Locals in the limelight

When I arrived at the home of Keith and Becky Kolterman, I was amazed at the beautiful, sprawling green lawn and manicured flowerbeds. “Your yard is amazing. It looks like a park,” I told them. “Funny you should say that,” Becky told me. Apparently, one day when she and Keith were inside the house, a car pulled up in their side yard. They watched as two adults, two kids and a very large dog got out of the car. The dog gleefully frolicked around their yard. They watched for awhile, and Keith finally went outside to investigate. The visitors were from British Columbia and were passing through. When Keith told them, “Well, this is private property,” they were mortified and told him they thought it was a city park. I don’t know if it was the mental picture of that huge dog running around through the flowerbeds or those unidentified kids playing on their grandchildren's swing set, but I was laughing before we even sat down to get started.

Most people know the Koltermans by their nicknames, Creepy and Haggie. They are a beloved and integral part of the Odessa community. It is hard to imagine they weren’t born here. They share a strong work ethic, tireless volunteerism and devotion to their family.

I asked them to remind me of the origin of their nicknames. Becky said that when they were dating, Keith used to call her an old hag. Paul Hopp would drive down the street, roll down his window and yell, “Hey Haggie!” She said, “I used to just hate it; I would shake my finger at him. But then I just went with it. I told Keith that if I was an old hag, he was a creep.” That is how Keith got to be called Creepy. “She won't even respond to anything else now,” Keith said.

They asked me if I wanted to sit down outside on the patio or inside the shop for the interview. I chose the shop. I wanted to see the man cave where so many amazing projects have been crafted. Both of them are amazingly talented. She sews and quilts, he makes custom furniture, and together they upholster and make creative projects with items like wine corks and bottle caps. They had a custom-designed tabletop made painstakingly with a mosaic pattern of hundreds of different beer bottle caps. It had a thick resin coat on top and was very unique.

We entered the shop, and I looked up to see ball caps hung all over the ceiling in plastic sleeves, 1,087 of them to be exact. Looking at the hundreds of logos, it was like touring local history. “We have 500 more that aren’t hung up yet,” Haggie told me. Creepy proceeded to put quarters in his 50-cent Coke machine and dispense beverages for us. I chose a Mike's Hard Lemonade and told him that I think he needs to raise his prices!

Haggie was born in Spokane but grew up in Colockum outside of Wenatchee. Her mother, the person she most admires, raised six kids as a single mom and worked as a secretary for a pump and irrigation company. They had a wood stove for heat, and the pipes frequently froze, so her family became very adept at thawing out pipes. Odessa was like her second home. Her aunt and grandmother lived here, so she was often visiting on weekends. Haggie tells me that because she was the oldest of six kids, she was pretty responsible growing up, while Creepy was “a hellion, ornery.” He did not object to that statement. Interestingly, he was the oldest child as well, with one brother and one sister.

Creepy was born in Fort Wayne, IN. His father worked for the Bureau of Reclamation and worked on dam projects so their family moved frequently. When asked who he most admires, it was his father. Haggie added, “he was my dad, too, since I didn’t have anyone until my mother remarried years later. He called me Rebeck…we both loved him.” Keith lived in several states including South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming and Arizona during his youth. He graduated from high school in Othello, where his father was working on the irrigation canals. Keith was married briefly to the daughter of Chuck Ring. He met Geno Walter from Odessa, who was looking for a fertilizer man, and he moved to Odessa in December of 1970.

Haggie met Creepy when she was working summers at Smith’s Café owned by Ross Wagner. She was a dishwasher, and Jeannie Kramer was the cook. “She was so funny,” Haggie said. Haggie was 18 at the time. Keith was eight years her senior and a patron of the restaurant. She drove her old clunker, a purple Mercury Comet. While they were dating, she would take Creepy's blue Roadrunner home to Wenatchee and leave him the Comet to drive. Apparently, her car was finally laid to rest and still remains somewhere out in Wally Weishaar's pasture.

Even though Haggie was frequently in Odessa, I asked her if she ever expected to live here? “No! Never!” she said. They married, and she eventually moved in with Keith in his singlewide that was located in the same trailer park they now own. The park was owned by BCL Rentals, an investment group owned by Bob Hemmerling, Clarence Hemmerling and Laurence Libsack. Creepy was paying $35 a month rent for their lot (his wages at the time were $2.85/hr.). They just couldn’t stand paying rent, so they worked out a deal to buy the park. Around 1981, they traded in the singlewide and purchased the manufactured home they still live in. They told me that when they bought the park, it was mostly full of weeds, no lawns. They paid $7,750 and the owners carried a contract for $100 a month. Haggie originally stayed home to work on the landscaping and help improve the park. “We had to change everything over the years, the spaces weren’t built to accommodate the bigger mobile homes of today.”

Just about the time they got everything the way they wanted it, the new highway went through, and everything was rerouted. Once again, they had to modify the park. The Koltermans have always been extremely good money managers. I had a conversation with Haggie once about how, after their kids left, they lived on one paycheck and put the other one in savings. She doesn’t think it is a big deal, but I think it is so rare in today’s world. “We have always been conservative and saved. It paid off for us, so that now we can do things for our kids and grandkids,” she once told me.

Haggie and Creepy have two children, their daughter Jody, who is 40, lives in Renton and has a son Tyler. Their son Kory has been married to Whitney Frederick from Odessa for two years and lives in Cheney.

The Koltermans are probably best known for pulling off the best kept secret in the history of Odessa. Haggie said, “Everyone knows that story!” But I just love it and wanted to share it with readers. When their daughter Jody was 14, Haggie got pregnant with Kory. She hid the pregnancy until one week before his birth, when she went in for her first checkup. He was born in the winter so as her stomach grew she was able to cover it up, literally going from flannel shirts to coats. A week before his birth, she also went in to get a haircut at the beauty shop. She knew the jig would be up if she took off her coat, so she kept it on, telling them how cold she was. “I looked ridiculous leaning back in that chair with my coat on, getting my hair washed.” Tracy Walter, who cut her hair that day, had no idea she was pregnant, let alone going to have a baby one week later.

We laughed about the shock wave that went through town when the word got out. I told her we all remember where we were and what we were doing during historical events, and people still talk about where they were the day they found out Becky Kolterman had given birth up at the hospital. “People were running in and out of my room, going Oh, my God, it is true!” Haggie told me. The Odessa Hospital was not set up to deliver babies at that time. Dr. Connell scolded Haggie, “don’t ever do that to me again!” She said her daughter did find out about it eventually. I couldn’t imagine getting a 14-year-old girl to keep a secret like that.

What was it like having a baby again after 14 years? “No problem,” said Haggie. We took him everywhere. We just “bagged him up,” she said – the baby and all the accessories. Her kids practically grew up at the fire station. Keith retired in 2005 after 30 years of service, 28 of those as a rural fire chief.

For years, they were actively involved in the float committee and the beer garden crew. They both served as EMTs. When their daughter was in high school, they were called out to a car accident outside of town involving a college-age girl who was ejected from the car and killed. Haggie said that ended her EMS career, “I just couldn’t get past it.”

When Kory was about 11, Haggie was filling in at the school cafeteria as a temporary sub. She had no intention of going back to work full time. They had someone leave, and she already knew the ropes, so they talked her into the job opening. She has been working for the school district for 15 years. Keith has also been employed by them for 13 years as the manager of the bus garage.

I asked them if they had a favorite, memorable moment from all these years of community involvement. One that really stood out was when they served on the float committee. I remembered their son Kory sleeping in his swing as we were all sawing and hammering while we were building the community float. It would start to slow down and one of us would sprint over to wind it back up so he wouldn't wake up. The old orange dog (Dodge) that showed up at parades was legendary everywhere they went. “That truck was fully equipped; we had everything – welder, compressor, you name it,” Creepy said. We would pull into parades and spend most of the time fixing tires and float breakdowns for other towns. Everyone would tell them “go find the orange Dodge; they will help you out.”

One summer, they were at the Spokane Lilac Parade. They brought campers and would stay under the freeway overpass. The night before the parade, Doris Jasman decided to get the festivities started by lighting off a string of firecrackers. The Koltermans informed me that within minutes, they were surrounded by police cars. Apparently, there had been a fatal shooting the night before a couple blocks away, and law enforcement was on high alert. The embarrassed Odessa crew had a very somber night after that.

The Koltermans have no intention of leaving their home in Odessa after they retire. They have built a happy life and are genuinely content. Since school got out in June, they have put 4400 miles on their car, hitting the road frequently to see family and friends.

We talked about raising their kids in a small town. Creepy was working all the time, so Haggie was the main disciplinarian. They had rules, like once a kid started a sport, there was no quitting. “Our kids had many sets of parents growing up. They probably hated it. They couldn't get away with much.” For example, one of their uncles, Randy Carlson, was a town cop and one of their many coaches growing up.

They shared a funny story when their daughter, Jody, was home visiting during college and had taken a friend to the movies in Moses Lake. She had been pulled over for a speeding ticket on Wheeler Road. Their friend, Bob Burns, a trucker, was out in the area and heard the name on the scanner. He called us and said, “Which Kolterman is out by Wheeler right now?” Haggie told him it had to be Jody. When she got home, Jody's friend had convinced her to not tell her parents. Haggie asked them what they had done that night. They told her about the movie, etc. She then asked them, “What else?” Jody’s friend’s eyes got huge, and Jody turned to her and said , “They know.” Haggie laughed, recalling the story. “That’s just the way it is in a small town. You can’t get away with anything,“ except perhaps, (in Haggie's case) a pregnancy.