Earl was my paternal granduncle, son of my great grandparents, James and Cora Percy, and brother of my paternal grandfather, Richard Gird Percy I.

Granduncle Earl was the second of four children born to James and Cora Percy. He was born on the Percy Brothers’ cattle ranch in the Sulphur Springs Valley near Willcox in the Arizona Territory. His 3-year-old brother, Stephen, was ready and waiting to show little Earl the ropes. He didn’t get much of a chance though – their parents soon decided that the Arizona Territory was too wild and wicked for raising children. By the time Earl was a year old, the family had moved across the country to Los Angeles, and boarded the first ever railroad passenger train to enter Ventura County, California – the place that they would call home for the rest of their lives.

After his father’s death when Earl was just six years old, the remaining family, – Mother Cora, older brother, Stephen, and younger siblings, Gird and Zora – moved to Ventura Avenue, known to Ventura’s populace simply as “The Avenue”. There the Percy family was neighbors of the Selby family, and Earl’s best friend was Lloyd Benton Selby. The two boys roamed all over the county as boys are wont to do, hiking, exploring, fishing, and hunting.

A favorite hobby of the two was birdwatching, which quickly expanded to include collecting birds’ eggs from their nests. As conscientious naturalists, they limited their collections to one egg for each type of bird, but still they managed to acquire quite a large number of eggs.

There was one collection story that they recounted frequently as I’m sure it was both frightening and exciting in the moment. The boys had spotted the nest of a pair of Bald Eagles high up on a cliff and had climbed up to it. Sure enough, there were eggs in the nest, but just as the boys were picking out the perfect egg for their collection, one of the nest owners returned, talons extended and screeching their outrage for all to hear. But what really made it a great story – somehow, the boys managed to hang onto the egg and keep it intact as they scrambled down the cliff and ran for their lives.

Earl also enjoyed growing things. There was a small apricot orchard on the family’s property, which brought in additional income during the harvest season. Earl was involved at a little boy’s level in helping in the orchard, and growing vegetables and flowers of his own. He learned at the hands of his mother and their gardener how to prepare the ground for planting, that all plants need food, water, and sunshine, and that he could prune or graft or hand pollinate as ways to control the plants’ ultimate outcome.

Earl, his siblings, and all of their friends from The Avenue attended Avenue Elementary School at 1647 N. Ventura Avenue and graduated from Ventura High School on Poli Street. In those tightly-knit times, the bonds formed during their school years extended beyond the classroom, creating a community woven together by shared experiences and the simple joys of growing up in Ventura.

Earl grew to medium height, about 5’7”, with dark, wavy hair (the type of waves that were called finger waves in the 1920s and for which women labored intensely to achieve). He was a quiet, thoughtful, young man, even possibly a bit shy, who enjoyed socializing and parties, both with family, and with friends. There were BBQs, card parties, dances, picnics, rodeos, and fairs to attend and Earl enjoyed them all.

As young men, Earl and his younger brother, Gird, were quite industrious. Earl worked at a grocery store in town 10 hours a day while Gird worked at Selby Ranch (which belonged to his sister, Zora and her husband, Lloyd Benton Selby – yes, the same LBS who was Earl’s best friend) during the week. On weekends, the two would grow hay to sell as feed to local ranchers, and plant trees from seed, nourishing them into stock for what was to become the Percy Brothers’ Nursery. By 1916 Earl and his mother Cora, Steve and his wife Grace, Gird and his wife Helen, Zora and her husband Lloyd, and the Percy Brothers Nursery were all located on The Avenue.

Earl was very much a family man, although he never married or had children of his own. He lived with his widowed mother, Cora, in their little stucco house on The Avenue with its attached orchard. He looked after her and her widowed sister, Zora Barnes, doing odd jobs, driving them around town as needed, and up to the Selby Ranch for all of the family gatherings (a story for another time). He had a big cat that followed him around everywhere, and loads of nieces and nephews whom he adored. They could always count on him to show up with a bag of penny candies for them. He would hand the bag to one of the older kids, kneel down, and give gentle instructions to share the candy and make sure everyone got some.

After a life well-lived, Granduncle Earl died at the age of 75 after a short illness.