scouts with sons, small business consulting, Heights Lions ramp builds, to myriad chatty meals with retired pals, Larry eagerly partook of public life in Carlsbad.