Month: April 2009

The Editor of the poorly named “Coastside Advocate” newspaper visited Moss Beach and marveled at the hospitable bed and breakfast belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Wienke. The editor’s name last name was Roma T. Jackson, and he had the love of poetry in his soul. If you can get a copy of his work at the paper, maybe at the San Mateo County Museum in Redwood City, you will understand what I mean.

Today, this is pretty much lost by the folks who write for the media. Maybe now that we are going through tough times poetry, writing and meaningful words will come back.

Here’s a little piece by Roma T. Jackson:

First, his description of Moss Beach, which was probably intended to be the bright light of the Coastside:

“The principal attraction here [Moss Beach] is the endless varieties and inexhaustible quantities of beautiful sea mosses that are washed up on the beach by the waves, where it lies, tons, only waiting to be selected out by eager hands. Besides the moss there are other attractive features here which form a pleasant combination of diversions to the average summer boarder. There is a fine little sand beach and rock-bound inlets which afford warm and and safe sea bathing,There is good fishing, an abundance of clams, abalones, mussels, and shells. It is only a short distance from here to the Point Montara fog signal, always open to the public, where Mr. David Splaine, the keeper, and his accomplished daughter, Miss Della, take pleasure in showing visitors about the station, and their handsome collection of marine curiosities.”

—–

Charlie Nye, Jr. tole me that some company from Southern California came in the 1940s and took the moss away. He didn’t know for what purpose. If you didn’t know Charlie, you clearly missed a Coastside character. He was not Mr. Suburban and would not fit into the present. We, who were fortunate to spend time with him, loved him. An eccentric who lived in a house near the cliff’s edge; his dad had run what was called “The Reefs,” built right on the beach. He was a cook who made great clam chowder and you could rent little row boats from him as well as stay overnight in the hotel overlooking the cliffs. His dad was connected to a famous senator who was in favor of silver (too heavy too carry around in your pocket) instead of paper money.

———-

Roma T. Jackson became piqued with the writer of the “Pacific Union” in San Francisco. There were all kinds of travelogues being written. My dear friend John Vonderlin has found many of them and you can read them at pescaderomemories.com. John’s come from the “San Francisco Call-Bulletin,” a favorite “old” paper of mine because the editor was a reformer and he went all out and after everybody. Fremont Older was his  name–quite a man. True, he was progressive. He worried about the prostitutes and how they got along south of Market in San Francisco. He worried about the common man. He had a mission. I like people who have a mission. The “Call” had some really good stories–the writers were unafraid back then. Today, I’m afraid they are scared to tell the truth.

———

Here’s what Roma T. Jackson had to say about a writer who wrote words a about a Coastside visit circa 1900. I think Roma died shortly afterwards, by his own hand.

“Rather Overdrawn”

“The Pacific Union , a little paper published in San Francisco, either has a very exalted opinion of this section, or else is fishing for patronage with a very nauseating bait of taffy. In speakingof Halfmoon Bay it says: ‘This is a beautiful bay, the shape of its name, the blue clear water of the ocean flowing right up to its tide mark. It is sheltered at the northwest by a reef, and at some little government expenditure could be made a fine harbor and road-stead for all weathers. This done railroad and ship could come together, commerce be opened up, local industries be established, the rich land brought up to its full value and Spanishtown [Half Moon Bay] become the second seaport of the American Pacific. The S.P. [Southern Pacific Railroad which included the Big Four, Senator Stanford among them] are aware of this, and should they not soon act an eastern competing line may step in with their Pacific termius at Halfmoon Bay, and establish a route from San Francisco coastside via Santa Cruz, connecting with it and making it their overland line.”

Turns out the Governor of Texas has NO POWER. Just a figurehead.

It is the Vice President who wields all the power.

I do not recall the Media alerting us about that during past elections. 

Think about what that means.

Well, did you know that a part of Texas (the eastern part) has its own Electrical Grid? There are four or five girds of this type in the US. That is why President Obama wants just one grid. One grid means one person controls all. Look it up. I never knew that. Can you believe it? Texas (a small part) has its own electrical grid. Does that mean they could function on their own?

Marc Schneider:

Please email [email protected]

In the last few years I made sure to be near Burt as much as possible. He retired and we spent many hours together. We took short excursions. I didn’t care. When you love someone, it doesn’t matter if your’re invited to the “hot” social occasions and the opera and the ballet, and you know what I’m talking about.

I enjoyed being with him because we had the most enlightening conversations. Having been born in 1929, the year of the “Great Depression,” he had seem “everything.” He knew politicians inside and out. He could make predictions on their next moves. His opinion of most of them was very low. I mean, come on, most of them have never worked in their lives. They’re takers. Look at their soft hands. No work. Ever. 

I’m afraid it’s come to the point where politicians run for office simply  because they get free money if they follow instructions. If not—-well, they get the boot.

President Obama, who I do admire, did say this week that the worst was still coming. Guess what it is? Do you know? We are a consumer economy, almost entirely on all of us, men and women purchasing stuff constantly. Maybe that’s why it’s not made very well! 

Tell me this: how can people pay off their credit cards if they are not working and cannot pay their mortgages? What’s going to happen when all those people default on their credit card payments?

But that revelation was not the intention of this piece: I wanted to tell you what happened to my Burt. He fell twice two months ago, once at the harbor, the second time in the ER. In the Emergency Room. It was surreal. That second fall cause his head to open and blood poured out just like you see on “law and Order. It was one of the rare times I wasn’t with him at the harbor. He actually drove home! He did not tell him that he already needed stitches and was his skin was ripped off. I took him immediately to the ER over the hill where, because of their triage technique, he was left to fall on the floor and break his head again.

Minutes passed before his fall registered with staff. I was already on the floor with Burt calling for help. It came but it was delayed. A lady who was waited screamed but she screamed too late—the event had already taken place. Two falls. One day. I was standing right next to him when he fell the second time. And now that bloody memory is embedded in my mind.

From the “Richard Schellen Collection”

January 15, 1862;

“Wrecked Vessels. It is fear that the recent strong and long continued gale of wind must have wrecked many vessels. Two are already known to be lost. The Peruvian schooner EFIN A KNIPPER loaded with 337,000 pounds of sugar; on her way to Peru to this port, was blown ashore at Half Moon Bay, just south of Point San Pedro, on the night of the 10th inst., and is likely to prove a total loss. Her cargo is insured. The captain of the EFIN A. KNIPPER arrived in this city yesterday [note: don’t know what city the article is referring to.] He states that a bark is ashore about 10 miles below where the EFIN A. KNIPPER was wrecked..”

Friday, January 17, 1862:

THE WRECKED SCHOONER.

“The U.S.  Revenue revenue cutter, Shubrick, Captain William C. Pease, arrived last night at 11:30, three hours from Half Moon, with the crew and lady passengers of the wrecked schooner ELFIN A. KNIPPER. The vessel was found to be a total loss. About 8,000 pounds of sugar was all that was saved from the wreck. No other vessel had gone ashore with fifteen miles of this place, and no bark had been lost ten miles to the southward,as reported.”

I could have been born in Berlin, Germany. I could have been born in Shanghai, China, but I popped out in San Francisco at the close of WWII.

It was war that brought me here. It was war that forced my parents to move from one country to another, places with great contrast, culturally. In 1938 Germany and China could not have been more different. 

Fortunately, Shanghai in 1938 retained a European glow from decades earlier. Shanghai had been cut up into the French quarter, the Chinese quarter, the Japanese quarter and so on. Of course, I loved the French quarter–I saw it in 1984; I don’t know if it still exists but could relate to the European flavor more than the Asian part where years earlier people were starving and begging on the streets.I have historic photos to prove it.

Let me clarify the sentence above. Nobody was begging on the streets in 1984—but they were in 1938. When I was there I saw prosperity; I was able to go wherever I wanted and was treated exceptionally well. At one point, I forgot my purse in a Chinese restaurant and it was immediately found and returned to me. I loved China and how I wish I had experienced Shanghai when it was known as the “Paris of the East.” 

My mom, who was usually credible, said she witnessed a person’s finger being removed with a knife to get a the gold ring he/she was wearing. 

Since I am a romantic who loves the ideas of spies and secrets and sweating hot love, Shanghai still had it all in 1984. Now I hear it’s just another McDonald village. Not exactly but you get the idea. 

If you know Germans you know they are obsessed with cleanliness. Shanghai in 1938 was not. I remember my father writing about the insects in his soup but he got used to it, like everything else, including being forced to give up their apartment to a Japanese apartment, one without a toilet or just about anything else. I have the documents sealing the deal. 

While my family could not get into the USA during WWII and one relative, an aunt, who went to Paris, a cosmopolitan liberal place she thought she would be safe, but, of course wasn’t as she was picked up and never heard of again. In the past few years the Red Cross sent me a list of people, including my aunt and  her husband, who had sought refuge in a famous Paris church, to no avail. 

Every country we have gone to war with; I’m thinking of Vietnam right now. Well, I’m guessing, but apparently anyone who cooperated with the USA c could not remain in the country where they were born or they would be killed as “enemies.” They came heee to the USA and one of the businesses they’ve gotten into is medical supplies. I know this because of my experience with Mission Hospice when my beloved Burt was dying. 

Gore Vidal often talks of Empire, of ancient Rome, comparing the two. Well,look around and you will see a lot of the people we went to war with, who probably collaborated with the USA, here, living here. And, you know what, I do not think they are happy. They had to leave their homes, just like my parents. It wasn’t their choice. 

War has the power to move people in a social engineering way. What a dumb thing to do. What makes official believe that these people forced to leave their homes are really so enamored with this country where they encounter discrimination, language difficulties and you can imagine the rest. Entire lives, entire families are destroyed.

Several people have said that to me: “You are generous…to a fault.:

There’s always that pause  after the word “generous” because they’re not sue if they should tell me. To them, perhaps, “generous..to a fault” is negative.

But is it? Being generous is good and a warm gesture many of us have forgotten about. 

I love to give a guest a plant or a flower or a sweet-smelling soap. Maybe a book with a request that they review it for my blog. That’s hard to get people to do but I am always hopeful. 

You know what: I think being “generous….to a fault” is not a negative trait but a very positive one that we as humans have forgotten. We have forgotten to give (not material things necessarily), you know what I mean. We have lost the ability to empathize, to sympathize, to give and feel good about it.

I am proud to be generous….to a fault.

——–

P.S.  I hear a man named Mike who lives in Miramar is copying my photos and selling them. I’ve always given them away (which I admit is dumb) but I was shocked to learn that he copies and sells them. Yuk.

Burt: “We have seen the best this country had to offer.”

He was talking, of course, about freedom. Personal freedoms.

Yes, we have seen the best this country has had to offer. I never felt so lucky  to know and believe that.