Spider Sabich
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100 100 95 95 75 An Ideal Life. 75 25 25 5 5 0 0 Vladimir "Spider" Sabich (1945-1976) By Terence McHale Researched with Drew Hummel I guess any time someone dies at thirty-one the first person we met, a waitress at one of the it has to be a tragic story. And, in terms of time handful of commercial establishments, if she and potential, of lo st moments, of a good guy remembered Spider Sabich. 100 not enjoying all the promises of friendship and 100 She had heard the question before. Earthy in 95 fortune that he’d earned, there was a 95 senselessness to how we viewed the killing of a a hippie way, solid and young, efficient, and 75 young California skier. It did not stop us when close enough to being pretty to be pretty, she 75 we drove to Kyburz, a tiny town in the foothills remembered immediately a guy she had never approaching Lake Tahoe, and ended up asking known. 25 25 5 5 Spring 2005 CALIFORNIA CONVERSATIONS 13 0 0 page 13 Spider Savich Monday, February 28, 2005 4:54:48 PM An Ideal Life 100 100 95 95 She said the house where Spider grew up was the gray In those days, in a place like Kyburz, people did whatever 75 A- frame a quarter mile down the road. She told us the needed to get done. 75 family was not there any more. The Sabich family left The next street was a right turn that took us another Kyburz a long time ago. She warned us there was a chain quarter-mile or so to the small school built against a across both ends of the circular driveway to keep people hillside. The wooded lane and stunning mountain 25 from pulling in to take pictures. Philosophical about not backdrop provides the same view the kids in Spider’s class 25 being too impressed about anything happening away from had when they walked to school. There was pride and 5 the mountain, she was willing to concede that Spider had some bemusement that the original school was a one- room 5 been memorable. His fame might have faded everywhere bunkhouse that Jimmy Ellsworth’s dad managed to get 0 0 else, the California kid even the French glamorized on a donated by a logging company. The emphasis on popular post card, yet people still stopped with some education worked because the school did teach, and out of regularity on their drive up Highway 50 to confirm t hat Spider’s and Jimmy’s eighth grade graduating class of Spider Sabich was once a real person. four, three of them would earn college degrees. Kyburz was named after The kids who went to the family that owned the school there were mostly land where most of the the children of the town was built a century or people who owned the so ago, a mountainous plot eateries and bars that that abuts a national forest. were the last stop for It is a place of big trees and people either going to or rustic cabins. Most of the returning from the four time there are about eighty ski resorts in the area people living there, but and the casinos across when the vacation cabins the state line in Nevada. are full the town swells to It was common for slot five or six hundred. The machines to be set up in waitress complained that the bars and in the back the national forest made rooms of the restaurants any growth impossible, until the authorities – which wasn’t good for some bureaucrats who business, and created a bit came from someplace of a time warp, a sense that else and didn’t do much nothing except the prices good or bad for Kyburz ever change in Kyburz. – remembered that The town was remote gambling was illegal in enough in the ‘50s and The first portrait of a man who would have his picture taken all California and didn’t ‘60s that the three -station over the world. Spider was two. want the tourists driving television reception was through to the casinos to only possible if you jerry-rigged a bedspring to one of the be compromised by any sinning. hundred-foot cedar trees. Even now, there is a Tom The new school – the second new school since the old Sawyer quality of kids playing freely in the outdoors and it bunkhouse was replaced – had an actual school bus, a van isn’t hard to imagine Spider and his best friend, Jimmy really, parked outside. The school is small, three or so Ellsworth, running barefoot in the summer and screwing rooms inside, and looking through the windows on the their boots into their wooden skis in the winter. front door we saw two framed pictures hanging on the We walked to the Sabich house. There was a chain wall. across the circular driveway with a red marker hanging They were old black and white photos. The somehow from the middle, and the home was set about a half-acre perfect smile with the crooked front tooth was back from the freeway. The big trees in front obscured recognizable. The kids in Kyburz were being reminded most of the home. It was a nice place, for Kyburz or that if they got lucky in life they too could end up being 100 100 anywhere else. The home was good size. It was difficult like Spider Sabich. 95 to tell how big without invading the privacy of the present There is a lot for teachers to say to their students if they 95 owners. The lines of the roof were neat and practical, cut use Spider’s life as a lesson plan. 75 at an angle to let landing snow drop to the ground. The His real name was Vladimir Peter Sabich, Jr. The 75 craftsmanship was evident even from a distance. Spider’s nickname came from his old man seeing him just after his dad built the house from a design by a friend and neighbor premature birth and mentioning that he was all arms and – the same guy who taught Spider and Jimmy how to ski. legs. 25 25 5 5 Spring 2005 CALIFORNIA CONVERSATIONS 0 14 0 page 14 Spideer Savich Monday, February 28, 2005 11:08:26 AM 100 An Ideal Life 100 95 probable that Vlad Sabich was going to be there soon 95 enough to deal with the problem. 75 At the beginning of World War II, Vlad volunteered and 75 impressed the military enough to be made a fighter pilot. He was eventually shot down over Siberia, and after being released by the Russians, made his way to North Africa 25 25 where the allies flew him back to the States. He continued 5 in the service as a test pilot at the air force base in 5 Sacramento until he and his wife, Fran, four years older 0 and as unassuming as he was gregarious, moved back to 0 Kyburz. He resumed his job with the Highway Patrol. His kids grew up accustomed to calls in the middle of the night and sometimes going with their dad to emergency scenes. Mary and Spider Sabich (1949) Fran lived a long life. She outlived Vlad by a couple of years, both of them giving way to old age. She was pretty, It would no doubt be impossible for those who knew although the devilishness and appealing features Spider him in his salad days of Aspen, Colorado, when he built inherited seemed to come more from his father. Silver- one of the first great homes near his friend, the equally haired even when the kids were still small, Fran was the doomed, singer John Denver, to realize that he didn’t come postmistress in Kyburz and was involved on an almost out of the womb instantly impressive. Spider would give daily basis at the school. She was physically active, the gangly arachnids a romantic image they don’t deserve. demanded the same from her kids, espoused the credo of Spider was one of three Sabich kids. They were good the day that there was no future without college, and students. It was expected. There wasn’t much outside remained strong into her ninetieth year . influence in the early years and their folks encouraged Mary was the oldest Sabich child. She would grow up them to read, and they talked to them about what they were to become a doctor. Her contributions would be cut short reading. Some of it was consistent with the adage of when she died from a brain tumor at only forty-five. praying together and staying together. Most of it was a Spider and his younger brother, Steve, who was twenty household where they liked being with each other. It was months younger, would always be close f riends. Mary got love, simple enough, sustaining, a purposeful decision to braces on her teeth because Fran thought a girl needed secure the bonds of family. them. Her sons could do without. The boys were good with their hands. Steve went on to become a successful builder before his own death from melanoma at 57. The Sabich children were junior skiers. Their parents would regularly drive them four or five hours each way to competitions. All of them were winners. Spider was the one you watched. Spider was good enough in high school that he quit football to concentrate on skiing. His friends say he was average size, slight, yet muscular, and he gained a reputation for speed before he mastered finesse.