The Healdsburg House

Some people have asked about the renovation of my Victorian house in Healdsburg.  The house, built in 1890, is on the main road a few blocks north of the town's historic plaza.   I purchased it in 2003.  During the 113 years before I got here, dubious "improvements" had been made to the place by its 3 previous owners.  As I systematically gutted the entire place, all those nifty improvements ended up in dumpsters.  The photos below show what my idea of improvements turned out to be. 

It took 5 dusty years but I was able to end up last year with exactly what I wanted.  This year (2010) is occupied with turning an old shed out back into an arts and crafts studio.  That too is just about finished, so the new project for 2011 is....a new back deck and pergola!

Before and After Shots

Dick and Fran 2011

Suzy in 2013

Carleen in 2013

Figs Will Be Ready for Thanksgiving

One of the things I look forward to every fall is the fresh crop of figs.  The trick is to pick them the day you think they're ripe, which, hopefully, is the day before the birds think they're ripe!

These still have some growing to do but will surely be ready for the annual Pecan-Fig Tarts on Thanksgiving Day!

Shed Renovation

Click on photo for more photos

Progress has definitely been made this summer on the renovation of the dilapidated old shed out back.  Started over a year ago clearing it out by having a giant garage sale.  And continued this summer with new roof and cupola, new windows, new floor, new paint, new electricity, hot and cold water, gas for the old Wedgwood stove.  This weekend I'm insulating.  Hopefully the horizontal natural rough 12 inch-wide redwood boards for the interior walls will go up next week.  Still restoring two old windows I'm using from my former old house on Fitch Street.  The summer has flown by and everything needs to be buttoned up before the winter rains.  Plans for its use include painting, writing, snoozing, and daydreaming.  And oh yes, it's a space with an extra long bed for my extra long brother to sleep in when he visits.  What fun!   Click on the picture above for some photos of the progress.  

On the Brink of Impending Youthiness (again)

This is McAuliffe Hall, the freshman building where, that September of 1956, we began our 4 years at Prep. It was the perfect ediface in which to inhale the first whiff of the rarified atmosphere that was to surround the next four years' education. A huge circular staircase, wide hallways, creaky floorboards, classroom fireplaces, mammoth windows, drafty rooms with floor grates that blew warm oiled air on snowy winter days, our requisite suit or sport coat with buttoned shirt and tie, and those sit-up-straight, clunky wooden chair-desks straight out of British public school lore. As I said...the perfect place.

Fast forward fifty years...it's now 2010 and we'll all be converging on the Prep Campus Friday evening, June 4th, for a reunion reception where we'll see who's still upright, who's got hair, who's got a waistline, who's compos mentis, etc.  Will those long-saved memories of classmates emerge from deep recesses as soon as I actually see who it is I am looking at?

I'm already reminded of the smartness of the boys at this school.  There was Gerard DeF., sort of a precursor of the Fonz, who was smart.  And Charlie B., who kept us laughing, was big and played football, had a heart as big as can be, and was smart.  And Peter S. who always knew the answers because he was smart.  And Bob J. who sat in front of me (alphabetically) for most of the 4 years, who had the compulsiveness of youth, the guile of a prankster, and was smart.  Even Peter B., who smoked like a chimney and had a beard as thick as a middle aged cossack, was smart.  They were all smart, and at first that was scary.  But it was okay to be smart here; it was a noble goal -- to learn, to achieve.  Good study habits were formed early and "stick-to-it-iveness" was an ideal for which many strived.  Still, sadly, some boys did not return each September.  Most of us did whatever we could to keep that from happening to us.  We knew early on that we had an opportunity that was not to be wasted.  We knew that with these 4 years under our belts, we would have chances at further education better than most.  Yes, even at age 15, we knew it was an honor to be among these "prepsters." 

The Book of Recollections I've been working on has now been sent to the University Print Shop. It's a happy-hands-at-home type of thing; probably won't win any prizes, but should add some fun to the 50th Reunion weekend. 

This is a photo of our brave German teacher, Fr. Butler,

 with 6 of us sixteen-year-olds at a restaurant in Mexico City

during a six-week-long trip he chaperoned in the Summer of 1959.

(The only things German we encountered were the Ambassador's wife and her Mercedes Benz)!

The Reunion Committee has been busy these past months led by John S., our more than capable class president.  Woody S. and Jimmy W. have been busy putting together the events of the weekend.  The main event on Saturday evening is a Pig Roast dinner to be held in a huge tent on the Prep Quad.  Tom C. has been contacting all alums across the country to see who's coming.  Ed K. and Nick P. have been working on getting contributions to our class Gift.  The goal of $200K has nearly been reached by the first 50 classmates reached.  A portion of our gift is being set aside for a full 4-year scholarship so a bright young man can experience what we have experienced.  (Our yearly tuition of $315 is now in the $15K range!).  We all get to meet him at some point during the weekend. 

On Sunday, we "graduate" with the Class of 2010.  We receive our "golden diplomas."  Are we now actually peers of Betty White and Bea Arthur?  It'll be "real cool" going up individually to shake the hand of the young President of the school.  Then being set free again!  Free to go out into the world to do good things.  Gimme a break -- I'm 67 years old -- it'll be time for a snooze.

Memories of Young Men in the Great Class of 1960

The weekend of June 4-6, 2010 is fast approaching.  It's the weekend that I get to share with 50 or so fresh-faced, smart, grateful, and still eager 68 year-olds the golden anniversary of the culmination of one of the most important opportunities of our lives.  It's the reunion weekend of Fairfield Prep's Great Class of 1960.  It's the weekend when doctors, lawyers, judges, writers, scientists, monsignori, brokers, educators, and we regular folk get together to honor each other for the part we played, and still play, in each others' lives.

For this event, I've been charged with the task of putting together a book of recollections.  So I've solicited each member of the class to send me some unforgettable feelings, happenings, or events that pop to mind when he thinks of his 4 years at Prep.  Some thing that may have bored the daylights out of family members when Dad got in a story-telling mood over the years.  Some thing that only we, as co-conspirators, would fully appreciate.

I've gotten some wonderful responses.  How nice to be reminded of things I have totally forgotten.  How could I not remember the tale of the firecracker and the beehive?  Hearing about it again puts me right back there on that warm spring day when McAuliffe Hall was closed down for an afternoon due to invasions of nasty yellow jackets.  

Interspersed with the classmates' memories, I'm inserting scans of memorabilia like this calendar that made it through 50 years of cross-country moves stashed in a carton with report cards, reading lists, class notes, programs, and some text books.

I expect I'll write more about all this during the next few weeks.

Getting a Late Start

The raised beds this spring are loaded with volunteers.  So far, I've spied a couple of red lettuce plants, a walnut "sappling," sweet peas, and several California poppies. 

If I don't get the vegetables planted this week, we're talking August or September before we have peppers or tomatoes.  Rain today and forecast again for tomorrow.  Hope Tuesday can be planting day.