For a Personalized Autographed copy of “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME” or “WOODEN & ME” mail a check for $25 to:

Woody Woodburn

400 Roosevelt Court

Ventura, CA 93003

* * *

Some Books that Knocked Me Out in 2017

My paternal grandfather, Augustus – called Auggie by all – was an executive in the publishing industry for Field Enterprises. Among other tomes, he helped produce the World Book Encyclopedia.

I have no memories of Grandpa Auggie for he died when I was very young. I do, however, have a few letters he wrote my mother. He was a very fine writer and eloquent poet.

I like to think I inherited some of Auggie’s love for the written word and talent with it.

Without question, some tangible things were passed down. Naturally, a complete set of World Book Encyclopedia was always on the bookshelves of my youth. Oh my, how many school reports I used those A-through-Z volumes for in the pre-Internet age!

Countless other books that Auggie brought home from work – the way, I suppose, a butcher brings home cuts of meat – lined our family bookcases. Twain and Shakespeare, not surprisingly, but also glossy children’s picture books and travel volumes from around the globe. Many of them were special-edition, leather-bound volumes.

Up in flames these heirloom books went when the Thomas Fire burned down my boyhood home, the home my father had lived in for 44 years and still did. Auggie’s books filled the study, a lovely room with ten-foot-high, ceiling-to-floor bookcases on two walls; shelves that took Pop and me two weekends to repaint one long-ago summer.

The Thomas Fire also seemed to consume something else, something less important – my eighth annual column recommending some favorites from my book-a-week reading list during the year. However, because so many requests came in, belatedly here goes.

“Hemingway in Love: His Own Story” by A.E. Hotchner. In addition to Hemingway’s two great romantic loves, this is memoir is about Papa’s friendship with the author.

Plays aren’t usually as “readable” as novels, but “The Moon is Down” by John Steinbeck proves an exception.

“Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America” by Michael Eric Dyson is compelling and insightful from start to finish.

“Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life” by William Finnegan. One need not be a surfer to be captivated by this Pulitzer Prize-winning storytelling.

Another Pulitzer Prize honoree, “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead, is one of the most emotionally powerful novels I have read, ever.

“Lincoln at the Bardo: A Novel” by George Saunders. Readers will either love or loathe this unique offering – I, the former, and greatly.

“Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit” by Michael Finkel. A nearly unbelievable true story, well told.

I found the new tome “Leonardo da Vinci” by Walter Isaacson underwhelming because it overwhelmed me with too much redundancy and made me wish the author had taken the time to pare its 624 pages in half. David McCullough, meanwhile, tells “The Wright Brothers” story marvelously and fully in 336 pages. I finished rereading this text while watching – and marveling at what Orville and Wilburn might think – jet airlines takeoff and land at LAX.

“We Stood Upon Stars: Finding God in Lost Places” by Venturan Roger Thompson, who weaves together a tapestry of fatherhood and travel, religion and also humor.

“The Journal Entries of an Addict” by Camarillo’s Stephen Michael Jester, II, is a collection of 365 haiku poems. I must add the disclosure that I am honored to be mentioned on the dedication page as “friend, mentor and fellow author.”

“Max Perkins Editor of Genius” by A. Scott Berg. Perkins was the literary agent of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe, among others, and thus this book segues nicely to the final pages I read in 2017, “My Salinger Year” by Joanna Rakoff.

This memoir about Rankoff’s experiences as an editorial assistant to the woman who represented the reclusive J.D. Salinger was all the more enjoyable for me because it takes place in the old-school publishing world Grandpa Auggie inhabited, with typewriters and Dictaphones, message couriers and martini lunch meetings.

To paraphrase Holden Caulfield in Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye,” these are some of the books that knocked me out last year.

* * *

Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Check out my memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and my essay collection “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” …

• Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com
• Unsigned paperbacks or Kindle ebook can be purchased here at Amazon

For a Personalized Autographed copy of “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME” or “WOODEN & ME” mail a check for $25 to:

Woody Woodburn

400 Roosevelt Court

Ventura, CA 93003

* * *

Mailbag is Filled With Reasons to Smile

As a rule, a columnist needs the hide of an alligator but happily over the past few weeks all the reader emails I have received have given me a toothy grin.

I hope a sampling will likewise brighten your day . . .

*

Rick Throckmorton agreed with my column about firefighters being true heroes:

“They are the unsung who go about their work without much notice or, unfortunately, admiration. Unnoticed, that is, until the flames are licking at the back door!

“I’ve been in the helicopter business for many, many years and have fought my share of fires. But time has caught up with me and I now watch from a distance and marvel at these guys – the next generation to replace us old ’Nam Vets.

“Fire is very similar to combat, except hopefully no one is shooting at you. The dangers exist on every flight from high winds and turbulence, low visibility in the smoke and flames, and even the possibility of running into the unseen drone – yet, these guys still go out and do battle with the Enemy: Fire and Flames.”

*

Bob Nieto also praised firefighters:

“As a 45.5-year law enforcement officer (retired), I can mirror your thoughts and words regarding these true heroes. On many occasions, I have been alongside and worked with these courageous men and women.

“Firefighters and police are made like all others, who feel, hurt, cry, love and morn losses of life and work for the people of their community and state. They do it with honor and integrity.”

*

Linda Calderon shared an original brief poem: “Sunrise: God peeling back night – revealing day’s bloom, petal by petal.”

*

My friend John Watts, meanwhile, shared a story that his own friend, Peter, shared with him.

Stealing baby Jesus from the life-sized crèche had become an unwelcomed holiday tradition at the church Peter served as minister.

One year, however, instead of a theft there was a small gift left beside the infant with a hand-written label that read: “Happy Brithday, Jesus.”  Birthday was misspelled.

Curiosity got the best of Peter and he opened the red wrapping paper. Inside an old Shake ‘n Bake pork seasoning box was 33 cents – and a note on lined school paper reading:

“Dear Jesus, Happy Brithday. Here’s some small change for you to feed someone who is hungry. I give myself to be kind to others as you were kind to other people on earth. Love, Maria.”

Peter knew right away who Maria was for she lived on the church campus in the house it operated for people with chronic mental illness. She was, Peter recalls, “a tender soul” with a “big heart” who was “plagued by schizophrenia.”

“For 25 years now, I’ve kept that box and note and the change inside,” Peter says. “It sits in my desk drawer as a sacred relic of sorts, something I’m unwilling to part with. It may have been intended for Jesus, but it keeps on giving a beautiful reminder to me: Love is the best thing I have to give away.”

*

Speaking of love and giving, the final tally announced here previously for this year’s Woody’s Holiday Ball Drive needs updating after a number of last-minute donations rolled in, including: Stacy DeLeon, and Sheila and Tom McCollum, with ten basketballs between them; and Jim Cowan with 10 more “in honor of the firefighters and policemen that saved so many homes from being lost!”

A reader, who wished to remain anonymous, also donated 10 basketballs after finally returning to his home following a long evacuation due to the Thomas Fire. He noted:

“I’m just trying to contribute to something that is so worthwhile. I think, in the back of my mind somewhere, is the hope that if he had known about even the truly small effort I’ve made to your Ball Drive, Coach John Wooden would have said something like, ‘Good job!’”

I’m confident Coach would have indeed praised everyone who contributed to this year’s drive that totaled 358 balls for kids in need.

* * *

Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Check out my memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and my essay collection “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” …

• Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com
• Unsigned paperbacks or Kindle ebook can be purchased here at Amazon

For a Personalized Autographed copy of “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME” or “WOODEN & ME” mail a check for $25 to:

Woody Woodburn

400 Roosevelt Court

Ventura, CA 93003

* * *

Words From the Wise (and From Me, Too)

In hopes of self-improvement, I keep a small moleskin notebook in my pocket and jot down words of wisdom I read and hear. On occasion, I write down my own thoughts, egocentric as that may be.

As we get ready to close the book on 2017 and open the front cover on the unwritten story of 2018, here are some entries from my pages this past year . . .

*

“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you’ll look back and realize they were big things.” – Kurt Vonnegut

*

Similarly, from Maya Angelou: “This is a wonderful day – I have never seen this one before.”

*

“To play without passion is inexcusable.” – Beethoven

*

“If you embrace Mondays with passion and determination, instead of dragging your heels with dread, the wind will be at your back the rest of the week.” – Yours truly

*

“Running into a headwind makes one appreciate a tail breeze.” – Me, again

*

“Where there is love, nothing is too much trouble and there is always time.” – Abdul Baha

*

Similarly, from the poet Rumi: “When you do things from your soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”

*

“If you don’t make an effort to help others less fortunate than you are, then you’re just wasting your time on Earth.” – Wayne Bryan, a dear mentor of mine

*

“Don’t tell me about your dreams of a castle, show me the stones you laid today.” – Wayne Bryan, again

*

“A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” – E.B. White

(This applies to any endeavor, not just writing.)

*

Similarly, from John Steinbeck: “When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another. One day’s work is all I can permit myself to contemplate.”

*

“You can’t achieve uphill hopes with downhill effort.” – Yours Truly

*

“Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.” – Dale Carnegie

*

“Remember to leave room for the unexpected and the little things; lots of happiness rests under unturned stones.” – Greg Woodburn, my wise son

*

“In order to fully embrace all the bright potential of the future, we must loosen our grip on the past.” – Dallas Woodburn, my wise daughter

*

“Fortune befriends the bold.” – Emily Dickinson

*

“A good friend surprises with a nice deed; a rare friend can do no deed so great as to truly surprise.” – Yours truly

*

“To the maxim, ‘The more you give, the more you receive’ I would add this caveat: ‘unless your motivation for giving is to receive.” – Me, again

*

“I would rather be a rivet that holds things together than a chisel that cuts them apart.” – Me, once more

*

“Love people, use things. The opposite doesn’t work.” – author Joshua Fields Millburn

*

“Yes, there is joy in anticipation. There is joy in the savoring. But there is also joy in the telling, the retelling, and the remembering.” – Dallas, again

*

“Listen with the intent to understand, not to respond.” – Greg, again

*

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” – A. A. Milne (Winnie The Pooh)

*

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent van Gogh

*

“Don’t waste your years by wasting your hours.” – Me, again

*

In closing, as 2018 arrives, keep in mind these words from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.”

Or, as Emerson’s friend Henry David Thoreau advised – “Simplify, simplify” – emulate John Wooden’s simplified maxim: “Make each day your masterpiece.”

* * *

Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Check out my memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and my essay collection “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” …

• Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com
• Unsigned paperbacks or Kindle ebook can be purchased here at Amazon

For a Personalized Autographed copy of “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME” or “WOODEN & ME” mail a check for $25 to:

Woody Woodburn

400 Roosevelt Court

Ventura, CA 93003

* * *

Clearing Out Leftovers From the Email In-Box

Because I believe this space belongs to my readers and I am merely its steward, and also because playing hooky from writing this week sounded good, today I turn the forum over to some email responses to recent columns.

*

Barbara shared her similar experience arriving late at the airport for a 4:30 p.m. flight:

“It is now 4:14 and I see a line snaking through the ropes to get where you go through the scanners. I know I cannot wait in line. So this old lady goes around the line to the man checking people through. I show my boarding pass & I.D., saying my plane leaves in 10 minutes. He looks at me & stamps me through.

“Then I had to walk/run to gate 17 at the end – just made it. Pays to have boarding pass the day before.”

*

Russell took exception to my column about the FDR Presidential Library & Museum’s exhibit “Images of Internment: The Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II” and my condemnation over the incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese descent – including approximately 80,000 American citizens:

“It might be great for you to feel like the liberal white guy that reviews history after 75 years and has the answers. Had we lost, you and your son may not have had those field trips. Get some perspective. You are a big reason our Country is in trouble.”

*

Linda, however, had a different viewpoint:

“Your column on internment injustice was a great reminder and something we should never forget, nor repeat.”

*

Bob, however, disagreed with Linda and me:

“During the 1930’s my Illinois grandfather would take wagons of onions to the Chicago produce markets and find no buyers. He returned to the family farm and plowed them under. My uncles with small farms, just 50 miles south of Chicago, didn’t get electricity and indoor plumbing until the early 1950’s.

“Yet the 120,000 internees in the early 1940’s had three meals a day and a warm bed at night while much of rural America was just scraping by.

“Further, it has been said that interring 120,000 was unnecessary as no acts of sabotage took place. The more logical statement should be no acts of sabotage took place because 120,000 were interred.

“Last add. A number of Japanese-Americans served with distinction in the European theatre during World War II but were prohibited from serving in the Pacific theater. Betcha a lot of our soldiers in the steaming jungles of the South Pacific would have loved to have had that same restriction.”

*

I am tempted to rebut Bob – warm beds? three meals a day? correlation implying causation? – but Kenzo does so with far more authority:

“Thanks for your column about the Japanese-American internment caused by Executive Order 9066.

“I was of those who spent over three years behind a barbed wire fence in Northern California, guarded by the army. I was fingerprinted and my mug shot was taken when I was twelve.

“And I was to be stripped of my citizenship. Fortunately, that wasn’t done and I was able to get a secret clearance when in Korea in 1953, when I was in the MIS attached to the 2nd Division.

“The worst part is when I was called for jury duty here in Ventura County and asked by the judge if I was ever detained by any police agency: federal, state or local – and I always answered in the positive.

“Asked how long, and the answer was three-plus years and that I was never charged with any crime.

“Asked why was I detained, and the answer was that I was possibly a threat to the security of the U.S. and that I was nine years old when detained.”

*

Lastly, Gary Clevenger, my classmate in middle school and high school, responded to my “Holiday Ball Drive” column about Brent Muth and his late friend, Mike Sandoval:

“Inspiring article, Woody. I had 10 basketballs sent. Have a Merry Christmas.”

Thanks to Gary’s generosity, an additional 10 kids certainly will.

* * *

Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Check out my memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and my essay collection “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” …

• Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com
• Unsigned paperbacks or Kindle ebook can be purchased here at Amazon