Shopping in the Sixties

When I came to Healdsburg in 1966, Garrett's Hardware was on the south side of the Plaza. It was a tall narrow store with sliding ladders on the east and west walls. The floors were made of wood. I think it was some kind of soft wood, like pine, darkened with age and foot traffic.

I recall going to Garrett's to buy some rope. At the rear of the store there were holes in the floor, and poking out of the holes were rope ends. I picked the diameter and how many feet I wanted, and the salesperson started pulling on the rope until until the desired length appeared.

I have no idea why this is such a significant memory to me. Maybe it's because it is symbolic of a simpler, slower time. Or I'm more attracted to stores that sell basics and are located in the heart of a town. Possibly it's because I didn't have to throw away packaging when I got back home.

The photo obviously isn't the old Garrett's. I couldn't find one, so I went looking online for an old fashioned hardware store. When I found the photo of Carpenter's Paint and Hardware, I called and asked the owner if I could use it. The store, which looks like this today, is located in upstate New York. I had a wonderful time talking with the owner.

Can Healdsburg Remain a Buckle on the Farm Belt?

Back in the 60’s, Healdsburg was known as the buckle on the prune belt. All those beautiful white blossoms in the spring and the smell of prunes drying in the fall are no longer with us.

Are we still a “hub” for agricultural activities? In my opinion, catering to wine-tasting tourists isn’t exactly what I have in mind, though the wine industry is an important contribution to our agricultural base.

In order to shine our buckle, I hope there will be more focus on community, neighborhood, and individual gardens. The community garden (see photo) near Badger Park is a great example. How about “urban gardens” in neighborhoods on vacant lots? Or neighbors collectively gardening the best patch on the block?

Thinking about this reminded me of a video of urban gardening in Havana, Cuba. Although we don’t have the Havanan’s problem not having enough to eat, I found their efforts inspiring.



Update: Last night I read The Agrarian Standard, a wonderful essay by Wendell Berry. His closing comments: "The agrarian population among us is growing, and by no means is it made up of merely some farmers and some country people. It includes urban gardeners, urban consumers who are buying food from local farmers, consumers who have grown doubtful of the healthfulness, the trustworthiness, and the dependability of the corporate food system...."

Then and Now: How do we preserve Healdsburg’s small town character?

As most of you know, there are five large chunks of undeveloped property within Healdsburg’s urban growth boundary. It’s likely that there will be proposals to develop these properties when the economy improves. Currently the city has a commitment to the hospitality industry, so we’re more likely to get more high-end resorts. like the recently approved Saggio Hills. rather than big box stores.

What will happen to our small town character if most, if not all, of these properties are blanketed with hotels, restaurants, stores?

For several months now, I’ve been involved with the Healdsburg Visioning Project, which has been working to involve more residents in the decision-making process involving future development.

In my 43 years in Healdsburg, I have seen many changes that I’m not all that happy about. As new developments are proposed, would I like to share with the city council and planning commission what I remember about Healdsburg that made it so special? You bet! Would you? If so, please stay tuned in to what the Healdsburg Visioning Project is doing. For starters, here’s a 14 page draft of the Project Manual. Or read the whole thing here.

Photo: Taken by me in our local cemetery on our city's 150 anniversary .

My Favorite Neighbors Series: The Flakey Cream Regulars

Gone are the days when folks gathered ‘round the old wood stove to trade stories and feel our human connection. Many of us now feel isolated because belonging doesn't come easy anymore. A few small tables casually shoved together may bring enormous comfort and meaning to our busy lives.

What people in town tell me they miss most is still happening at Flakey Cream Coffee Shop. The tables are waiting. Bob Nelson and the staff thrive on connection. So I visit Flakey Cream four more times in search of “The Regulars"...

Please visit the Sonoma LifeStories Facebook page for the rest of the story...

My Favorite Neighbors Series: The Flakey Cream Gang

Occasionally I will link to the My Favorite Neighbors Series on my Sonoma  LifeStories Facebook page. In these stories I will write about some of Healdsburg's institutions, beginning with the Flakey Cream Bakery. Hope you enjoy...

Why I love Healdsburg

That's my vegetable garden in better, drought-less days. It's smaller this year, but better than no garden at all.

I love Healdsburg because I'm a "dirt person." Not a mountain, ocean, or desert person. I like living on flat dirt that grows stuff.

I chose Healdsburg as the place I wanted to live 43 years ago, and there's still no other place I'd rather live.

I have lots of memories that I hope to share with those who love Healdsburg as much as I do.

I Heard it on the Grapevine

Confession time. I’m not a “wine person”. The Sonoma County Wine Library has only been an abstract concept in my mind. Truthfully, I had no idea what or where it was. Until tonight, when I literally walked into it quite by accident while searching for new and interesting reads.

Most of you are way ahead of me on this one; the fact that the entire back portion (which I hadn’t even noticed before, sorry to say) of our Healdsburg library is the Sonoma County Wine Library-- a collection of 5,000 books on wine and related subjects including a wonderful assemblage of oral histories on well known local vintners, many of whom are still living. The Wine Librarian, Bo Simons, is apparently well known to just about everyone but me. The Wine Library contains four specific collection areas: the science and technology of winemaking, the economics of the wine industry, the worldwide history of wine, and local wine history. There are also old and rare books dating back to 1512 which are understandably kept under lock and key. It’s a vast and comprehensive resource which we are lucky to have within walking distance right down the street!

What was fun for me was to peruse the oral history section and see the names of several of the folks I have mentioned here on the blog or in my Neighbors column. Names such as Alyce Cadd, Susan Sheehy, Rose Demostene, Fred and Ruby Wasson and Norma Rafanelli Cousins. It hits me yet again--we live in a rare and wonderful place. A place where many of our neighbors are actual living history.

Check out the Wine Library as well as the Sonoma County Wine Oral Histories. Most certainly, you will find someone you know among them!

Oh, Glorious Summer: More Yard Art and Sunflowers

One of the reasons I do the blog is purely to have fun by trying different approaches that may spark or inspire others. Following Marie's recent post about yard art, I have noticed it in abundance--some pure whimsy, some political, some creative. But each piece an extended expression of the unique diversity of folks who live on our streets and in our houses.

Today I laughed at Karen Klimak's mischievous "found object tin men" on Haydon Street. I enjoyed an extravagantly creative twirling sculpture hanging in front of Cheryl's peace sign on Tucker. At times the sculpture seemed to be waving to the two playful pigs sharing a picnic lunch and a bottle of wine across the street.

And then sunflowers... This seems to be a banner year for sunflowers of all sorts. Once again, I held my breath as I strolled through the imposing wall of sunflowers surrounding the house on Tucker. Then I nosed out another group--spectacular brown headed ones--at Nancy Morgan's house on First Street. I ended up standing at the southeast corner of Fitch and Tucker, looking straight down at my feet rather than up at the imperious flower heads--at multi-colored sidewalk chalk art celebrating the "40th Man on the Moon" anniversary. Oh, glorious summer!

Old is Good in Healdsburg, Pt. 2

Fearless Immigrants:  Born in 1929, Joe Bucher (of Bucher Farms) came from a family of dairy farmers and grew up during World War II in Europe. Many of his teachers enlisted in the Swiss Army to protect Switzerland’s border with Germany after Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. 

“I was in the fourth grade. Our teachers left immediately and we grew up with substitutes--mostly untrained. Our farm helpers also left. Even our horses were drafted to pull cannons, etc., so we had to train bulls and oxen to do the farm work.”

“Our families were friends in Inwil,” Annemarie adds. “My dad, the town postmaster, also went to guard the border. We only rode bikes in Inwil and went everywhere on them. I recall helping Dad deliver the express mail at night.”

Joe’s older brother took over the family dairy farm after the war. So Joe felt there would be more opportunity to have his own farm in the United States. He immigrated to San Jose in 1951 and worked on a dairy farm in Santa Clara until he was drafted during the Korean War. 

Another Brave Immigrant:  “After the war, I came to the states alone as the widow of a U.S. citizen...” Gala Norton, Sr. tells me.

“With only $40.00 in my pocket and wearing Army clothes, I stood alone on the deck of the USS Monterey as we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge at 3:00 a.m. one morning in 1945. My heart still always clicks when I see the bridge or hear the fog horn.

“I was told how to find the Red Cross on Bush Street and I bought my first clothes. Because I had organized some tea dances on board the ship, the officers took me to the Palace Hotel on my very first night in San Francisco. I got my hotel room on Turk Street for $4.00 per night by saying I was the wife of one of the officers.”

A Long Friendship:  The (Fred) Wasson and (Ruby) Osborn families played a significant role in the history of the Alexander Valley. Fred’s dad, Louis Logan Wasson from Iowa, landed in Guerneville in 1906 when he ran out of money en route to the Alaskan gold mines. He met Helen Nellie Drake, a Guerneville native, and pursued her instead. In 1907 they moved to the Alexander Valley where, in 1920, he built a seven bedroom house at the corner of Geysers Road and Hwy. 128. 

Ruby (Osborn) was born at the place where Highway 128 and Chalk Hill Road intersect. Her grandfather, Broder Frellson, came from Napa Valley in 1892 to operate the Red Winery near Pine Flat Road. His wife Anna got paid for boarding the winery workers, thus helping earn enough to buy their own farm... 

Growing up, Ruby lived across the creek from Fred. Her parents grew prunes and grapes and the Wassons raised prunes. 

“We met when Ruby got a flat tire on her bike at Guilford Grammar School,” Fred laughs. “I offered to pump it up and we’ve been friends ever since.” 

227 North Street Preview prior to restoration

Pictures: 227 North Street, Phillip and Mark describing their project to neighbors.
The new owners of 227 North Street, The Marshall House(corner of North and Fitch), welcomed the neighborhood for a viewing of the old lady prior to them starting on the restoration. We praise Mark and Phillip, the new owners, for taking on this challenge and to support them in this endeavor. The evening event required bringing your own lighting as darkness fell and the spirits got rolling...great appetizers to go with lots of spirits in liquid form. The spirits of old were present in the attic according to Rich Pembromke who hustled down the stairs with a relief in his face when he hit the bottom stair....sure there was a story from long past to be shared on what the source may be??

Mark and Phillip graciously described their plans in detail as shown on the computer drawings displayed around the front parlor and many neighbors of other historic homes embraced them for this project and offered assistance, counsel, etc.
Say hi as you walk by.....
Barb Tuscany

Old is Good in Healdsburg

An endearing thing about the ‘Burg is our abiding love of things old--whether they be people, houses or trees. We like our history, take pride in it. Barbara Tuscany blogs about interesting old houses, dubbed Healdsburg’s “old ladies.” I prefer to write about interesting old people, dubbed Healdsburg’s “old timers.” Through Neighbors I have met  some of Healdsburg’s grandest and finest. Here are a few memories (in my voice, unless otherwise noted)...

A Strange Introduction:  After I first saw him burst through the door of John and Zeke’s, I began having Bill Wendt sightings all over town: Bill crossing Healdsburg Avenue on his three wheeler, Sparky. The tricycle parked in the doorway of Cosmic Copies. Then a sighting of the trike unattended in the Raven lobby. I swing into action, scribbling a note asking for an interview. I place the torn sheet of paper prominently over the John Kerry bumper sticker, fastening it down with one of the many bungee cords in Sparky’s full basket. He can’t miss it.

A few days later I’m awakened by the ringing of my phone at 7:15 a.m. 7:15! I’m rarely up before 8:30 or 9:00, so it has to be an emergency! I rush to answer it.

“Hi, Shonnie. This is Bill Wendt. Can you meet me at Starbuck’s at 10:00?” 

Remembering a Grandmother:  Mary Lou (Eddinger) now shows me a photo of her mother Rose (Pavoni) teaching grandsons, Nick and Joe, how to cook. “Rose made these aprons for them,” Mary Lou tells me. “Nancy had to look all over to get the chef caps.” She hands me a crayon drawing of a heart within a heart bearing the signature of third grader Joey Madarus (Nancy’s son). A school assignment about his grandmother--Rose Palmieri Cattalini Pavoni. It reads, “She had to make me happy everyday.... That was her goal!”

A Secret Revealed:  “During Prohibition we were allowed to make 200 gallons of wine for personal consumption,” Ernie Palmieri recalls. “But the government officials were always coming around looking for illegal booze and there were some stills up in those hills. The officials parked their 1930 Chevy sedan down in front and walked up to the door with suits on. They checked the hay loft and the basement. While they were looking around, my dad poured water in their gas tank. The next morning I went by on the school bus and saw their car pulled over and deserted down the road. I never said a word to anybody.”

Still a Character at 100 and Counting:  “I sold squirrels for spending money during the Great Depression,” Mary Barry tells me. “People’d say, ‘Mary, you climb a tree and act like a nut. You are some kind of nut!’ My family lived in Washington state and had a jerky little hotel on the coast. I was the fourth child of six... Shortly after my birth in 1907, we moved to Warrenton, Oregon... Daddy nightwatched at a mill, and, after Mother died of double pneumonia in 1916 at age 38, Daddy raised us five kids single-handedly.” 

Who Grew the Smithsonian Grapes?

Eighty Percent Alexander Valley

Some of us are familiar with the story of the 1976 Paris Tasting, and more people have become aware of the historic event through the movie “Bottle Shock”. It was interesting to see how film makers treated the story of the blind tasting, where a panel of French wine experts compared California Chardonnays with white Burgundies, and California Cabernets with red Bordeaux. The world was shocked when the winners were announced; they were two relatively unknown, small California wineries. It really is quite remarkable to think that it took centuries for France to build its reputation as the wine making leader of the world, but then this one blind tasting changed everything.

The story was retold in George Taber’s book Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine (Scribner 2005.) The Hollywood version of the story, Bottle Shock, now on DVD, focuses on the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay. Apparently the film embellishes the Paris Tasting to attract a wider audience.

If you know any of the real life characters of the event, then you realize that the story is remarkable in its simplicity and nothing about it needed to be embellished. If I were writing the script for a movie, it would begin with my neighbor Jeanette Brizee. On a warm Indian Summer afternoon of 2006, she was hosting one of her “wienie roasts” at the confluence of Sausal Creek and the Russian River in Alexander Valley. Jeanette was pouring a Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay for us on a sandy beach below her family’s Belle Terre vineyards, which her father Henry Dick and brother Ron Dick first planted in 1966. As mergansers floated by and kingfishers rattled, we whittled our roasting sticks and lit our little fire. It was just about the most unpretentious setting one could imagine, so I wondered why Jeanette generously shared such a grand chardonnay at such a simple occasion.

To be continued

"Yard Art"

Shonnie’s latest blog talks about the profusion of sunflowers on Tucker Street and veggie garden sightings.

Have you also noticed the “yard art” that appears in our neighborhood front yards? Sure, patios, courtyards and fence-lines still sport sassy bougainvillea, neatly trimmed junipers and prize roses. And, more and more yards are blooming with California drought-resistant native plants and succulents.

But, ’Burg residents seem to express themselves with various pieces of “yard art,” too. Tucked between the posies and boulders, the pieces range from the traditional (concrete birdbaths), to whimsical (the occasional summer, pink flamingo), to mystical (a tree sprite on University Street). Recently, I’ve been seeing some great contemporary sculptures placed in front yards. A purple and teal metal spiral at a Fitch Street residence is a good example.

Once upon a time, just civic and public buildings (or mansions) displayed works of art. Aren’t we lucky that we can stop and smell the roses…and enjoy local art on our walks, too!

A House Surrounded by Sunflowers

On this exquisite Healdsburg summer morning I took a walk around town noticing the interesting things that people are doing to beautify that little plot of soil along their curb. 

The last two blocks of Tucker Street provide some particularly good examples of how folks have extended their creativity all the way to the curb. My most favorite is a house on the last block of Tucker whose front is completely lined in tall, stretching sunflowers, a few of which are just beginning to blossom. There are sunflowers along the curb as well as behind and in front of the white picket fence, and it is a joyous experience to walk between them.

The curb of Nancy Morgan (our talented ceramic artist) on First Street also has sunflowers--along with other interesting looking veggies. In this neighborhood at least there seems to be a trend of growing your garden right up to the street. What a wonderful idea and what fun to see as we walk by.

I'd like to invite people to use this blog to tell us about these little surprises that are all around our beautiful town. 

Does anyone know who lives in the house surrounded by sunflowers? It remains a mystery to me.

Keeping Our July 4 Tradition Alive

Healdsburgers owe a debt of gratitude to our local American Legion and the donors who somehow find the money to continue our tradition of the best small town fireworks show on the face of the earth. Last night I took friends who have seen the fireworks at the Washington Mall in D.C. and they were simply blown away by our grand finale-which just gets bigger and better each year. Wow! Can we scream any louder??

In 2008 I interviewed Lorraine Plass, our local Post Commander. And she told me:

“This will be the 18th year that the American Legion has sponsored the fireworks in Healdsburg...  Dave Abbott, Bud Simmons and I are the Fireworks Committee with the support of about 30 other Legion members... But since last year, we are coming up short financially.

“We’ve funded the fireworks ever since the city banned home fireworks in 1990. The American Legion went to the City Council in 1991, saying, ‘The 4th of July isn’t the 4th without fireworks!’ So we volunteered to set up safe fireworks. It’s always been handled by a small group of us with other organizations such as the Boy Scouts, the Kiwanis and Rotarians helping on the day of the event. 

"Last year (2007) the Fireworks Committee was short $6,000 and this year (2008) they’ve had to transfer money from other Legion funds (usually spent on helping veterans) to make certain that the exquisite show that we anticipate will go on. Traditionally the Legion has relied on contributions from local citizens and businesses to actually make this thing happen. Now, the contributions just aren’t coming. Many people think the show is free. They don’t realize that the money must come from somewhere."

Shonnie: So if this was true in 2007 and 2008, just where do we get the money to create the best small town fireworks show anywhere? I think we must consider this well before July 4, 2010.