Page 37 - Sonoma County Gazette Sept 2017

The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story. Ursula K. Le Guin
Here’s five bucks. Now, go buy me a bottle of water.
I think it was 45 or maybe 50 years ago when I noticed my companion was carrying a bottle of water on her belt. I remember we were in the Evert Person theater on the Sonoma State University campus to see a production of “Angels in America”, partially based on the problems of Roy Cohn, lawyer for Senator Joseph McCarthy, with Cohn an alleged homosexual and a villain in the eyes of us liberals grinding our way through NYU on historic Washington Square and wishing we could afford to live in already
upscale nearby Greenwich Village. We lived on
cream cheese and raisins on whole wheat bread
from Chock ful o’ Nuts, and religiously read the
weekly Village Voice for affordable rentals,
All this is long before computers, web sites, facebook or even google and Internet. Call us Luddites and go to Wikipedia if you crave an interpretation.
Ås gently as I could I asked my companion, a bright and intellectual woman from the KRCB TV and Radio channels, if the water bottle clipped
to the belt on her hip meant she had some sort of kidney problem. I didn’t dare to bring up the words urinary tract.
“No, nothing like that, It’s just so comforting and besides, everybody’s doing it.:”
“Oh,” I said and buried my face by reading the program but quickly glanced up to note there were several other playgoers with water bottles in their purses or clipped to their belts. The most popular label my eye managed to catch was Crystal Geyser.
As I said, all this was 35 or 40 years ago when I was editor of the weekly Clarion newspaper which was abruptly closed down one month before the Community Voice was started.
I went to RP city hall to cover a routine city council meeting, sat down and quickly perused the agenda. It was routine, too.
Then I looked up and nearly fell off my chair. Every city council member, the city manager, city attorney, and even the table with a microphone for guest speakers had a bottle or two of Crystal Geyser water at their elbows.
What’s happening? Did the county health department discover a mysterious mold in city hall that only the consumption of bottles of Crystal Geyser water could cure? I leaned over and nudged a fellow reporter. “What’s with the bottles of water for everybody?“
“Oh, it’s the latest thing to keep your hands busy, like hula hoops back then,” she said.
“I hope it’s only water and nobody’s trying to sneak in some booze,” I said.
“No, not that with this gang. Check out the supermarkets, any of ‘em,” she said.
I took her advice and started out with Raleys and Safeway, then over to Food Maxx, Grocery Outlet and Oliver’s. It was a stunning revelation for both sides of aisles in all of them were packed with bottles of colored water greens and blues, no oranges, reds or blacks. Crystal Geyser bottles were prominently displayed elsewhere in the stores
It reminded me of the days when big tanker trucks bearing Crystal Geyser insignias used to drive up to a section of Rohnert Park water pipes on the east side of Snyder Lane, fill the trucks and bring the water back to their plant up near Calistoga. Do they still do that? I haven’t checked lately.
The water was carbonated, red coloring added, firmly bottled and sold back to RP water lovers at a fair profit.
The southern edge of G Section overlooks the well site and I wonder how many of the residents know the facts of their available fresh water and still buy green and blue bottled water.
9/17 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 37
Living in Cotati nurtures my writing and friendships with writers
The Redwood Writers’ 2017 anthology launch will be held at the Cotati home and garden of Linda Loveland Reid and Harry Reid. I feel so lucky that this dynamic couple have hosted our annual launches. It is an occasion to celebrate our branch of the California Writers Club.
This publication event showcases members reading their stories, nonfiction, memoir, and poetry. Each anthology begins by a call for submissions to a theme. An example theme is Vintage Voices 2012: Call of the Wild. Only members may send in short works for blind review. Acceptance or potential rejections come from an editorial team working under each edition’s editor. To date, my short stories and poems have been accepted in over ten club anthologies. Most writers will agree that publication is a highpoint in their lives. This local opportunity for being published engenders gratitude and loyalty in our members. As usual, I am looking forward to reading this year’s edition. They make fine gifts too.
Writer, painter, and theater director, Linda Loveland Reid has served as RW President, past branch president, writing contest chair, etc. Also she produced 10-minute plays at 6th Street Theater as club fundraisers. You will find both
of Loveland Reid’s novels, Something in Stone and Touch of Magenta, on her Web site, www.lindalovelandreid.com. I recommend her interview of sculptor, Bruce Johnson, in Sonoma Discoveries magazine, available at sonomadiscoveries.com/ new-dignity-for-old-growth/
Redwood Writer’s forthcoming anthology, celebration of Sonoma: Stories of a Region and Its People, is the creation of Robert Digitale, Editor in Chief. He is a staff writer at The Press Democrat. For more than three decades, Digitale has written a wide range of news and feature stories. He also is the author of the fantasy series, The Root of Glory, which includes the novels Horse Stalker and Blaze & Skyfire.
Over the past ten years, the club’s all volunteer efforts have produced an anthology every year. The goal of the 2017 edition is to entertain readers while giving them a better sense of what makes this land so special. This includes stories about people, places, history and activities that have helped define Sonoma County. The book features nonfiction, short fiction, memoir, and poetry. I am excited to read my story, Cotati Vineyard Owner, John Schuster’s Parliament of Barn Owls, in September at the book launch.
In our garden, we hosted Travel Tales: a Redwood Writers Salon.
On August 19th eighteen Redwood Writers arrived at one o’clock. After the potluck dishes were set on the patio table, lively conversations accompanied our shared lunch. About half our group read a personal story related to the theme of “Travel Tales”. RW Salon is held in members’ homes every other month, with new themes and shared dinners. To join Redwood Writers, the most active branch of the California Writers Club, visit www.redwoodwriters. org where you can fill out a membership form.
Dances with gophers or garden woes in paradise?
A son of the gopher came back. After months of trapping, a few free voracious root eaters remain and new tunnels and holes have appeared. Most disagreeable, that son of a gun’s son has discovered the new flowerbed. Our backyard has three in ground flowerbeds, the rest being in raised beds. In
a rectangular bed, where once tall zinnias held their bright faces to the sun, stands a lone sunflower. Gopher greed took them all. Recently, in preparation for hosting Redwood Writers’ August Salon, Marc planted sweet alyssums, marigolds, and salvia. All in wire baskets. We thought gophers didn’t like marigolds due to their strong scent. Untrue. The gopher ate every marigold root, leaving each plant as an abandoned bouquet of flowers to rot. So far our lambs’ ears, and Mexican poppies look healthy. Do you have this problem? Let me know if you are in Cotati and have successfully eliminated gophers. We won’t use poison due to toxicity up the food chain. None of us want to kill our helpful predatory barn owls or hawks.
Do drop me an email dtfwriter@gmail.com because I love to hear from readers. Also I invite your suggestions as to persons to interview, and Cotati events to visit.