Life With Iron Giants: Where the Improbable Meets the Possible

No matter how many times I try to explain how special San Pedro is, I get a lot of blank stares in return. The nicer ones make a real effort to see this place through my eyes, and I give them credit. But part of me knows that when they go back to their comfortable suburbs, they'll get stared down if they try to defend the place, and soon, the bright feather of enthusiasm will drift away, untended. I've heard more than once about the secrets we keep within our sea-crashed borders, inured to the slings and arrows of outsiders, and in some ways it's a bit disingenuous to expect others to be able to draw away the curtain without spending some serious time here.

It's okay, I want to tell them, I do understand. Take my friend Ernie, for example, whom I see regularly at one of our local cafes. This is a man with a history that, at first blush, appears to be less reality than reality show. To begin with there is his implacable certainty that he is the illegitimate son of Howard Hughes and Katherine Hepburn, though no evidence can be found that this lovely but solitary woman ever gave birth during her extraordinary career, despite a fling with Hughes during her younger years. But should you be quick to dismiss the white-haired gentleman with a flowing beard and the piercing stare of a bluejay, you would miss the amazing story of his life. One that would lead you to believe that he very well could be the offspring of a genius aviator/engineer and a genius actress. If the proof is in the DNA, his seems to flow with potential from both parents.

Ernie, who will soon be the guest on my first podcast in the "Life With Iron Giants" series on this blog, is actually a very accomplished, and intuitively brilliant engineer, and designer of famous cars and speed boats, some of them fetch in the high six figures, they are so rare and coveted. As the owner of a cutting-edge design company, he led the high life for many decades, and when I see the photograph of him in his prime, suntanned, blonde and wickedly handsome zenith (and yes, a Hughes look-alike), I can understand why he married so many beautiful women in his ultra-modern, Newport Beach house. He has made and lost vast fortunes, and in his early years, he was a child of the kind of early 20th Century power and privilege few of us have ever experienced.

At birth, he was adopted into the Ford Dynasty in Detroit, by the brother-in-law of Edsel Ford (his mother was a Ford), and grew up during the WWII years when his father was often called to Washington to help with the war effort. Ernie lived amongst the technology and political giants of his time, and although he was a self-proclaimed non-conformist in many ways, never attending university, he had a natural talent for engineered design, doing much better than his blue-blooded parents might have envisioned. His innovative, cutting-edge creations can be found on enthusiasts' sites all over the net. And even though he hasn't produced one in many decades, his name is legend.

But Ernie's more complex nature won out in the end. When his business failed spectacularly in the 80's (all due to a steam engine he developed for cars then selling the patent to an automobile company that promptly mothballed it), Ernie lost his many homes, wives, boats, and other trappings of wealth. He took to the sea full time as the captain of his boat, then a became a spiritual seeker, diving into the mystical plane where he spent many years in various ashrams and retreats. It sounds eerily parallel to Carlos Castenada, who explored "the known, the unknown, and the unknowable" in his Don Juan series. Ernie may have crossed paths with him, so similar were their journeys into the nova of human consciousness.

And as you talk to Ernie, these two lives, engineer and yogi, intertwine in fascinating rhythm, only adding to the confounding mystery of this son of greats, and his possible biological legacy. As for his claim that he is Hughes' son, there is no denying that Ernie displays the same single-minded obsession with engineering challenges that the famous aviator did, even now he is constantly scribbling designs on napkins, and his innate understanding of natural principals a constant inspiration.

So what is the truth? Ernie typifies many of the challenges we face in San Pedro, a town as misconstrued, stereotyped, and unknown as he is. We are not available to all comers, especially those who lack curiosity, or the ability to breath into and travel into new territory the way Peter Mayle managed in A Year in Provence. Provence didn't need a PR campaign, so we're in a deeper hole, because the veil that separates the reality of life here and the perception of others is an intimidating divide.

And that itself is part of the mystery. And still news to a lot of people.