Yes, Hatch is a cool dude. Just the nicest, sharpest, spunkiest, friendliest, most capable man you'd ever want to know. Age really has nothing to do with all that, other than to provide him with a vast array of stories to pepper any conversation. Like when he used to go hunting for jack rabbits in the "country" of Castro Valley and Hayward, back before all the freeways and houses and BART. He even hunted bear in Alaska until the time he saw another hunter kill a mama bear with cubs and it broke his heart, so he hung up his shotgun.

"That got me right here," he said, touching his chest.

He traveled for years as a merchant marine, working on cargo ships all over the world. He taught himself Spanish when he was in Mexico City. He survived an apartment fire in 1971 in West Oakland, though he lost a couple of fingers dangling from a burning window. He worked as a blacksmith, an auto mechanic and a taxi driver, and even drove Jimmy Carter to the Oakland airport one time.