by Steve Sparks
Dear Readers: To cut to the quick: Whilst I have thoroughly enjoy conducting these interviews over the past three years, it is a weekly commitment that I feel I need to take a break from. It has been a very interesting project indeed and one warmly received by subject and reader alike. Every single person [...]
by Steve Sparks
I met with Terry at the conference room upstairs in the Farrer Building in downtown Boonville where she had arrived just before me with coffee and cinnamon rolls from Mosswood Market next door. Things had clearly got off to a good start. Terry was born in Santa Monica, southern California to parents Muriel Berg and [...]
by Steve Sparks
I met with Susan at her lovely home in Rancho Navarro and we sat down overlooking the meadows outside with a cup of herbal tea and began to chat… Susan was born in Boonville, Missouri — strange but true! Her parents were Hurst John and Martha Bates. The Bates side of the family was a [...]
by Steve Sparks
A couple of weeks ago, a few days after Thanksgiving, I met with long-time Valley resident Eva Johnson at the Fairgrounds in Boonville and we sat and talked in one of the rooms at that facility. Eva was born in the town of Biggs in Butte County, California, in the Sacramento Valley. Her parents were [...]
by Steve Sparks
I met with John at his lovely home set amongst thirty-plus beautiful acres just outside Philo. He made some strong coffee and we sat down to talk in the spacious dining room, with dogs Boris and Mocho nearby, relaxing alongside the wood-burning stove. John was born in 1951 in Paterson, New Jersey to parents George [...]
by Steve Sparks
I met with Lanny at his home south of Boonville near to the Meyer Family Cellars tasting room. We sat at a dining table, where we were to later enjoy some delicious shrimp quesadillas that Lanny prepared, and began our conversation… Lanny was born in 1935 to parents Sam and Rose. Both were Russian immigrants. [...]
by Steve Sparks
Along with his handler, Deputy Sheriff Craig Walker: Bullet, The Valley’s New Best Friend A couple of weeks ago, I drove ‘over the hill’ to Ukiah and headed for the County Sheriff Department’s training center on Low Gap Road. As I pulled into the parking lot primarily used for holding impounded vehicles that are there [...]
by Steve Sparks
I met with Linda at her home on Tumbling McD Road, south of Philo near to the KZYX public radio building. After a brief ‘tour’ of the house, expertly built by husband Jim of Philo Saw Works ‘fame’, we sat down with a good cup of coffee and began our chat. Linda was born in [...]
by Steve Sparks
This is the second part of an interview I conducted with Beverley Bennett a couple of weeks ago at her home in Philo. She was born in India to British parents, and lived there during the final days of the Raj and through the early years of that country’s Independence. In 1955 she moved to [...]
by Steve Sparks
I met Beverley at her home at the Philo Pottery Inn and we sat in the lovely garden with some ‘real’ tea and biscuits (cookies) as we began our chat. Beverley was born in 1951 in Calcutta, in the Indian state of Bengal, the only child of parents George Bennett and Bridget Osbourn, who always [...]
