Home Delivery

Unlike the naughty ice cream delivered by The Good Humor Woman, I never actually ordered anything from the Pot Pie Guy. I had moved to San Francisco before I heard of his small enterprise in Berkeley, and I'm not certain if he was making his deliveries before I left or not.

At any rate, rumor had it that there was a guy who delivered chicken pot pies on a bike with a heated basket. And that they were more pot than chicken.

Since I was no longer part of the Berkeley hippy scene at the time that I heard about this, I have no idea whether it was true or not, nor how long it lasted if it was. It certainly smacked of the "Purloined Letter," what with the out in plain sight aspect of it.

I do know that pot is more potent when eaten than when smoked, because I once had some rather green brownies. The night of the Beatles' Candlestick Park Concert, which is where I ate them. I won tickets to the concert by calling in and correctly identifying Eleanor Rigby the day after Revolver was released, so we got up a group and went. I'm very glad that I wasn't driving and that the driver had eschewed the brownies, since on the way back it seemed to me that the Bay Bridge stood up in front of the car and shimmied like a snake. Lovely and funny, but I doubt that would be easy to drive on. And, I suppose that makes up for the fact that we couldn't hear a note of the music what with all the screaming and all, and that later I read that the Beatles were so disgusted with American audiences by that time that they lip synched to get it over with, so we weren't missing anything after all. That would have been terribly disappointing to me, as I had scrimped my meager funds as a college student single mom and bought Revolver the day it was released. I was a fan.

Photos:
pie, Forkandbottle.com
bike, Dutchbikefactory.com

Palm Trees and Airports

Do click to enlarge picture.

So I was over at Rambling and Roving, Cuppa and Anvil Cloud's travel blog, and she had posted some pictures of palm trees they had seen in British Columbia. That's pretty far north for palm trees, and it reminded me of when I lived in Fairbanks and a group of friends and I decided that we wanted to plant palms out at the airport. We would put them on elevators so that during the winter they would be under ground and protected under sunlamps. And then, when planes landed, the elevators could raise them and surprise all of the folks flying into the frigid, snowy land.

I have since seen snow on palm trees, one year when I was living in central California. So, here is a picture I found on Google Image. I still think it would have been a hoot to line the runway at Fairbanks International with them, but I suppose it would cost too much. Oh, the fun I could have and the joy I could spread if only I won a lot of money!

Welcome Arches

Modesto, where I graduated from high school, is one of the central valley California towns that used to be agricultural and are now bedroom communities for the San Francisco bay area. Like many cities in California, Modesto has an arch over what was once the main road into town with the town motto on it. "Water Wealth Contentment Health" it reads. But, that was actually the second place entry in the 1911 contest which was originally won by "Nobody's Got Modesto's Goat".

Redwood City, where I lived while attending the College of Notre Dame for my Montessori credential, has one that reads "Climate Best by Government Test" which always caused me to wonder what level of government, when, and what the criteria were. I'm certain that the Redwood City Assembly would have been more favorable in this judging than the U. S. Congress. Although, during the time I lived there, Redwood City did, indeed, have a very pleasant climate.

Some welcome arches, like this, simply announce the name of the town. Apparently the good citizens of Weed feel that is sufficient for anyone to know. Here we are, it seems to say, needing no claims or embellishments. Although, why would anyone name a town Weed, do you suppose?

In my misspent youth, I used to wonder if one could score marijuana in Weed, which would make a certain amount of sense.

Many, like this one in Fairfield, give you a little more information concerning the status of the community. This is an important town, one imagines, with a courthouse and county offices -- perhaps its own weighing station on the freeway, as other county seats I've known in California have.


Or its proximity to some place of greater fame. To be the gateway to an entire mountain range is a proud thing. What more could a city wish? Or, what else does Clovis have? It is enough. It declares an identity that the community is proud of, it welcomes visitors, it fulfils its function. Apparently there was a great fad for welcome arches, as they are called, during the beginning of the 20th century. They vary in many ways, going from this rather stark example that isn't really an arch at all,

to the Lodi arch, which is stucco with Spanish tile over the pedestrian gates. After this arch was built, with mission bells in it, the California bear was placed on the top. Very clearly, this arch belongs in California, although so far as I know there were never any Spanish missions in Lodi. It is more of a German community. Lodi, like Weed, feels a need for no embellishments. It is what it is. Here it is being refurbished.

Many are still in a central part of town, but many are like the Fresno arch, which has been left behind and is now in the warehouse district. Fresno, you will notice, claims to be the "Best Little Town in the USA". Again, I have to wonder how that was determined? I know that it is a part of the Central Valley of California, some of the richest agricultural land in the world. They grow raisins in Fresno. In the 60s it, like Modesto, was a place that people wanted to get away from. Too countrified.


They aren't restricted to California. Las Vegas has one, Denver has one, even Ketchikan has one, as you can see from this photo identifying the city as both the salmon capital of the world and Alaska's 1st City (by which they mean, the town furthest south). They were the rage. Communities considered the face that they wanted to present to the world and built an arch to immortalize it. And then, they went out of style and you don't see many new ones anymore.

Cherry commented that there is a new arch in Pleasant Hill, which she can't find a picture of and neither can I. However, here is a picture of the Pleasanton arch. The Wikipedia photo shows a banner beneath the arch, but whether there is a motto on it or not I can't tell. However, the town has been known in the past as "The Most Desperate Town in The West," which I don't imagine is on the arch and really wish was.

As long as I'm adding this one, you might as well see the burl arch in Nome, Alaska which is the furthest north welcome arch in the U.S. The arch reads "End of the Iditarod Dog Race" rather than the town motto, "There's No Place Like Nome." One is kind of sorry about that.

Ask For What You Want

We have been receiving over 200% of normal rainfall since mid-June; and a very heavy downpour the last 24 hours. All six of the waterfalls on Mount Juneau are running full. Along with several from Mount Roberts, all of them terminate in Gold Creek, which runs through Cope Park. At any rate, all of the creeks in my neck of the woods are engorged these days. So, yesterday morning when the Care-A-Van driver picked me up he mentioned that he had taken a break at Cope Park (only one block down hill from my apartment, but since there is no elevator on the mountainside, about a 12 block walk or drive around) and the creek was running heavy laden and really lovely.

And so, remembering that I am supposed to be taking good care of myself, I said, "Would you have time to drive me down to look?" And he checked his schedule, and he did! It was only a few blocks out of our way from apartment to office, but we took 15 minutes and went and walked in the rain beside the rapids and allowed the sound of cascading water and the beauty of the setting to sooth our souls and set us both on the path to a day of being centered. And I was all day.