“I am convinced that the age must go along,” says Ilgvars Knipšis from Kandava. At the age of 88, he is still the most sought-after “golden hand” specialist in the area, inventing new devices, writing his youthful memories and creating a family tree on a computer, using a smartphone and being active on the social network “Facebook” for ten years. To mark the International Senior Day, Latvian Radio Ilgvars Knipša went to Kandavu to visit one of the busiest seniors in Latvia.
Interview with Ilgvars KnipšiMara Rosenberg00:00 / 00:00
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Ilgvars Knipšis is waiting in the yard of Latvijas Radio’s three-storey residential building near his garage, to which, as he says, he goes to work every morning. This time he is busy preparing a thrush house. And it really is a cottage, not a simple cage – with a terrace, balcony, windows and doors. “The balcony is currently being glued, the weight has been placed here. Railings will have to be made around the ring, ”the master shows. The luxury starling cage is just one of the many works of creation, repair and restoration that make up Ilgvars’ daily life.
Starling house designed by Ilgvars Knips
Photo: Latvian Radio / Māra Rozenberga
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“For me, this is a workplace and at the same time a garage for a car. At night, when I’m not working, I put the car here, but during the day all my free time goes here. I also help a lot in others in Kandava – housewives, tantuks, I am like a “boy on call”. One key needs to be repaired, the other – the toilet. I have also gone to clean the boilers, replace the kitchen faucet, but now I am not so active. Now more for your pleasure – carving spoons, making various souvenirs. And most of the tools for me are homemade – lathe, grinder… Why buy if I can make it myself? Yes, it’s all self-invented and tried, ”he pulls a small grinder out of the corner and immediately shows how it works.
For the grinder, the company also consists of an electric spinning trolley, which Ilgvars Knipšis deftly removes from the shelf.
“Here, on one side – spinning, on the other – twisting. Such strollers have long been invented, only this is my own handicraft. Nothing is done with machines, everything is done by hand, ”he demonstrates. “I’ve always liked inventing and improving something!”
Ilgvars Knipšis is from suits, born in Gudenieki parish. After the war, as a sixteen-year-old, the new government sent him to a vocational school in Riga without question – due to a lack of labor. While Ilgvars learned the profession of a plumber, the family was sent to Siberia.
“I already think that I will be taken. But for some reason did not take. However, he was taken away for five years in the army, navy. I saw with my own eyes how the atomic fungus rises in the air, ”he recalls.
In the 1960s, Ilgvars received another education at Kandava Technical School – a mechanic – and has been a Kandavician ever since. He once helped build an apartment house where he lives.
“All the plumbing, except the heating, was already there when I came. But the water supply, sewerage, and also the stairs – I sawed these iron bars with an iron saw myself, at that time there were no flicks, ”he laughs.
Ilgvars Knipšis climbs to the third floor apartment more slowly than ever before – 13 years ago he had a severe heart attack. After his energetic activity, it is difficult to say.
“Yes, I will give you slippers,” the landlord offers carefully. This morning in the store specially bought new ones. Ilgvars brews coffee and invites you to sit in the living room, where the section is full of photos of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Ilgvars replies to the request to describe himself in one sentence: “Interesting old man!” He has been retired since 1992, but his hopes for free time have not been met. “It simply came to our notice then. My wife and I traveled a lot. We also cooperated with the Riga Automobile Association during the winter. The whole Caucasus, we crossed the Urals with my zigulite! ”
He never knew how to sit in peace. “I have never slept on the beach and sunbathe. I also walk and do by the sea.
I have always been on the move, ”says Ilgvars and mentions with great sincerity his wife Vilma, who passed away last year.
“Well, you have to look for such a person! I’ll show you pictures of her gladiolus fields. She was the main generator, planner and brainchild, I was the performer. She thought and asked: can you do it? I can, of course – there were no things I couldn’t do, ”he says.
Shortly before leaving for eternity, Vilma made Ilgvars promise that he would continue to go to work in the garage. “She said: you don’t sit in a room at a table and don’t breathe life, but go to the garage, work and do! And you don’t think you’ll eat buns and gnaw dry bread. You will make yourself eat every day! I am still trying to fulfill her wish, so I don’t want to waste time on cooking, ”emphasizes Ilgvars.
Ten years ago, his sons provided him with his first computer, and Ilgvars approached this challenge as creatively as he did the tools in his garage.
Ilgvars Knipšis
Photo: Latvian Radio / Māra Rozenberga
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“It simply came to our notice then. They brought me the big box, brought me the monitor, showed me how to turn it on and off, and gave me Ilmārs Butulis’ book “Let’s learn the new Excel”. That’s all, left and left. I open the book – as if everything is in Latvian, but its teams are all in English! I only know one word in English – OK. But there – as it opens, “Settings”, “Search”, “Tools”. But I don’t know what it all means! And then I accidentally clicked here and found that I could translate. Then I wrote those words in English on paper, wrote them in, and he translated them for me! That way I tried to somehow understand what those words meant. So I gradually discovered everything and in the end I could do quite a lot. My wife and I had an accountant, so we made all the payments on the computer to make life easier. Son Ainārs made a program, and then I made all the calculations according to the program, ”says Ilgvars. “It will be more than ten years now. I don’t even really remember. But I think Facebook recently congratulated me on being there for ten years. “
Ilgvars Knipšis has also written more than 30 pages of memories of his childhood and service in the army on a computer and created an extensive family tree with photographs.
With technology, including a smartphone, he says we’ve made friends without much difficulty.
“Now is such an age that the old will not come back forever, only the new. I already had a hotline all the time. But it started to break down, there were no more batteries. This phone, which I now have, was given to me by my foster daughter, I bought myself a bigger one. This has a small capacity. The grandson sent pictures from Liepaja today, but he no longer accepts, something has to be deleted. Then I started to learn slowly and now I don’t want to go back to the buttons. You have to keep up with the times. I’m for it. What has been will never be again. I have to keep up with the times, and that’s how my life came about, ”says Ilgvars Knipšis.
Listen to the full interview in the attached audio recording.
Photo: From a private archive
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Photo: From a private archive
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Photo: From a private archive
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