Jesse Perez is detailing a Toyota Sienna minivan at the Enterprise car rental agency in West Sedona when this reporter and photographer Michele Bradley Pacheco pounce on him for the weekly @Random column.

Perez was born in Holtville, Calif., in the searing desert near Yuma, living there for two years before moving with his parents to San Diego where he attended John J. Montgomery Elementary and Castle Park Junior High.

The oldest of four children, Perez had 13 aunts and two uncles on his mother’s side and 14 uncles and two aunts on his father’s side.

That surplus of relatives led to dozens of cousins, making family reunions huge festive affairs requiring at a minimum a large hall or park where tamales, tortillas, rice and beans were served to the adults and hot dogs and hamburgers were grilled for the younger modern generation.

Before eating, the whole gang took part in games, having more than enough people for multiple teams playing baseball, competing in horseshoe tournaments, running gunnysack races and seeing who could win the egg-tossing contests.

When Perez got to high school, he discovered he was pretty fast, running the 100, 180 and the 440 relay for Chula Vista High which took All Metro thanks to his fleetness of foot.

He wasn’t just fast on his feet, he could be a fast talker too when he needed to be.

One day near the track he saw a cute girl taking gym class and told her she looked like someone he knew, asking for her number.

It turned out to be the beginning of a 10-year courtship with Carol Jean or CJ as some people call her.

After graduation, he went on to San Diego Junior College taking management courses and earning a certificate in arc welding and heliarc welding.

In pursuit of a good-paying job, he applied at General Dynamics where he was hired to work on the wiring for the Stinger surface-to-air missile.

Then it was on to Fruehoef and Freightliner where he worked for 10 years at each company before being rehired by General Dynamics in Pomona.

California’s aerospace boom and bust economy finally got to him so he applied to a mortuary, helping with flowers, driving the hearse, and helping people who came for visitations and viewings.

In the meantime, he and CJ, as she’s called, got married in 1967, celebrating 42 years of marriage this year.

Two years earlier, they’d had all they could take of California, fed up with the traffic and smog.

“We said, ‘Let’s get out of here,’” Perez remembered. “We looked at Chandler where CJ’s cousin lives but it was just as bad so when someone else said to try Cottonwood, we did.”

Soon thereafter, they found a home on half an acre where the couple grows tomatoes, lettuces, bell peppers, peaches, apples and nectarines for their table.

“The place was a mess when we got it,” Perez said. “It took us a year to clean it up, but my wife has a green thumb and now people stop and say ‘what wonders you’ve done with this place.’”

Although he said the couple wasn’t blessed with children, they love animals, sharing their property with four dogs and four cats adopted from various shelters and the annual Pet-a-Palooza.

They also belong to the Verde Valley Baptist Church where he lends his tenor and she her soprano voice to the choir, listening to gospel music on Radio Shine 90.1 between Sundays.

Semiretired, Perez still works several days a week at Enterprise where he picks up and delivers customers and also commands an arsenal of tools to combat red rock dust and mud deposited by drivers and passengers.

Bug remover, glass cleaner, vacuums and odor bombs are put to good use as he returns each vehicle to good-as-new condition in between rentals.

“This is a good company — the customer comes first,” Perez said. “I take pride in my work for them.”

When he’s not on the job, he and CJ take day trips, exploring different corners of Arizona from the Grand Canyon south to Tucson.

Although he was reluctant at first to leave his family behind in California, he’s a convert now.

“I love Arizona,” Perez said. “I love the slower pace, the mountains, the people, our nature trips, all of God’s creations here.”

Susan Johnson can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 129, or e-mail sjohnson@larsonnewspapers.com