NEIGHBORS : Reprise of Ojai Day : The festival’s organizer plans it to recognize $1.6-million Arcade renovation and the city’s 70th anniversary.

The Ojai Day Community Festival on Saturday is the first Ojai Day in 63 years. And to think, when it made its debut on April 7, 1917, it was supposed to be an annual event.

Consider this line from the April 13, 1917, edition of The Ojai newspaper:

“Ojai-Libbey Day is now a fixed anniversary fully as important as Thanksgiving.”

Well, the next year, the celebration was canceled due to World War I.

It picked up again in 1919 and continued until 1928.

It was canceled again in 1929, presumably due to the Depression, and hadn’t been heard from until this year.

So why bring Ojai Day back now?

Craig Walker, chief organizer of the festival, planned it in recognition of the recent $1.6-million renovation of the historic Arcade. Besides, 1991 marks the 70th anniversary of Ojai’s incorporation.

Note: The newspaper referred to the original celebration as Ojai-Libbey Day.

The Libbey part, of course, is in honor of Ohio businessman Edward Drummond Libbey, who had a winter home in Ojai and fell in love with the place.

He ultimately built Libbey Park and the post office tower, and financed the Oaks Hotel and the Ojai Country Club.

One more note: “There were 500 people living in the Ojai Valley at the time (of the 1917 festival),” Walker said, “but over 2,000 people attended.”

Now for some Ojai trivia, courtesy of historian David Mason, who will give a presentation at the festival Saturday morning. (Please feel free to use these tidbits to amaze friends and family):

* The Ojai Valley Inn and accompanying golf course were completed in 1923 at a total cost of $250,000. The place has been remodeled for $40 million.

* It is fairly common knowledge that Ojai was known as Nordhoff (after journalist Charles Nordhoff) until 1917. But do you know why the name was changed? With World War I in progress, it seems the townsfolk thought that the name Nordhoff sounded too German. In fact, it was Prussian.

* The original 1837 land grant for what is now Ojai was given to Fernando Tico. His profession? He was the guy in charge of the stockades and whipping post at Mission San Buenaventura.

First the good news: When musician Michael Feinstein performed at the Greek Theatre in late September, he gave a plug to a local city when he sang “We’re Stepping Out Tonight in Oxnard.”

Now the bad news: Publicity doesn’t go very far if nobody hears about it.

And it seems that few Oxnarders, if any, have heard of this melody.

In my search for the lyrics to this song, I contacted the American Society of Composers and Publishers.

They hadn’t heard of it.

From there, it was on to the Oxnard Public Library reference desk. Again no luck.

I had similar results at the Oxnard Music Co. and, just to add salt to the wound, the guy there said they have no record of ANY songs written about Oxnard.

He referred me to a major sheet music wholesaler where a man chuckled at my inquiry.

So finally, the obvious. Contact the performer himself.

Well, I got as far as the performer’s publicists, who agreed that yes, the song exists, but that it is unpublished and lyric sheets are unavailable.

They did, however, promise to get hold of the touring Feinstein and ask him to pass along a stanza or two.

As soon as I get them, I’ll let you know.