What History Has Taught Me: L. J. Martin

I thankfully grew up in Bakersfield, in the center of the Oklahoma and Texas of California, Kern County. One hundred miles physically from L.A., but 1,500 miles culturally. It’s the home of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and of four of the country’s ten largest oil fields. I was a latch key kid, raised by my mother from age seven, who worked hard and taught me I could do anything I set my mind to, even if I didn’t have a dime to start with. A childhood hero was my brother Rex. Four-an