Column: Two Beach Stories

by Woody

 Woody’s acclaimed memoir

WOODEN & ME is available HERE at Amazon

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A Day at the Beach, Two Experiences

A day at the beach isn’t always a proverbial day at the beach.

Tuesday morning past, a friend of mine was doing just about his favorite thing in the world – surfing. He parked his truck up top at Emma Wood State Beach and went to commune with waves, nature and god.

1beachHis glorious day took a 180-degree pivot when he returned to find his wallet and cell phone stolen.

Sometimes, however, a day that’s gone bad can turn out extraordinarily good.

This same Tuesday, Steve Cook and his wife, Carol, were similarly enjoying our coastal paradise. After buying new sandals at Ventura Surf Shop, they pedaled their bikes back to the beach. Before crossing over from the street to the Promenade, Steve looked back and saw a truck approaching and wisely waited.

Unfortunately, Steve also veered slightly and recounts: “I overcorrected and jammed my front wheel and went down hard.”

Fortunately, his left shoulder absorbed the initial impact rather than his right shoulder that has an artificial joint. He proceeded to bounce and tumble, his back, surgically repaired shoulder, and head also receiving introductions to the pavement.

The driver of the truck stopped and ran over to see if Steve, now sprawled on the road, was okay. Normally, this would be the ending highlight of the story.

But something even better, and more unexpected, happened next.

Two “boys” – actually young men in their very early 20s – who witnessed the crash also raced over to Steve’s aid. Together, the three Good Samaritans – Steven Fragiacamo, who was driving the truck; and friends Christopher Alvarez and Graham McAlpine – helped Steve to his feet and moved the bicycle out of the road.

“Graham and Christopher were all over me, making sure I was okay with no serious injuries,” Steve retells. “I was bleeding like a stuck pig on my shin and Steven gave me lint free cloth he had in his truck, to stem the bleeding. Graham was making sure that I had no serious head injury.”

Graham, a Ventura native and now a junior at UC-Santa Barbara, is a good person to have by your injured side as he is a veteran beach lifeguard.

In addition to being battered and bruised, Steve lost his prescription blended-lens sunglasses in the fall.

“We were all looking for them and Carol wondered if they had gone down the adjacent storm drain,” Steve explains.

The opening was too small to get a good look, so Steven had the idea to remove the manhole cover. And that’s what the young trio did. Bingo! The glasses were plopped in a puddle of muck down at the bottom.

In sight, but out of reach. So Graham jumped into action, literally. He hopped down into the hole, nimbly landing on the one dry spot, and retrieved the expensive sunglasses.

“The most impressive part of the story to me – besides the boys obvious concern for my welfare – was the rescue of my glasses from the storm drain,” Steve emphasizes. “Teamwork by all three guys and no trepidation about going down into the sewer.”

Actually, perhaps the most impressive thing is that if you know any of these young men – or their parents – you are not in the least bit surprised by how they responded.

“So these young men stopped to help an old man in a time of trouble with kindness and extra effort,” says Steve, who served in the Peace Corps in Jamaica four decades ago before embarking on a career as a PE teacher. Today he is a full-time artist whose wonderful paintings of the beach, ocean and nature grace walls across the U.S. as well as in Europe and Asia.

“We were both so impressed and blown away with all three boys,” Steve further praises.

But here is the most important thing Steve has to say about his happy mishap, the take-away we should all take to heart: “Don’t ever let anybody tell you that today’s young people are not the hope and future of us all. These three young men were the best and a credit to their parents.”

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

Wooden-&-Me-cover-mock-upCheck 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”