I was remiss in not mentioning what Vern Piver did for our baseball team at Fort Bragg High School. When Cob Berger took over as varsity coach, he knew little about baseball but was a good football coach. In his first year he called me and asked if I would be interested in helping his pitchers. I did and it started a 10-year stint as pitching coach for the Timberwolves. In 1983 we had an exceptional bunch of kids. Prior to the season the coach said we needed to do something special for this bunch. Mr. Berger was born in Hawaii and had some connections there, so he suggested we take our team to Hawaii and participate in the Good Will Games. Each year a different team from California was invited to Hawaii to play, and Berger got us in.
But how to raise money?
Well, we had raffles, pie sales, donations, all the stuff you do to raise funds. But we needed about $25K to pull it off (a lot more in those days). One of the ideas came from Vern to cut and sell firewood. We found out that there were many obstacles for that though. We cut maybe 10 cords and ran out of wood sources. Then Vern called and said, “Bring all the saws you can round up. I found some wood!” So, we showed up at the then L.P. Mill south of Fort Bragg and here was a whole pile of logs that probably had 100 cords of wood. Vern had talked the bosses into donating these logs that were not a good enough quality for lumber but were being set aside for pulp. We probably made $15K from this donation thanks to Vern.
We paid for airfare, meals, and lodging for the whole team, stats people, etc. Most of the parents came too. There were 82 of us! We had a great time. The boys were invited to a luau. We visited a great snorkeling area and above all we won the tournament, beating a team from Miliani who had not lost a game in two years.
Prior to this when I first started coaching with Berger and during my first year, we had John DeSilva. John was one of the most coachable kids I ever had the pleasure to work with. He was a pitcher and as you know pitched in the Bigs for Cincinnati including a featured Sunday night game on ESPN.
John only threw in te high 80s, but he had excellent control. He did not last too long but was a big deal for little Fort Bragg. We had another pitcher, Mike Jones, who threw harder than John but had little control. He would walk 8-10 a game but would also have 14-15 strikeouts. Mike pitched for the Tigers. The whole DeSilva family was athletic, and his brother Brian was a very good basketball player who played for Vern who also coached basketball when his son Tony played.
One of Vern's teams went to the CIF finals, but they ran into Jason Kidd and his team from the Bay Area. Vern knew Kidd was a future hall of famer way back then.
When I finished college, I went to work for the County Public Works Department in Ukiah, now the Transportation Department. We eventually ended up in Redwood Valley where I bought a small house on wwo acres with a barn for $7,900. Soon I got involved in Little League and was responsible for building a baseball field on a small parcel the Lions Club had donated for a park. I put out the word for volunteers and on our first workday lots of folks showed up to help.
One I will never forget approached me and said I can bring about a dozen helpers if we want. Wow, that would be great, so we introduced one another. He said, “I am Jim Jones!”
Sure enough, a short time later he showed up with his flock. Mostly black ladies and most had children. They worked their asses off and it was very helpful. What I remember most was the ladies called him “Mista Jones.” After several work parties I learned more about Jim and his People’s Temple Church built just south of Redwood Valley Center. Jim Jones by this time had made inroads in the community and was a favorite around the courthouse. This was the beginning of his relationship with Tim Stoen who I knew very well working with him. I was in charge of the Land Improvement Division and had lots of legal questions that Tim would give me an opinion on. I investigated land violations for the DA's office and Tim would handle those too.
Lots of opinions have been offered on Tim but he is a very good guy in my opinion. He just got sidetracked by Jones. Jones was very persuasive. So I could see how Tim and others went astray. I had my own experience with that also.
In my last piece I touched on Jim Jones. A likeable guy when I first met him, but always a thought in the back of my mind about his mission. The Mendo Board of Supervisors liked him then and that was his connection to Tim Stoen. As time went on and his congregation grew, legal issues surfaced. People, mostly ladies who joined, were cared for as were their kids. But it was becoming obvious that they were under his control. I had several of the church kids on my little league team and while the mothers were good fans, Jones always seemed busy. I learned from the boys that orders were strict and not to be broken. It also crossed my mind he was banging these ladies too.
Anyway, that lasted for a year or so, but the church was outgrowing itself with more and more members. It was during this time Jones was becoming known as a “healer” if you believed in such things. It was also about a year into my wife's bout with terminal cancer. She was only 27. In desperation my mother-in-law and I went to San Francisco to attend one of Jones’s sermons on healing. The church had found new digs in San Francisco that would accommodate his expanding empire. I was shocked when we went into the hall and there were hundreds of people attending. Jones would walk up and down the aisles, put his hand on someone and shout, “Heal!”
Well, he got close to us and this lady who was visibly very ill (or so it seemed) spit up some blood and then appeared to be better? As I said, we were desperate because of my wife's illness. So we thought, Why not? When I saw the lady's episode I couldn't get out of there quick enough. I just knew Jones was as was rumored a phony.
I think Tim Stoen got entangled into this because early on Jones was facing legal challenges from the confrontation of members having to give everything to the church to join. I think husbands, relatives, etc. were seeing through all this and presenting legal challenges that Tim was handling for Jones. To Tim's credit he never talked much about their dealings even though he would ride to work with me on occasion since we both worked at the courthouse and lived in Redwood Valley.
After this of course was the awful conclusion of everything ending in death for hundreds and the end of this monster.
My wife was the niece of the “Bear Lady” in Laytonville. Her mom was the bear lady's sister. The bear lady, Lynn Gravier, was a very good mom to three kids, respected in the community and always loved all animals.
Her husband Richard owned the Shell station in Laytonville and was an excellent baseball player. In fact, when I first started dating Marilyn (later my wife) we went to a game at Candlestick. Richard would get tickets as perks from Shell Oil. We arrived at Candlestick, and it was foggy before the game started.
By the sixth inning you could not see the centerfielder. Soon, not even the second baseman. So the game was postponed until the next day, I cannot remember that ever happening before or after! Richard was a tightwad and would not go home, so we holed up in some cheap high rise hotel downtown. Marilyn had to call her mom and explain the deal and that we were staying overnight. I remember her mom had to talk to Richard too just to make sure this was not something I made up. So, we got one room with two beds. I had to sleep with Richard!, not my first choice. When Richard passed Lynn kept their house on a hill above Laytonville and raised, cared for and fed anything resembling an animal needing attention.
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