Greenwood/Elk columns

August 4 ~ September 29, 1988

August 4th.

What Pelicans?

Various folks have accused me of being blind. Carol Pierazzi told me that there have been pelicans around for a month now. Gerry Huckaby said he saw one off the Greenwood Beach last week. Me? I still don't see any but I sure hope to.

To me, they are an intriguing flying machine. Can you imagine inventing something that can soar on the wind, hover in space, dive into water, swim to the surface, float like a cork and take off and do it all over again. All this powered by fish and absolutely quiet. Man's closest replica is the helicopter and what an intrusive nightmare that is.

I got to watch pelicans glide along the Baja Pacific coast one winter. There were rows of waves coming onto the beach and the pelicans would glide along the crest of a wave until it started to break and then slide off the crest, down across the trough and pick up the crest of the next wave, following that until it too broke.

Sometimes I could see a trace in the water where their wing tips touched, they were that close to the water. As long as I watched them they never flapped their wings once. Just gliding along on the breeze generated by the waves, riding the boundary layer of air beneath them. Spectacular!

Maybe it's the fog. We have been fogged in for the past week while just a mile inland or so, it is hot and sunny. But here on the coast, the fog hides the pelicans, you know.

Leah Almenrode is the one to contact if you have some gift or donation for the Great Day in Elk Raffle. Give her a call at 877-3617.

Hard to believe that Great Day is only a little over a month away. Great Day always signals the end of the main tourists season and things start to slow back down to a manageable pace. Sometimes I can't even find a seat in the Roadhouse! For Elk, that means hectic.

Speaking of the Roadhouse. Rumor has it that Sue Matson is thinking about staying open year round. The prices are good, the locals have been coming in. Who knows. It could happen. A hot bowl of soup and a cup of coffee during our spectacular winter storms would sure be welcome, besides, we need some place to gossip.

Hank Worthington finally died. Excuse me for putting it that way but he had been battling a brain tumor for years. Sometimes being on the verge of death and at other times making a remarkable recovery. The last time I saw him was at the Saint Patrick's corned beef and cabbage feed. He was up and around, in rough shape but still full of humor. Last week, Bobbie Beacon told me they were caring out two of Hank's last requests; a party for his friends and a burial at sea. Two of the things Hank loved best. Parties and the sea.

Joel Waldman is back in town. I happened to be driving past the Mole Ranch and there he was following a lawn mower around his yard. During his last tour of duty, teaching English to sailors on some remote island in the Pacific, he got married. He and his new family are now back in Elk. I didn't get to meet the rest of the family yet. They were still shaking off jet lag. Joel told me his chevy pick up still lives and is being nursed back up the coast from San Diego, by his son. Joel and 'that' pick up are part of the coastal experience.

August 11th.

Sure enough. While throwing the stick into the sea for my dog to retrieve, a formation of seven Pelicans cruised over my head, right here at Greenwood Beach. Okay! Okay! They're back!

Great Day in Elk news.

The Cal Aggie Maverick Marching Band will be back! Hot! Hot! Hot as we can all attest. Also I hear the the awesome Marimba Marching Band, from Mendocino, will be in the parade.

Each year I think, well, that's it. We can never top this event and each year I'm proved wrong. Already the town is starting to buzz and already controversy has reared its ugly head and we still have a month to go!

Let me explain the facts as I heard it from the rumor mill, or, as they say in the Navy, "The third butter-cutter on the port side".

This year the Fire Department is putting on the parade. As an extra treat and revenue generating device they decided to add three roving push carts for dispensing beer and soft drinks during the parade.

Wait one! Here's 'Baby Doc Edison', who always sets up his bar in the Elk Firehouse, proclaiming, "If those guys sell beer out there and affect my sales, I'm gonna ban them from the fire house"!

As it now stands, it looks like our own Elk Volunteer Fire Department is going to be 'bar-ed' from it's own Firehouse!

Will cooler heads prevail? Will the Elk Volunteers wind up fighting Edison's bartenders in the street of Elk? Come to the Great Day in Elk and find out.

A friend of mine is putting the last minute touches on his first art show, here on the coast. I have seen a few of the pieces in progress and we finally got together in his studio at the Wildwood Gallery, in Fort Bragg, to talk about it.

Eduardo Smissen couldn't afford frames for his paintings years ago and figured out a way to let his art exist without them. Why box them in? In fact he has learned that most of his break throughs come from confronting problems like this. Why frames? Why paint? Why canvas?

That has become a big part of the excitement in his art; what is the problem and what is the solution. He has found that the unknown is where most of the action is.

Problem. The Winona Gallery is a small space and he didn't want his show to be 'framed' that tightly. How to expand it?

Problem. How can people become more involved in his show? How can they be a part of it?

Solution. Expand the show up and down the coast and sell maps. Three birds with one stone. Expansion, involvement and income.

A tip. Stone is part of the solution!

Eduardo told me his art is not entertainment. It's not television, it's participation. He hopes his show will have you going home saying to yourself, "Hey, why didn't I think of that?"

The Art of Eduardo Smissen. Winona Gallery at the Mendocino Art Center, August 12th. Reception 5 to 7. The show, August 13 and 14.

Sillowetts, Pen and Inks, Shadows, jewelry and "Repaired Rocks".

See you there.

August 18th.

Silhouette. Hey, I'm not given to sesquipedatlity, as you all know by now.

Sure has been a lot of accidents around the area lately. Accidents always seem to happen in cycles but why encourage them.

Have you noticed that the double stripping between Elk and Mendocino is non-stop except for a stretch between Kristofferson's Ranch and the Navarro bridge? Some foggy day somebody is really going to get set up by that mistake and it must be a mistake because three blind curves are involved. I know the road has been resurfaced in places but the double strip has been immediately replaced elsewhere, like up past the Heritage house, for example.

While I'm on the subject, several people have asked me to mention the lack of any marking at all on the resurfaced sections of the Greenwood/Philo road. No center mark or fog lines. Just those little stand up plastic reflectors and a lot of these have come off. At night, in the fog, you can not see the road at all. Some neighbors came home the other night driving real slow with their right wheels following the ditch. It was the only way they could keep track of the road.

I got a call from my number two son, Jeff, a couple of weeks ago. He wanted to know if I would help him paint his car if he drove it down from Seattle.

"Sure, come on down."

Well, Jeff and I have been straightening dents and sanding primer for a week and a half now. The other day Jeff looked up and asked me if I had learned anything. I said, "Yes. Just say no"!

The town is looking better all the time. The fog lifted long enough to give me a peek at the Keen house, which has a new coat of paint and looks swell, also I could see the progress on Charlie Ackers place, sporting a new deck, repaired windows and the shingle siding about to start. Some friends of Rosie, who are visiting from Germany, are spending some of their vacation helping out.

The 14th Annual Great Day/Night in Elk will be Saturday, September 10th. Festivities will begin with a parade down Highway 1 at 11 AM., featuring the U.C. Davis Cal Aggie Maverick Marching Band. There will also be floats and beer and soft drinks sold by the co-sponsors, Elk Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Service. Afternoon activities at the Community Center include lunch with chicken curry, rice, ginger beef kabob, vegetarian fare (no price set as yet), craft sales, stage events, cake sale and games. There is no admission charge. Dinner will be served at 5:30 and 7:00. $7.50 adults and $4.00 for children. Spaghetti with meat sauce or vegetarian sauce will be featured. The dance begins at 9. Admission will be $8.00. The band is the sensational Kotoja Nigerian Band. There will be an open bar.

Raffle tickets are on sale at the Elk Store, the Roadhouse Cafe, the Country Store, the Greenwood Pier and during Great Day.

Note: A reminder to the members of the Greenwood Civic Club that there will be a special meeting Monday, August 22nd. at 1:30 PM, at the Roadhouse Cafe for the purpose of making plans for participation in the Great Day in Elk Parade. Thinking caps are a must for this meeting.

August 28th.

We have finally emerged from the fog to find the summer has changed. It is cooler at night with a bit of a chill in the air. Signs of mid summer are coming to an end. I got a call telling me that the opening day at the Greenwood Grammar School will be September 6th. Another sure sign of the end of summer.

My son Jeff and I went kayaking last week and stopped by Seal Rock to say hi to the Sea Lions, who have recently shown up. As we approached, one was floating on the surface apparently just snorkeling along and observing the bottom. I came up right behind him/her and sat there for about three minutes without it noticing me. Finally I touched it's back with the bow of my boat and after one surprised glance, he/she shot to the bottom, then surfaced about twenty feet away and bawled me out!

Listening to the Sea Lions barking in the evening sounds to me like they are saying "Art! Art! Art". Reminding the local artists that summer is almost over and it is time to get serious.

Speaking of local art, Kate Dougherty handed me some of her recent work:

belly down in river sand

a morning cool redwood wind

bleached warm by August sun

summers along her exposed skin

not because it loves her

not because she loves it

it is I am we are

unheard conjugations

she becomes

Dean Turner, owner of the Harbor House told me that Anita Allegeart has finished the last of the scenic tiles she has been making for three different bathrooms at the Harbor House and they are now installed. Dean also told me that the Harbor House is approaching its fiftieth year as a bed and breakfast, possibly the oldest continuously run Inn on the coast.

Gerry Huckaby told me that the Blue Heron, that has been living by the Greenwood Creek Lagoon now has a companion, a white Egret! He said they look the same except for color but the Egret is more active.

We have been having a sever infestation of bicycle-itis lately. For some reason the group tour types seem to be the rudest. They mainly travel in herds and have a support vehicle following, where-as, the individuals or couples who are 'really' traveling, hauling all their stuff with them and going long distances, seem more personable.

Overall, the general consensus is that this mid August has been the busiest one yet. Elk has been discovered!

Great Day/Night is looking for night time bartenders, game operators, T-shirt sales people, food servers, craft sellers, parade entries, entertainers (as in skits), cake bakers and balloon blow-up-ers. Any of this ring your bell? There is a sign up sheet on the bulletin board at the Elk Store.

September 1st.

Baby Doc Edison has returned from the Queen Charlotte Islands, in British Columbia, to report he is not disturbed by the Fire Department selling beer and soda pop during the Great Day in Elk Parade "As long as those guys are off the street by High Noon!". If they meet his ultimatum they are welcome to visit his stand during the afternoon festivities and his bar in the firehouse during the evening dinner and dance and sample his 'Nationally' famous Margarita. Baby Doc has imported premier barslingers Dan Langren, from the Mendocino Hotel and Matt Vidaver, mixcologist from San Francisco. 'Doctor' Baby Doc Edison will be overseeing his bar from his director's chair, as usual.

Fire Chief Bob Matson replies that they will be off the street 'around' noon but that they will continue selling soft drinks through the remainder of the afternoon.

Back to Baby Doc...

"High Noon, I said HIGH NOON and as far as soft drinks, I'm not interested in no 'soft drinks'!"

Sounds to this reporter like everything is going to work out just fine, as usual.

Good news! The Philo Yacht Club will be in our parade again this year. Last year their precision drill team was one of the highlights of the parade, marching along with brace and bits in hand. Get it? Brace and bits... Drill team! Ah! The humor of the Philo Yacht Club, based in the only totally dry yacht basin in the world.

Music for the Great Day in Elk Dance will be performed by Kotoja, and eleven piece Afro-Beat band led by Ken Okulolo - a former bassist for the internationally acknowledged 'King' of the Afro-Beat, King Sunny Ade of Nigeria.

"Terrific music!!!" Herb Caen, San Francisco Chronicle.

"One of the hottest groups on the World - Beat scene!" The Daily Californian.

"One of the best local bands playing African - style music!" Reggae Calendar.

Music starts at 9:00. Donations $8.00

Sue Matson has returned from a ten day vacation in the Sierra Mountains. Kristi, Becky and Liza went with her while Bob stayed in town to provide automotive repair, tow truck service, ambulance service and fire coverage, as usual.

Sue said they think they saw a Golden Eagle several times and that Becky caught a limit of trout. They had a good time and hopefully, Sue is now recharged and ready to keep the Roadhouse open on into the winter month.

On a darker note, uninformed sources told me that the Harbor house was attempting to steal Sue away for their kitchen and that the Roadhouse would be closing as usual after Labor Day but surely that is only an attempt to stir me up by someone who will remain nameless, Billy Matson, for instance.

I went kayaking off Greenwood Beach the other evening. I was just past Gunderson Rock when the sun appeared to touch the sea. I turned around to find the full moon clearing the hills behind Elk. Sunset and moon rise at the same moment. What a beautiful place we live in.

Last minute news item:

Ed Bird called to report he is now a grandfather. His son Brian and Daughter in law Val, who live in Forestville, gave birth to a baby girl, Ashely Bird. Congratulations, all 'round.

September 8th.

Gov. George Dukmejian said he vetoed the bill to designate the banana slug the Official State Mollusk because the slug isn't Californian enough. He also vetoed the California Ocean Sanctuary Bill, most likely for the same reason.

If you can't eat it, sleep with it or sell it, what good it it? California means 'Big Bucks'. Money. Gold in the hills. Lumber in the forests. Oil under the Ocean. Land to develop.

Us local folks along this ocean edge just haven't grasped the big picture. We don't understand how money works.

It's a whole different view from Sacramento, land of the "Big Spin". Fortunately we have George looking out for our "special" interests and keeping us on track, the fast track, which is what California is really all about

Obviously, the big picture is, first get the oil. Sell that and then build the condos and new theme parks. The ocean will still be there, besides, marineland already exists. In time the oil rigs will rust away and, who knows, people may pay to look at them like they do old time logging artifacts, steam engines and trestle bridges. All us locals need to do is get our priorities straight and get into the California State of Mind. MONEY! Just like George.

California State Mollusk? California Ocean Sanctuary? There's no money in that. Ah! Here's the idea from Random House Dictionary.

Californium. n. A synthetic, radioactive, metallic element.

Much more, um... Californian.

Meanwhile, The Fourteenth Annual Great Day/Night in Elk is almost upon us. Come early because there is limited parking and the parade leads off with the Wild Cal Aggie Maverick Marching Band at 11 AM.

Word has it that either Marlon Brando of Cary Bisagna is traveling to Elk for the big event. I always get those two mixed up. Elon Yerwit, former Elk resident and now a L.A. documentary movie maker is coming up to video tape the Great Day.

Dick Mitchell will not be providing lamb for the dinner. He tried that once, fourteen years ago, and someone ripped it off. "Never again" he said and so far he has been good to his word. Just as well as I understand the dinner will be vegetarian. Rosie Acker and her kitchen staff are busy making a great holistic sauce for the spaghetti but, in the words of some of the locals, "If it hasn't got balls, they're not gonna buy it!". David Minkus is making a last ditch effort to round up some help for a 'meat ball party' in order to insure an alternative to those who are bent on leading a more reckless lifestyle.

I tell you, living in a community of liberals and conservatives, Eastern religion aesthetics, fundamental bible bangers, beer drinking agnostics, tofu/sea weed eaters and wild pig barbecue revelers makes for interesting confrontations. Somehow, it always works out and Great Day is Elk ends up being a rousing success for the Community Center and Voluntary Fire Department with all our friendships restored, once again.

September 15th.

I'm toasted. It is the morning after Great Day and everyone is moving around at half speed. I stopped by the Community Center to find the remains of the clean up crew doing their best to finish off the great holistic spaghetti sauce and meatball leftovers and trying to put a dent in the remaining kegs of Boonville Draft. All with out much success.

It seems that Rosie and her staff had done a trial run on the spaghetti by cooking up a batch and feeding it to the members of Force Ten, then multiplying the recipe by 300, the estimated number of dinners to be served. Well, Force Ten is not your normal type of dinner guest, hence a lot of spaghetti left over. The Boonville Draft showed up late the previous evening, donated from the Winesong event. So, there we were, eating and drinking and talking about what had happened.

Unanimous agreement. The best Great Day yet. Some of the high points discussed:

The UC Davis Maverick Marching Band put on a great performance during the parade and played several numbers on the stage at the Community Center, before having to leave for an engagement at a football game down south. We love those guys and hope they will return again next year.

We were all amazed at how the sun broke through around three o'clock. It had not failed in fourteen years and this year it really looked iffy.

The Great Day T-shirts were sold out in two hours. They are going to be reordered, sweatshirts also, and will be on sale at the Roadhouse, the Country Store and the Elk Store in about a month. Kay Curtis' logo for the Great Day made this such a hot seller. There were more art and crafts booths than in any previous year.

We were all knocked out by the cake auction MC'ed by Roff Barnett. The highest price ever commanded by a cake in the past was $150.00. This year the top seller sold for $275.00! Then, the folks who bought it turned around and sold slices of the cake for $5.00 each, making another $65.00 and gave the whole amount to the Community Center. Incredible! They have asked to remain nameless but we all know who you are and we thank you.

The one hundred dollar bill atop the greased pole survived continuous onslaughts all day long, another first. One guy bought about $20.00 worth of .25 cent tickets and handed them out to the various kids waiting to give it a try. The final attempt by a pyramid of four men was even foiled by the pounds of Crisco that Frank Schmidt had liberally applied to the pole.

The band Kojota was great and obviously had a good time too. They said that the audience makes the band respond and the overall response was awesome.

The only negative point was the Community Center toilets which gave up the ghost early in the day. Fortunately there were portable toilets standing by. Repairs will soon be made. Also, Del Wilcox tells me that the contract for the multi-purpose court has been let and that it should start to happen within a month.

The Community Center and the Elk Volunteer Fire Department want to thank everyone who helped make it all such a grand success, virtually everyone who lives in and around Elk, the UC Davis Marching Band and Kojota. Thank you.

Well, Great Day is over and the kids are back in school. The tourists are thinning out and that special time, the big secret of the coast is about to happen. Beautiful days, wood smoke evenings, glorious sunsets and all to ourselves.

We've earned it.

September 22nd.

I woke up at 5:30 last Saturday morning and happened to look at the night sky. Orion was high in the sky and a little to the south. The air was so clear that even without binoculars or telescope I could see stars mixed into that constellation that I had never noticed before. The winter sky is arriving.

The snow bird migration is in full swing, or full crawl, as anyone who has followed one at 25 miles per hour can attest. The yuppies in beemers have been replaced by grumpies in motor homes.

"Two cups of coffee, we'll split a muffin. Thank you." No tip.

I checked Richard Yaski's sculptures on the lawn of the Mendocino Art Center and the 'Members Choose Members' Show in the Art Center Gallery. Well worth the trip north. Richard's work will be on display for two months and, I might add, I wish, longer. His sculptures makes the place look like an Art Center.

In the Gallery I found a couple of surprises. Just when you think you know somebody's work, they throw you a curve. Try walking through and see if you can pick out the Steve Garner and the Sophia Sutherland. Then give it a second go round and read the name tags. You will be surprised and rewarded.

I bumped into Rusty Gates while at the Art Center and we wound up talking about the most recent Great Day. He is treasure this year for the Community Center and he told me that all the numbers are not in yet but it looks like Great Day grossed over 11 thousand! Everyone is amazed at how well it did and how much fun it was.

Now, for a change from looking up at the stars, and around the coast, to peeking down under the kelp.

Have you ever wondered about the urchins? Are there boy urchins and girl urchins. Peg Frankel and I were speculating about this a while back and Peg did some research:

"The sea urchin industry, I've learned, is of far greater importance along our coast than most of us realize. But there is confusion, in fact a widely shared misconception, about exactly what it is that urchins have that makes them so commercially valuable. With in the state, it is the leading fisheries industry in terms of both volume and value - exceeding that of Dungeness crab, abalone and lobster. In Mendocino County, though second in relation to salmon, it employs three to four hundred people and involves tens of thousands of pounds of urchin each day during the season. The value in 1986, after two years of harvesting off the Mendocino Coast, was more than 23 million dollars!

"I've been curious about the anatomy of the urchin and especially about the highly marketable urchin end product that is almost uniformly referred to as 'row'. Having satisfied myself from texts that the sexes are definitely separate among sea urchins, I wondered how the harvesters differentiated between them. Surely, I thought, in order to avoid waste they must be able to tell at a glance which are female. Upon raising the question, I repeatedly encountered the response, 'No need, they all have roe'. Finally I headed for the Marine Laboratory of the Department of Fish and Game in Fort Bragg. There I was kindly shown the inside of a red urchin, the harvested specie, and patiently furnished answers to my questions. I learned that every urchin has five gonads, sex organs. It is those gonads, whether egg producing in the females or sperm producing in the males, that are the edible parts of the animal.

"The market for this product is predominately Japanese. Whether exported to Japan or served in Japanese restaurants domestically, where it is considered the most delicious of all items offered at a sushi bar, the given name is 'Uni'. What remains a mystery is why the persistence in calling it 'roe'. Perhaps it's just a cultural hang-up. Caviar sounds delicious, gonads do not. We best settle for 'Uni' - that's a nice name just as 'sweetbreads' is a nice name for the glands of lamb or calves.

September 29th.

The morning commute. Going to work for me involves driving about four miles up the Greenwood/Philo road and then sliding the board back on a farm gate and parking beside a barn. I am currently painting a car.

As I opened the gate to go to work the other morning, I got to thinking about what I used to do when I lived in L.A. First I had to leave an hour early because of traffic. The route I had to take involved seventy five stop lights. The parking area required the right magnetic badge to trip the control arm at the entrance. After parking and a walk of about a block I would arrive at the main gate to the plant. My magnetic badge would trip a green light in the guard shack allowing me to enter the property. After walking another block I would arrive at the door of the building I was working in.

To get into that building I had to remember the four digit combination to the punch lock on the door. Once inside I would clock in at the time clock, then walk down the hall to the room I was working in. There I was faced with another four digit punch lock with a different combination. Once past that I would lock the door behind me before pushing aside the black curtains that blocked the interior view of that windowless room. I was now at work. I was not painting a car, but rather helping develop a way to remove paint from cars, skin from people, life from the planet. The pay was excellent but somehow it didn't seem right.

My dog and I took a walk around town, last Sunday afternoon, to see what was going on. Ramone and his son Mike have been trimming some trees at the duplex on the 'S' curve just north of town. The owners are getting ready for the storms of winter. We noticed various wood piles are growing in size around town. The Sandpiper House has had a lot of work done on and around it and is looking very nice.

Dave Brotherton drove by and I noticed his custom license plate...ELK.

The swings were silent at the Greenwood Elementary School but every weekday morning I can hear them squeaking back and fourth just before the 8:00 bell. I also noticed the lack of a microwave dish on the wind generator tower. I wonder what ever happened to the idea...Cable TV in Elk.

The Catholic Church is starting to look a bit ragged. Some of the fish scale shingles have fallen off and the roof shingles are rotting away in places. It looks like a work party is in order.

The vacant lot across from the Greenwood Pier has been cleared and I understand Isabel and Kendrick are going to move the two story house, just south of their restaurant, over onto it. That should be and interesting project.

The inside of our Post Office could sure use a coat of paint but the process is bound up in deciding who is responsible. The Post Office rents the space from the Parks Department, who own the building. Several local folks are willing to do it themselves, but can't because of the questions involved.

The Elk Water Board is looking for a crew to finish putting the steel water tank together. $10.00 per hour, approximately a months work. If you are interested contact Charlie Acker at 877-3474.

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