The Lucky Me Odyssey
by
Len Tigard

Asilomar Publishing, January 1998, 173 pp.
ISBN: 0-9620451-2-8

Genre: Non-Fiction
Subgenre: Autobiography
Reviewed: 8/18/1999

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Read an Excerpt

Westward Ho!

The year was 1924 and motor travel was for the hardy few. A ‘good road’ was little more than a wagon trail with a sprinkling of gravel, ruts and a plethora of potholes. Roadside signs were limited to an occasional barn mural advertising Climax Cut Plug or Mrs. Pierce’s Remedy. The word “Motel” had not been coined. Primitive prototypes called ‘Auto Courts’ were gaining a toehold near heavily populated areas which our itinerary studiously avoided. In the late afternoon then, it was pull off the road onto the prairie, unlimber all the gear, set up the tent, ditto the cots, prepare the ‘supper’ over an open fire, eat same and sack out. It was only after unloading that we could see the rear seat, and this is where I slept. At dawn it was scrounge water and fuel, range-style breakfast, break camp, stow all the gear and move out. This of course was not hardship of the kind endured by the Westward-Ho pioneers, but after a time this outing became a lot less enjoyable than the description might suggest. For my part, I have since found it relatively easy to resist a hankering for cross-country motor tripping and back-to-nature camping out.

Synopsis

This is an autobiography of Leonard Tigard. Who is he, you might ask? I could answer that be telling you what he loved to do and what kind of jobs he held, but there is more to it than that.

The story begins with the name: Tigard. Is he related to the city in Oregon? Hard to tell since the birth records of his side of the family were destroyed during General Sherman’s march through Georgia.

The story then goes on to talk about his father, Art, being born and growing up and then gets around to both his older brother, Chet, and him being born. It seems that Art was never satisfied with one place and moved around a lot. How much? Oh…something like 15 times in a 3 year period.

 Len never stayed long in one place in his childhood until they reached Cloverdale, California. Chet and Len loved music and learned to play quite a few different instruments. Lens love of music carried over into his adult life and he became a musician. His travels kept him mostly in the San Francisco Bay area where he met his wife to be, Elva, and soon got married on January 16th, 1938.

Along come WWII and he finds himself serving as a musician for the U.S. Navy. His job: improve the morale of men on ships. He served his time and then returned to Oakland. After his daughter, Holly, was born, in 1946, the music business he was in started to die. He found himself working for an architectural company. He spent many years with that company, mostly doing fieldwork looking at soil core samples to determine the solidity of the soil for building. He then worked for the Port of Oakland in the Engineering Department until retirement.

The Lucky Me Odyssey is an autobiography written by Len Tigard.

Review

I found the history of the name “Tigard” and Len’s adolescent years to be very interesting and fun to read. The description of America and in those times was revealing and really opened my eyes to how incredible hard life was for his family. As for the music business and the architecture part of his life, it was interesting, but I preferred his younger days. For someone like me, the book is a must read; family history and everything.

And the book ends with a hum-dinger of a chapter about the state of the world and how incredibly silly, or just plain stupid, the human race can be sometimes. I found myself agreeing to just about everything he said and felt his frustration at the things we do. I am glad that Len Tigard took the time to immortalize his life so other may read about it. Who is he? Maybe no one to you. But to me . . . he is my great uncle and he is family.

I rated this book an 8 out of 10.