NEIGHBORS : Getting Personal : An ad for backwoods types; Elvis fans celebrate; Ventura Bookstore marks 40--or is it 50?--years

This personal ad, submitted by a Ventura woman, is running in the July/August issue of Backwoods Home Magazine:

“Independent woman, age 47, wants independent man to build our own house, generate our own electricity and grow our own food.”

What is the independent woman going to be doing?

What is Backwoods Home Magazine?

It’s a bimonthly magazine published out of Ventura that focuses on “saving the environment,” said distribution manager Eric Batie of Camarillo. “It’s a how-to magazine on solar and water preservation and conservation.”

The year-old magazine has a nationwide circulation of about 4,000, with the majority of subscribers in California and Oregon. The latest issue covers such topics as ferro-cement water-storage-tank building, blueberry canning, wind-generator Qs & As and old-tool revitalization.

As if we actually had to remind anyone, Elvis International Tribute Week (a 9-day week at that) will begin Saturday. Fans worldwide, perhaps universe-wide, will mark the occasion in their own way. But the official celebration will take place at Graceland.

Camarillo resident Theresa Carpenter will be among the people gathering at the King’s former castle. It will be the second pilgrimage for the 31-year-old postal clerk.

Carpenter has been a fan since grammar school, but she considers herself a novice. “There’s still a lot of learning and understanding left for me,” she said. “There are people who knew him and grew up with him, and I’m learning from them. I wonder if there’s enough time to learn everything.” Favorite Elvis flick: “King Creole” (1958). “He was young and real alive and full of energy,” Carpenter said. “It was a real good part and a real good story line.” She said she has the tape and watches it frequently with her 5- and 6-year-old daughters.

Favorite Elvis recording: “How Great Thou Art” (1966). “Just talking about it gives me goose pimples.”

Most prized Elvis memorabilia: A brick from his 1956 Memphis home. “I was at a charity auction last year, and here’s this raggedy old junky piece of brick,” she said. “It really grabbed me.” It sold for $35.

Let’s wish a happy birthday to the Ventura Bookstore on Main Street. How many candles on the cake? 50, maybe.

Ed Elrod and Kent Weigel, who have owned the business for 11 years, thought this month would mark the store’s 40th year. But it seems that the Ventura Bookstore bought out, or took over, the Blendine Bickel bookstore, which was around in 1940. Hence, the extra decade.

That ancestry came to the ownership’s attention when a 90-year-old local woman presented them with a book bearing a sticker that gave the Bickel name and phone number. That phone number was the same as that of the Ventura Bookstore before it relocated May 1.

“The problem,” said Elrod, “is that most of the people who had good memories at that time don’t have good memories now.”

What they are looking for is hard evidence.

“No one has come in with receipts or canceled checks,” Elrod said. “There’s stuff like that out there, the trick is to find it. Some people save that kind of stuff.” Readers?