Greenwood/Elk columns

May 6 ~ July 8, 1993

May 6th.

The Cow S--t and Clay oven is done. I stopped by Saturday afternoon for a while and watched the crew mix straw, clay, fresh cow dung, and form it into soft bricks, which were then set in place over the form of willow and alder saplings and molded into each preceding layer. This continued until the form was completely covered over, ending up with a oven wall about four inches thick.

Cloud Mary showed up during this process waving a Xerox copy of some petroglyph drawing she said represented the pushing of the indigious people to the edge of the ocean and their energy pushing back. Sort of a see-saw motif resembling a Swedish Bucksaw. She wanted the design scratched into the side of the finished oven.

I was struck by the thought of an Indian petroglyph design, scratched into the side of a French Canadian type wood oven, build under the direction of a Ben Woolcomb of New Zealand, using the image from a Xerox that probably had been Faxed from somewhere.

Would it be politically correct?

Well, anyway, Sunday I stopped by the oven again and found it to be complete. It had even been fired once to burn out the willow and alder branches so the adobe could shrink without cracking.

It is wonderful. It looks like a huge crouching beaver and various symbols and designs have been marked into its sides.

Vince Carleton told me that this coming Saturday, May 8th, they are going to bake pizza. Bruce Herring, of Bruce Bread fame, is going to provide the dough. Stop by for a piece of pizza, this Saturday between noon and 2:00, and enjoy this wonderful addition to our community center.

The following day, Sunday at 2:00, there will be a dress rehearsal for the Talent Show. We now have a total of ten acts. The latest word is that the Talent Show is now going to be a talent "contest". You know how these things evolve. Steve Davidson is going to build a human powered applause-o-meter but we promise there will be no humiliation involved concerning the young kids doing their skits, we will save that for Baby Doc Edison and his performance piece called, "The One Armed Fiddler".

Master of ceremonies, Bob Matson, has come up with an ongoing skit that will lead into and fill between acts, something called the Walrus and the Carpenter. Evidently I will be the Carpenter and Bobby Beacon will be the Walrus.

Isabel Petty is putting together a fashion show. She is looking for models to wear her latest creations, which is hard to do around here since she is demanding her models to be men without facial hair.

We will have short people skipping rope and singing, teenage jugglers, the ladies of the Civic Club have something up their sleeve which they are very secretive about, the Rusty Gates family singing "Logger Love", and so on. Save the evening of May 15th, 7:30 until 9:00, or there about, for an evening of fun, entertainment and community spirit. There will be no charge, but we will be passing the hat for "the chill-dren" as usual.

Bill Edison, our baseball commissioner writes:

I would like to thank the Greenwood/Elk community for their participation in the Pepper Martin Softball game Sunday. This town certainly knows how to have FUN and raise a little money to boot.

The Pepper Martin Awards are as follows:

The Grelk went to Jeb Poehlman, captained his team to victory.

Pepper Award, Juniors. Heilos Bolton. The Greenwood Elk, Connor Birds team won two games. Pepper Martin Spittoon, Nova Perrill for catching the ball in high grass.

Special Award, Ed Bird, Beach Nut chewing tobacco.

Carolyn Carleton, great comeback after taking maternity leave.

Robin Bird, finally called out after hitting 53 foul balls and losing most of them.

Sheriff Jim Tuso, for showing up, tossing out the ball for the second game and for handing out stinking badges to all the short people.

Lorraine Toth, excellence in potato salad.

Bill Edison is now taking a 12 step course in "women's sensitivity" after his insensitive Boo-boo.

One highlight has rarely, if ever, happened in the history of baseball. Ed Bird was at bat and hit a line drive to center field which was barely caught by Robbi Robison. The side was retired and as Ed passed his son Connor, captain of the other team, Connor turned to his dad and said, "Nice hit. Too bad".

During the next inning, Connor hit a single and claimed first base. Next up, his older brother, Robin. Robin gets a hit out to center field where it is caught and tossed to the second baseman, who else but good ol' dad. ED quickly throws to first and both his sons are out!

Ed said; "Teach him to not pick his dad for his team!"

May 16th at 11:00 AM. There will be a Sunday Service at our historical Greenwood Methodist Church The guest speaker will be Diane Johnson. There will be special music. This service is non-denominational. there will also be a progress report on the attempted purchase of the church. Please come.

May 20th at 7:00 PM. School Board Meeting in Greenwood/Elk, at the Greenwood School. This is a regular meeting; the board tries to have one meeting a year at each of the small schools in Greenwood/Comptche. The public is welcome.

May 26th, the Greenwood School will present two plays at the Community Center at 7:00 PM. After the plays we will move to the school where work from the year will be displayed as our "Open House". Please join us. For those unable to attend Thursday night, there will be a special preview performance of the plays at 10:30 AM on Wednesday, May 26th at the Community Center. See you there.

And finally, congratulations to Paulo Ferreira and Theresa Whitehill who were married at the Catholic Church in Greenwood/Elk May 2nd.

May 13th.

I arrived in time, last Saturday, behind the Greenwood/Elk Community Center, to see the first batch of French rolls come out of the new clay oven. Someone brought several sticks of butter and in no time we were all enjoying bread at its best, fresh from the oven. The oven was pronounced a success and next went in the pizza. Various local folk drifted by and a few tourists to sample the treat. It was a beautiful day, though windy, but the hardy party continued until around six in the evening. What a fine addition to our community.

A note from Baseball Commissioner "Baby Doc" Edison:

Dear Ron,

I would like to apologize to the Elk Community for my monumental goof at the Pepper Martin award ceremonies by saying "men's teams". I should have said "coed or adults" instead.

As mentioned in your May 6th column, I'm undergoing a twelve step program in women's sensitivity training and hope to become rehabilitated, but this isn't enough.

I am hear bye resigning as Softball Commissioner, as sexism has no part in our national pastime.

I am taking old Pepper with me as I found out he never had a mother and was a super sexist to boot.

I'm sure the next commissioner will keep the annual game going with an untainted hero as its symbol.

So, for the good of the game, I say good-bye to Baby Doc and the "Wild Hoss of the Osage". It's been a great eleven years.

Bill Edison

I have just learned that Bill Edison has commissioned the making of a plaque, to be mounted in the Community Center, featuring a jock strap; a memorial to the memory of the eleven years he and Pepper Martin inflicted baseball on the wee community of Greenwood/Elk. In the words of Bill Edison, "they are 'hanging it up'"!

It is finally a go for Bridget Dolan's, Leslie Lawson's Irish Pub, here in town. Leslie told me that the grand opening will not be the 6th of June, "It will be from the 6th of June until the 12th.

"The Grand Opening is going to last all week!"

And why not, after all the bureaucratic hurtles she has been through, trying to get this sucker to fly.

Remember this Sunday,May 16th, a special service at the Greenwood/Elk Community Church. with guest speaker, Diane Johnson. There will also be a presentation by the local steering committee, which is working on plans to purchase the church. The steering committe asks that you pledge your support for the church, any amount, $5.00, $500.00, what ever, but mostly, that you indicate your desire that the Historic Greenwood Methodist Church remain a part of our community.

The Greenwood/Elk Talent Show is coming together nicely.

***The line-up thus far:***

Final Dress rehearsal, Friday May 14th 7:00 PM

The main event: Saturday May 15th, 7:30 PM

Program. Welcome by Master of Ceremonies, Bob Matson.

***(list of skits, not necessarily in order;)***

Start program with "The Carpenter and the Walrus. Bob Matson

Janice England, One Hand Clapping

(possible encore; Two Hands Clapping)

Ellen Saxe's Children's Group presentation

Albee Colson and Nova Perrill, Lip Sync to recorded music.

Jason Boone and Joseph Huckaby, Teenage Juggling.

Zoe Colbey, Piano Recital, "Moonlight Sonata.

Steve Sinclair, Greenwood/Opera. Music 1B by Gerald Mc Boing Boing.

Dave Gurney, Banjo.

Rusty Gates Family, singing "Logger Love".

Greenwood/Elk Civic Club, skit presentation

Isabel Petty, Fashion Show.

Last Call for Talent.

Awards ceremony

Intermission

Professional Singer Bob Gibson providing entertaining music for evening wrap up.

Open bar, finger food, and socializing.

May 20th.

The Talent Show is over, Lolli's Annual Taurus Birthday Party is over, The Luke Breit Hoo-Haa is over, The Big Dance in Fort Bragg is over, the Boogie at Navarro Beach is over, the Big wedding is over; all these events, happening on only one day, Saturday, the 15th of May, and you think it may be time for a rest, but no.

The Highway One Jazz Choir will be in concert at the Greenwood/Elk Community Center, Friday May 21 at 8 PM. Carolyn Steinbuck will be the director. Free admission but donations are welcome.

The Greenwood School Play is on Wednesday, May 26th at the Greenwood Community Center at 10:00 AM. Then, the next day it happens again at 7:00 PM, again at the Greenwood Community Center, followed by an open house at the Greenwood Community School around 8:00 PM.

Bridget Dolan's, Greenwood/Elk's new Irish Pub and Dinner House will open June 6th for a week long Grand opening!

There is talk of firing up the Clay oven, behind the Greenwood/Elk Community Center every Sunday for bread baking.

The New Post Office is well underway, here in the heart of Elk. The foundation is poured, four or five courses of concrete block are in place. The structure should be framed up in a week. A local wag, yours truly, noticed the first item finished was the employee rest room, one of those portable porta pots; it only make sense what with the Federal fiscal crises and all.

Greenwood Creek is still running out into the ocean but I expect that will come to an end in a week or so for the rest of the summer. Short people are swimming in the lagoon.

And finally;

The whole town is waiting for the moment Bill Edison leaves for the summer and we can breath a collective sigh of relief. Lydia is welcome to stay.

And now for the highlights of the Talent Show as seen from my red watery eyes. I was barbecuing chicken for hundreds of folks at Lolli's birthday party in Mendocino before rushing back for the Talent Show, here in Greenwood/Elk.

First off, let me say it was a resounding success. A standing room only crowd. The whole program appeared almost seamless, especially if you weren't privy to how things were 'spose to happen. Bob Matson, after years of crisis training as garage operator, 24 hour a day tow truck operator, 24 hour a day fire chief, and emergency fixer of disasters at the Road House Cafe, was outwardly serene presenting the various acts in his role as master of ceremonies. Few folks knew that some acts didn't show up, others suddenly arrived out of the blue, and one was a disaster from the git-go.

Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter" lead off the show and we got through it okay. Bob Beacon looked great as the Walrus. I was so-so as the carpenter and the oysters were...oystery.

Ellen Saxe's pre-school Ballerina's enchanted everyone. Some were pirouetting and throwing kisses and flowers to the crowd while others cried for "mom". They won first prize.

Zoe Colbey did a fine job of playing Moonlight Sonata on the piano and won third prize.

The Latin dancers were a great hit and won dinners at Cafe Nighttime.

Next, every one was stunned by Isabel's fashion show. "Bubbles" Wilcox, "Bunny" Russell, "Boopsie" Petty and "Barbarella" Courtney, brought a whole new meaning to cross-dressing and had the house on the floor! They won drinks at the new Bridget Dolan' Irish Pub.

Steve Sinclair took over the stage, and though Bob Matson promised his act would not last more than five minutes, this time Steve was well into explaining the similarities between opera, heavy metal bands, and skateboarding; with the common denominator, "impalement", before the crowd was up on their feet hollering for blood and car horns were being blown out in the parking lot, trying to get him off the stage. He finally wrapped it up by singing the four main parts, "Beer", the macho base, "Fast Food", the tenor, "Noxema Clearasil", the soprano, and Noxema's father, singing out his final moments, impaled on rebar in a shopping mall! I must admit, after all was said and done...it wasn't bad. Dave Gurney finally showed up and played the banjo.

The Civic Club rolled out a tour de force, presenting Leslie Lawson as "Stark Naked", emcee and lead singer of that old Spike Lee Favorite, "The Old Sow Song". Hoofing it on the stage was Mary Berry, Loraine Toth, Barbara McKnight, Raye Wisdom, Jane Matson, Prue Wilcox and Dorothy Neilsen. Again the house came down. They were fantastic.

The curtain closed and we broke for a much needed intermission, our sides and bladders couldn't take much more.

After intermission Bob Gibson entertained the remaining crowd with children songs and folk tunes. All in all, a fine evening.

Well, that's about it.

Oh yeah, Raven Earlygrow, vice mayor of Pointless Arena read something.

The next day, someone asked Prue Wilcox, "How was it getting in bed with a cross dresser?" She said her husband "Bubbles" said, "it was about the same as getting in bed with a pig."

I tell you, only in Elk.

May 27th.

So I'm sitting in Lolli's new cow tank/hot tub; remember, the last one blew out during the night of the Republican Convention. Anyway, I'm sitting there with her and Ed and Suzanne, water up to my neck, smoke from the embers that heated the water wafting into my eyes, listening to Lolli and Suzanne discuss some talk show they saw on Tee Vee that was about "virtual reality". How "virtual reality" separates us from our surroundings, makes things appear real that aren't; interactive video games, wave of the future stuff, and so on.

Lolli don't like it.

So I'm listening to this, with my head rested back against the lip of the cow tank, gazing at the stars that are no longer there. Now and again a satellite crawls across the sky, mapping the earth's minerals, forests, nuke sites, or me, and I'm thinking about "virtual reality". What is it?

Seems to me we are surrounded by it. Almost everything we take for granite, now a days, is something that separates us from what use to be natural for us to do with out some "interface" between us and it.

Take walking for instance. Can you imagine taking a cave dweller, some Neanderthal and instructing him or her on the operation of a car?

"Okay now, sit down here and move your right foot forward when you want to go. No, look forward. That way. Okay. Good. Now to go east, just move your left hand down a bit, or, move your right hand up some. Not too much or you will be going north. Great. Now when you want to shift just do this little dance, sort of a quick two step. Oh no. You killed it.

I'm thinking about flight simulators.

How 'bout the phone?

Folks have been looking at each others face, (direct contact), when communicating for eons, but now, when something goes "ring" in the night, we stumble out of bed, grab the "instrument", and hear someone tell us about how MCI is going to reduce our long distance call rates, or, we just lay there and let our magnetic tape tell the caller-person that we aren't home but leave their number anyway and we'll get back to them.

Virtual reality is 'spose to be some device with a hood, tee vee glasses, a glove with electronic sensors, interaction between hand and eye, computer interface, whiz-bang technology. It's 'spose to be coming soon to a store near you, but are you ready for it? Will it separate us from reality?

I sink deeper into the cow tank and let my Nebraska humor run wild.

The concrete floor of the new post office is poured, the plates are bolted in place, a pile of lumber is sitting on the slab, the framing has commenced.

Just a thought but, I don't care how many Elk Post Offices they build in this town, it is still Greenwood to me.

The south side of the Elk Garage roof has been replaced with new material. It had been blown off during the big wind storm, last winter, and temporarily replaced until good weather and Steve Hale's crew could fix it. While they are at it Bob Matson is having them redo the south wall and put in new windows along that side. It has sure brightened up the interior of the garage.

Bridget Dolan's, our new Irish Brew Pub and dinning establishment is up and running. This is Grand Openning Week. Check it out.

June 3rd.

Hopefully, a final note from Bill Edison:

Dear Ron,

Well, you have your wish- I'm out of here. Earlier than usual I might add, thanks to your hounding in the press and the women softball team booing me at the Community Center. Incidentally, I left the sports equipment with Carolyn Carleton. She is a ballsey baseball player and should make a fine Commissioner in the Babe Didrikson mold. I left the remaining bottles of tequila and the blender with Ed Bird. He and Jim Muto will take over the bar for the Great Day in Elk.

No, I won't be back 'til Great Day is over; the first one I've missed in eighteen years. I'm off to Malawi and Zambia to consult on Community Centers and follow the path that Livingston took through the "warm heart of Africa". The great thing about these small African countries; they muzzle the press and women, so my reputation won't precede me. I'm leaving behind a few tasteless posters and a memento at the Community Center.

Keep the Label Up (as we say on the ballfield).

Bill Edison

In the above missive, you might have noticed Bill's tiny mention, sort of a casual reference to "a memento".

A Memento? Now what?

Well, now that Bill is gone, the rest of the story can be told.

I was ready to blab about his "Memento" in last weeks column, and had the story written. I was just on the verge of Faxing the column to the Beacon when Bill Edison called and demanded to know what I had written. I read it to him and he ordered that I hold off a week until he was well out of town. I argued with him, explained the philosophy of "freedom of the press", "the peoples right to know", etc. He threatened me. We finally reached a compromise which involved meeting out behind the Elk Garage and Bill handing over, unopened, one quart bottle of Jack Daniels.

Now that time has passed and all requirements have been met...I can finally get on with it.

Bill's memento:

In the Community Center, inside the handicap bathroom you will find there is a new addition. It looks like a very nicely made redwood cabinet, hanging on the wall above the toilet. It has brass hinges and brass handles and upon closer inspection one will notice, down towards the bottom, a small brass label. Engraved upon the label are the words;

In Memory of Pepper

Who gave his all to Elk

1983-1993

Now, open the door and, Voile!, There inside, mounted behind glass is a jock strap on green velvet and below it a small brass spittoon. In that distinctively crude way of writing that Bill has, across the elastic band of the jock strap are the words, in red felt marker, "Peppers last jock".

Ah! How disgusting, yet how poignant. How crude, yet how nicely made. Already controversy is rearing it's ugly head.

Some folks want it torn off the wall and burned. Others say, "yes it's disgusting but it would be a shame to ruin that fine cabinet work". Some wonder if it could be gutted and turned into a functioning medicine cabinet. A small, hard core group, think it is a riot and should be left alone. Of course the folks from out of town wonder, "Who the hell is Pepper"?

Meanwhile, as you read this, Bill is chuckling to himself while winging his way east across America, comfortably lounging at thirty three thousand feet in the air, a snifter of bourbon in hand, far beyond the uproar in the Village of Greenwood/Elk.

Lolli and I attended the "test run" at Bridget Dolan's last week along with about eighteen others who have been involved, one way or another, in helping make Leslie's establishment come to fruition.

Father Walsh was on hand to officially give the Irish blessing. We were then handed fake money and instructed to "order anything on the menu and put the staff through the paces".

Well, we did our best, joining three others at one of the tables and ordering almost every appetizer and main course that was offered. Baked Mushrooms, Chicken Liver Pate, Fruit and Cheese Plate, Fish and Chips, Irish Stew, Corned Beef Sandwich, Bangers and Mash, Brown Bread, Garlic Bread, Soda Bread, and the desserts, Lemon Curd or Cherries on Flaky Skip's Flaky biscuits or Bread Pudding with Irish Whiskey Sauce. All this washed down with Guiness, Harps, Budweiser, or local red or white wine.

Towards the end of the evening Leslie called the place to order and asked for opinions on ways to improve the menu, the serving, the arangement of the rooms. We had very little in the way of improvement recommendations and much approval for the food and best wishes for Leslie, her fine cook, Karen Mathis, and the staff.

This coming Sunday, June 6th, the doors are officially open for a week long Grand Opening. See you there.

June 10th.

Rain. Here it is June and we still have rain. I might as well be living up in Seattle. The local old timers say that this is as it use to be but in my eight years or so of living here, it seems quite unusual.

One of my duties, here in Greenwood/Elk, is to take the water samples from Greenwood Creek, the well, the output of the filter, before it goes into the 84,000 gallon storage tank and also a reading from a faucet, here in town. I then test these four samples with a turbidity meter for clarity. It has been quite interesting. Whenever we get a break in the rainfall, the creek starts to clear up. Gentle rain over a long period don't seem to stir up much dirt but when we get the occasional downpour, the creek soon turns to chocolate.

Drinking water should not have a higher turbidity reading than .50. Greenwood Creek, last November during the tail end of the drought, remember the drought? had a reading averaging down around .40. The sixth of December started a series of rainy days and the 10th of December we had heavy rain. The creek readings started climbing; .Dec. 6th-.71, Dec. 7th-13.10. Dec. 8th-15.30, Dec. 9th-75.20 and on the 10th, 708.00! It took a dry period and until the 27th of December for the creek to get back down to a reading of 1.24. Then more rain occurred keeping the readings averaging around 25.00. Then the gully washer arrived January 20th and the readings went off the scale, well over 1000.00. It wasn't until February 10th that the turbidity finally cleared back down to a reading of 3.50. February 19th shot it back up to 529.00 And so on. We are having to back flush the filter every two or three days and are having a hard time meeting the .50 requirement for the town drinking water standard. We are going to order a second large filter system to put in parallel with our existing filter. That should help.

Another item of interest we keep track of is the daily gallons of water used by this little village. January averaged 22,500 gallons per day, February, 15,029, March 17,807, April 24,404, May 24,917. You can easily see the impact of holidays and the increase of out of town visitors this way.

We have been keeping track of "feeder five" of the old Bonee system and have been testing the turbidity and gallons per minute output. The rains affect it a lot, increasing the turbidity the same as the creek. The pipe from feeder five has been delivering over thirty gallons a minute although, at this time we are not set up to use it.

The high winds we had that did so much damage around town also had its effect on the trail up to feeder five. There are now thirteen trees down across the trail. One of them, a fir, is over four feet in diameter. It will take quite a bit of work to make that system usable again.

The new Post Office is framed up and we can now get a good idea of its size. I was quite surprised at how large it is. I don't know if we will be able to find Erna in there when we need stamps or want to mail a package.

I hung up the gas pump nozzle for the last time this summer, the young, attractive, energetic, friendly college students; Jeff Schlafer, Elias Steinbuck and Tony Galletti, are out of school and joyfully doing my job at the Elk Garage. The ol' grumpy hippie is out of there and on sabbatical, but not really. I am now working on electric cars up at Steve Heckeroths'. Steve has about five cars he is doing electrical conversions on and my job is to do the body work and paint. That should keep me out of trouble for a while but I have a very strong urge to pack it up and flee the rain for a while. Maybe southern Utah but the ROADCOW is sick and I need the money to make it well again. The same old between the wet rock and a hard spot syndrome.

Bridget Dolans' is finally, officially underway. Being the local reporter I felt it my duty to be the first one in the door so I showed up a half hour before the announced opening time of 3:00 PM, Sunday, June 6th. Fortunately, long suffering Leslie put up with me and let me in the door. I belly-ed up to the bar and ordered a Black and Tan, a pint of half Guiness and half Harp. At three o'clock the first couple showed up, some folks from Oakland and soon after, a couple, celebrating their fortieth anniversary, from Mendocino. Next a out of town couple who had just been married and were staying at the Griffin Inn. Finally a few locals drifted in. I went back home. At seven o'clock I returned for a fish and chips dinner and found the place to be standing room only! Ah yes, Bridget Dolans' is officially underway, and not a moment too soon. At last the social life of Greenwood/Elk has come back to life in a big way.

June 17th.

I spent a quite Saturday evening up in Mendocino at Lolli's and return to peaceful, quiet Greenwood/Elk to find some of the town in an uproar. It seems there was a rousing birthday party which culminated in some wild driving, tearing out sections of the state park fence in several places across from the Elk Store, and uprooting a fire hydrant in front of the Methodist Church!

Sunday morning I find Charlie Acker, down in a hole, sloshing around with glue and plastic pipe, fixing the hydrant in front of the Greenwood Methodist Church. Up at the Roadhouse Cafe the kitchen crew were trying to keep up with the dishes with reduced water pressure and wondering how much longer before full service would be restored?

Across the Street, three State Parks folks were replacing the torn up split rail fence.

Bob Matson tells me that early Saturday evening, the Elk Volunteers were called out, along with the, Albion Fire Department, State Parks, and Coast Guard to help find an out of town "ab" diver up at Navarro Beach who never returned. The search was called off after dark and Sunday morning he was located... deceased.

Next the Volunteers were called out to transport a pregnant woman from the south coast to Fort Bragg Hospital.

Then, in the wee hours, the above mentioned rampage.

I finally get home to my answering machine to discover my brother, up in Seattle, had called. "Mom has fallen again and broke her other hip"!

Our mother had fallen at the rest home she lives in about a month and a half ago and broken her hip. She had just finished going through therapy and was back in the rest home and down she went again, breaking the other hip.

Wow! I think I will crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head.

Coming around to the brighter side I talked to Leslie Lawson and was informed she had a very successful Grand Opening Week with her new brew pub, Bridget Dolan's.

Al Fisher gave me a note:

The Elk Altar Society is planning to have a yard sale on the Catholic Church grounds, here in Greenwood/Elk, June 26-27 from 10 to 4 each day. BBQ, hot dogs, home made food and soft drinks will be available during the sale. If any one has furniture, tools, dishes, books, knick-nacks, doojiggies, whatchamacallits, or whatever that they would like to donate, just call one of the following and we will arrange to pick them up.

In Greenwood/Elk - Mary Berry, 877-3433.

In Fort Bragg - Lee Friberg, 964-2253.

In the Irish Beach, Manchester, Point Arena area, Al Fisher - 822-1839. Or, if you prefer, bring your items to the church grounds prior to 10 am, June 26. We appreciate any donations that you might be able to bring to our small but merry band of volunteers.

Well, that's about it from beautiful downtown Greenwood Elk.

The new Post Office is framed up. The finishing touches on the Elk Garage remodel are being wrapped up. The annual spring break-up and blow out is over. The fence is back up, the water is back on, the sun is out and we can now settle into a wonderful season of summer.

At least we can try.

July 1st.

For years I have been driving between Greenwood/Elk and points north; Mendocino, Fort Bragg, Seattle, and I have always meant to find the time to stop and visit with Mr. La Franchi and tell him how much I enjoy his little enclave of whirligigs by his home in, what we call, Little Geyserville. Finally, this Sunday morning, June 27th, on my way back from Mendocino, I did.

I parked off Highway One, walked down the driveway and over to his house. The door was open and Mr. La Franchi was busy washing his Sheltie Border Collie in a old galvanized wash basin by the kitchen sink. I introduced myself and asked if I could go look around at his whirligigs. He told me to go ahead, he would be though washing the dog in a bit.

His whirligigs are tacked up on fences, posts, poles, the sides of his house and workshop. There are birds, horses, cows, chickens, a school house, some Holland style windmills and so on. Some are plywood cutouts of people. One of my favorites is of a woman with out stretched arms and the words, "Keep California Beautiful" painted on her, just beside the entrance to his driveway. One sign says "1500 Hay 1". At least that is the way I always read it. Highway One, it means.

Mr. La Franchi finished with his dog, Sandy, put on his hat and came out to join me. He took me around to his workshop shed and unlocked the doors. He said he had been experiencing some thieving recently and therefore had to start keeping everything locked up.

I discovered he is quite hard of hearing and, since I am really not much of an interviewer, I really didn't learn a whole lot. But he made me feel more than welcome.

As I understand it, he has had his property, here on the coast, since 1951. There was an old brick house which he had replaced in 1989. He said there are now eighteen folks living along the bluff in "Little Geyserville".

In his workshop, three doors open up, the one behind the radial arm saw allows a spectacular view out over the edge, not twenty feet away, toward the rock islands in the cove and beyond to the ocean horizon. Every work bench and wall had whirligigs in various stages of construction or deterioration. A cluster of La Franchi napkin holders, cut out into the shape of cows, birds and so on, waited to be picked up by a neighbor who had asked him to make them for her. He said he makes a lot of whirligigs for his nine grandchildren, eight great grandchildren, and various friends over in Geyserville.

Frank La Franchi retired from the California Department of Transportation when he was sixty two years old, back in 1970. He and his wife did a lot of traveling, their camper is parked under the trees, but she died of cancer and it is now used as a spare bedroom when family or friends come to visit.

He showed me a photo of the transportation gang he worked with, taken back in 1957 hanging on the shop wall. I tried to figure out which one was him and couldn't. He pointed himself out, a young thin man with dark hair, standing in the back row wearing a coat. He is no longer thin and his hair, peeking out from under the hat is gray. I noticed his smile is the same though.

I had to get on home and soon said my good-bys. Mr. La Franchi asked if I would give a person in Elk a message for him; he has a lot of trouble hearing on the phone. I said I would. He told me his project for today was to put another coat of paint on the red school house, up by the highway and if not, "there is always tomorrow. I have a lot of time".

As I drove off I thought about the kick I always get seeing that cluster of whirligigs there beside "1500 Hay 1" in Little Geyserville. I know there is always that big controversy around here over what is politically correct in the "view shed" of the coastal zone. The ongoing fights over development and the color of paint, signage, buildout, etc. In one way this little cluster of whirligigs is like a fly in the Gray Poupon, "Hey, you can't do that!", and yet, there is no profit motive, no sales hype, no come on or hoopla. Mr. La Franchi likes to keep himself occupied and there they are, blowing in the wind. I love it. Long may they flap and wave.

July 8th.

Ron Bloomquist is on vacation. Location unknown.

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