YOUR Saturday paper: Fort Bragg fog clears just in time! Mendoparade just fun Americana, no anger, no division, juicy peaches in Albion, Gloriana yard sale
It doesnt get much more American than a firetruck, a kiddo and a flag in a parade!
ONE hour before fireworks, the fog was still too thick. But when the time came, the fog lifted and the show went on in grand style. For some reason, the fireworks kept starting and stopping; we wandered off a copule times only to see it resume. I telephoned the Irish fog god, Fiéth Fíada, and he cussed me out, having interrupted his storytelling over a drink, but I must have gotten through after all! People at the fireworks reported the fog was still there, just had lifted up and provided a place to see the show. Watching from the hospital parking lot, the fireworks were clearly lower in the sky. At the beginning, there were some that appeared to be nothing but orange fog. They shot lower and the show went on.
The Mendocino Parade was bigger and had more floats than we have seen for a long time. To our surprise, the atmosphere we saw was entirely festive and didn’t feel angry and divided at all for America’s 250s. Beautiful American flags. Beautiful people and dogs! We only saw half the parade as my dogs staged a coup d’etat halfway through. While I was giving water to Brutus, Caesar suddenly with full force jerked out of his harness and dashed away. I sent Brutus to get him out of the parade and off they went, side by side, running down to the beach, down the stairs. We usually go ON LEASH but they forgot that. Fortunately there was a mob of kids to swim and play with. Something happened in the parade that resulted in the fire department going from participants to back to work. It took me two hours to get out of Mendo and then I was due at work. Here are some photos and a story about a Gloriana yard sale and Albion peaches.
The chamber put out parade winners very quick!
Best animal: Bears on Wagons Best Band: Old Growth Jazz Club Most Creative: Rise and Be Well Most Patriotic: Indivisible Mendocino Best Float: Bodhi for Mayor/Redwood Roofers Best Youth: Mendocino Spartan 4H Best Overall: Flynn Creek Circus
A young lady puts her heart into her mendoparade performance
175 RIPE CENTRAL VALLEY PEACHES JUST SHOWED UP IN ALBION
On Sunday and only Sunday, David & Rosa Wyglendowski will be selling peaches brought to their L&R Farm, 32691 Middle Ridge Road in Albion, 10am-4pm. Please bring a box if you want a quantity. $2.50 per pound. They come from a farmer friend in the Central Valley, who just arrived for a visit. The news came from Tom Wodetzki, Moonlight, via the listserve. Was there an invasion of Polish people with hard to spell names at some point? Yes! And No!
When: July 4th and 5th from 10 to 6 Where: 946 Glass Beach Drive in Fort Bragg Why: Raise money to keep Community Theater alive on the coast What: Clothes and assorted household goods
“We also plan to be BBQ-ing and feeding people who donate or purchase more than $20 worth of goods. We might even karaoke.”
Frank Hartzell has spent his lifetime as a curious anthropologist in a reporter's fedora. His first news job was chasing news on the streets of Houston with high school buddy and photographer James Mason, back in 1986. Then Frank graduated from Humboldt State and went to Great Gridley as a reporter, where he bonded with 1000 people and told about 3000 of their stories. In Marysville at the Appeal Democrat, the sheltered Frank got to see both the chilling depths and amazing heights of humanity. From there, he worked at the Sacramento Bee covering Yuba-Sutter and then owned the Business Journal in Yuba City, which sold 5000 subscriptions to a free newspaper. Frank then got a prestigious Kiplinger Investigative Reporting fellowship and was city editor of the Newark Ohio, Advocate and then came back to California for 4 years as managing editor of the Napa Valley Register before working as a Dominican University professor, then coming to Fort Bragg to be with his aging mom, Betty Lou Hartzell, and working for the Fort Bragg Advocate News. Frank paid the bills during that decade + with a successful book business. He has worked for over 50 publications as a freelance writer, including the Mendocino Voice and Anderson Valley Advertiser, along with construction and engineering publications. He has had the thrill of learning every day while writing. Frank is now living his dream running MendocinoCoast.News with wife, Linda Hartzell, and web developer, Marty McGee, reporting from Fort Bragg, California.
