Retirement is ‘plumb’ good
Les Pearson puts away his tools after 60 years
After working as a plumber for 60 years, Les Pearson, of Blue Earth, decided maybe it was time to put away the tools and retire.
“Not everyone can say they like what they do,” Pearson says. “But I have to say I really liked being a plumber.”
How Pearson ended up in Blue Earth, Minnesota, is a bit of a convoluted story in itself.
“I was born and raised in Merrimac, New Hampshire,” Pearson says. “I graduated from high school there, class of 1961.”
Pearson says he parted ways with his high school sweetheart after graduation and she went one way and he went another.
After that, he was not sure what he was going to do with his life.
“My mother’s brother, my uncle Russell, worked as a plumber, and his company hired me as an apprentice,” Pearson says. “That was in 1962. I liked the work.”
His uncle’s company paid his full tuition to attend New Hampshire Technical College and become a licensed plumber. “I didn’t have to spend a nickel,” Pearson says.
He worked hard and saved enough to buy a new automobile, the first person in his family to do so.
“Then I got ants in my pants,” he says. “And I left New Hampshire and headed west.”
That was in 1964. Eventually he ended up working as a plumber at Yellowstone National Park.
“People can’t believe I worked there as a plumber,” he says with a smile. “But there were a lot of toilets in Yellowstone to take care of.”
It was there that he met his first wife, who was from St. Peter. The couple moved to Minnesota, landing first in St. Paul and then in Easton.
“I worked for a plumbing business in Mapleton,” Pearson says. “I was always working for someone else, but I had this idea of having my own business.”
Then, in 1974, Pearson saw an advertisement for a plumbing shop business for sale in Blue Earth.
“I bought the shop from Ambrose Dewanz,” he explains. “He did some plumbing, HVAC and sheet metal work, but he only really wanted to do the sheet metal work. He loved the sheet metal work, hated the plumbing work.”
Pearson says Dewanz warned him he would never be able to make a living being a plumber in Blue Earth. But he was wrong. Pearson says he made a “darn nice living” being a plumber.
Maybe it was his being willing to help out people when they needed it.
“I remember one Christmas Eve when a guy who lived on South Main Street called me,” Pearson says. “He had a houseful of family, kids and grandkids, and his sewer was plugged up and not working. He wondered if I could come fix it.”
Pearson said sure, went to the house and got everything working – on Christmas Eve.
“The guy was so appreciative,” Pearson adds. “I really felt like a hero, saving the day.”
He tells another story of doing some plumbing work at a house when the woman there got a phone call and had some emergency she had to go attend to.
“She didn’t know what to do with her kids, so I said I would watch them while she was gone,” Pearson says. “She couldn’t believe I would do that. When she got back home the kids and I were watching Sesame Street and singing all the Sesame Street songs together.”
Just one part of helping out when needed. He got the plumbing work all done, too.
Eventually Pearson and his first wife parted ways and divorced and he found out that his high school sweetheart he had parted ways with had been married and had lost her husband to cancer.
“Gail and I reconnected, got married, and have been married for 34 years now,” Pearson says. “She is retired from working at the school.”
Les Pearson has two adult children from his first marriage Amy (Jim) and AJ, and Gail Pearson has two adult children from her first marriage Bill (Kim) and Jack (Natasha).
Plus, together, they have five granddaughters, one grandson and one great-grandson.
They all live in the Twin Cities area, except for Amy and Jim who live in Lake Mills, Iowa. Jack and Natasha, Pearson points out, both have their master plumber licenses.
Pearson says it does not matter to him if it is his biological children or grandchildren or not – he treats them all as his children and grandchildren, and he does not give them a “step” designation.
Now that he has officially retired, Pearson says he plans to take it easy for a while.
“I like having time to do things around the house and yard,” he says. “I take Pepper (the family dog) for a long walk twice a day. And Gail and I both do a lot of reading – I’ve read a lot of books in my life.”
He credits an English teacher in New Hampshire named Alice as instilling him with a love of reading.
He also loves to travel and has done a lot of it and plans to do more.
“I have been to all 50 states,” he says. “Not everyone can say that, and maybe most people don’t care if they have or not. But I have enjoyed traveling.”
It seems he still gets “ants in his pants,” from time to time.
He and Gail have also made a lot of trips to Canada, since they both have relatives there.
And, of course, he and Gail plan on spending more time with all of their children and grandchildren.
After all, family is what matters most, he says.