They Don’t Know Strangers

Photos by Colt Antle 

By Colt Antle

Grandparents house. Nothing beats the feeling of a grandparent's house. The nostalgic feeling that the sights and smells can trigger. The old TV shows that you can’t help but smile at while watching. The food, whether it be a full-course meal or a simple dessert, always manages to fill the stomach and warm the heart. Their houses are comparable to a museum, especially if your grandparents like to collect World War II memorabilia. Kent and Mary Hearst have lived in Pueblo for most, if not all, of their lives, and many people probably recognize their names. From their contributions to the community to the little things that they have done for my family, Kent and Mary are quite the people with quite the story to tell.

Growing Up

Kent has lived in Pueblo for his entire life, spanning multiple generations of hardworking blue-collar individuals. Starting with his grandfather, who was a miner, he would work in one mine until it could no longer produce, then move on to another. Going from Cripple Creek, where they started their own mine called Joe Dandy, before moving to Canyon City, and eventually ending in Pueblo because of the Fuel and Iron. He worked from the 1950s to the 1970s, where he later retired. His grandfather could have lived to 100, but unfortunately, the safety conditions back then were very poor, and as such, he died at the age of 84 due to silicosis.

 Kent’s father and mother Winona and Byirl were Great Depression children, with Byirl being a minimalist who worked to be just like his father. Byirl originally went to school to be an engineer so he could work with his hands. He was later drafted and returned from the Vietnam War, where he then worked at the Pueblo Steel Mill as a mill welder. Eventually, Byirl) retired in his late 60s and bought a piece of farmland for him and his family to grow up on. Unfortunately, his line of work caught up to him, too. He passed away due to lung cancer that he got from working in the steel mill.

Kent wanted to follow in his father’s, Byirl footsteps, which led him to learn many different skills that would make him the man he would become. Skills such as plumbing, farming, machining, welding, and building. These skills came from life experience, from working on the farm from age three, to being actively involved throughout his academic career. Kent actually held a few records at Pueblo County High School: one for jumping 24 feet in the long jump and one for 52 quarter miles, though the latter was at a practice, so it wasn’t official.

In comparison to Kent’s upbringing, Mary’s childhood was a little more of a struggle. She found herself moving all over the world, from places like Berlin to Chicago. On top of that, she had three different caretakers throughout her life: her mother, her aunt, and her grandmother. Through all of this, she had to deal with eight different siblings and poor living conditions. Growing up in Missouri, she had to deal with gangs around her school that would beat her up with different forms of weapons. Mary didn’t finish high school because she was married at 15. This was done as a way to get back at her mother, with whom she didn’t have the greatest relationship.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom, though; she still managed to make do with what she was given. Her stepfather would often make the best of a bad situation and supply the kids with toys and items to keep them happy, even if some of these things were gained through “five-finger discounts,” as Mary would call them. The story that always stuck with me was hearing about how her father brought home a spider monkey for them to keep as a pet.

Married Life

The two of them first met on a job at the army depot, where Kent was Mary’s boss. They started out as friends, then dated, then married. The two of them actually got married on the same day as Kent’s great-grandfather’s birthday; Dec. 20. 

After getting married and having three kids, they lived in a trailer park. This didn’t last for long, however, as they soon started searching for a house to fit their family. After some searching, Kent’s dad gave him a piece of land and a house near their own. It wasn’t the house they wanted; Kent wanted to build a log cabin, and Mary had a different house in mind, but they made the most of it, as did their family. They weren’t the richest or the wealthiest family, but they did the best with what they had. Every Christmas and birthday, they had presents. All three of them managed to go to college. They had good vacations. They each had cars, which most kids would want from their parents. That’s not to say that there weren’t some rocky roads along the way with some relationships and school, but they made it work in the end. 

“Growing up having grandpa as my dad wasn’t always easy. He was very strict and a little hard on me at times. I spent a lot of time with him in my teenage years because he started staying home more. He was and still is very funny, passionate about God and his military collecting,” said Alexandria Antle. Alexandria is one of Kent and Mary’s three children, the middle child to be exact.

Mary especially wanted her children to have a better relationship and a better childhood than she had. “Kids come first, and you come last, kids always come first, until you have grandkids, then they come first,” said Mary.


Collecting

Collecting is a hobby that both share an interest in. For Kent, it was something he always gravitated toward, collecting things he liked and was interested in: army/military items, cowboy items, and Native American items. Back then, it was easier to afford and buy things like that because of an army surplus store that Kent regulated. When he wasn’t buying different military items, he was out hunting for arrowheads or bottle caps out in the forest.

For Mary, given her living situation, it was a little harder to afford or get much of anything she wanted. Growing up she was lucky to have shoes on her feet and clothes on her back. This all changed when she was about nine. Her parents went to visit a lady for a reason that she couldn’t remember. What she did remember was the lady’s house. The house looked like a museum, with stuff everywhere, and Mary, a nine-year-old, was awestruck. The way she was describing it to me made it seem hard to put into words, as if she were reliving her childhood experience. “Everything was beautiful,” said Mary. After that, her dad started taking her to auctions, where at one of said auctions, she made her first-ever purchase of a buffet table.

These shared interests are what later helped them get into antiquing in the first place. They would go to different toy shows and auctions with their kids and just indulge themselves in the antique world. Kent has managed to amass a World War II and Vietnam collection spanning between 3 to  5000 items. In fact, while I was interviewing them, Kent was working on fixing an old Vietnam War soldier's helmet. “You never really complete a collection like this,” said Kent. Mary focuses more on furniture and clothes

The way that they got into the antiquing business is an interesting one as well. In the early 90s, they went to an antique store on Union, for no particular reason; they were just looking for stuff. When they came in, the girl whose job it was to take care of the payroll basically quit. Kent and Mary actually knew the store owner, and it just so happened that Mary was pretty good at accounting. So she took over the payroll job, and in return, the store owner gave Kent and Mary a free spot in his store. “We went from doing bookkeeping, then got a spot in the store for free,” said Mary. 

If she could have, she would have been an accountant, but unfortunately, she was stricken with an infection that forced her to retire. Sickness and afflictions are sadly a common occurrence with this family, but that hasn’t stopped them from continuing to do what they love.
Pueblo Community

If you were to go out into Pueblo and ask any elderly person or any person who is a tight part of the Pueblo community, they would probably know who Kent and Mary are. You don’t gain the notoriety and recognition that Kent and Mary have by doing nothing; you have to be trusted in the community. Whether through their work in the antique world or through their Christian deeds, people know who they are, especially Kent. He’s performed many laborious tasks, from working on the railroad and helping his father build his childhood home to helping on farms and the fairgrounds; if it involved farm labor, he’s probably done it.

“He doesn't know a stranger,” said Mary. Kent could probably strike up a conversation with a person from another country, and by the time he’s done, they’d be friends for life. That’s one thing that everyone knows about Kent: he loves to tell stories about his life and history. These are the qualities that make him so interesting to be around and what makes  him such a great human being.

“Grandpa has a lot of friends in the community. He has lived in Pueblo all of his life. He has a memory unlike any other. He trades and sells military memorabilia and different types of antiques. He and my mom made a name for themselves on Union Avenue and in the antique community,” said Alexandria.
Mary is similar to Kent in the sense that most people are familiar with her. She takes care of the homeless and would care for other people’s kids. The part of Mary’s services that Kent emphasized to me was how she would take care of the animals. “God has given us responsibility over them; how we honor God is how we take care of the animals,” said Kent. From geese to squirrels, to cats, to pigs, no animal that goes through their property is gone unfed or unwelcome.

It isn’t just their contributions to the community that I touched on with them, it was also what the community had lost that they wished would return. When asked if there was anything they missed from Pueblo, the first thing that came to their minds was all the stores that used to take up shop in Downtown Pueblo. 

“Woolworths, five and dime stores, Six Star, all stores in downtown Pueblo," said Mary. The way that they described it truly made it feel like a different time, a much safer and frankly happier time. Kent compared the streets of downtown to malls before malls were even conceptualized. What really stood out to me was how they described Christmas time in downtown. All the things they mentioned, like the parade of lights, are still things that Pueblo does today, but the way they spoke about it made it sound like a setting right out of a Christmas movie or book.

Kent and Mary

When I sat down to interview the two of them, I noticed a side of them that I had never really seen before. I had grown up watching them my whole life, but this was the first time I truly saw what their lives were like. They were laughing and joking with each other, and they really seemed like they were proud of what they were able to accomplish and the friends they were able to make. Mary would always tell me stories about her childhood, but it took until now for it to fully make an impact on me. Their lives are as laired and complex as the items that they collect. 

“I want to remember them for what they instilled in me, which was faith. They introduced me to God and helped me to grow in my faith and walk with him. I will remember their love for items of the past. Antiques and collectibles, sewing, cooking, baking, upholstery, things that are a lost art today,” said Alexandria.