Episode 11: John Mayfield

January 24, 2019 — Today we’ll hear from John Mayfield, Jr. whose entire family relocated from Oklahoma to the “Orr Springs country” right after WWII to help build and run Mendo Mill and Lumber Company.  John describes his adolescence at the one-room schoolhouse near Comptche and his redoubtable teacher, Ruth Mannix, who made sure he had a superlative education. John recalls Ukiah in the 50s and 60s, his emergence as a conservative business and political leader, and his perspective on the 1970s “in-migration” of “hippies” who felt that the rules didn’t apply to them.  He also weighs in on the positive impacts of the back to the land movement, now that the “newcomers” have become integrated into the county.