User talk:Danijackel

Donald Jackel
Donald "Don" Jackel (American:  born February 6, 1940) is a retired American Grandpa and Father. In 1951, at the age of eleven, he moved from Queens, New York (Richmond Heights area) with his family, to San Diego, California. His family was enticed to move because one of his Uncle's had opened a grocery store in El Cajon, California, and thought that there might be other opportunities to do the same in other parts of San Diego. Don's family did indeed open their own grocery store in National City, California, located in San Diego County, just south of Downtown San Diego. They operated the grocery store for 50 years, until they finally sold the business in 2001, but to this day continue to own the building and the land where the grocery store sits.

Early Life
Donald Jackel was born on February 6th, 1940 in Queens, New York, a suburb just outside of Manhattan. His Mother, Frieda, was a homemaker and his father Ben, worked as a grocery store clerk and cab driver. Jackel has an older sister, Harriet, who is 5 years older, as well as a younger brother by 6 years, Norman. Unfortunately, Don was involved in a terrible accident at three years old, where, while watching a pile of leaves burn down the street from his house (a common custom back then to remove trash) Don was pushed into the fire by one of the neighbor girls as a prank. Don was not aware of what to do, and ended up running about 100 yards' home to his house with his leg on fire. He was severely burned and spent the next year in and out of hospitals, having surgeries to repair the skin on his leg, leaving a big scare. Don's best friend in his early days was Kenny Keller, who was like a brother to him, and also a protector, and Donald say "no one would ever mess with Kenny". Don was not much of an athlete, especially after the accident, but he was always interested in sports and "hanging around the neighborhood". He was a New York Jets fan and a New York Yankee fan, but did not attend many games. Don was not happy to leave New York to move to San Diego, but his family was going, and so was he.

Career
At age 13, Don went to work in the Family grocery store called Big Ben Market (named for the proprietor Ben Jackel, but also using the Big Ben Clock from London as it's symbol). He went on to do this just about every day until he retired from work at age 61. He handled all duties in the store, and ended up growing the business significantly by becoming the largest food supplier to the massive fishing boat industry in San Diego. He worked with his Father, his brother, and his brother-in-law Lou at the store, as well as in the delivery business to the fishing boats. The store flourished in the early years, but struggled once the fishing vessel industry was pushed away from San Diego in the early 1990's and moved to Los Angeles. In addition, the entre into the market by big box grocery stores such as Price Club (now called Costco), Walmart etc., took its toll on small local grocery stores. However, this market, specifically catering to the Hispanic community in National City remained strong throughout the history of Jackel ownership.

While working in the grocery store, Don Jackel also became the first person in his family to attend and graduate from a 4 year University, as he graduated from San Diego State University in 1959. He spent every morning at school, and every afternoon at the grocery store, mixing in his studies with his work. He really enjoyed philosophy and accounting, and had always secretly wished he could have become an accountant. So much so that to this day, and ever since the early 1970's, Don has prepared as many as 20 family and friends tax returns each year for no charge at all.

As Don made income, he slowly, over many years, purchased real estate throughout San Diego. Starting in the early 1970's he first bought Single family homes and then graduated to the purchase of a few small apartment complexes. Most of which he still owns today. The income from the real estate became sufficient enough to allow him to retire from the grocery store at age 61 and then only focus on his hobbies of being with his children and their families, as well as doing tax returns of course.

Personal Life
Not too long after college, Don met his lifetime love, his wife Sandra (Sandy). Sandy was from Chicago, Illinois, but had also moved to San Diego at an early age and became a middle school English teacher after also graduating from San Diego State. They dated for a couple of years before getting married in 1964. They bought their first house in 1967 and had their first child, Larry, in 1968, followed by two more boys, Michael in 1970 and Allen in 1973. Don and Sandy raised all three boys in the Allied Gardens, then San Carlos areas of San Diego. Once their children were born, Sandy become a homemaker and Don worked at the grocery store in order to support the family. Sandy also became the property manager of the houses and other real estate that they bought together. Don always left work in time to watch his son's play their youth sports, but always went back to work to close the store afterward. Don's main goal, which he accomplished, was to make enough money to send each of his sons to college so that none of them would have loans to pay upon completion. Don has always enjoyed his boys and spending as much time as possible with them.

Don was able to fight off colon cancer at age 39, back in 1979, where at that time he was given a 30% chance of living. His was able to fight through numerous rounds of chemotherapy and surgery in order to rid himself of the disease that was caught at a relatively late stage.

After retirement, Don has been able to enjoy many of the things he missed out on while working to support his family for all of these years. He is 79-year old fitness fanatic, who works out 3 to 4 days a week. He has also taken up golf and usually plays twice per week. And Don also spends a lot of his time with his 5 grandchildren, Dani (20), Ben (18), Ryan (15), Zoe (10) and Grayden (8). Plus he has two more grandkids on the way in April of 2019.

Donald Jackel is seen as a hero by his sons for everything he has done for them and for what he has made of his life after coming from such a humble beginning.