Researcher, writer, and historian Myra Huyck Manfrina is a vital force at the Lompoc Historical Society, still sharp and active at the age of ninety-five. We had a delightful conversation about the past and present.
Born in Oklahoma in 1929, long-time Lompoc resident Jessie Fabing Koenig shares her thoughts here on loss and change, the pleasures of gardening, poetry, and tea, and raising ten children on her own.
In this 2003 interview, Ray Valdez talked about the hard life he knew as a migrant worker and the kind of poverty and struggle that might have defeated a lesser spirit. While his grandkids were students at Dunn, he helped out with everything from camping trips to archeological digs, and on Friday afternoons he worked in the garden on campus. He became Grandpa Ray to all of us, and his kindness, resilience, and optimism are inspiring.
The Living Stories Collective is pleased to be able to share audio excerpts from a 1998 conversation with Jane Hollister Wheelwright and Joe Hollister, both then in their nineties and looking back on their extraordinary lives with humor and candor.
Kathryn Holcomb Dole was born into a pioneering family and had a pioneering way of living life. Married to the artist William Dole, Kate energetically managed his career and finances as well as their travel and social life while raising seven children. For nearly a decade in the 1950s and 1960s, the family lived in the old Hollister ranch house, filling it with life and laughter. She came back to visit in 1999 and shared memories from those wonderful years.
From the Hollister Ranch to the world and the cosmos, Lincoln Hollister's life has been one of discovery and exploration. In this interview he speaks enthusiastically about his work as a geologist and reminisces with love and insight about his roots.
A natural builder and a teacher of natural building techniques, Betty Seaman shares her ideas with clarity and enthusiasm. She spoke to us about her sense of place, her love of family, getting off the treadmill of always needing more, and the amazing network of natural builders of which she is a part. “There’s just so much good stuff going on out there,” she told us. “But it's not the sort of thing you'll see on television.”
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CategoriesSense of Place, Family and Relationships, Sources of Strength, Wisdom and Advice, Creativity and Art
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Our students interviewed J.J. Hollister in 1997 when he and his wife Barbara were living in the old adobe at Arroyo Hondo. He talked about the history of the area, his family, and his childhood years at the Ranch. “In your daily routine you were one with nature and one with places where few people were.”
The 6th grade students of Vista de las Cruces School visited the Casa at Rancho San Julian in 1997 to interview rancher Dibblee Poett, who was then 90 years old.
In this 1998 visit with the students of Vista de las Cruces, Cresensio Lopez spoke proudly of his Chumash heritage, which he believed was best expressed with kindness and generosity toward people and respect for the land. "We don't live alone on this earth," he told us. "We share."
A beloved musician, singer, and songwriter also respected for his activism and philanthropy, Jackson Browne sat down for an informal conversation with our students on a rainy day in 2002. The result is one of the most authentic, revealing, and touching interviews he has ever done.
Born on a farm in Colorado in 1913, Evelyn Mason moved to California with her husband in 1941 to work at Douglas Aircraft. "I was Rosie the Riveter," she told us. She made her contribution to the war effort, happy to be of service, then humbly stepped aside when the soldiers returned. "Some boy could have my job."
"I've tried to be a cowboy," Jake Copass told us, "and I've tried to be a good one." A wrangler for many years at the Alisal Guest Ranch in Solvang, he also made quite a name for himself as a cowboy poet. Our Dunn Middle School students interviewed Jake in the year 2000. He had the grace and integrity of a man doing the work he felt was right for him.
A therapist, writer, and pilgrim of sorts, Doyle Hollister reflects in this interview on his deep connection to the land that is the Hollister Ranch, the lessons he has learned in his personal journey, and the need we all have for wilderness in our lives.
Bill Reynolds is a man who has reinvented himself many times, but through all of his endeavors there runs a creative spirit, a sense of authenticity, and a profound appreciation for the iconic cowboy culture and heritage of the American West.
Property and maintenance chief at the Hollister Ranch and a congenial presence around here for nearly forty years, Scott McIntyre sat down with us a few weeks before retiring and shared his reminiscences and thoughts about tending the land, the changes he's seen and the things that make him hopeful, and the unceasing wonder of being here.
Michael Giorgi was born on July 7, 1968 and began his childhood at his family's ranch at Nojoqui Falls, Gaviota. In all of his wanderings, he has always found solace in nature and growing things. Today he works as a gardener and landscaper and lives on the beautiful land he knew as a boy. Here he shares his insights about the magic of the world, finding balance, and nurturing life.
An anthropologist with deep roots in the central coast region of California, Larry Spanne probably knows this part of the country as well as anyone. He worked for many years at Vandenberg Air Force Base, where his role was to help protect, interpret, and preserve cultural resources. In this interview he talks of boyhood memories, local history, archaeology, and making peace with the past.
A poet, artist, therapist, and educator, Dorothy Jardin has touched many lives. She was a well loved teacher at Dunn Middle and Upper Schools in Los Olivos, and is now a counselor and group facilitator. She has published a book of poems called Light's River and is preparing for a local exhibit of her paintings. Graceful as a dancer and creative to her bones, Dorothy has never stopped learning and exploring. Everything inspires her, and she in turn inspires.
Recalling projects requiring jigsaws in the hands of grade schoolers, the discovery of darkroom magic, the hikes where we girls surmounted the giant sandstone rocks using the ropes the boys in our very own class had carried and secured for our safe climb, camping trips, hot air balloon flights, poetry of place names and articles published in a real grown-ups' newspaper, I wondered what experiences shaped a teacher who revered adventure, nature, the finer points of language and even magic. And what had caused him to successfully ignite in his students the desire to do the same? Bruce gives us a glimpse of the exceptional characters who raised him, 'law breaking' adventure, wild backpacking trips and the insatiable curiosity that made him the exceptional teacher I know him to be.
Please accept this invitation from his student of nearly 30 years ago and pull up a seat near the dancing campfire flames to listen to the warm, earthen voice of a master teacher and storyteller weave the tales of his own creation.