Sarajane Woolf’s essays have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Alaska Quarterly Review, and South Dakota Quarterly. The SDQ piece was later named a notable essay in Best American Essays 2004. She lives in Carpinteria, California.
1 The best auto parts store in, say, the galaxy, is in Guadalupe, California. A couple hundred miles up the coast from LA, it’s where you want to be if you have the urge to buy a fan belt,…