The La Honda Voice

June 2013 Edition of the La Honda Voice

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Here Comes the La Honda Fair

La Honda Fair 2012

 

It's the time of year when Spring is about to be put to rest and Summer is soon to get underway. That means the La Honda Country Fair and Music Festival is just around the corner. There are many events of various kinds in our local area but none pull the locals together like the Fair. Two days of showcasing local art, music, crafts, and food all to help support the art and music program at the La Honda School.  This year there will be a breakfast and a parade put on by the school. Saturday and Sunday June 15 & 16th are the dates to mark on your calendar. The Music starts in the garden at noon on Saturday and 11am on Sunday. Our thanks to Charlie Catania for the use of the beautiful La Honda Gardens and as a special treat Friday night the 14th there will be a warm up show on the Café patio featuring the Undergods at 7:30. On Saturday around 7:30 there will be a dance party on the patio with Pel and the Pelicans. You can find La Honda Fair on Facebook for more info. Paula Dennis and her team of volunteers encourage one and all to come on down! This year's schedule:

          Saturday                                                  Sunday
12:00-1:00       Point of Order                          11:00-12:00     Cryin’ Shame
1:15 - 2:15      Lighthouse                                12:15-1:15      Jack and the Hitchhikers
2:30 - 3:30      Bundy and The La Hondettes      1:30-2:30       Mark Reid Band
3:45 - 4:45      Vibrance                                    2:45-3:45       Blue
5:00 -6:00       Fall Risk                                    4:00-5:00       Pathetic Honey
6:15 -7:15       Zanzibar                                    5:15-6:15       Gary Gates    

                          Tweeners
2:15 Deke Rivers                                             1:15            Mystic Cowboy
3:30 Lisa Kelly                                                 2:30            Stacey & Dan
4:45 La Honda school choir                               4:45                TBA

Friday night on Café Patio – Undergods
Saturday night on Café Patio – Pel and the Pelicans

Along Alpine Road

Scenic Alpine Road. Local residents who don’t use it every day might know it as a hair raising commute alternate when Highway 84 is closed. Bicyclists seem to love it--the eastward pull to panoramic Skyline Boulevard or the westward downhill rush toward Pescadero Road. How many people are aware of the part played in improving safety on Alpine Road by the former head of the General Services Administration? The evidence has mostly disappeared and now, with a yellow line down the middle of the road, it probably doesn’t matter. Maybe it never did matter.

A little background. At one time our smaller county byways did not have dashed yellow lines down their middles. In those days drivers were expected to know where their vehicle was on the road, to drive slowly and to pull over if it didn’t appear that there was enough room for an oncoming car to pass. And then, of course, there was less traffic. Although, even in those days Alpine Road between Skyline and Portola State Park Road got more than local traffic due to visitors to the popular state park.

In the mid 1950s Edmund F. and Julia (Judy) Mansure moved to California to retire. (Bear with me, this has something to do with the story.) They purchased Horseshoe Ranch on Portola State Park Road. Ned, as he was known, was the former head of the General Services Administration, appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. There was some rumor about a Cuban nickel scandal and the General Services Administration but we won’t go into that now. Maybe Ned just stepped down from his position to become a gentleman farmer in California. Ned settled into keeping the ranch water tank full, supervising ranch activities and flying off to meetings of the several Wall Street listed company boards on which he served as a director. Judy set out to raise Scottish Terriers and Collies and called her business Merry Oaks Kennel.

Ned had been a businessman and a low level bureaucrat in his hometown of Chicago before he ended his career with his three year appointment as head of the General Services Administration. He was known as being a frugal administrator. A magazine article from that era describes his actions as head of the GSA: “Mr. Mansure personally examines travel requisitions of his Washington staff; he encourages removing clips from waste paper; to limit phone talks, he has put three-minute egg timers on subordinates' desks“

He may have relaxed a bit when he retired and hung up his suits, but dressed in a plaid flannel shirt and jeans he could have stepped out of an L. L. Bean catalog.

Apparently Ned was concerned with vehicle safety on Alpine Road. Even today with a center yellow line it is difficult to see the edge of the road in the fog or at night. Especially when the fog and night occur together. A few feet can make a big difference on parts of the road where trees will be the only impediment keeping a wayward automobile from plunging into the canyon. Resourceful Ned found a use for dog food can lids, something Judy’s kennel supplied in plenty. He painted the lids white and nailed them to tree trunks and fence posts and telephone poles along the road, usually in a highly visible spot that would be easily illuminated by headlights in the dark. Occasionally he would touch them up with more paint. When my children were young we spotted Ned spray painting his reflectors and they christened them Ned Lids. It’s not known how many lives these home-made reflectors may have saved, but thanks should go to Ned Mansure.

Ned became a victim of Alzheimer's disease and finally had to move to a residential facility where he passed away in 1992. Unmaintained, the lids rusted in the rain and fog. Trees became victims of old age themselves or succumbed to Sudden Oak Death and fell, taking the Ned Lids with them. Years passed. The Ned Lid on the telephone pole

One day I recalled drives when the kids and I played “spot the Ned Lids” as we traveled Alpine Road. So I looked for them. Most are gone. I have identified two on upper Alpine above the intersection with Portola State Park Road (I don’t think he ever put any on the La Honda side of the intersection). An additional lid is located on a post on a fence on Portola State Park Road not far below Ned Mansure’s driveway.

The pictured lid (if you can see it) is the one on the telephone pole--a pole no longer used for the telephone line because it has been underground for years, but that’s another story!

Here is a link to a 1955 article from Fortune about the GSA, Cuban nickel and Edmund Mansure. It also contains the quote I used above.

The Face of Local Music - Rob Christian

Rob being Rob

 

by craig eddy

Having just returned from a weeklong trip to the Strawberry Music Festival I am once again up against my deadline. I am actually glad I put it off until my return. Having seen four days of great music as well as jamming around the campsites it really reminded me of the great musical talents we have in our little corner of the world. Rob Christian is one of those local players that makes it obvious he absolutely loves playing for people. Rob is one of a few standup bass players in our area. Usually standup players start out on electric bass and eventually try the upright.  Rob actually started out on upright bass. Even weirder, at five years old he started learning lapsteel guitar as his first instrument. He took up cello in fourth grade and shortly thereafter took up the upright bass. Rob played in his first band in the 6th grade. He has been in so many groups over the years I won't take up the space trying to name them all. Rob played bass for his church as well as sang in the choir. A few of his early bands included The Push, Full Moon Tan, The Bash and The Davee Bryan Blues Band. Currently he is playing with Claddaugh, Lighthouse, Pel and the Pelicans and Saxyman and the Ladds. Rob just might be the hardest working musician in our area.  It is not uncommon to see him playing three gigs a weekend. My favorite Rob gig was at Alice's. I sat at the table closest to him and as be bounced along to the music my pint glass would slowly walk from one edge of the table to the other.  Like an old style typewriter I would move it back to the starting edge to watch it walk across the table over and over. The point being Rob is in love with playing the upright and you couldn't get him to calm down and play stationary if you nailed his feet to the floor. "The more I play in front of people the better it all gets!" says Rob. These days Rob is doing more and more singing with his bands. If you want to check out Rob you can catch him at Pescadero Funfest this year with Pel and the Pelicans and at the La Honda Fair with Lighthouse. He will be playing with Pel and the Pelicans on the café patio Saturday night June 15th of the La Honda Fair.  This will be a dance party and even though the café is closed the patio will be lit up and happening. The landlord Charlie Catania has completely remodeled the patio and it is now a showplace. Rob promises there will be a Pel and the Pelicans recording project released soon. Oh and as a closing note Rob says he is looking for a string endorsement deal, anyone?

Ham Radio Daze!!

By Neil & Mary Panton

You bet they’ll be in a DAZE… those stalwart hams who pull an all-nighter every year in their attempt to BEAT HALF MOON BAY in the annual national Field Day contest.  (OK, we haven’t beat HMB yet, but this may be our year.)  Members of our local SC4 Amateur Radio Club will be on the air from noon June 22^nd to noon June 23^rd contacting as many other operators as possible in order to rack up those important points, and you can help. EVERYONE IS WELCOME to join us at La Honda Gardens and learn why ham radio is still important in this age of computers and cell phones, and even try your hand at making a radio contact.  And oh, by the way, we get POINTS for each visit.

On Field Day, ham operators across the country construct emergency stations in fields, parks and malls to practice contacting each other in case of emergency. It will take our La Honda club only a few hours to erect an emergency communications station in La Honda Gardens running under its own power with multiple radios and antennas. Beginning at noon Saturday and continuing for 24 hours, licensed hams can practice their skills in emergency communications by contacting radio operators around the world from their improvised station. Wouldn’t you want these folks around after the big quake takes out all communications towers and landslides block the road?  You bet.

And for you there’ll be the Get-On-The-Air station where you can try out your skills in radio communication. No license needed, just stop by the booth and get on the air!  The GOTA station will also have demonstrations of digital modes of communications utilizing iPhones, iPads and laptops.

“We formed this ham radio club in 2006 to teach emergency communication skills to the people who live in the rugged rural mountains here – where the first responders to disasters will likely be them.” says club co-founder, Jack Eddy.  “We started out with two experienced operators and have since grown to more than thirty.  Field Day gives us a fun way to test our basic radio skills and experiment with new technologies”.

Stop by La Honda Gardens June 22^nd/23^rd  – see what it’s all about and meet your local hams.  You’ll probably recognize many as your neighbors!  We’ll also have a booth at the La Honda Fair in June. This fun and easy means of communication not only provides information during storms and road closures, it could someday save a life when other means of communication are not available.  To find out more about Field Day or the SC4 Amateur Radio Club, visit our website http://www.sc4arc.org/

We dare you to knock this off!

 

May 2013 Edition of the La Honda Voice

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The Face of Local Music - Dave Bartz

 

Dave at the 2012 La Honda Fair

by craig eddy

Dave Bartz and family moved to La Honda in 1998 when they decided Menlo Park wasn't country enough. This month's Face of Local Music victim, Dave was gracious enough to let me interview him as I once again put it off till the last moment. Dave started piano lessons in the 4th grade and never stopped studying keyboard and music. Mostly classical in the early stages but by high school and college the bands he played with were into Yes, King Crimson, and Frank Zappa. Prog before Prog was cool. Dave took a break from college for a bit and toured as the piano player for the Young Americans. He would play piano to a recorded background track. He got me laughing when he told of the gig where the recorded track quit working and he had to finish out West Side Story with piano, drums, and one trumpet player. After his touring he returned to school and got a degree in Computer Science. Maggie his wife was also finishing a PHD in computer science and a Master's in Musicology. Once in La Honda it was just a matter of time before Dave hooked up with some of the local jammers. He has been a regular at my jams and has joined Jack and the Hitchhikers. Dave has played many times at various local events most notably the La Honda Fair with Jam group Delta Vee and Jack and the Hitchhikers. I asked Dave if he preferredacoustic piano to digital keyboard and he says it is a toss up. It always depends on the situation, "It's hard to make a grand piano sound like an accordion". There are guitar players aplenty in La Honda and just a few keyboard players. Dave has been a great addition to the local music scene. Catch Dave with Jack and the Hitchhikers Sunday June 16th at 1pm at the La Honda Country Fair.