Let’s Talk Turkey: Deputy Wields a Mean Carving Knife When It Comes to Duck Decoys

For 30 years, Robert W. White, 46, of Costa Mesa has been a determined duck hunter, a pastime that finally led to his latest adventure of carving from wood the same species of ducks that he shoots.

His fascination for ducks and the fact that he’s also a taxidermist give him an edge in duck decoy carving competitions--such as the recent Pacific Southwest Wild Fowl Show in San Diego, where he won second place in his division. It’s quite an accomplishment, because he’s been carving for less than two years.

“I was really in awe when I walked into the exhibition hall,” said White, a fraud investigator with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in Santa Ana. “Just looking at some of the work can scare a person.”

But Pete Oliver, 65, of Santa Ana, president of the 55-member California Carver’s Guild, feels that White is a comer. “He’s very meticulous on his details,” said Oliver, who feels that’s one of the traits judges score heavily at decoy carving competitions.

Carving for shows and friends “doesn’t leave much time for anything else,” said White, who listens to country music, something not so well appreciated by other family members, while assembling the decoys in his garage. He said he spends most nights and weekends there carving pintails and mallards.

White was surprised at the number of people who carve duck decoys, until he learned that some of the better carvers command $5,000 and more for a single carved duck. “I know of a guy who’s backlogged for a full year,” White said, adding that it takes him about 130 hours to complete a bass wood carving.

“I’ve sold one for $200 and that comes to about $1.25 an hour,” he said, although he thinks most carvers give decoys as gifts to friends. “Decoy duck carving is one of the oldest American folk arts. Today the ducks are used mostly for decorations, even though they’re so colorful they’re almost gaudy.”

White said carvers in the guild sometimes work on other wildfowl, such as pelicans and owls, to give them a break from ducks. “I’d really like to carve a great horned owl,” he said. “But I just don’t seem to have the time to do something for myself.”

Never having won anything big before, Fullerton residents Silvia and Richard Rozman, both 35, were skeptical about their good fortune when told on the phone that they had purchased the 10-millionth ticket for the upcoming Vancouver Expo ’86 and would receive some fine prizes.

“We really never believed it until we got off the plane in Vancouver and the press just swamped us,” she said. “We were celebrities wherever we went.” The Rozmans were flown to Vancouver for a day recently, just for the press hoopla.

Among the prizes they will receive is a seven-day, paid vacation package for them and their two children. Rosebushes in the Rozmans’ honor will be planted on the grounds of the exposition, which opens in May.

The Rozmans were electronically selected after they bought two $28 admission tickets.

This is a fast-paced love story that began in 1940 in Pekin, Ill., between Carol Sciortino, then 18, and Dick Friederich, then 19.

The two fell in love and months later became engaged. Then war broke out and Friederich wanted to marry his sweetheart before leaving for the Army Air Corps.

Sciortino was in love, she said, but “just wasn’t ready,” so the engagement ring was returned and the two drifted apart. As time went on, both married others, and later those mates died.

Last year Friederich, 64, of Santa Barbara visited Illinois to see old friends and family, and also dropped in on Sciortino’s sister, who gave him his former fiancee’s phone number.

He called her (she’s now Carol Morrison of Costa Mesa), and the two met for dinner. Within a short time, simmering love ignited the inevitable flame and Friederich again asked her to marry him.

She questions: “This is a bit fast, isn’t it?” He answers: “After 44 years?”

The wedding is set for May 17.

While some people read about history, Frances Willard Barnes Currey of Santa Ana lived it. She celebrated her 100th birthday at a party attended by 40 friends and relatives and said that while she enjoys talking about the years, “I sometimes tire” of explaining her longevity.

Born in Iowa, she has three grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Daughter Betty Frances Wehunt, who said, “I won’t tell you my age. Besides, gentlemen don’t ask a lady’s age until she’s 100,” lives with her mother and said they didn’t get home from the party until midnight. She also mentioned that a platter of fried oysters, Currey’s favorite food, was served.

And what of Currey’s 100 years? “I’ve had a lovely life,” she said.

Acknowledgments--Stanton resident Brenda Premo, 34, the legally blind director of Dayle McIntosh Center for the Disabled in Garden Grove, was honored by Pilot Club International as California Handicapped Professional Woman of the Year.