Main Street
Hawaii provides backdrop for 50th anniversary
By Mary Ann Cook
ANNIVERSARY ON KAUAI: The Hills--Dale and Bob--celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in a bang-up way with a weeklong stay in Kauai with their three boys and their families. Each family occupied a separate unit in a condominium complex.
Most meals were done jointly, with tableware and chairs being brought in from the various units. The only requirement being that Grandmother was not to do any of the cooking. The younger generation took up the mantle. The dining piece de résistance was probably the last night's dinner, on New Year's Eve: an in-house luau.
The sons had picked up most of the components, at a nearby butcher shop including Kalua pork and tea-wrapped chicken. The hit of the evening was a surprise show put on by the older three of the five granddaughters. Tina, 6, who lives in Honolulu, had taken hula lessons and taught the dance to cousins Naomi, 8, and Haley, 4.
Costumed in sarongs and bathing suits, they were dubbed adorable by doting grandmother Dale. Now that she has five granddaughters, she is delighted to report that the sewing machine has come out from retirement and is humming along nicely--and regularly.
Wrap-up of the week: glorious weather, lots of snorkeling and beach time. The three Hill sons are Barry, now living in Hawaii, a hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey; Allan, a Sebastopol surgeon; and Lorin, a Berkeley architect. Each has two children. The only boy, and the eldest in the grandchildren lineup, is Thomas, 12, son of Lorin. He takes it well in stride.
LOS GATOS READS STEINBECK: John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath while living in Los Gatos. (Yes, where Steinbeck lived in 1939 was technically county then, and it's Monte Sereno now, but it's two miles from the Los Gatos library--close enough for crowing rights. He also wrote Of Mice and Men while living here. This year marks the 100th anniversary of his birth on Feb. 27., and for an entire town to be focused on the reading of one book is a fine and rare gesture of community spirit.
For all these reasons the Los Gatos library, and Friends of same, is staging a "Los Gatos Reads Steinbeck!" campaign to run through February and March and what's left of January. Other cities that have run a citywide book campaign, such as Chicago and Seattle, have been delighted about the enthusiastic response.
The Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize and created a stir throughout the country in its time. Burned, banned and damned, it was also critically acclaimed and became a best seller. The movie, starring Henry Fonda; didn't win him the Oscar that year, 1940; Jimmy Stewart won for Philadelphia Story. (Maybe, movie buffs conjecture, because he [Stewart] didn't get it the year before for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.)
The Los Gatos Reads Steinbeck! campaign is designed to get the whole town talking--about Steinbeck and Grapes. It's expected to be a surefire conversation starter when one sits down for a latte.
ROSE BOWL FLOAT: Is Barbara Baggerly the only Los Gatan to have ever ridden on a Rose Bowl float? Perhaps so. In the time-honored tradition of Lana Turner being discovered drinking a soda at a local fountain, Mrs. B., a teenaged beauty then living in Pasadena, caught the eye of an oil company magnet whose firm was producing a float.
He asked her to ride on the float and told her to bring along her father for the preview so the family would be assured it was all on the up and up. John Baggerly relates that his wife fell in love with another participant on the same float as they rode along.
But the attraction evidently didn't persist, as J.B. obviously rode into the picture not too much later. The Baggerlys met when both were playing the leads in the town's annual summer pageant, the only visible vestige of which that remains is the street named Pageant, located behind the library.
AUTHOR, AUTHOR, AUTHOR: The three authors featured at the annual American Association of University Women Authors Luncheon will be Jonnie Jacobs, Dr. Lillian Rubin and Terry Ryan. The luncheon, a benefit for the AAUW Educational Foundation, will be held Jan. 31, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at the Saratoga Country Club.
Jacobs is the author of Murder Among Strangers; Rubin wrote Tangled Lives: Daughters, Mothers & the Crucible of Aging; and Ryan's book is titled The Prize of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less. Reservations are $45. Checks payable to AAUW EF can be sent to Mary Henderson, 14830 Vickery Ave., Saratoga.
For more information, call Nancy Hobbs at 408.395.4045 or Mary Henderson at 408.867.1928.
COURAGEOUS KIDS BENEFIT: A Rinconada Hills benefit gala will be held Jan. 26, 7-11 p.m., with champagne, dinner, an auction and dancing to the Gary Chula Band. A benefit for the American Cancer Society's Courageous Kids, the cost is $40. For more information, call 408.374.5750.
Send checks to: Rinconada Charity Events, Rinconada Hills, 100 Avenida del Sol, Los Gatos, 95032. Fran Rude's the founder, and this is the event's third year.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
