Rip Rense was a reporter at the old Valley News and the late Herald Examiner, and keeps an online archive of the original L.A. Daily News at his website. He now has written a book, The Oaks, that is a fictionalized account of his childhood in the outer suburbs of Thousand Oaks during the 1950s and 60s. It all adds up to a feature in today's Ventura County Star in which Rense, 53, recalls Basque sheepherders and the intoxicating smells of the chaparral. It's worth clicking for the picture of Rense in 1979.

Photo: Dana Rene Bowler / Ventura County Star