Susan Beckett

Once upon a time, the US space program faced a major challenge in their Atlas rocket program. It seems they had a corrosion problem caused by moisture that needed to be fixed. The challenge was to create a formula capable of displacing water and thus preventing corrosion. So, one Norm Larsen went to work, concocting formula after formula until finally - after 39 failed attempts - he hit on a successful mixture on trial number 40 and - da-da - Water Displacement formula #40 was born - better known today as WD-40. It’s now estimated that up to eighty percent of us have a can of the stuff in our homes.

Many years ago when our youngest daughter Susanne was learning to drive, I was out with her at the wheel one day when we turned down Devonshire. It just happened to be one of those miserable hot days in Hemet where you could probably fry an egg on the sidewalk. About a block down the street I noticed an olive tree on fire. I glanced to the opposite side of the road and saw a man siting in his car, window rolled down, just staring at the flames. Further on down I saw a lady running to the door of a home - no cell phones back then - I thought she was probably calling the fire department.

Don’t you just love your brain?! I think it’s absolutely about the best thing God invented when He made us! Such a brilliant idea. And I believe He wants us to use it to be out-of-the-box creative whenever and however possible.

Growing up I was totally blessed with two of the most amazing grandmothers any kid could ever hope or ask for- GramE and GramO - ‘E’ for Ella and ‘O’ for Okla. While Ella is a name you are probably familiar with, Okla may be off the beaten path a bit and the actual story of her name is pretty unconventional as well.

The year is 1974 and Richard Nixon is President of the United States and then not President of the United States. The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, CA. Robert Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House in a stolen helicopter, and the “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing match between Ali and Foreman takes place in Zaire. It’s also the year Bob and I moved to the Hemet Valley to run a juvenile facility out in Castile Canyon, behind the Soboba Indian Reservation.