Scott Freutel

Scott and I often hung around LAX, especially night. Back around 1960, LAX was quite small, and TSA and terrorists had not yet been invented so security was less. We found that there was a whole system of cargo containers that moved around on tracks throughout the airport. They'd zoom around and sidetrack to a stop at various airlines, but most of ...more

Riding the Rails ca. 1963 My dad took me, Scott, and my three sibs on a trip in the Yuba River (N. Ca.) country to dredge for gold. That was a zero, but Scott and I decided, in Roseville, the largest rail head west of the Mississippi, to ride the rails home. I had $20 on me, and I think Scott had zero. We sat on the front of a flat bed car and got ...more

After high school, we held jobs as bus boys in a cheap restaurant in a less-than-desireable part of town. The dishwasher was a giant, scary-looking guy named Leonard, so Scott and I kidded him a lot about his dumb name (having no idea about people who grew up in different cultures. One day Leonard got mad and actually ran after us with a meat cleav...more

My Dad told me about the first time he heard The Rolling Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction: It was early Summer, 1965. He was driving his mom's Corvair down the freeway in LA when it came on the radio. He immediately pulled off and went to the nearest record store to buy the single. He took it home and played it nonstop until it wore out. He o...more

Shortly after Tosh was born, perhaps a few weeks, I received a phone call from the diaper service informing me that my diapers were too dirty. Only Scott would call a new mother to tell her that her baby's diapers were too dirty! Being naive and not yet familiar with Scott's antics, I was concerned and asked what they meant and what I could do, etc...more

Scott and Karen came into my life in the winter of 1970-71, when they were living in a farm house on Saratoga Road outside Langley and I was living off Saratoga Road in John Metcalf’s beach house. It was a hard winter for me, and I took to going over for a bit of friendly connection. My memories are fragmentary - the party where they specified eve...more

This was written by Scott in August of 2016 to be read at the Soup Box Derby. I am not clear on the details, but I believe Scott could not be there, so I read it to the assembled participants and onlookers in his stead. Recollections of Scott Freutel, principal in the Soup Coop Who among the people who helped create The Soup Coop came up with the...more

I must have been about four or five years old, and my dad had this big old Afghani tribal coat made out of goat hide and long shaggy white fur with black patches. He had shoulder length hair and a bushy beard, and probably looked like the Abominable Snowman, but I thought he looked like a Medieval king. We were going to some event in Langley after...more

Once upon a time, before a heavily bearded author of several soft porn books started a business in a legendary Village by the Sea, he was living with room mates Jimmy Alexander, Peter Birnbaum, and Will Sharp on Bush Point Road. During this early writing period, he devoured cartons of Pall Mall cigarettes and bottles of his favorite alcohol while ...more

While the Wellspring Health Clinic was just two store fronts away from the Press on Anthes Street, Scott would often just pop in to harass us with another hilarious "one liner" or just to say HI to Karen, our Women's Health Care Specialist. One day, he tried to spirit me away, as I was the Manager of the Women's Clinic, to work at the Press. He wan...more

I remember the first time I met Scott. He sat down across from me one evening in the soup- coop. I was impressed by the open greeting smile he offered me, a stranger who in time was to become best of friends! So here I put some thoughts of him whom I knew and loved. Ingrained in his character was a high bar of human decency and authentici...more

Scott and I have spent many hours talking together in Reunion House over the past years. He was a great friend and had many great stories to tell. One of my favorite stories about Scott’s younger years is when he and his brother were very young. His father took the two boys to Sears and bought them each a nice suit and tie. Th...more

Scott spent several years of his childhood on the Washington University campus in St. Louis, MO, as his father was a professor there. He spent his days roaming the campus on his bicycle, exploring the surrounding woods, and playing in and around the various buildings, classrooms, and labs. At one point, he and a friend managed to put hydrogen sulfi...more

Scott and I met about 10 years ago when we both worked at Seattle Housing Authority. He would stop by my work station to harass me about not having my desktop fountain going (it was broken) or share some ironic observation about work; whatever it was always made me laugh. When we discovered our mutual love of classical music we spent many happy h...more

Scott had such a huge physical presence--whatever his fluctuating weight. The way he stood and the distinctive way he held a cigarette, the composing stick, or a bottle of beer. The sound of his voice, the pacing of his words, and his intonation. We can all still hear him, right? And of course, his big heart. Scott took me under his wing when I wa...more

Working at Spring Valley Press was the best best best of jobs! Lynn Willeford asked me when Scott was away (can't remember where or why) if I wanted to help out. I jumped at the chance & stayed til the end. When we all worked to close down Spring Valley Press with Lynn W in charge, I ended up rolling equipment down the street with enormous help to ...more

Playing my guitar tonight (in Rockland, Maine) I found myself singing "You Ain't Going Nowhere" and thought back to when I first heard the song which was at the Soup Coop in maybe 1971? Could a band have been playing live music one Sunday afternoon? And I immediately thought of Scott and wondered what had become of this amazing man. Googling him,...more

Dear Naomi, I just read in the SLO Tribune of your father's passing. His talent, quirky intelligence, gift for storytelling, and kindness has stayed with me all these years. Sending you condolences from afar. Love Catherine Trujillo San Luis Obispo, CA