Al Barany:
CLASS OF 1959
Arcadia High SchoolClass of 1959
Arcadia, CA
Citrus Junior CollegeClass of 1961
Glendora, CA
Al's Story
After graduating from Arcadia High School I went to Citrus Jr. College and got an AA degree in auto mechanics but I never went into the auto repair field. Instead, for the next 13 years I worked at 4 or 5 different jobs including the test lab at Sierra Engineering in Sierra Madre, the lead man on an electronics assembly line at Spectrol Electronics in Hacienda Heights, a salesman for Herbert Hawkins Realty in Arcadia and making Mylanta and other medications at Stuart Pharmaceuticals in Pasadena. Making medicine was very boring, monotonous work.
So I went to night school and got certified in pipe welding and went to work at the oil refineries in El Segundo, CA. Good work, good pay, loved it. Rushed back to night school to get certified in nuclear quality welding and while there California voters passed Proposition 15 which stopped the construction of oil refineries and nuclear power plants. Lost my job so I quit the school.
For the next 13 years I worked as an independent contractor doing safety inspections and gathering construction information on commercial buildings in south central Los Angeles for many different insurance companies. Really enjoyed it. Then in 1989 I quit that, got married for the first time (age 47), sold my house in Arcadia and moved my new wife and her 12 year old son to Williams, Arizona and bought a KOA campground on Interstate 40. We loved the campground business but the cost of operating it very quickly exceeded our expectations. We had to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy and fought it out in court once a month for the next 4 years and finally got everyone paid off in full and had the bankruptcy dismissed. We sold the campground in 2001 then spent another 4 years in escrow trying to clear up other legal problems like finding out the property line was off by 56 feet and we had just built 6 log cabins along that property line which had to be moved elsewhere on the property by a crane. We also had to dig up the water and electrical lines which had served those cabins.
Barbara & I now live in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. From 2001 until 2008 I used my pick up truck to deliver travel trailers and cargo trailers from trailer factories in Indiana to retail dealers in California, Oregon, Washington, Texas and to Louisiana for the Katrina hurricane victims. I drove over 950,000 miles with minimal problems but then on January 2, 2008 on an icy road in Indiana in the middle of the night a crosswind blew the 13 foot tall trailer sideways which then hit a dry spot and the trailer flipped over on its side resulting in a fair amount of damage to it. The trailer hitch twisted off so my pick up truck did not flip over with the trailer. The next day the factory gave me another trailer to deliver which was delivered in good condition. I quit driving for a living following that delivery.
Two months later I went to work for Coach-Net, which is like a 9-1-1 call center for cars, motorhomes and 2-axle trucks that break down on the highways in the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico. My job was to locate and dispatch the type of help they needed to get them on the road again such as finding in their area: a repair shop, a tow truck, fuel delive...Expand for more
ry, jump starting a dead battery, a lock smith or new tire delivery and installation. I really enjoyed this line of work. On February 16, 2011 Coach-Net closed down its operation here in Lake Havasu, AZ and moved to Hickory Creek, TX. Although they offered me the same job at the new location, I declined the offer because all of my family and friends are out here.
My wife had her right knee replaced in March, 2010 and her left knee replaced in May and I was her care-giver for the next 9-10 months then she went back to work.
On July 5, 2012 at 9:10 am while getting ready to drive to Covina, CA I had a massive heart attack. Paramedics rushed me to the hospital where a stent was installed to open a completely blocked artery. The heart doctor had a hard time believing that this 70 year old man has never been on any type of medication, didn't have a personal doctor and hasn't been in a hospital since I was born in 1941. Anyhow, I was released 3 days later with the warning that I was to greatly reduce my intake of fried foods, potatoes and grain in any form such as breads, muffins, donuts, etc. Couldn't drive for 10 days, lift heavy objects for 2 months and will be on a daily dosage of 4 different medications twice a day for the rest of my life. I feel completely perfect at this time.
Near the end of June, 2018 our 12 year old granddaughter came to live with us. At this time it appears she will be with us until she gets married.
Sometime near the end of December, 2020 I caught the Corona Virus. By January 4, 2021 I was in really bad shape. Paramedics took me to the hospital here in Havasu but there was no room for me there. I was then taken to the local airport and flown to the Tucson, AZ airport (300 miles away and cost our insurance company $85,000) and transported by ambulance to Banner University Medical Center arriving about midnight. A few hours later the hospital called my wife and told her that there was virtually no hope for me. If she wanted to see me one last time, she needed to come to the hospital immediately. The staff did not realize at that point that I was not a local resident but lived over 300 miles away. My 75-year-old wife was unable to drive all night long to the hospital, so she just waited for THAT phone call in the morning telling her that I had passed away. The following morning the phone rang but the doctor told my wife that I was not only still alive but was actually improving. I have never been so miserably sick and so weak in all my life. I had Sepsis, Pneumonia, my kidneys were in stage 5 of failure, and I was on a ventilator, feeding tube and a total of 9 intravenous lines in my feet, wrists and forearms but I continued to slowly improve. The virus further damaged my heart reducing my EF (ejection fraction) from 29 to 17. A healthy heart has an EF of 70 to 74. I was there for about 3 weeks in ICU then transported to Encompass Rehabilitation in Scottsdale, AZ where my shut down muscles were taught how to work again. I had to learn how to brush my teeth, walk again, and do other various movements. I am now home again and had to go to Dialysis 3 times a week. After 2 weeks of Dialysis, I was taken off it because my kidneys started functioning again, although they no longer process vitamin D, I will have to take medication for it from now on. I also have to take 9 other medications including ENTRESTO which has increased my EF up to 45. Hooray!!!
I would enjoy hearing from anyone that knew me at Arcadia High School.
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