A tome about gnomes

The colorful world of June Lake’s John Adams.

If you’re in June Lake this week for the music festival, and you happen to take a little stroll down June Lake’s awesome, stuck-in-a-’50s-time-warp Main Street, may I suggest a stop at John  Adams art gallery, tucked next to Cathy’s Candy.

When you meet Adams, with his long beard and those kind, youthful eyes behind his glasses, you can’t help but think of Santa Claus.

Adams first moved to June Lake in 1965, and according to family lore (passed down during a memorable Thanksgiving feast, and which left his mother crimson), he was conceived in June Lake.

Adams principal claim to fame these days is that he is the creator of the wonderful book, “Legend of the Mono Gnome: A Story from Gnome Hollow,” which he both wrote and illustrated.

Published last summer, the book has sold nearly 500 copies on word-of-mouth alone.

In the book, he shares a little wisdom, shares tales of gnomes (based upon friends and characters he’s known in June Lake) and creates a book that’s nominally aimed at children, but has universal appeal.

I knew I was reading something more than a children’s book at the outset when the narrator encounters his first gnome, Moffee, who lives inside a tufa at Mono Lake.

“Moffee added that when he was young, he learned through many lessons that bad company corrupts good character but if you walk with the wise, you’ll grow wise. He continued by saying, ‘If you don’t associate with fools, you’ll save yourself from many red faces.’”

Sheet: John, is this observation somewhat autobiographical?”

Adams smiled. A self-described product of the ‘60s, he lived in June Lake during that time, and over the course of conversation, it became clear that he’d enjoyed his share of hell-raising – in  particular, there was an allusion to a naked ride down Main Street on his Harley.

During this period, there was also the forced three-year interlude in the Air Force. “The policeman knocked on my door and told me it was jail or the military … I was stationed at Travis Air Force Base and fixed airplanes … and spent my leave time in Haight-Ashbury.

“A lot of young people came here [June Lake] in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. The town was full. It was a whole different time, different feeling, different culture.”

He said they used to refer to the resident California Highway Patrol officer as the “hippie chippie.”

He gave up the partying life and became a Christian in 1976 – thus the influence of the Book of Proverbs on his Mono Gnomes tale – and married his wife Jill in 1979.

How he described his courtship was classic. He said he saw this girl at the post office with her hair down below her butt, and he was just smitten. There was a cafe across the street and he took to hanging out there and keeping an eye on the post office so he could “accidentally” run into her.

“I asked her out three times and she stood me up each time,” he recalls. “She had heard the rumors about me … and they were all true.”

Finally, however, Adams was heading over to Hawthorne one night for a lobster buffet and he saw Jill walking along the sidewalk. He invited her to hop in – and she did.

On the second date, his car ran out of gas and they had to walk all the way into town from the 395 junction. “It was five-below … I gave her my jacket … I nearly froze to death,” he said.

Adams has owned his art gallery for five years and says he’s been making art for as long as he can remember.

During his professional career, he worked as a graphic artist for both Standard Oil and Lockheed Aircraft.

He’s also created logos for local businesses such as the Tiger Bar and Cathy’s Candy.

Adams with the painting returned by Dick Hudson. Photo courtesy: Sheet staff.

He tells a great story about the first artwork he ever sold. He was working as a meat cutter in Lee Vining and Dick Hudson, owner of the local 76 station, came in and asked to buy two paintings that Adams had hanging on the wall.

As Adams recalls, he’d never sold any art before and didn’t even know how to go about selling it, or what the price should be, so he told Hudson the paintings weren’t for sale.

And Hudson replied by saying that every man had his price. How about $600 for the pair?

“$600 was like a year’s rent,” recalls Adams. So I said yes, and Hudson whipped out his checkbook on the spot.

Years later, long after Hudson had moved away, and after Hudson’s wife had passed, Adams said Hudson rented an RV and embarked on a long road trip all over the west. When he stopped back through June Lake, he gave one of Adams’ painting back to him. The painting now hangs inside the gallery door.

But back to the gnomes. When asked why he thought “Legend of the Mono Gnome” was accessible to so many, Adams said simply, “”I didn’t want it to come across as Christianese … when you come to the Lord, He doesn’t pump out your brain.”

You can find the book at Adams’ shop. He’ll even sign it for you. Books are $18.