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J.J.'s Marina
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by
Edward L. McClendon
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| About
Our Book: |
J.J.’s Marina is a docking of the Love Boat at Gilligan’s Island, which is run by The Honeymooners. It’s somewhat like M*A*S*H. on a boat. The episodes are heavily drawn from actual boating and fishing episodes experienced or heard about by the writer, covering many years of boating. The book’s focus is on realistic story lines, written for sophisticated viewers in a humorous context.
The setting is the beautiful Delta area, which is bounded by Interstate 5, from Sacramento to Stockton, the San Joaquin River running from Stockton to the west, and the Sacramento River from Sacramento to the west. The roughly triangular area within the Delta is composed of dozens of islands, surrounded by sloughs and fed by numerous rivers. The lush beauty of the area, the book’s several interlocking plots, and the continuity of a cast of interesting characters provides a relaxing read with many chuckles.
The focus is on two long-time friends, Jerry and Dave, and their wives, who have boated together widely and often – if not always wisely. Without really understanding the boat renting business – let alone the mechanics of boat motors, boats and complex electronic gear – they buy a small marina in the Delta. Their plan is to rely on their own longtime experiences in learning how to run their marina. Fortunately, the marina’s former owner agrees to stay on as a part-time owner/consultant. His gentle, knowledgeable presence helps lead the new owners through wild new adventures.
Jerry and Dave are supported by their understanding, loving wives, who often provide the insight and contributions that keep the marina on a level keel. The story has been drawn from the everyday operations of the marina, challenges to the environment, interesting boat renters, their competition, and their personal, ongoing fishing and boating forays.
ISBN 1-58909-105-1 |
| Number
of pages:275+/- |
| About
the Author: |
I was born in San Diego, in 1933. My father was a farmer, and an expert in: running bulldozers, wiring and plumbing, carpentry, auto and heavy equipment repair - and several other specialties I have probably forgotten about. As a young boy, I helped around the farms - Dad’s and Granddad’s - driving both a car and a tractor by age 9, irrigating and picking a wide variety of truck farming crops, running a plow behind the biggest horse I had ever seen, milking a cow or two, and tending to several off-the-ground pens my folks commercially raised chickens and rabbits in. And I read - read a lot. My mom bought books for me at various thrift shops, by the boxes full. I realized early on that my love for words, as stories and poetry, would play a large part in my life.
As I entered my teens, my Dad moved us up to the Laguna Mountains in San Diego, where he had accepted the job as foreman for a key part of a large cattle company. The company also raised race horses and quarter horses, and it was common to see some of America’s leading rodeo men staying awhile, and sharpening up their skills. I was still more interested in words and numbers, and chemistry, etc. – and my interests were beginning to focus on learning, with teaching as a probable career.
The spread covered hundreds of mountain acres, and included many honest-to-god real cowboys. My Dad fit right in, and never really understood my feelings about the whole thing - which were based on a kind of observer’s perspective. I never became a part of the horse and cattle - cowboy culture, but grew fond of the good folks it seemed to attract. (This is true, also, for boaters, and fishermen.) I rode horses, and helped to brand, feed and round-up cattle, but my mind was always focused on the stories behind each scene, and the people who filled those scenes.
When we moved to California’s Central Valley, where Dad entered the sheet metal business, it was both a disappointment, and an opportunity to get on with preparation for college. I still was drawing, and writing short stories, all of which I kept hidden, except from my mom.
Midway into college, I married a great young lady with whom I had danced the last dance at the high school Senior Prom. We finished college and I entered sales, as my hoped for teaching career simply could not pay the bills. In ten years, I returned for a degree in administration, and have spent 15 years as a hospital administrator, and over 20 as a management consultant.
Managing and consulting require enormous amounts of writing and the management of complex numbers. But, the writing necessarily is not “exciting”, it’s goal-driven, and it is relatively dull. Only in the last several years have I realized that I had to get back to a love for writing stories and poetry. And, I am drawing, once again. At 69, I have finally gotten back to the life-pleasing trail I was on when I was 14. I guess a half-century of figuring out what I want to be when I grow up is not the longest time one could take. I kind of feel like Moses after his 40 years in the desert. (Perhaps I will finally settle down where there “is oil in the ground,” unlike Moses.)
I have written three books. One is on the origin of human value systems. It is a complicated attempt to express my ideas on, and research in, philosophy, quantum physics, chemistry, genetics, brain morphology, social structures and behavior. Writing it was like cutting a large hole in my head, and emptying out a ton of factoids. My second book, “J.J.’s Marina”© is a humorous telling of the adventures in boating on California’s magnificent Delta. The third book is a collection of my poetry and prose representing a wide variety of approaches - “voices” - and my commentary on several. I hope you find these as much fun to read, as I have had in writing them. These have drawn some attention, and the odds for selling them now appear to be at least as good as playing the California Lottery.
Email: ed@elmstreetpublish.com
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