COCKTAILS ANYONE? Lauren’s at The Buckhorn (LAB) is pleased to announce that the residents of Anderson Valley, and those folks visiting here, can once again sip on a Martini, imbibe a Margarita, sup a Gin and tonic, quaff a shot of Jameson’s Irish Whiskey or Don Julio Tequila, and choose from a wide variety of cocktails. Yes, after an eight-month process during which the establishment was closed for three months and then given a license allowing beer and wine sales only, the LAB has finally received its license to serve liquor from the Alcohol Beverage Commission (ABC). The original temporary license, under which the LAB had operated for six months in the second half of 2021, was unceremoniously (and illegally, it is believed) taken out of a signed escrow by the previous owners and then sold to a bar in Hopland. This short-sighted and avaricious action, with no consideration for the Valley Community nor the many employees who lost jobs, left the Valley without access to an establishment offering liquor for the first time since Prohibition (1920-33). As part of the plans moving forward, a distillery will operate in the basement of The Buckhorn building with a tasting room and street access, hopefully producing a line of locally-sourced gins, whiskies, vodkas, and tequila served under the banner of The Boonville Distillery. Meanwhile, a full bar and restaurant is once again operating in Boonville! Thank you for your continued support. Cheers to one and all. (Lauren’s at The Buckhorn)
PETER LIT on last weekend’s Great Day In Elk: “Shout out to the Anderson Valley contingent. The auctioneer at the Great Day in Elk annual cake auction sends a huge Thank You to the Anderson Valley consortium that braved the (Philo) Greenwood Road and helped to make the cake auction a tremendous success! Recognizable to me among the plotters were Lauren Keating, Heidi Gundling, Mark Apfel, and, the probable instigator, Captain Rainbow. I'm sorry I can't place names on the rest of the participants, but Thank You as well. Thanks also to the dedicated cake-makers! Sunshine all day; another Great Day in Elk!”
AV HEALTH CENTER: Please remember that COVID-19 is unfortunately still active currently in our communities. I encourage everyone to get their vaccines and boosters, INCLUDING children 6 months and up. Testing is still important to help curb the spread of this very contagious virus which can still be very serious for some. We have tests you can take home, please come by and pick them up. We highly encourage anyone with symptoms or recent travel and exposure to test for 2-3 CONSECUTIVE days, which will more accurately pick up a positive. Vaccines, masking, and frequent diligent testing are still our best ways to keep each other safe and case numbers down. Please come to the clinic Tuesday or Thursday for vaccines, give us a call if you have ANY questions. The reformulated vaccine will be coming soon, likely September. 895-3477, ext 261
MARSHALL NEWMAN REMEMBERS ‘THE LAND’ IN PHILO: RE: The Land. To take the history back farther, The property was called El Rancho Navarro when Irving and Edna Newman purchased it in 1957 and founded the summer camp of the same name. Prior to that, El Rancho Navarro was a resort established by Joe and Marian Selby in the mid-to-late 1940s. Prior to that, the property was a resort called The Pines, founded by Mary Ward and her brother James Hanen in the early 1900s and run by them until at least the 1920s and possibly longer. PS. One missing element in the article’s chronology was ownership of the property by Paul and Melody Haller beginning in the very late 1990s – when it was called Shenoa – and continuing into the early 2000s. Under their ownership, it remained a retreat center, though the name was changed to Shenoa Springs.
THE ANDERSON VALLEY SENIOR CENTER recently hosted Elizabeth Garcia who brought a portable inflated planetarium to the Senior Center. Seniors were treated to a “stroll” through the constellations and then Ms. Garcia talked about the new Space Capsule that launches in six days headed for the Moon. Thanks to Elizabeth for being our own local NASA diplomat!
GROUP FITNESS IS BACK! Drop by The Live Oak building weekdays 9am-2pm and take a peek at the variety of ways your body can move @ The Pilates Nook, a small group fitness training center focused on Pilates but soon to add Barre, TRX, & more! Stay tuned for our Fall group class schedule! Interested in becoming certified in group fitness? Already an instructor and looking for a new space to offer classes? Please reach out as we grow our services to meet the interests of our local community. Together with Studio SoBo (Yoga, Dance, Karate, & more) and our AVHS Gym (cardio & weight training), we can bring the community fitness resources we all appreciate to our valley.
FROM the November 26th, 1898 edition of the Mendocino Beacon: “F.A. Bean, the Navarro nurseryman, notes there was a ready demand for apples this season, almost the entire dried product of that fruit grown in Anderson Valley having been purchased by a San Francisco firm and shipped to Australia. He notes the codlin moth cannot exist within ten miles of the coast. With immunity from this pest, combined without soil and climate, Mendocino at some distant day, should enjoy the distinction of being one of the best and most prolific apple producing sections in the world.”
ATTENTION LOCAL HISTORIANS: Wasn't Mr. Bean also a working colleague of the renowned Luther Burbank? And wasn't Mr. Bean's ranch at the foot, or close by, of Nash Mill, Nash being the family who succeeded Bean? I'm sure I've read that Burbank visited Bean's place where they put their heads together on hybrid fruits. Anderson Valley did indeed become a prime apple-growing region — apples and sheep — before it went to wine grapes.
AS AN OLD SCHOOL GUY who's also just plain old, I'm happy to see that Friday Night football is back in Mendo, with Fort Bragg off to a fast start with a drubbing of Healdsburg, 37-0, Willits knocking off Piner, 29-0 but Ukiah dropping 27-0 to Montgomery. Ukiah, incidentally, is coached by Ryan Parrish, a Boonville guy who was once, and probably still is, a fearsome defensive back and running back. And the Anderson Valley Panthers are rarin’ to go under head coach, John Toohey.
BOONT TRIBE IS HIRING!
We are looking for an energetic person to help out during our afterschool program!
-Monday/Wednesday/Friday
-3:30-5, 4.5 hours a week
-Play with kids
-Monitor children on the playground
-Help with afterschool classes
-$15 an hour, about $2000 over the school year!
-Perfect for a high school or JC student looking for a little extra cash!
-Must be at least 16
-Must be able to get to the school in Philo, possible ride home.
Please email us at Boonttribe@gmail.com if you are interested!
A GREAT OPPORTUNITY to help the County and the Historical Society:
The Historical Society of Mendocino County is currently seeking two board members!
The Historical Society of Mendocino County is a 501(c)(3) organization and its board of directors is comprised of nine volunteer members from all over Mendocino County dedicated to the organization’s mission of collecting, preserving and sharing the diverse history of Mendocino County.
On the HSMC grounds in Ukiah, the William J. and Molly Toney Archive houses the collection, the HSMC Headquarters and a research facility, and the Held- Poage Memorial Home is currently under restoration and will become a historic house museum set in 1927 that reflects the life of the Held-Poage family.
The HSMC is looking for individuals who have experience in a variety of areas including, but not limited to, strategic planning, grant writing, museums or archives, fundraising and nonprofit management. A board director is part of a team which the HSMC membership trusts to make informed decisions and provide strong and sound governance.
For more information about the HSMC and its board of directors, or for an application, please contact the HSMC at info@mendocinocountyhistory.org or call (707) 462 -6969”
Historical Society of Mendocino County
100 S. Dora St, Ukiah, CA 95482
Phone: (707) 462 -6969
Email: info@mendocinocountyhistory.org
ANDERSON VALLEY'S renaissance man — the guy has so many skills I lost count after that art piece of a sailboat he built, and that was 30 years ago — has a new book out. Nope, not his haikus. This one is an autobiography called “Blowin' My Own Horn Or 100 things I've done in the last 75 years, a random collection of people, places and events.”
THE GUY'S packed a lot in his 75 years. The author strode boldly into the murk of the ava's compacted headquarters to hand-deliver a copy, which I knew would be amusing from its title and, putting aside deadlines, read it right through. Sample: “I got a job as a male model,” which is things I've done number 67: “My mother was an artist and in her early career illustrated mostly children's books. You may remember ‘See Dick chase Jane — See Jane Run — Run, Jane, Run’ from your first grade lessons, well, that was my mom’s artwork. She also worked for WonderBooks (‘with washable covers’) most notably the story of Peter Pan. I was six years old at the time and she would sketch me in some pose or other, paying me a penny a pose for my efforts. I still have a copy of that book — come over and I'll read it to you as you turn the pages…”
AND MEN of a certain age will surely relate to this Derwinski poem, item 43:
DRAFT DODGER
Dear Mr. Derwinski,
You are hereby notified that
Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah
Sincerely
Your Selective Service Draft Board
(p.s. You're Screwed.)
A month later at the
Army's Oakland Induction Center
200 guys in clean underwear
hope that an ingrown toenail
Or a bad case of hemorrhoids
(Bend over and cough)
Will keep them out of Vietnam
As luck would have it…
The Army shrink decided I was
Manic-Depressive
with an
Anxiety Complex
and
Homosexual Tendencies
(His exact words)
Gay-For-A-Day
And Unfit for Service
The bright side of homophobia.
ED NOTE: I was one of the mob at a major protest at that induction center. Lots of arrests. I still remember young, pre-hippie, cleancut young guys getting off the induction buses and making their way through the protesters pleading with them not to go. (I'd already been in and out of the Marines and was able to turn in my draft card at no risk of consequences at another famous demo at the Federal Building in San Francisco. I wonder if Derwinski was one of the fresh-faced recruits making his way through the din that solemn day in downtown Oakland, many of them processed right on into the meat grinder in a place they'd never heard of for no reason other than the vanity of old men. By the end of that indefensible conflict, the system was drafting kids into the Marine Corps, heretofore a volunteer organization. When I read that Marines were fragging their officers, I understood why.
WONDER if there are still kids who play all three major sports in high school — football, basketball, baseball. I played football and baseball, and would have played basketball but I didn't like the basketball coach. The feeling was mutual, and I think it stemmed from me laughing at a solemn, shaming spiel he tried to deliver about what an enormous hassle it was for the school when this never identified kid kept sneaking in through locked doors to defecate in the indoor swimming pool which, as a high school kid, my peers and I thought was hilarious. “You fun-loving rover boys probably think it's funny…” the coach began. At which point I couldn't help… From there on it was war. I remember him telling me, “I hope I'm there when you get yours, Anderson,” which even as a kid I thought was awfully unprofessional of him.
FUNNY, how an incident like that lingers forever somewhere in one's memory, that haunted ragbag filed away in the rear of an old man's failing cortex. Gawd, now it all comes back to me! I attended my millionth high school reunion, hoping to see some old teammates from the various sports, and darned if an ancient crone didn't immediately confront me with, “Do you remember the night…” Mother of God! I suddenly did remember, but hadn't thought about her or grappling with her in her vehicle high on a foggy ridge overlooking Frisco Bay since the very sin itself in the summer of ’56. “I hope you support our president,” was the very next thing she said. Which was Trump at the time. “Great to see you again, Janet, but my pager just went off and I have to go.” To my retreating back she yelled, “I read about you going to jail up there…” She drove me clear outta the venue because it was obvious she was just getting warmed up, but I did get to see one guy I'd come to see.
AMONG our many blessings in the Anderson Valley, are five fresh fruit and vegetable stands, the most comprehensive of which is the amazing Petit Teton, six miles south of central Boonville. They not only offer a range of food products, animal and vegetable, produced by the sweat of their collective family brow, they offer an array of preserved foods.
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