An Authors’ Afternoon March 21, 2026 at 2:00 pm

The Friends of the Buellton Library present

An Authors’ Afternoon

Saturday, March 21^st at 2 pm

In the Friends’ Room at the Buellton Library, 202 Dairyland, Buellton

Did you ever stop to wonder…..

How the bar code and the scanner came into existence?

What if a local restaurant that seemed real wasn’t?

How the casino affected the local band of Chumash Indians?

You can learn the answers  to these questions and more at this event with 3 local authors whose books will tell you all you wanted to know about these topics.

The local authors, Paul V. McEnroe, Jamie Baker and Paul H. Gelles, will share information about themselves and their books, and then sign and sell books.

A portion of the book sales will be donated to the Buellton Library.

Paul McEnroe, an IBM engineer, led the team that developed the Universal Product Code (UPC) or barcode system in the early 1970s, revolutionizing retail with automatic scanning.

He pioneered both the barcode, which became an international standard in 1974, and the first laser-based scanners, significantly increasing checkout efficiency.

Jamie Baker’s You Ate It is a story about big ideas, boy geniuses, girls of every persuasion, vineyards, pot farms, magical restaurants, sex and death, and coming to terms with one’s gullibility.

Taking place in the Santa Ynez Valley, a haven and heaven to so many, an eccentric group of friends, artists and chefs come together to create the experience of building dreams.

The novel addresses mass school shootings, evangelical vigilantism and the epidemic of drug addiction.

It is funny, filthy and horrific.

Toss in high tech high jinks, binary beauties, red/blue state politics, and a level of realism that makes people believe this place actually exists.

Paul H. Gelles will discuss his book, Chumash Renaissance: Indian Casinos, Education, and Cultural Politics in Rural California.

Looking at the local history of the Santa Ynez Valley, it shows how cultural and linguistic revitalization, as well as enhanced educational opportunities, have turned around two centuries of marginalization.

Paul will also touch on his work in indigenous communities in Peru in a brief discussion of his book, Water and Power in Highland Peru, and of his translation of the life histories of two indigenous peasants, as found in Andean Lives: Gregorio Condori Mamani and Asunta Quispe Huaman.

For more information, please contact the Friends’ email address: FriendsoftheBuelltonLibrary202@gmail.com or visit FOBLBuellton.org

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