EDITOR’S NOTE | By Bret Bradigan

Ojai Youth Are Making Us Proud

The Ojai Education Foundation breakfast has come and again, but it’s never too late to donate to a good cause. Go to OjaiEd.org for more info.

My first experience with the transformative power of food simply yet well prepared took place when I was about 4, and my little sister was about 3. My grandmother, a redoubtable woman with great maternal warmth yet firm boundaries, had prepared turnips for us, one each.

Just a plain turnip on a plate. My sister started crying. I was busy trying to figure out how to eat it. But I could sense that it wasn’t going to be good. What was she thinking?

Then my dad, halfway through his mail route where he’d come in to grab a bite before finishing his route, came to the rescue. He put a generous dollop of butter on those turnips, with a little salt and pepper and a splash of cream, then mashed it down into a more palatable texture. It was delicious.

My grandmother was an amazing woman, bright and engaged, always coming up with interesting insights and reflections. Born just as the final decade of the 19th century began, in a more enlightened age she could have been a doctor or lawyer, a business tycoon or even held a high elected office.

She raised nine children — six boys and three girls — through the darkest days of the Great Depression, with her tenacity and fierce mothering instincts. Those aunts and uncles all grew up to be heroes of mine – soldiers, teachers, farmers and even a school superintendent. Not bad for someone one generation removed from the frontier.

But she was lost in the kitchen. That much was clear. Our family loved to get together nearly every Sunday at Grandma’s, dozens of cousins running amok, where she’d make a roast (usually burnt to a crisp), cherry pie (plenty of pits) or wild game (otherwise delicious duck or pheasant, but you were pretty likely to crack a molar on a shotgun pellet).

In all other regards — her fierce pride in her family, the civic virtues she instilled in all of us — she reminded me of Cornelia, the Roman noblewoman of the 2nd Century B.C. who was a leading example of a Roman citizen. When her friends were remarking on each other’s collection of jewels, they asked her, “And where are your jewels, dear Cornelia?” As if on cue, her two sons Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus walked in, the great reformers who have been regarded as the “Roman Kennedys.” She said, “Those are my jewels.”

Mildred Van Vlack Bradigan was every bit as proud of her children as Cornelia. With good reason.

So Ojai can be just as proud of its own children. One example is Leif Dautch, a product of another farm family, his father is Earthtrine Farms’ B.D. Dautch. Leif is very much a local product, having graduated from Oak Grove School and attended law school at Yale and Harvard, he is now running for District Attorney of San Francisco, Sen. Kamala Harris’ old job.

For a great many more examples, you should have come to the Ojai Education Foundation’s annual Breakfast, where we got to see where their tens of thousands of dollars in grant money was put to directly to use in our classrooms. It took place this past Thursday, Oct. 11. If you are looking for a way to support our local schools in a very direct way, check them out online at OjaiEd.org or call 805-633-0775.