Notre Dame de Lourdes man celebrates his 100th birthday

Fr. Donald Hope

+ Enlarge

?Parents have to be there,? says John Escandon, 100 years old and the father of 11. photo by Fr. Donald Hope

by Mag Marinac 

PRICE — Who is that man sitting in the back pew on the left side at the 11:00 a.m. Mass every Sunday?

His name is John Escandon, and he celebrated his 100th birthday March 30.

Escandon was born in Mexico March 30, 1906, in the state of Chihuahua. When he was 16 years old, his mother sent him to live with his uncle in Texas to remove him from the bad influence of the other boys in town. Since his education had been limited to four grades, he went to night school in Texas and took a variety of classes.

He married Carmen in 1924 in Montrose, Colorado. They had 10 children; 8 girls and 2 boys. Pride comes into his voice when he talks of his wife and children. He said all of them turned out to be great, and he has the pictures to prove it. Carmen died in 1952 and he later married Anna. They had one son together, Carmen, who lives in Salt Lake City.

John and Carmen spent 12 years in a coal camp, then decided they needed to buy some land and build a house for their ever-expanding family. Their home had a basement filled with shelves full of home-grown vegetables, fruits, and other foods from their farm, carefully stored by Carmen. He said they used to dig a 2- foot deep trench and bury vegetables down in the straw, protecting the food from the winter weather. There were cows to milk, chickens and turkeys to be fed, and more shoes to be bought. Escandon speaks of only one vacation he took – in 1945 when he went to California.

Escandon did farm chores in the mornings and evenings, and worked in the coal mine during the day. During the Depression, in the 1930’s, he was one of the lucky men who had a steady job working in the mine at Columbia. He said the pay wasn’t much, but he was able to work three to four days a week. His job was moving the coal cars using horses; taking the filled cars out of the tunnel and putting the empties in place. After the war the company brought in machines to help with the work.

Escandon took the children to church and the last daughter was fortunate to have gone to Notre Dame Regional School. Two daughters have died; two daughters and two sons live in California, and one son lives in Indonesia. The rest of the siblings live in Salt Lake City, Price, and East Carbon.

When asked about some of the problems he sees in today’s world, he said, "Parents aren’t taking the time to be parents. Parenting is easy, but you have to be there to teach them."

And today’s church? "We are always changing. Vatican II was just another change" When asked about the few priests we have, he said. "The world is changing and we will probably have married priests in the future. The other religions have married ministers and that’s okay."

Escandon said, "I thank God for a healthy life. I have a nice place to live, plenty to eat, and nice people to take care of me. I’m glad I came to the United States." 

Marinac is a member of Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish, Price.