Janet and Jack Zurell enjoy a spin in their golf
cart in Briny Breezes. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
He made sure there were movies and she reported the news — along with a dollop of wit and inspiration.
Briny Breezes residents since 1990, Jack and Janet Zurell have been among the most dedicated volunteers at BBC-8, the park’s own closed circuit TV station.
Every night at 8, with a matinee Sundays at 2 p.m., Jack chose and programmed the station’s movies. Janet was there either late at night or early each morning, updating community news on the BBC-8 scroll and adding a pithy one-liner or two.
Love your enemies. At least they never try to borrow money from you.
There’s a thin person inside every fat person. I ate mine.
Now, after 11 years on the job, they’ve retired.
“I’m having trouble getting around,” says Jack, “so it’s become more difficult for me to program the movies.”
“And I feel stale,” adds Janet, who also served on the mobile home park’s board for eight years. “ Just feel somebody younger would have new ideas.”
“I did it because I loved it,” she says, “and it was important for the people to get the news first thing each morning.”
— Ron Hayes
Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
Jack: I went to the same school in Mount Morris, Mich,, from kindergarten through high school. We had 70 in our graduating class, and my mother taught there, so I had to really behave and study hard
Janet: Flint High School. It was a big school and interracial, which gave me a broader scope on how to deal with people.
Q. What did you do professionally before retirement? Any highlights you’d like to share?
Jack: After graduating from Michigan State, I became a certified public account and worked for O.L. Anderson in Detroit, which manufactured fuel tanks for the automotive industry. Later, I was parts manager.
Janet: I raised three children and also worked full-time as a bookkeeper, a Girl Friday to an interior decorator and a church secretary. When the children were older, I was a Cub Scouts and Brownies master and a youth counselor in our Methodist church.
Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?
Jack: Get a skill. You must have a technical education.
Janet: I would tell my granddaughter to get a good education or else find a really old rich guy and marry him. (She’s joking here, folks).
Q. What guided your selection of quotations and movies on the BBC-8?
Jack: I always tried for variety. A drama, then a comedy, a thriller, an adventure and a classic. Plus everyone’s recommendations.
Janet: I wanted one-liners that were uplifting and humorous. And nonpolitical. I wanted to give Briny Breezes brightness and happiness and cheer.
Q. How did you choose to have a home in Briny Breezes?
Jack: My brother had lived here since 1964. After I retired, we looked at Tucson and Phoenix and South Padre Island, but March of 1990 we were coming to see my brother and when we left Georgia into Florida we saw the lush flowers and thought, “That’s he kind of winter you like to see.”
Q. What is your favorite part about living in Briny?
Jack: The weather.
Janet: And the people.
Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
Jack: “Jack, will you get me this.” (Now he’s joking, folks).
Janet: “I can do all things through Christ that strengthen me.”
Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
Janet: My mother, Esther Doe. She lived with us for 37 years and died at 98 and a half.
Jack: She was an old German woman who believed the man of the house was king, so in 37 years I never had an argument with her.
Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
Jack: Mickey Rooney.
Janet: Sandra Bullock.
Q. What’s next now that you’ve retired from BBC-8?
Janet: I’d like to join the hobby club, and maybe start a beginners knitting class. Oh, and I’ve always wanted to peel potatoes for the community dinners.
Jack: My wife’s an a-peeling person.”
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