Rodney Chow Spins Yarns with Book Talk and Signing

Beloved Carpinteria Farmer to Talk Southern California Boyhood, Unity, and His New Book at Chaucer’s Event on February 7

Author Rodney Chow | Photo: Courtesy

“I was like everyone else,” Rodney Chow told me over the phone last week. Even two minutes into our conversation, he was being humble. “We all worked in the daytime, and went to school at night to earn our engineering degree.” The time he refers to was 70 years ago, when Chow, a proud Army veteran, used his GI Bill toward a bachelor’s and master’s in civil engineering from USC. Establishing himself in a racial climate that others said would be too inhospitable, he founded his own company, partnered in a residential development firm, and even enjoyed success as a real estate agent in Ventura and Oxnard. This was all before Chow moved to Carpinteria and, ignoring the advice of others, planted five acres of apple trees, becoming a sort of Mr. Hooper at local farmers’ markets.

So, he’s not like everyone else.

‘Stories of the Good Old Days’ by Rodney Chow | Photo: Courtesy

What’s most fascinating, and unsurprising, then, about Chow is the man’s talent as a raconteur. That gift shines with his latest book, a collection of short stories called Stories of the Good Old Days. Chow will be at Chaucer’s Books on February 7 for a book talk and signing.

The nonagenarian multi-hyphenate began writing during high noon of the pandemic. “I saw the division really separating everybody, so I thought, you know, someone has to do something,” Chow said. “Why don’t I start writing something that will make people feel good about themselves, instead of making them mad, or take sides?” He decided the most adhesive thing connecting people is their childhood innocence. “We didn’t have an opinion about anyone else,” Chow recalls of his blue-collar upbringing in Depression-era Los Angeles. “Everyone was the same. We were just out in the street having fun.” The stories are part memoir, part fiction, portraying in living color a period usually blanched with images of breadlines and bereft faces. These tales not only reveal the levity of life before our now-on-demand existence, but compel us to reflect on the ties that bind.

Chow’s sagacity, humor, and heart shouldn’t be missed. To hear them for yourself, stop by Chaucer’s Books on Wednesday, February 7, at 6 p.m. for the talk and a signed copy of Stories of the Good Old Days.