Editor’s Note

DISCOVER OJAI MONTHLY

Bret Bradigan

CHEMO-THERAPY, OJAI STYLE

"A great many people think that they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices," — William James

It's interesting to hear the people who accuse others of being divisive and polarizing, especially around election time. As is well-known among therapists, every accusation is a confession. Consider the sources. Though we are guaranteed to have a lot of new faces occupying city council and school board seats, we do not seem to have the leadership yet to bring us together, either as a nation or as a city.

It wasn't always this way. Back in the day, there was one city cop (when the city had its own police force) named Anselmo "Chemo" Quijada, (pronounced Chummo) who was a one-man gang task force. He knew everyone and he was everywhere, from 1955 until his retirement in 1980. I loved hearing the old-timers talk about Chemo, how he could instantly size up a wayward youth to determine if they were a good kid doing a bad thing, or a bad kid doing bad things. He didn't believe in one-size-fits-all policing. I've written about him before, at a time that feels very similar to now. Sometimes we could all use some reminders that the past is never really past.

Vince France, who was Ojai's police chief in the 1970s and who served for decades on the school board, said "He kept a lot of guys out of trouble by handling things personally. I probably wouldn't have been a police officer except for the fact that Chemo took a personal interest in me. He treated me almost like a son. I could easily have gone the other way." France would speak fondly of his days as the town's rowdy, drinking and instigating various forms of adolescent mayhem. "He would pick me up in a squad car and ride me around until I sobered up, then take me home."

I remember another Chemo story about kids smoking marijuana in the Matilija Junior High School parking lot in the late 1970s. A source said "Quijada made us discard the baggie, then ordered (us) the kids to tell our parents we’d been smoking pot, and said he would call our parents later to make sure his orders had been followed. He did and we had." Names have been withheld to protect the guilty.

Keith Nightingale, another Ojai youth who Chemo took under his wing, said, “I’m afraid Ojai is so large and economically segregated that a ‘Chemo’-type person could not work the magic now that he did then … the best we can hope for is that we find several Chummos working their constituency, recognizing that if one person can be made better, we are all better.”

Nightingale remembers that Quijada provided for Ojai boys a productive outlet for their aggression. “He was acutely aware that Ojai had nothing much for boys, so he directed a boys’ athletic club where Ojai Coffee Roasting is now." Founded by Chief J.D. Alcorn, "it got a pretty big clientele and he staged fights Friday night and Saturday afternoon between boys so they would stay positively engaged.”

A quiet beat cop who rarely drew attention to himself, nearly 1,000 people turned out for a benefit for Quijada when he was suffering from the cancer that claimed his life in 1985. “It was the damnedest thing you ever saw,” said France. “All these politicians and movers and shakers right next to the crooks that Chemo had arrested. I think we raised more than $20,000.”

We are all role models, whether we like it or not. It is good for us in Ojai to remember we have such a rich legacy of role models on which to pattern ourselves. For Ojai to live up to its promise, we have to carry a little of Chemo Quijada’s spirit within each of us.

Ladd & Kelsey, Architects - The Von Hagen Residence, 1975

22035 Saddle Peak Road, Topanga, CA 90290

Beyond the steel gated entry, a long private drive gracefully ascends through park-like grounds to a broad plateau atop the mountain summit. Like the adobes at Acoma pueblo, living and working spaces hug the ground, and flow naturally across the landscape. From this 13 acre site, the vistas can honestly be characterized as nothing less than exhilarating. From above Malibu, views sweep over the Santa Monica Bay, Catalina, Palos Verdes, Long Beach and downtown LA, and continue to the San Fernando Valley, across the Simi Hills and far beyond to the San Bernardino mountains.

The residence incorporates 4 bedroom suites, a kitchen, butler’s pantry, living room, dining room and den. Every room has views and direct access to the outside via tall glass sliding doors, except the living room which adjoins the dining room that opens to the ocean view and the atrium and pool opposite. The master bedroom suite includes a fireplace, luxurious large bath, dressing room, 2 cedar walk-in closets and a kitchenette. One suite has its own living room with kitchenette. The 4-car carport is attached. Across from the residence is a 3,300 sf. accessory building/showroom/ garage that lends itself to multiple uses. It includes a workshop, kitchenette, laundry, 2 baths and ample storage space.

Christina Hildebrand 310.890.3313 $11,995,000

Exclusively Representing

310.275.2222

William Turnbull Jr., FAIA - The Tatum Beach House, 1972

12 Potbelly Beach Road, Aptos, CA 95003

First Offering: Of the many reasons this ingenious structure won Architectural Record’s Record House of the Year, perhaps the most important in terms of its gifts to living is its consciously elemental nature. The honesty of simple raw construction materials, now weathered like driftwood, and its glassy openness, enhance the occupant’s direct connection to the powerful natural forces and elements of the beach environment. To quote Donlyn Lyndon in Buildings in the Landscape: “Bill’s approach to the landscape was not one of emulation, but of cultivation. The land, the family, the acts of building, the joys of inhabiting, all merged in Bill’s mind into homes for the imagination. They are buildings that honor human presence in the land.”

4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1,830 s.f., .29 acres $6,000,000

tatumbeachhouse.com

Crosby Doe 310.428.6755 Ilana Gafni 310.779.7497