SOLON — May is Older American’s Month, and in recognition of Solon’s senior citizens the Solon Economist is proud to publish a series of interviews conducted by Solon High School senior William Wittich for his National Honor Society project.
This week we are featuring his interview with Larry Brecht. Future interviews will include Sandy Hanson, Phyllis Fiala, and Marcele Kaduce.
How long have you lived in Solon?
“Since 1979”
What is your first memory?
“As a kid I would say, I grew up on a farm and I remember watching for the school bus when my older brothers were home. Waiting for that school bus to drop them off. I’d run from the house out to the road. Why I did that, I don’t know. Why I remember that I don’t know. I was probably two years old, maybe. My dog and I ran out to meet the school bus everyday that the weather was nice.
Did you like living on the farm?
“I did. I lived there until I was 16 and my dad retired from farming, and took a job in Cedar Rapids, so we moved to town.”
What was your favorite part about living on the farm?
“Just living out in the country. There were so many things to do, and as I got older chores were assigned to me, and I enjoyed baling hay and taking care of livestock, and I just thought living out in the country was pretty good.”
Where did you go to school?
“I went to elementary school, junior high school, in Newhall, a little town west of Cedar Rapids. And then high school I went to Benton Community because at that time five towns were thrown together into one school. So, the central location for the high school was Van Horne.”
What was your best subject in school?
“I would say I liked the industrial arts the best. At one time I considered getting into teaching and if I was going to do that, I’d want to be an industrial arts teacher. And I ended up not pursuing that career. That was probably my favorite.”
Who were your best friends?
“Back then? Oh gosh. I would have to say my friend Jerry, who I knew before we started kindergarten because our parents were friends. And then neighbor kid Leslie, he and I were on the same school bus route together and we lived a quarter of a mile apart so we’d get together quite a bit. And then about four miles down the road was my good friend, Tony. In the summertime we’d ride our bikes back and forth and see each other.
I grew up in a small town atmosphere, small town school, so there was like, 25 kids in my class so you were pretty much friends with everybody. So, to say ‘best friends,’ yeah, I’d say those were the three, but I was friends with everybody, pretty much. It was a small, close-knit group,”
What was your best memory with them?
“I think when we’d get together it was a big deal. This was before technology. We rode our bicycles and explored, and we would either ride around in the country or we would ride around town. Back then we knew everybody, which now is not the case anymore. When I get back home, I’ve lived away from there for so long I don’t know hardly anybody anymore. Back then I could tell you who lived in almost every house.”
Did you go to college?
“Yes, I did two years at Kirkwood then I transferred to Mount Mercy.”
How was that experience?
“Good! You learn a lot. You kind of grow up a lot. I moved to Cedar Rapids and you meet a lot of new people, and new experiences, and really had to apply myself and learn some more discipline as far as getting to class, and studying, and turning papers in on time. It was a good social experience too. I met a lot of new people, so, it was a good time. I’m glad I did it.”
What did you major in?
“At Kirkwood they had ‘law enforcement’ classes, and then from there pretty much everything I took transferred over to Mount Mercy, and I took their criminal justice administration.”
What did you do for a career?
My main career, I did 30 years as a Johnson County Deputy Sheriff.”
Did you enjoy that?
“I did, for the most part, believe it or not. You meet all kinds of people, that’s for sure. I have to say, I don’t regret doing it, but in this day and age, I don’t miss it either. I’ve been retired for over twelve years.”
What was your favorite part about it?
“Meeting a variety of people, and from the lower end of…I’m trying to be polite here, on a scale of 1-10, met a lot of ‘ones,’ and met a few ‘tens,’ and everything in-between. I enjoyed trying to help people if it was a situation where I could help them.”
Did you have any other careers?
“When I first got out of high school for a couple of years I worked at the local Chevrolet garage but I decided that wasn’t for me. I just knew that there was something else I wanted to pursue. That’s when I started going to Kirkwood part time at night, and then when I finished my two years there, went to Mount Mercy.”
Do you have any advice on choosing a career?
“Research it. If you think you’re interested in something, do your homework. Do some research on it, talk to people if you can who are in a particular line of work that you’re interested in. If you can, in my case, I did an internship. So, if you can, I’d recommend trying to do an internship. I did that with the Cedar Rapids Police Department when I was going to Kirkwood and that was quite interesting. I learned a lot and decided that’s what I wanted to do. From there I got hired down here in Johnson County, and that was in 1979.”
What was the happiest day in your life?
“Probably the day I retired, because it was a culmination of 30 years of a lot of good days, and a few bad days, and had various assignments in my career. 30 years is a good time to get out under the retirement plan that we have, so I would say that was probably one of the highlights of my life was the day I retired. I had a limousine lined up, invited people to ride around with me, and we rode around for about 2-1/2 hours around Iowa City and the county, and some people that were on the ride…I did not work with, they were friends of mine, so I took them to some places where they couldn’t believe I had to go to for work. It was eye-opening for them too. I would say that’s probably one of the best days of my life. I walked out with held my head high, and 30 years was a good time to say goodbye.”
Can you tell me about your parents?
“Great people. They were hard workers, honest, I learned a lot from them. They were a little bit strict with me sometimes, of course when I was younger, but good parents should be. Very good people, both deceased, I really miss them a lot.”
What was your happiest memory with them?
“I don’t think I can narrow it down to one thing. They were just good people. They really were. Happiest memories? Oh, we’d take trips here and there, and even if it was just to go visit relatives, or do whatever, that was a big thing.”
Do you have any children?
“No. I’ve never been married, always been happy.”
What are you most proud of?
“I’m going to have to say probably my 30-year career at the Sheriff’s Department. It takes dedication, sometimes it’s hard to get up and go to work the next day, a lot of times it’s really easy, but I would say my career.”
You’ve lived a long time in Solon. Could you tell me about how it has changed?
“It has grown so much. I’m not even sure what the population is now, but when I came here in 1979 it was a lot smaller. Pretty much the same businesses on the couple blocks of Main Street, but now that’s all expanded and continues to grow. It’s a great town. I just accidentally stumbled into renting a place when I first moved here, and I’m glad I happened to end up here. It’s a busy town now. If you go hungry or thirsty in this town, it’s your own fault. And it’s a good-looking town with great people. I love it here. I really do.
When I retired some people asked me, ‘Are you going to move away?’ and I said you know, I don’t think so. I like where I’m at. I can travel from here if I want to, but it’s a good place to come back to. It really is.”
Do you think it has changed for the better? Or the worse?
“Oh definitely for the better. The growth is extremely hard to keep up with. I used to have to keep up with all of the streets in all of the towns. Now I get lost in Solon in some places. It’s all brand new and it continues to grow, and I don’t see an immediate end to it. Overall, I would definitely say for the better.”
What is the best piece of advice you’ve heard?
“Treat people like you want to be treated, I think is probably one of the best things, especially in my line of work. I often dealt with people that it was hard to treat ‘em decent, but if you did you got a lot further with what you were trying to accomplish.”
What do you like to do for fun?
“I like home improvement projects, in summertime I like to do yardwork, always try to make my place look a little better. I like helping people if they’ve got some project they’re working on. But for get away type of fun in the month of May I’m out in Indianapolis for the race at the end of the month (Indy 500), but I go out ahead of that for qualifying sessions and practice sessions, and so on. I like to travel with Colorado and Arizona being my favorite places to go.”
What world events have changed your life?
“Well this darned COVID-thing for sure, you know, you’ve got to be careful and you know a lot of people that have come down with it. I know a few people that have passed away from it. So that would be one of the big ones, right now. Another would be back in September of 2001, the attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, the terrorist attacks. I always thought nothing like that is ever going to happen here within our borders. But it did, and it sure makes you wonder what this crazy world is all about.”
What is your best memory?
“That’s hard to draw down. Just overall, I guess the good times I’ve had. I’ve tried to do the right thing whenever I could…to nail down one specific thing, I don’t know that I can. I think just a combination of a lot of things, work-related things, and fun things I’ve done on vacations and so on. I really can’t just give you one thing.”
Did you have a dream (or goal) in your life?
“When I was a little kid I thought I was going to be a race car driver. But then also, in the back of my mind I knew I wanted to go into law enforcement. I didn’t pursue it right away after high school, but eventually I did, and so that would probably be the biggest and most realistic one.”
Are you happy?
“Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I am.”
How would you like to be remembered?
“I think I would like to have people say, right before they put me into the ground, ‘Gosh he looks good for 102!’
I’d like to be remembered as somebody who was fun to be around, easy to get along with, and remembered for some of the volunteer groups I’m involved in and my dedication to those. And ‘Overall, he was a pretty good guy.’”

Gallery • 1 Photos

File Photo

Larry Brecht (at far right) looks for somebody willing to take a shot at the Knights of Columbus’s basketball hoop during a Solon Beef Days Parade.