Going back to college to get my degree and a teaching credential after dropping out nine years earlier was tough in a lot of ways. The first was that the closest college to Willits was…
Posts published by “Jim Gibbons”
In November of 1969 three boats took members of twenty tribes from all over the country to occupy Alcatraz, reclaiming it as “Indian land and demanding fairness and respect for Indian Peoples.” The spokesman for the Indians was a Mohawk from New York named Richard Oakes, who offered the U.S. Government “$24 in glass beads and red cloth.” Oakes said, “We hold The Rock,” and that became the movement’s motto. Unfortunately, a few months later his 12-year-old daughter fell from a three-story structure in the prison and died. He left the Island shortly after, as did many others during the 18-month occupation.
I first came to Willits in late summer of 1971 because a fellow worker at the Tides Bookstore in Sausalito invited me up to see the property his girlfriend’s family bought north of Willits. Daniel,…
After digging out of the Big Snow of ’75 I checked in at the Mendocino County unemployment office in Ukiah because my six months of $31 a week had run out. I was asked about…
The recent drought in Northern California made me think of the last one back in the mid-seventies when I was living about six miles up Sherwood Road on a friend’s 20-acre property without electricity or…
Drought has a way of changing everything. The latest mandatory rationing in Brooktrails is 110 gallons a day per household. In Willits it’s 150
My first day at Willits High School (1984-1985) was very interesting in a weird sort of way. I had no literature classes, just 8th, 9th and 10th grade basic English, meaning they were all at…
There I was up on stage with my four teammates in front of the entire student body being praised by my coach for qualifying to compete in the Wisconsin State High School Wrestling Championships held…