“Rock My Soul: A Poet’s Heart, A Brokedown Palace, And A Final Fare-Thee-Well”

Few books have captured the essence of Chico like Stephen Metzger’s new memoir, “Rock My Soul: A Poet’s Heart, A Brokedown Palace, And A Final Fare-Thee-Well” ($19.95 in paperback from Stansbury Publishing; also for Amazon Kindle), available at Made in Chico, The Bookstore, or from the author at SMetzger@csuchico.edu.

Metzger “retired from Chico State in May of 2010, after 30 years teaching in the English, American Studies, and Journalism departments.” (Subsequently he taught at Butte College until December 2018.)

At Chico State Metzger connected with librarian Jim Dwyer, hired in 1986. Dwyer had a scholarly side (“Where the Wild Books Are: A Field Guide to Ecofiction” was published in 2010, his retirement year and the start of his “downward spiral”), but also, as Rev. Junkyard Moondog, an activist alter ego bigger than life.

“You could spot him a mile away,” Metzger writes; “long, stringy gray hair, crooked baseball cap, smile as wide as a kayak. … he always managed to surprise—if not embarrass—everyone around him, while he somehow seemed impervious to embarrassment himself.” More than once Moondog recited a poem while he “nonchalantly began to undress.” As a former girlfriend noted, “Jim didn’t have any filters.”

Metzger intertwines his own story with that of Moondog, interviewing those who knew Dwyer. Pot and alcohol use didn’t do him any favors in retirement. He died June 28, 2015, collapsing at a mini-mart on his way home after attending the Grateful Dead’s Bay Area Fare Thee Well reunion tour.

KZFR lamented the passing of a “free spirited eccentric, outspoken, caring, giving, loveable oddball. … He was pure Chico.”

In 2016 Metzger bought Jim’s old house in Chico from brother Billy. It became a rental, complete with a peace sign on the roof, and later shelter for spillway and Camp Fire evacuees.

Friend Lisa Emmerich: “People say he was a dancer who couldn’t dance, a singer who couldn’t sing, and an actor who couldn’t act, but I think he really could act. His quinessential role was the one he played every day.”

Jim’s house is a memorial to Moondog, but so is this book. Pure Chico.

"Toe The Mark"

"My competitive running," naval historian David D. Bruhn writes, "ended in late autumn 1976" when, "running on a muddy trail along the American River early one morning, I slipped and slid into the river." He had run for Butte College; later, after enlisting in the Navy, he graduated from Chico State and "earned a commission via Officers Candidate School." He met his future wife, Nancy, a Navy nurse, at a base in Colorado.

His cross-country coach, Al Baeta, emphasized the importance of holding on to energizing memories. "Running in Chico in the 1970s is one of those memories." And so, drawing on Enterprise-Record archives and interviews with runners and coaches, Bruhn tells the story of the running programs not only at Chico State, but Chico High and PV High, in the 70s. "Toe The Mark" ($29 in paperback from heritagebooks.com) features a foreword by Walt Schafer--no stranger to running himself--and 114 historical photographs.

Tracing the running programs year by year with plenty of stats, the book also weaves personal stories into the narrative, making it not only an extraordinary reference but one that captures the story of legendary track and cross-country coaches (such as Bill Gregg, Chuck Sheley, Jack Yerman, Dale Edson, Cherrie Sherrard, and more) who got the best out of their runners.

In an email, Bruhn notes that "The two individuals pictured on the front cover are Wildcat All-American and 4:01 miler Kim Ellison, and Wildcat All-American and Olympic Swim Trials participant (as a 16-year old Panther) Jill Symons. Symons is (little argument) the greatest multi-sport female endurance athlete Chico has produced to date."

In 1977 Symons, along with Girls Cross Country teammates Suzanne Richter (All-American at Cal, "still number six on the all-time 5,000 meters list"), marathoner Luanne Park, Julie Selchau, and Darcy Burleson, were known as "Charlie's Angels" (after coach Chuck and a certain TV series), arguably, Bruhn writes me, "the greatest high school prep team of any sport in the North Section."

"Toe The Mark" is the ultimate runner's high.

Bruhn is hosting a "1970s Runners Reunion Weekend," August 27-28 in Chico, with more than fifty participants; for information on signed copies of his book write commanderbruhn@gmail.com.

"An Incredible Journey: From A Barcelona Eighth Grade Dropout To An American University Presidency"

In 1993, Chico Enterprise-Record reporter Larry Mitchell, in his profile of one of the candidates to succeed Robin Wilson for the Chico State presidency, wrote: "No one in Manuel Esteban's high school graduating class ever predicted he'd be in the running to become a university president. That's because Esteban had no graduating class. He never attended high school."

"Who could have imagined?" writes Emeritus Professor of Sociology Walt Schafer in his foreword to Esteban's newly published autobiography. They became close friends during Esteban's decade-long presidency.

Later, Esteban and wife Gloria moved from Chico to Santa Barbara and eventually to Academy Village in Tucson, where he completed his memoir.

"An Incredible Journey: From A Barcelona Eighth Grade Dropout To An American University Presidency" ($14.50 in paperback, self-published; also for Amazon Kindle) is a chronological account mostly focused on Esteban's academic development, guided especially by his younger brother, Julio, who tutored him for the high school equivalency exams.

He rose in academic accomplishments, living in France, Canada, and the U.S., becoming a tenured professor and then an administrator. 

The last half of the book is devoted to Esteban's Chico State presidency and his efforts to move away from the party school image, instituting a speaker series featuring seven Nobel Prize winners and reaching out to the community to restore town-gown relations. At first Esteban the new president was the toast of Chico, but "then I made a very stupid mistake" complaining about being the lowest paid CSU President. 

That set off a firestorm of criticism, especially in the Chico Enterprise-Record. History Professor Joe Conlin became his bête noir, and Esteban's account reveals his own thinking in response to what one reporter called Conlin's "witty excesses."

Yet as the years passed even partisan media grew in respect for Esteban's efforts. In "lessons learned," he writes that "even if you are convinced that yours is the right action to take, you are never certain that those you are expected to lead will follow you." So, he writes, "take time to listen, learn, consult, and build alliances."

Wise words from a kid uninterested in school. Who could have imagined?

"Tongue In Chico: A Decade Of Merriment And Mayhem In A Town Near Normal"

C.L. Smith lives with his wife in California's wine country. When he graduated from Chico State in the late 1970s, he went into advertising and "played a key role in developing the iconic 'Don't Drip and Drive' and 'Can you hear me now?' ad campaigns for Winchell's and Verizon." 

But something kept nagging him (it wasn't his conscience, which would have had better sense). For three years in Chico he had written humor columns for Richard Peifer's Butte County Bugle and landed his work in other publications as well, and maybe it was time to revisit his college days. 

Teaming with designer/illustrator Randy Nowell, Smith and Nowell created an illustrated compendium (with new material too) designed to display something of the sexualized absurdity of those days. They call it "Tongue In Chico: A Decade Of Merriment And Mayhem In A Town Near Normal" ($7.49 in paperback from Tenderfoot Books and tongueinchico.com; also for Amazon Kindle). Think Mad Magazine. Only dirtier. As in lots of references to zucchini.

Smith recalls "the rollicking 1970s...when skinny-dippers ruled Upper Bidwell, the pot grown in the foothills sold for $6,000 a pound, and the mirrors of Craig Hall were lined with pure cocaine. And/or baby laxative."

Divided into four parts, Smith starts with Chico, then Santa Cruz (where he becomes managing editor of the alt weekly Good Times), then Orange County (where he meets lots of Hollywood celebs), and back to Chico with a naughty story of "The Legend of Calamity Jane and the Hooker Oak," involving Calamity and the Bidwells and it's a calamity alright.

"Confessions of a Parsley Grower" had me snickering. "How much is parsley going for on the black market?" Cohasset area grower: "We're getting anywhere from 15 to 35 cents a sprig now, depending on the strain and quality. More for heirloom."

Readers will find a day in the life of a perpetually horny Chico State student; "how to win big in strip volleyball"; and a "beginner's guide to common sexual terms." Think "not-quite-printable creative wordplay."

For those who want a narrow view of college life, this book will take your breadth away.

"Through The Red Door"

Chico State University's Men's Division II Basketball is helmed by coach Greg Clink. The coach, in his mid-forties, came to Chico in 2008, taking the 8-19 Wildcats in the 2008-2009 season to an 22-8 record in 2014-2015, winning the California Collegiate Athletics Association conference title.

Could the Wildcats repeat in the 2015-2016 season? Writer Carson Medley spent that year with coach Clink and the team, chronicling the games and exploring Clink's life and leadership that shaped an extraordinary basketball program. The Clink ethos is symbolized by a painted door to Acker Gym. "Take as much time as you need," Clink will tell a player, "but when you walk through that Red Door, you better be ready to get after it."

The story reads like a novel. "Through The Red Door" ($22.99 in paperback from CreateSpace; also for Amazon Kindle) tracks the season in masterful prose and page-turning energy.

Clink wants his players to have the right mental set: “We talk about walking the line that borders on being composed and doing something crazy. I like it when our guys teeter on that line. I never want them to cross it and do something stupid, but I want them foaming at the mouth." Yet Clink's focus is not just on winning, but winning right. "Clink’s mission," Medley notes, "is for his young men to transcend basketball."

Defining leadership, "Clink doesn’t have to think more than three seconds. … 'It’s the consistent example of the behavior you want, you expect, you demand your people to follow.' He points out that he must always practice what he preaches."

Many contributed to Medley's project, including Sports Information Director Luke Reid (who took the cover photograph), Athletic Director Anita Barker, and broadcaster Mike Baca.

And the season? "Pace and stillness. A blood moon. Unscripted drama despite the relentless practice and preparation and choreography. Agony and ecstasy and the thrill of victory and the desolation of defeat. Miracles. Fortune. Misfortune. Laughter and tears. Shoves and hugs. Jazz, rap, and country music. Organic. Unedited. Pure spur of the moment-dang-good-old fashioned fun." And three words at the end, from a player's grandmother, that changed everything.

Three other words: Read the book.