This Teacher Isn’t Whittling Away the Time, He’s Carving Out a Pastime

“The only dumb questions are those that aren’t asked,” and, “The only person who gets bored is a boring person,” are bits of wisdom which Robert L. Weir Jr. often quotes.

Many times that homespun philosophy is directed at his students at Kennedy High School in Anaheim. But every weekend, he also shares it with spectators at Knott’s Berry Farm, who watch him carve wood ducks.

“I enjoy talking to people,” said Weir, 53, of Yorba Linda, a paid entertainer at the amusement park. “It’s not a job. It’s plain fun.”

Weir, who has set up shop in a rocking chair at Knott’s, also is a veteran wood shop teacher who conducts drafting, auto shop and social studies classes during the regular school year.

The veteran educator said he didn’t start carving until 10 years ago.

“I guess everyone used to whittle, but there’s a big difference between whittling and carving,” he said. Carving is a big step up from whittling, Weir says.

“When you carve you create something, and in my case it’s usually a duck,” Weir said. He prefers bass wood, the same wood used to make Popsicle sticks. “It doesn’t splinter,” he said.

And he points out that his errors are not visible.

“If I make a mistake only two people know, and none of the ducks have ever complained,” joked Weir, who likes to point out that the definition of a craftsman is a person who has the ability to cover up his mistakes.

Carving, Weir said, “is very relaxing and enjoyable” and helps him cope with the daily feeling at school that many of his students would rather be someplace else.

“They have so many parks, the beach and other areas nearby where they go and kick back,” he said. ‘And that’s too bad because they have so many opportunities with computers and teaching aids at the school.”

Carving not only offsets stress, Weir said, but it makes him happy while pleasing others. “I really feel fulfilled, I really do,” he said. “When I’m carving I feel I’m able to get many of my problems out of my system.”

Weir also runs five miles a day to relieve stress. And often he sits on a knoll in his back yard to unwind, carving a variety of birds including robins, cardinals and some hawks.

“One of these days when I feel right I’m going to carve an owl,” he said.

There is an added benefit to his eight hours of carving each weekend day. “I learn something from each carving, and I enjoy the talking,” he said. “I’m a teacher, and when someone comes up and asks me something, it makes me feel I’m fulfilling what I started out to do.”

And he has a lot of carving ahead of him.

“I haven’t carved the perfect bird yet,” said Weir.

Virginia Carpenter spent a good part of her life with the Imperial Highway Assn., which tried to persuade transportation officials to extend Imperial Highway from its beginning in El Segundo to San Diego, following the route of an old stagecoach line.

“We got it to Yorba Linda,” said Carpenter, 83, of Fullerton, “and the group just faded away. I guess most of the people are gone now.”

The association celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1979. “And right after that there was more and more time in between each meeting until the meetings just stopped,” remembers Carpenter, who enjoyed taking the long car trips to the various meeting sites.

“I wasn’t as taken with road improvements as much as I was driving around in Southern California between Los Angeles and San Diego,” she admitted.

Since the highway group disbanded, Carpenter has turned her time to writing a book on the history of the old Mexican ranchos in the area.

“I thought it was going to be easy to write, but the more I work on it, the more I find and the more complicated it is,” said the former librarian in Yorba Linda and Placentia. She is also an active member of the Orange County Historical Society.

She wrote a book in 1969 entitled, “A Child’s History of Placentia” and later an adult version entitled “Placentia, A Pleasant Place.” She said 5,600 copies of each book were sold.