Augie Garrido
The Napa Valley wasn’t as romantic when I grew up as it is these days. We were a happy family but working in the orchards and fields was hard, monotonous work. Back then I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, although I was pretty sure it didn’t involve picking fruit.
In the Army I listened to a lot of guys talk about what they didn’t have to do that day, and how they got out of it to go play pool or go to the movies. Their post-Army plans weren’t very exciting either; mostly they wanted to do more of nothing, get a trailer and go fishing. To me that sounded like zero plus zero equals zero. “I haven’t done anything so I can do nothing the rest of my life.” Well, I didn’t want to do that either.
After the army, I found out my dad had a job lined up for me at Mare Island shipyard where he was a supervisor. That didn’t appeal to me at all. Not because I was too good for that kind of work but because, as I told my dad, “I know something you don’t.” A few days later, when we were speaking again, I explained. I had seen a guy on the Ed Sullivan doing tricks with a yo-yo. He was the Duncan Yo-Yo champ. And I was better than he was. It was my “light bulb” moment, when I realized two vitally important things: that I wanted to be the best at something, and that I could. And what irony – I don’t even know the name of the person who completely changed my life.
