SAD NEWS FROM SAFFRON FRASER: I guess the cat's out of the bag for the most part. Scott posted an announcement on his page. So. Instead of you all seeing ambiguous posts from me here, yes my dear Scott has Esophageal Cancer. Still reeling, but pretty solid. More info and updates as we learn. Feel free to message me, just know it might take a minute for me to reply. Oh. And the cats and dog are keeping guard.
JOAN BURROUGHS WRITES: After reading about the threats to the American Legion Building, now called Veteran's Hall, I decided to look up the information on it because a lot of kids attended school in that building. The housing for the bell tower is gone, it has some other strange stuff added on to it, but it is a neat part of Boonville history.
The Vet building housed three grades first through third for a very long time; I spent my school years there. Bill Brazil's mother was a first-grade teacher for years.
Your idea of the Community Service buying the Vet's Hall and leasing it back has some merit also a bit of history to review re a sale to a non-profit.
While looking for information I came across a half-finished document I started awhile back about the Red Schoolhouse. I am sending it to you so you can use it anyway you want for information or whatever.
C’MON AUDIENCE…Don’t let the actors steal the show! Arrive spiffed up in your best duds and you may be chosen to spin the cage and make someone rich in the 50/50 raffle! AV Variety Show is this weekend May 12 & 13th, Tickets on sale at Philo Market or AV Market in Boonville. (A few tix held for the door) It’s been three long years so let’s put the “V” back in VARIETY! Dress up & bring your cash for the raffle and intermission munchies!
ATTENTION AV SENIORS! Escape the parking hassles at the Variety Show this weekend. The AV Senior Bus, driven by the one and only Lindsay Clow, will be shuttling folks to the show on Friday, May 12th and Saturday, May 13th. Pick ups will be starting at the Philo post office at approximately 5:15 pm and the AV Senior Center at approximately 5:30 pm. Lindsay will then drop you off at the Grange. $1 per rider donation to the Center is appreciated. Leave a message at the AVSC at 707-895-3609 by noon on Friday to get on the sign up list. Please leave your name, phone number, how many people in your party and the location where you wish to be picked up. OR: Come on in to the Boonville Senior Center on Thursday, have a nice lunch and sign up in person. To help streamline your show entry, Captain Rainbow recommends to get your tickets in advance if possible. Enjoy the show!
MAY DAY! Dawned in the Anderson Valley un-May like, overcast, cool, windy. Used to be an important day of recognition for laboring people everywhere, and still is in many countries of the world. Not here. May Day is as forgotten as Arbor Day when, older old timers will recall, primary school students were given a tree seeding on that day that we took home to plant. Arbor Day again went unnoticed on 28 April.
TUESDAY, MAY 2ND, was, judging from the wild weather of wind, rain, bursts of sun, a two-hour morning power outage, and the Ukiah Road closed down in both directions for an hour when powerlines fell across the roadbed about 1pm, location not yet known, as wild a May weather day as any of us can remember.
BOONVILLE SCHOOL SUPE, the indefatigable Louise Simson, reports: “The district was notified today that we received a multi-year grant to build a high school after-school program that must include academic support in the amount of $112,000 annually. I will be looking for a program manager for this expansion.”
Ms. Simson also reports that “We've submitted the grant for the rehab of the track and field. We won’t hear back on that one until August.”
(Old old timers will remember when the high school track and field was established under then Superintendent, Bob Mathias. It was a little jewel, fully irrigated and meticulously maintained. Mathias, incidentally, was superintendent of schools at Chowchilla during the infamous kidnapping of an entire bus load of children, ages 5-14, all of whom were recovered uninjured, largely because of the heroic calm of bus driver, Ed Ray, who, with the help of a 14-year-old student, dug himself out and went for help.
ALTHOUGH HE'S MUCH IN DEMAND, so you'll be lucky to get him to whack your weeds, but Taylor Balson has always been my go-to guy for property maintenance. Taylor can do it all, from weed-whacking to heavy lifting. He recently weed-whacked my overgrown acre where the weeds, thanks to the big rains of winter, were waist-high, making for a doubly formidable task on the hot day Taylor got it done.
YOU CAN DONATE your discarded glasses to the Anderson Valley Lions Club. Old cell phones too It all gets rehabbed donated to agencies doing public good.
SPEAKING of discarded glasses, does anybody else remember Dr. Gerber (?), the used-to-be Cloverdale optometrist? She was an absolute delight, peering through her own coke-bottle lenses as she had me read an eye chart neither one of us could see. I remember the doctor motioning me to a big bin in the corner of her office. “Rummage around in there for a while. You can probably find an old pair that will do you for now.” And darned if I didn't find an old pair of horn rims that did me just fine. I've got a pair now from CostCo that are ok for reading, but no good at all for seeing beyond a computer screen and a printed page. But I can see my fellow citizens and the glorious vistas of Mendocino County better without my CostCo eyes.
BOONVILLE SKATE PARK
After many months of planning and design, Anderson Valley's custom skatepark design has been finalized!
The plan includes a 12,500 square foot skatepark (plus two internal landscaped/seating areas), a viewing area with seating, a water fountain, access paths, landscaping with native plants, a bioswale to accommodate drainage, new trash and recycling receptacles (with mosaic panels) and an entrance wall that will feature mosaic and donor appreciation tiles.
NORM CLOW:
Saying goodbye to Bay Area pitching legend Vida Blue, one of the nicest guys ever. These are my sister's and my favorite baseball photo. First is myself at the Marianas Ballroom at the Guam Hilton with Vida at the MCI Legends of Baseball tour on their way to Japan, 1995. I rattled off the starting line-up of the first Giants game at Seals Stadium in 1959, against Cincinnati, and he started calling more Legends over to hear about it. (Orlando Cepeda won the game on a lead-off home run in the bottom of the 9th over that low left field fence.) Second is about two months later at the “Build The Ballpark” office on Mission Street in San Francisco with Janice, who was a volunteer on the campaign and got to be on the field on Opening Day five years later. She knew he would be there for that day's activities, and showed him the photo, and his eyes bugged out, while he exclaimed, “Where did you get that? That was on Guam. Who is that?” “My brother Norm.” He grabbed her camera and got somebody to take the photo, saying, “We'll get your brother.”
GARDEN BEDS AVAILABLE:
The Community Garden at the Anderson Valley Elder Home has four beds available for rent this season (April through the following March). Some are in-ground and some are raised beds. For a small annual fee (depending on the size of the bed) the Community Garden provides soil, compost, water and drip irrigation management. If you are interested in renting a bed, or want more information, please contact Jill at: avehcommunitygarden@gmail.com
BOONVILLE’S HOMETOWN REGGAE BAND, Boonfire seamlessly blurs the lines between rock, reggae, and everything in between.
The entire band was raised on a healthy diet of Jamaican reggae, 90’s Seattle grunge, and old school hip-hop, giving them a unique musical perspective that is sure to excite fans of multiple genres.
Boonfire has been a band for over five years and has played many venues throughout Northern California and is making its second appearance at SNWMF!
‘MONA LISA IS MISSING’ is the title of a fascinating short documentary that aired a few months ago on PBS, after having been on the DVD/streaming circuit for a few years.
Here’s a short recap from Philadelphia-based film.org:
The Mona Lisa was stolen? Surprisingly, yes – on August 21, 1911. And even more shocking – it was taken by a simple Italian immigrant, Vincenzo Peruggia, who hid it in his dingy tenement room in Paris for more than 2-1/2 years. How did he do it? Why did he do it? The answers to those questions and are revealed in the award-winning documentary, Mona Lisa Is Missing, (monslisamissing.com). Philadelphia native, Joe Medeiros, Writer/Director and former Head Writer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno spent over 35 years obsessed with discovering the true story of the most unthinkable art theft in history by the most unlikely of thieves. In 2008, Medeiros discovered that Peruggia’s daughter Celestina was alive and still living in Dumenza, Italy, the thief’s home town.
“We both wanted to know the truth why Vincenzo did what he did,” said Medeiros. “With the help of Celestina’s son, Silvio and her daughter, Graziella, and their team they journeyed to Paris where Peruggia had lived and worked, to Florence where he brought the painting, to the French and Italian archives where the they waded through thousands of documents from the time of the theft, and ultimately to the truth, which they shared with Celestina – a truth they were not sure she would want to hear…”
THE LOCAL ANGLE: Boonville-based primo documentary film editor Len Feinstein edited the video, converting it from the producer-director’s large collection of material into the smooth-flowing and entertaining documentary it has become. Feinstein told us Thursday that one of the most interesting aspects of the production was that Producer/Director Medeiros was very good at producing or assembling illustrative graphic animations for points of the narrative where they didn’t have much photographic material to work with when they needed it. Highly recommended.
(Mark Scaramella)
LAST SUMMER AT THE MAPLE BASIN SWIMMING HOLE
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