May 16, 2007

Ed Larson
Sailor, Author, Poet

  In 1925, Calvin Coolidge was president, New Yorker magazine published its first issue, and the Santa Cruz Yacht Club would not be created for another three years. This is the year that May’s Pizza & Prose guest speaker was born. It would be 16 years before the United States would be engaged in the Second World War and not longer after that when the sea faring Ed Larson would find himself flying planes as a WWII pilot.   

 Growing up in Alaska and Puget Sound , Ed learned his way around a boat. To hear him tell it, each boat has its own distinct personality. A man of many interests and talents, Ed has known many boats in his time. In his latest book of essays, Pebbles… from a favored shore he writes about the adventures and lessons from these old friends and traveling companions. He learned about boats from the man who became his stepfather and greatest role-model several years after his biological dad abandoned the family and left them destitute.

 At the age of 82, Ed is as fierce in his love for the ocean as ever. He shared tales from his life as a boy on old skiffs and fishing vessels and for the last 25 years as a mainstay of the Santa Cruz harbor. He ended his talk at Cava Wine Bar in Capitola Village by telling a story that might well be the springboard for his next book. This one will be of his days high above the ocean floor as a young pilot during the war. It was like listening to one of the characters from the 1949 film Twelve O’clock High with Gregory Peck tell of their experiences in the bombing unit, except this was from a real person, who had actually been there. Stay tuned for his next turn at Pizza & Prose once that book comes out