Surviving snakes, war and old Fords

As Ivan Wallgren turns 96, he looks back on a life well-lived

Ivan Wallgren’s face is bright, his eyes shining, as he explains how he came to own a rattler from a rattlesnake.

It was in Chinook, Mont., years ago, when he tried to run over the rattler in a driveway. Only, when he got out of his truck to check on it, the snake was far from dead. Instead, it was slithering toward him.

“I never thought it would do that,” he said Thursday.

An alarmed Wallgren backed up, grabbed a shovel and began swinging away at the snake, but it kept after him.

When the shovel head broke, all he had left was the handle.

“Now, I was worried,” he said.

In a show of both courage and desperation, he jabbed repeatedly at the advancing snake, finally dealing it a lethal blow.

Wallgren smiled as he triumphantly talked of later cutting off the rattler as a reminder of that life-and-death battle.

“I got him,” he said.

Ivan turned 96 years old Friday. He lives in Rathdrum with Diane, his wife of 71 years. Theirs is a quiet life now, but as they have been since they exchanged vows on Oct. 1, 1948, they are in love.

“Both of us feel good. Our health is generally good,” Ivan said. “Of course, you have to take a few pills, or the drug stores would go out of business. We get around to do what we want to do. That’s about it.”

Ivan, sharp and alert, enjoys sharing stories of the good old days and helping when called upon.

“Ivan is a feisty, opinionated man who still tries to do most everything around his home,” wrote neighbor Jerrie LeFevre. “He is a Democrat to the core, and a dedicated Ford automobile man! He is also a good friend and neighbor.”

In their tidy home of eight years with a meticulous backyard, Wallgren sits down at the living room table and opens his autobiography, complete with pictures and details of a life well-lived.

It outlines his childhood, growing up with little money in North Dakota, the son of a blacksmith.

It covers his time in the U.S. Army during World War II — he was a rifleman and radio man in the 25th Infantry Division, 27th Infantry Battalion Company — and how he was wounded in the Philippines and received the Purple Heart.

It tells how he met Diane, picking her up in a 1946 Ford convertible.

“He was good looking,” Diane said. “He had a car. When he came to pick me up to go to the dance, mother said, “Oh my God, he’s got a car.”

Ivan paid $2 for their marriage license, and wrote that “it has been the best bargain of my life.”

There were days they had little after moving into a small apartment when he took a job in Deer Lodge, Mont., where they lived for five decades.

“We didn’t have a knife or spoon or a fork,” Ivan said.

They bought their first TV in 1956.

And as they had no dryer, they hung their clothes outside — and let neighbors use their line.

“That clothesline was like a gold mine,” he said, chuckling. “We should have charged people.”

He talks about his time as a car salesman, selling Fords, of course, and his own purchase of a green and white 1958 Ford Fairlane 500 that turned out to be a whole lot of trouble.

Ivan was a shop teacher for 30 years at the junior high, while he jokes about his wife’s career.

“Here’s something you want to be sure to get in the paper: She spent 20 years in Montana state prison,” he said, a glint in his eyes.

Diane smiles.

“I was a telephone operator and receptionist for 20 years,” she said. “It was a good job, I liked it.”

So, what’s their secret to a lasting marriage?

“Beats me,” Ivan said, then adding they did things together, whether it was cooking, making the bed or building their own home.

“We both like the same things. We do the same things together,” Diane said. “No problems. We don’t have any disagreements.”

“We’re going to have to change our lifestyle,” Ivan added quickly.

When asked what he was most proud of, he said raising their son, Terry, who lives nearby, and their daughter, Vicki.

“You live your lives around them,” he said.

As for advice, after more than nine decades on Earth, Ivan speaks of the Barclay II Supper Club in Anaconda, Mont. It’s where they often ordered lobster and always sat at table four.

“If you ever get a chance to go there, don’t miss it,” he said, smiling.