http://www.bradenton.com/neighbors/story/131523.htmlBy ROBERTA C. NELSON
bcnelson@bradenton.comJo Pesola enjoys concerts, motorcycles
Jo Pesola is simply too busy to grow old.
Two days before her 69th birthday, she went to St. Petersburg for her first rock concert. She's a Guns N' Roses fan.
"The first time I heard 'Sweet Child O' Mine,' I said 'That's it,' " she said.
Now 84, Pesola looks forward to cooler weather so a friend can take her on his motorcycle to Woody's River Roo in Ellenton and other nightspots around town.
Her son, Michael Brogan, 56, is a gastroenterologist in Columbus, Ohio. After a good bit of coaxing on her part, he took her to a Columbus concert with Velvet Revolver, which rose from the ashes of the now-defunct Guns N' Roses. He is a subscriber to the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.
"She has always been tuned into the times," Brogan said. "But by the time she was in her 50s, we could see she was a little atypical."
Before she started going to rock concerts, she went to Star Trek conventions.
"She didn't tell you?" Brogan asked during a telephone interview from his home in Columbus. "She's a Trekkie."
Pesola first came to Florida in 1942 during World War II.
She and a friend stayed about five months in Miami. There were lots of young servicemen shipping in and out. She met and fell in love with a sailor, but didn't marry him. She later married a dentist, Virgil Dale Brogan, and their marriage lasted 13 years until they divorced.
She has always enjoyed music, she said. Whenever one of the big bands came to Canton, she would cut class at business college.
"When I lived in Canton, all the big bands came there to the Palace Theatre," she said. "I must have seen them all, except Glenn Miller, who always played at the Meyers Lake (Amusement) Park and Moonlight Ballroom. I remember seeing Gene Krupa and Eddy Duchin."
Pesola came to Florida again in 1969. About seven years later, she met and married her second husband, Wayne Pesola, here. He was more than a decade younger, and they lived for a time in Bradenton Beach. Then they bought an RV and lived in Cortez, and then at Linger Lodge RV park in East Manatee. But her husband died in 1986 at 51. She continued to live at Linger Lodge until 1999, but has since moved to an apartment in town.
"She's a great lady," said Mike Drake, who works at Presbyterian Villas, where Pesola lives.
Drake is the friend who will take Pesola on her motorcycle ride.
"There are about four or five of us, and one of my buddy'a wife has a Gold Wing Trike (motorcycle) with a back seat like a big captain's chair," he said.
There are a few concessions Pesola has been willing to make because of her age, but not many.
"I don't cook anymore," she said.
She graduated from high school in 1942 in Canton. She returns every five years to attend her high school class reunion. The 65th reunion is approaching in October, she said.
"I don't know how many people are still alive," she said. "I had a longtime friend I always stayed with, but now she is in assisted living."
She isn't smug about her abilities at her age.
"I have good genes," she said. "My mother lived to 91 and was still living in her own apartment near my sister."
Still, if she'd known she would live this long, she would have taken better care of herself, she said with a laugh at the old joke.
Despite her love of rock music and other interests usually popular with younger people, she said she doesn't want to actually be younger. She just doesn't want to be discriminated against because of her age.
She makes new friends based on their interests, not their ages.
"You always value your old friends," she said. "But you always make new friends, because you must."
Roberta C. Nelson, staff writer, can be reached at 748-0411, ext 2121.
Jo Pesola
Age: 84
Local residence: Presbyterian Villas
Occupation: retired
Hometown: Canton, Ohio
Family: a son and two grandchildren
Jo Pesola smitten with Guns N' Roses
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