Ken Cable memories after a night at the Lodge

By Paul Parque
Canyon Lake

I met Ken Cable only once. It was about 14 years ago at a dinner function at the Canyon Lake Lodge. The event that night is lost in my memory, but this man and I sat at the same table and in a space of just a few hours, we got to know each other.

Ken and I traded stories about our youth and our conversation got around to where we lived back in the day. I was surprised when he told me that he once lived in the City of Bell Gardens, the city in which I was raised.

I was amazed at how his memories about his high school days were told to me in such vivid detail. All the places at the school that he mentioned brought back the details that I also remembered. He left Bell Gardens in the late 1940s and I graduated from Bell Gardens High School in 1962.

As we conversed, he asked me if I was related to Joe Parque, the only adult that he remembered at the school. I was surprised that he remembered my father who was the school’s custodian. My throat choked up as he began a story about old Joe that only a son of a custodian would appreciate.

Ken said that this man taught him a life-long lesson. Just before Christmas vacation while he was attending the school, his class had a Christmas party. His teacher had asked Ken to go to the boy’s lavatory and get some paper towels for each student because there were no napkins for the cake, cookies and punch for the party.

So, young Ken did as he was told and went to the nearest lavatory and began pulling a stack of paper towels out of the holder. Just then my dad entered the restroom and caught Ken taking an enormous amount of towels. My father yelled, “Stop.” Poor Ken jumped a mile and tried to tell Mr. Parque that he was sent by his teacher. A lecture began from Joe.

“Don’t you know young man that these paper towels are for drying your hands,” my dad said. “You are allowed only one paper towel for that purpose.”

Shaken, Ken put the rest back, took one paper towel and returned to class and relayed this information to the teacher. At this point, the story doesn’t stand out, but Ken told me that since that day over 70 years ago, whenever he uses any restroom anywhere, he uses only one paper towel.

My custodian father wasn’t criticized by Ken, but embraced. And Ken just had to relay that story to me, that man’s son. I won’t forget Ken Cable.