A postcard from Fallbrook: rembering the Box J Ranch

I attended a storytelling session at a Barnes and Noble bookstore in Oakland, California, the other night. And in the Q&A session afterwards, someone asked storyteller Tim Ereneta why he didn't share personal memoir, like the other tellers on the bill. "I don't find my life that interesting," Tim said. "Sure, I could tell you about my childhood summers on my grandparents' ranch in Fallbrook, but that doesn't interest me. I don't know how to make that interesting. But folk tales and myths? Those have been capturing people's imaginations for ages." As the event was winding up, I did ask Mr. Ereneta to tell me about his grandparents ranch, since I myself had family in Fallbrook at one time. It turns out, my kin were likely neighbors of the very "Box J" ranch where Tim spent his time watching his grandfather and great uncle run a herd of dragonnets. Although the heyday of this miniature breed was a century ago--they were in demand for topaz mining out at Smith Mountain-- the descendants of this dragon herd continued their rustic life in Northern San Diego County until the 1980s.