by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
An enchanting storybook published 25 years ago caused a southern California woman on the spur of the moment to board a plane and fly 2,000 miles to meet the book’s author in Sartell. That’s where she was served up a heaping helping of “Minnesota Nice” – Sartell-style.
The book is the award-winning classic, Old Turtle; its author is writer-musician Douglas Wood of Sartell; and the book’s number-one fan is Connie Halpern of Camarillo, Calif.
Halpern flew to Minnesota just so she could hear Wood reading from his new book and maybe have the pleasure of meeting in person the author she has so long admired. As it turned out, she not only met Wood and his wife, Kathy, but they invited her to dinner at their cozy cabin home in the woods.
The meeting happened April 23 when Wood gave readings from his books at First United Methodist Church in Sartell. His two recent books, just published, are Old Turtle: Questions of the Heart and Deep Woods, Wild Waters: A Memoir.
Halpern, a former registered nurse, is the owner of a book store in Camarillo she calls “Mrs. Fig’s Bookworm” – the Fig’s standing for “Faith-in-God Shows.” That shop is where she has gleefully promoted Woods’ books to her customers for years. Dozens of them responded warmly after having enjoyed the books.
“I read Old Turtle when it was first released in 1992,” Halpern stated in an e-mail interview with the Sartell-St. Stephen Newsleader after her return to Camarillo. “My 26-year-old son just recently texted me how Old Turtle was his favorite book from childhood, how it was always on the top of our reading stack and how he has vivid memories of me reading it to him on the white sofa in the Quiet Room.”
For years, Halpern loved to read the book as a kind of children’s sermon in her church in Camarillo.
The book was a hit with Halpern’s daughters, too.
One daughter read the book weekly during an entire summer to teen and adult volunteers when she was working as a spiritual-life coordinator for the Sierra Service Project on a Native American reservation. Another daughter, her youngest, also read it many times, saying Old Turtle is not just a great book, it’s “an insightful, thought-provoking, life-changing book,” as are the other Turtle books Wood wrote since the first one, Halpern enthused, quoting her daughter’s words.
Is it any wonder, after years of enjoying Old Turtle, that Halpern would, in the blink of an eye, jump on a jet plane and zoom to Minnesota? She had emailed Wood a few times in the past quarter century; he’d emailed back. When she heard he was going to give a reading in Sartell, it didn’t take her long to get her airplane ticket.
The book
Old Turtle, lavishly and lovingly illustrated by artist Cheng-Khee Chee, is a 56-page storybook for children and adults – or as Halpern puts it, for people ages 6-116.
The book begins with arguments among mountains, rivers, stars and living creatures, including ants, bears and lions. Then Old Turtle, a very wise creature, enters the scene and shares his wisdom about God’s love for all of his-her creations and about the importance of harmony among Earth’s wondrous diversity.
The book has been called a “new-age fable” that presents environmental awareness, a spiritual unfolding and gender balance (references to God include “She.”)
In the words of Halpern:
“It’s a timely masterpiece filled with wisdom that needs to be shared with the world. Old Turtle enlightens the reader on the purpose of life, the search for happiness, the intricacies of family, the value of play, the root of evil, the reality of death and – most importantly – the opportunities provided by each new sunrise.”
Thank you
For years, Halpern wondered how to put into words the profound impact that book had had upon her family and the lives of her bookshop customers. She struggled for words to thank Wood when she emailed him. She pondered which words to use to thank him if she’d ever get a chance to meet the author in person.
And then, on April 23, she had her chance.
She decided it would be best just to give a simple, heartfelt “Thank you.”
At the reading in Sartell, as Halpern stood in line with many others to meet Wood, she was certain it would be a brief encounter: a smile, an autograph, the exchange of a few pleasant words and then “next.”
But to her amazement, Wood gave her a huge hug because he’d learned from his wife a woman named Connie had flown all the way from Los Angeles airport for the book-signing event.
“What?!” Wood said to Halpern, as she recalled. “You have got to be kidding me. Are you crazy?”
Then he invited her for dinner the next day.
Halpern was stunned – almost stupefied – at that moment.
“Doug (that’s what he insisted I call him) was genuine, humble, kind, my-neck-of-the-woods kind of guy,” she said. “We were instant friends, or – may I venture to say? – family perhaps.”
Happy dinner
Dinner with the Woods was one of the grandest pleasures of Halpern’s life.
“Their home is filled with multi-generational history, art, books, music, family photos and memoirs, turtles galore,” she noted. “And in that home I tasted the best homemade strawberry shortcake ever.”
Before leaving, she asked if the Woods would join her in a song. Doug asked her if she knew All God’s Critters Got a Place in the Choir.
“Yes!” she practically shouted.
And Doug began to play, and they all began to sing.
“I sang with joy and tears because I will never, ever forget their gracious hospitality,” Halpern said.
Enthralled by Sartell
Halpern, who had never been to Minnesota, was enthralled by what she found.
“I just loved it!” she said. “I grew up in the woods of Ohio, on the Ohio River, so spending time in the woods by your beautiful river and creeks was enchanting and refreshing.”
Halpern met many Sartell locals “in the parks and in the Perkins restaurant and in the rustic AmericInn” (where she stayed).
“I will sum up my experience in Sartell as simply ‘holy,’ filled with a myriad of ‘Godwinks,'” she said, “and I caught each and every precious one, even with tear-filled eyes for much of the trip.”
Old Turtle says “Family is the world made small enough to hold.” That insight occurred yet again to Halpern right after she met Doug and Kathy Wood.
“They certainly made the world small enough to hold in Minnesota,” she said,” and I must stress once again that there is no combination of consonants and vowels to accurately describe the magic of my weekend in your neck of the woods. I am – and will be – forever grateful.”
photo by Carolyn Bertsch
Connie Halpern of Camarillo, Calif. arrived by plane at 3 a.m. April 23 to meet Sartell author Douglas Wood in person during a reading from his new book at First United Methodist Church in Sartell.
This is the cover of the acclaimed classic storybook, Old Turtle, by Sartell author Douglas Wood.
Sartell author and musician Douglas Wood.
