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I figured Bob Johnson was just a kindly gadfly when we first met in 2009. After all, who requests a meeting with a reporter to talk about history — specifically, Orange County history, a subject as obscure and unloved as the study of carpet?
He was tall and lanky, with a full head of white hair swept to the side and frameless spectacles. Johnson told me over lunch that he liked my articles about the hidden histories of O.C. and urged me to dig deeper. As a starting point, he handed me a book he co-edited, and might I review it?