NEIGHBORS / SHORT TAKES : Wooden Wonders : With the patience he learned as a prisoner of war, Allen Richards fulfills his love of animals by carving his own.
Allen Richards loves animals--no matter what they’re made of.
He owns a cat and a dog and has been adopted by a flock of birds that visits daily around feeding time. And when he’s not hanging out with live animals, Richards is likely to be carving some wooden ones.
For 14 years, Richards has been attracting the attention of passersby on Avenida de los Arboles in Thousand Oaks with his carvings of carousel and rocking horses. “I put them out and people come here,” he said. “I get a lot of reaction. Probably about 1,000 people have stopped here.”
Richards, 73, said he’s always been interested in animals, and he and his wife have been collecting animal items for 35 years. So why not make his own?
“I’ve done a lion, a bear, but the horse is really the most difficult because it has a more lifelike appearance,” Richards said. “The trickiest part is just to be patient--patient and persistent.”
Richards credits his experience in World War II for his ability to proceed with his long projects. “I’m an ex-P.O.W.,” he said. “That’s where I learned patience.”
If you’re looking for a last-second Christmas gift, Richards’ horses are for sale for $200 to $850. Richards’ tools include 12 chisels, 7 saws and 30 paint brushes.
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Let’s get this straight--is this the season of Elves or Elvis? That was the question being asked a couple of Sundays ago at Camarillo’s Trinity Presbyterian Church.
It seems that during the service, an usher made a fairly routine announcement, something to the effect that there was a car in the parking lot with its headlights on. No big deal. Then he identified the car by its Tennessee license plates: “One Elvis.”
None of the parishioners noticed anyone in a white jumpsuit and a cape go outside to turn off the lights.
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Fifteen-year-old Jessica Chase got a pretty nice Christmas gift last week. The Simi Valley resident was told that she had been accepted at Harvard.
That’s right. Fifteen years old. Harvard. But what do you expect from someone who skipped a grade in school, danced with the Joffrey Ballet when the troupe came to Southern California and is one of the state’s top debaters?
Chase, now a student at Harvard Westlake, will begin her Ivy League career next fall. If it were up to her, though, she’d start immediately. “I love everything about Harvard,” said Chase, who will be living in the university dorms. “I love the city of Boston and Cambridge. . . . It’s a perfect place for me to go to school. I think it will be the right level of challenge.”
And what comes after Harvard? “I’ll be going to law school and then do something in politics,” Chase said. “Like be a senator.”
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A tip for those of you planning to watch Friday’s Aloha Bowl college football game between Brigham Young University and the University of Kansas:
Don’t do the chores (or take care of other personal business) at halftime, as you normally would. If you do, you’ll miss the local highlight of the game.
Christi-Lynn Horton and Suzannah Frisbie of Camarillo High School will be on the field maneuvering flags as part of the halftime show. The girls are co-captains on the Camarillo High “tall-flags” team and were chosen for the show based on their performance at a spirit game last summer.
