San Diego Characters: Outliers

Woman logger, Josie Scripps, the Spaceman of OB, and Bill Gookin

Author

By Various Authors

Publish Date

Sept. 8, 2016

Josephine Scripps runs a North County dairy farm, she leads rock hunting expeditions all over Southern California and Baja, she raises cocker spaniels, and she jumps at the chance to play pinochle into the wee hours. (David Covey)

Josie Scripps

She reports that the county, for its size, is second only to an area in Africa. Larger areas like Brazil and Ceylon contain greater quantities of gems, she says, but none has the concentration of the San Diego hills — tourmaline, garnet, blue topaz, morganite (pink) beryl, and purple spodumene (kunzite). Yet in the early Seventies, buyers from back East were gobbling up the best local specimens, which wound up in European and American museums like the Smithsonian.

By Jeannette De Wyze, Aug. 17, 1978 | Read full article

Audrey and her pet cat. She was muttering something about “luggin' these damn small saws like that.” She finished this tree, too, and handed me back the saw. (Jim Hair)

Bull o' the Woods

She gave me her best saw, a little Homelite. I cranked it up and started in putting an undercut on the first tree. I kicked out the notch with my foot. The eucalyptus smelled spicy. I went around and started on the backcut, looking up at the tree, wondering how many cords I could get out of it. I felt a tap on my shoulder, looked back, and Audrey was motioning me to shut the saw off.

The Man who Bought Cuchama

Though holy people can infuse a place with their presence, it is also true their polar opposites can deplete an area of its sacredness. Drunk vandals regularly hurl their beer cans into the brush. Trash on the top is much in evidence despite a heavily locked gate. A group of businessmen, headed by former San Diego City Councilman Tom Hom, have plans for “developing” a new town just this side of the border crossing.

By Ken Winkler, June 26, 1980 | Read full article

I don't think he cared anymore about what dogs thought of him than he cared what people thought of him.

The Man Who Broke the Rules

He worked for several months at a bakery injecting jelly into the jelly donuts. The job paid minimum wage, but it had great benefits: he could eat all the day-olds he wanted, and he got to keep the plastic five-gallon jelly buckets. “They just throw them away!" he told me, both disgusted at the needless waste and thrilled by his unbelievably good fortune. He made bed frames out of them, wash basins, storage chests, kitty litter boxes.

By Steve Sorensen, Nov. 8, 1984 | Read full article

The O.B. Spaceman, c. 1987. Cary’s friend set him up in an apartment on Bacon Street, a few doors down from Poma’s Deli. Spaceman began calling local radio stations with his stories of Elvis sightings. (Bob Oaks)

Bummed Out, Spaceman Passes On

Upon his return to San Diego, Cary’s friend set him up in an apartment on Bacon Street, a few doors down from Poma’s Deli. Spaceman began calling local radio stations with his stories of Elvis sightings. KGB put him on the air. He made the local TV news. Longtime Ocean Beach residents who had purchased his paintings back in the 1960s began to look after him. And Cary even began painting again.

By Thomas K. Arnold, Dec. 23, 1993 | Read full article

After getting sick on Gatorade during an Olympic trial marathon, Gookin invented a substitute, Gookinaid. He devised it by analyzing his own sweat to determine what was being lost through dehydration.

Chess at a Run

Retired now from biochemistry and from teaching, Gookin says he spends his time marketing close to a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of Gookinaid a year. He also promotes orienteering.

By Jeanne Schinto, Nov. 9, 2000 | Read full article