Local Warmth Not Limited To Weather
“The people here are so friendly,” said a buddy visiting from Los Angeles last Sunday after dropping off a carload of teenagers at the Warped Tour at the Ventura Fairgrounds.
He couldn’t believe how polite our drivers are, patiently waiting their turns at four-way stops and freely allowing lane changes. He marveled over how many smiles and hellos he and his wife were greeted with on the promenade.
I readily agreed, a dozen examples of local warmness flashing to mind, yet I also thought this: Perhaps we too often take our collective sunniness for granted.
For instance, earlier that day an encounter at Trader Joe’s gave me delight. To begin, a mother accompanied by three teenagers who obviously wanted to be anywhere else on a summer vacation day, completed her purchase when one of her entourage remembered something.
“Oh, yeah, I ate a granola bar,” he sheepishly confessed, pulling an empty wrapper out of his pocket for the cashier to scan while the mom opened her purse a second time.
“And summer is just beginning,” the mom said in mock exasperation to the middle-aged woman in line behind her.
Amused rather than annoyed by the holdup, the second woman smiled and replied: “Oh, I miss it. Mine are grown. Enjoy it because before you know it you are going to miss everything about them.”
Now the second mother was at the checkout and her shopping trip was unexpectedly delayed again, this time by a woman perhaps two decades her senior who interrupted to ask the cashier where she could find a specific skin lotion.
The cashier, a young man in his 20s, politely said he didn’t know if TJ’s carried it and called for assistance. The older woman seemed confused and instead of waiting turned and took off on her own search. In doing so her purse knocked down part of a product display, the boxes tumbling like Jenga pieces. She seemed oblivious to the mess she created.
Before the cashier could register irritation, the middle-aged woman customer made him laugh by looking towards the mom and three teens leaving the store and saying: “There goes my past…
“And” – tilting her head at the older woman walking away to Aisle 3 – “there’s my future.”
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Thinking about the futures of kids she does not even know, a Ventura woman named Lari – after reading a story earlier this week in my favorite newspaper about a local summer writing camp – generously funded, on her own accord, scholarships for two deserving underprivileged youth.
Talk about warmth that has nothing to do with our weather.
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Sometimes strangers in the past become kind friends in the present.
Lisa and Fran and some tall guy.
A handful of years ago, my then-teenage son requested birthday dinner at a Mexican restaurant we had never before been at the Ventura Harbor. Food, drink and service were terrific, but most memorable was that as we were leaving our waitress – Francelia – privately told my daughter, “Your grandfather is such a sweetheart.”
I laughed when this was relayed to me because “sweetheart” is not among the first adjectives that come to my mind regarding my dad.
Margarita Villa became one of our favorites and Fran quickly went from waitress to friend. We learned about her family and her passion for literature. We celebrated when she was accepted to Cal State University Channel Islands to pursue her delayed-by-being-a-working-mom dream of becoming a family therapist.
After our two kids left home, Fran has kept up with their studies and travels and lives. She lights up when they visit and we need a table for four again. When my memoir about my friendship with John Wooden came out, I received no kinder letter than from Fran.
On a recent “Date Night” my wife and I were not seated in Fran’s area, but she took our table anyway which was no surprise.
What happened at meal’s end, however, was a surprise: Fran refused to bring the check, insisting on buying us dinner while quoting Coach Wooden’s maxim: “You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone else.”
Talk about a friendly sweetheart.
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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.
Check out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”
- Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com
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