It may seem that Gene Paleno has been telling tales from Witter Springs for a lifetime. And it has been 45 years since he moved to Lake County from Los Angeles. But the man known here as a farmer, columnist and collector of stories also designed graphics for Douglas Aircraft, worked closing franchise deals, painted portraits, created a line of model cars, served in the Navy at the tail end of World War Two and earned a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan. He is the author of 15 unpublished novels. But he is ready to send his first book to press — this time a history of Lake County.
1. Why write?
It’s life for me. I can’t help it. I love to write — about anything and everything. My wife got me started. She was a wonderful woman and a great editor. She taught me to listen to people, to care about their stories. Once I started I kept writing.
2. Is it hard to find topics?
No, I’m curious about everything. I see the humor in most things. I have a recorder in my car. I’ll be driving and it will come to me. I’ll say ‘this is how the story should go.’ I’m also writing my wife’s biography. That’s hard to do, because when writing that I bare my soul.
3. You haven’t tried to publish any of the books?
Jeannette was sick, the farm was taking my time. Oh — she wrote a book on cancer. It’s never been published. But before that I wrote to three or four publishers. I never heard back, so I said ‘heck with it.’ Then she got sick. My kids have read them and they enjoyed it. That satisfies me. And when I get this history published, I’ll publish the others.
4. So why do you farm?
I was born on a farm in Michigan during the Depression, when we didn’t know we were poor. Mom would can the vegetables. My father worked at Packard, then he would come back to the farm. He worked all the time. But I grew up and went into the Navy.
5. Well, it’s a long way from Los Angeles to Witter Springs.
That was because of my daughter. We took her to college and thought we’d see what was on Highway 20. We saw Bachelor Valley — a beautiful place. We sold our house right away, bought some land and lived in a trailer while building the house.
6. What is it about Lake County?
It reminded my of life as a farm boy in Michigan — green hills, animals. And I was ready to go back to the farm. I had enough city life. I’d been around the world. Now I was home.
7. What haven’t you done? It seems like you’ve done a bit of everything.
All of it has taught me things. There was a time I learned karate. I learned how to fall. When they replaced my hip I still had to walk these steep areas. Now I’ve never been hurt falling. It taught me to be a better man, to be interested in people — genuinely interested.
8. Is there anything you still want to do?
I don’t need anything. I’m happy as can be. C.S. Lewis said to solve a problem, look beyond the problem — have a goal, something to look forward to. What do I want? Just to keep my health. I’ve got a roof. I’m not starving. I just want to keep on writing.
9. Where do you get all this energy?
I don’t know. There aren’t enough hours in a day to accomplish what I want to accomplish. I guess what I want are more hours.
10. Well, you’re making the rest of us look bad.
Not at all. I took me awhile to get going.
