July 01, 2009 01:22 pm
Note: This column originally appeared June 30, 2007.
As a kid, I spent every Fourth of July celebrating with my dad’s family. That clan included several cousins with one common thread: Our fathers stowed away on a ship together.
In 1936, my father and several of his cousins brought wine to the docks near their home on the Adriatic Coast. When it was dark, they approached a sailor guarding the gangplank to a large steamer. The cousins shared their wine until the guard passed out. Then they snuck on the ship and a great adventure began.
My father was 25, married and the father of two. He, his wife Anna, and their son and daughter lived with his parents in a fishing village of 600 people. My father was a furniture maker and Anna a seamstress who worked from home.
Like others during this time between two world wars when poverty, oppression and despair were closing in on them, they dreamed about America. It was the land of opportunity, where the streets, if not literally paved with gold, at least offered promise. And if a man worked hard, the possibilities were limitless. If you could get to America certainly it would not take long to save enough money to bring your family there.
|
|
Read more...
|
June 30, 2009 09:43 am
Some days are so perfect they sparkle and chime. Both summer and our magical surroundings help create conditions in which such days can occur, but true perfection usually requires time to marinate, and that can take years. The trick is to recognize the moment when those years come to fruition.
I had such a day last week, a day that began marinating a few years ago, when Aurora first came to help me in the yard. We mowed, weeded and pruned, but we also examined bugs, gave physical check-ups to every reptile and amphibian we could catch and learned the 11 ways to put a wheelbarrow together. Only one way rolls.
She was a freshman at Del Norte High that first spring, and I was a middle-aged child thrilled to have a playmate. Sometimes being a little kid in an aging body can be a lonely thing. I’m deeply grateful to her parents and grandparents for accepting me into their lives.
Now Aurora’s home from college for the summer, working as a commercial fisherman with her dad and grandpa. She’s well on her way to a degree in Marine Biology, which helps explain why we were tidepooling at dawn during a minus 2.3-foot tide. I’d forgotten how much easier it is to walk a mile of beach than a hundred yards of slippery, slithery tidepool.
|
|
Read more...
|
June 30, 2009 09:41 am
I’ve often thought that Crescent City faces an extra challenge when it comes to shopping and tourism because of the lay of its land.
That’s because we’re spread out with four focal points — downtown, the Highway 101/Northcrest Drive corridors, Washington Boulevard and the harbor. No matter what kind of successful tourism promotion and economic growth we might imagine in our future, it’s going to be hard for all four of those areas to thrive in a retail sense.
The real challenges are to make downtown and our harbor buzz. After all, the highway corridors already have the traffic, and Washington Boulevard has Wal-Mart, so they’ll get their share of attention. Downtown and the harbor in essence will have to share the tourists and shoppers lured off the highway, which is one reason why the completion of a pedestrian bridge over Elk Creek as part of a walkway between the two areas was important. But they’ll always be two distinct areas.
I recently spent a weekend two hours up the road in Bandon, which is at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to coastal town geography. Its downtown and its harbor are one — so much so that the town was originally built atop a portion of the Coquille River near its mouth. Thus its quaint little “Old Town” shopping and restaurant district merges seamlessly with a long boardwalk that invites waterside strolls.
|
|
Read more...
|
June 26, 2009 09:46 am
From the pages of the Del Norte Triplicate, June 1969.
Unloading operations of the Pacific Undersea Garden was started just off the old Dutton dock. Two hours later, the success of the unloading was reported.
The undersea garden floated free from the barge on the incoming high tide. The garden was then to be moved away and the barge refloated.
Dredging for the garden’s permanent location was to start next, according to Darold Richcreek, harbor master. Harbor district personnel assisted in the unloading operations.
We get park headquarters!
|
|
Read more...
|
June 24, 2009 10:35 am
Sunday was another Father’s Day. I kept busy in the garden and really didn’t think about what day it was until late afternoon. From a neighbor’s yard I got a whiff of steaks on the barbecue.
I left Hawaii at the end of 1980 and said goodbye to my parents at the airport. They had followed me over to the islands after my twins were born. They came specifically to help care for my sons, but it didn’t take long for them to adapt to and embrace the island way of life.
Mom and Dad had senior citizen passes that entitled them to ride the buses for free. My father liked to do the grocery shopping and the cooking. He took the bus downtown to the fish market, the butcher shop and to produce stands to search out the freshest foods. He cooked stews, then put them in the blender to make homemade baby food. When a doctor told my father he needed more exercise, he got up early and walked eight miles before doing the shopping.
On their “days off,” as my parents liked to call weekends, they rode the bus from one end of Oahu to the other. Sometimes they went to the other side of the island just to have a picnic at the beach or to try a restaurant someone had recommended.
|
|
Read more...
|
June 23, 2009 09:21 am
While the wild rhodies rightfully capture attention, every roadside is covered with blooming plants these days, and that’s especially good for those who can’t hike. It’s nice to know what you’re looking at, so here’s the scoop on a few of the most noticeable flowers.
Those big white blooms made of a gazillion tiny blossoms that grow on 2-foot stalks along Highway 101 between Crescent City and Klamath are coltsfoot, a powerful medicinal herb. If you’re using medicinal herbs, be aware that while coltsfoot makes a great poultice for sprains and bruises, not everyone can safely take it internally.
Heading north on Highway 101, you’ll notice waves of blossoms lapping at the pavement. There are dandelions, chickweed, and foxgloves. Near the beach are verbena, yarrow and kinnikinnick. Inland you’ll find the glorious blue of chicory. And every single one of these plants is useful either as food or as medicine.
That doesn’t mean you should harvest your pharmacy from public or private property. It’s illegal and a dog may have been the watering agent.
|
|
Read more...
|
June 23, 2009 09:18 am
Awhile back a Triplicate reporter gained notoriety by referring to a woman in her 50s as elderly. I decrepitly read right past the reference while editing the story and I’m 52, but still …
At 88 and 86, my parents would acknowledge the term applies, and yet Del Norte County was such a friendly, accessible place for them to visit last week.
Their briskest workouts involved hauling themselves into and out of my Jeep as we stopped here and there. We walked one brief beach and viewed many others from the car. And then there were the trees.
If you or someone you love can only go short distances on foot anymore, you can still take in some of the gnarliest redwood sights on the planet. Three ways succeeded for us:
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Opinion 
