Long time retired firefighter John Frenkel, son of Gustaf Frenkel, was born in the old army barracks hospital here in Prince George in the year 1938; he was delivered by Dr. Lyon.
The old army barracks hospital was located where the Simon Fraser Lodge is currently situated at Laurier and Tenth Avenue.
John lived with his grandparents of Hungarian decent at Penny and by the time he started school he could only speak Hungarian. The other kids picked on him relentlessly because he could not speak English. Time went by and it didn't take long until he mastered the English language.
John reflected back and said, "I remember trapping with my grandfather, Joe Pastor in the Penny area back in 1952. I was 14 years old and we had a trap line in what is now known as the Ancient Forest. We used to snowshoe into the area and I was amazed at how big the trees were back then. That was nearly 65 years ago and I might add it was also before Highway 16 East out of Prince George existed."
John grew up in the Prince George area and like many others of his time he worked and lived in Giscome and Sinclair Mills in the late 50s and early 60s.
John described it like this: "My parents Gustaf and Mary Frenkel had a farm in Sinclair Mills. In 1940 they built our original home on the Fraser River not far from the sawmill and the store. They raised cows, chickens and pigs for our own use and worked a huge garden to raise all the produce needed for two cook house camps; we also sold produce locally.
"In 1948 we had a large flood and with the help of the neighbor and his river boat we went out on the river and pulled as many floating logs as we could into our yard and the garden area which was also covered with two feet of water. We were thankful that the house had been built on higher ground.
"It was always my job in the summer to get in all the wood for the coming winter. With my cross cut saw in hand I always managed to get the job done. Then in the winter when the river froze it was my job to chop a hole through four feet of ice and pack all the water for the animals and the house. I packed two buckets of water on a yoke over my shoulders 400 feet every day to water the animals.
"We had a great life. My parents were hard working people and my sisters Margret, Sheila, Marie and I were all taught to work hard; everyone did their share and we all worked together as a family".
In 1962 John went to work for Ben Ginter's Brewery. He worked there until September of 1965 and thanks to his friend Herb McMillan he landed a job at the fire department working for Harold Dornbierer. He worked for the fire department for 30 years and retired in 1995.
John said, "Working for the fire department was a great job; every call was different. We all had some sad times and we saw a lot of burn victims. When a call came in we had to be ready to go and it was our job to save and protect people from dangerous situations and to put out fires. There was a lot of stress and many ups and downs over the years, not to mention the hard physical work. We all risked our lives for others; it was our job and we just did it. We wore a simple mask over our face for protection back then and I was happy to see many improvements to the safety gear as the years went by. I used to walk one mile to and from work and actually that was a real stress reliever for me."
John has two sons Brian and Brad Frenkel who in turn gave them four grandchildren and one great grandchild.
John's wife of nearly 36 year, Iris (Fischer) Frenkel was born in Rudolstadt, East Germany, a small town in the eastern German state of Thuringia in the year of 1953. Iris, her father, her mother and her sister left for Canada in 1954 just before the Berlin Wall went up. The
Communists were already occupying the area and thankfully her aunt and uncle from Canada sponsored them and got them out.
The family arrived in Hull, Quebec and took a train to Edmonton, Alberta where her father found work as a tile setter and a brick layer. The years went by, a brother was born and in 1975 Iris and her sister moved to Vernon.
Iris found a great job in the drafting department with the Okanagan Telephone Company which later became BC Tel and then TELUS; she worked for nearly 28 years with the company and retired in 2002.
In 1978, Iris and four other girls from Vernon decided to go on a cruise to the Caribbean. It was on this cruise that she was introduced to John. They met again two years later and fell in love. Iris applied for and got a transfer to Prince George and in 1980 they got married.
Iris and John both volunteered for many years for the Festival of Trees packing up all the gingerbread cookies for the event.
They were both original committee members of the cookie dough project at the Elder Citizens Recreation Centre.
Iris was a member of the Royal Purple and enjoys gardening and their cabin at the lake.
They were both members of the Ridge Riders ATV Club.
John was a fastball enthusiast for 50 years and played for the McDonald, Canada and Europe Hotels and the Giscome Eagles to name a few of his teams and enjoyed traveling all over BC for tournaments.
He loved being out in the bush climbing the mountains, searching and hunting for the ever elusive mountain goat.
Now those days of hard work, sports and hunting are all over due to serious health issues.
