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April 21, 2006
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Clayton man recalls WWII food drops BEV BRITTON Clayton Pioneer
DAVE SHUEY
MAYOR’S CORNER Pipe break requires immediate attention As we near almost 40 straight days of rain. I have commenced building my ark. First come, first served. Given this weather, you have to like R&M’s marketing campaign: “Buy plants now, free water!” Such wit should be rewarded. And since they are also a local business, I urge you to patronize their shop at the entrance of Dana Hills. Meanwhile, regarding the water main break on Clayton Road, I previously indicated that we were going to bid the repair out with our pavement rehabilitation project in the summer. With the continuing rains, it has become apparent that we cannot wait on the repair because further damage is being done with every new rainfall. Therefore, the water district is working on plans as we speak and, weather permitting, will commence repair in May with a planned completion date of early June. It is all dependent on the rain, which raises the interesting question of whether or not the “water” district should be the one entity that should be able to work during the rain? (Ok, I realize I am stretching it, but I have very few funny thoughts right now. Sorry.) CLAYTON CLEANS UP AND ART AND WINE FESTIVAL Please remember that we have two important events coming up in Clayton that we would like all of you to attend and help us out. Clayton Cleans Up is set for Saturday, April 29, from 9 a.m. to noon, with a BBQ to follow. The Community Services Commission needs your help to keep our city clean. The Clayton Art & Wine
See Mayor, page A6
What’s inside SECTION A Around Town . . . . . . . . . .A2 Classifieds and Directory of Advertisers . . . . . . . . . .A5 Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . .A7 Garden Girl . . . . . . . . . . . .A8 At the Movies . . . . . . . . . . .A9 Tax Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A9 Financial Sense . . . . . . . . .A11
SECTION B Hikers Haven . . . . . . . . . . .B1 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .B2 Crossword Puzzle . . . . . . . .B5 Paws and Claws . . . . . . . . .B6 Dining Around . . . . . . . . . .B7 Church News . . . . . . . . . . .B8 Art Musings . . . . . . . . . . . .B8 Community Calendar . . . . .B9 Food for Thought . . . . . .B10 CVHS Student Reporter .B11 School News . . . . . . . . . . .B12
Courtesy Willem Ridder
AS HIS PERSONAL MEMORIAL to the British RAF food drops, Ridder commissioned this painting by Gale Cochran-Smith. The painting will hang in the Rotterdam City Hall after dedication on April 29.
New banners honor historic winery BEV BRITTON Clayton Pioneer
New street banners should be waving in the breeze to welcome visitors to next month’s Art and Wine Festival in downtown Clayton. The banners, featuring the DeMartini winery turned City Hall, are a tribute to the city’s history. Clayton resident Mary Ann Lawrence pitched the idea to the Clayton Business and Community Association, and the group agreed to donate $4,000 for purchase of the banners and mountings. “I saw some banners several years ago in Placerville. I was having lunch and noticed how beautiful their banners were and thought they would be a great idea for Clayton,” she says. “I thought the banners would add some pizzazz to downtown, brighten it up and create an inviting atmosphere,” Lawrence adds. The CBCA and the City Council also considered the recently renovated Endeavor Hall for the banner design. After seeing mock-ups of each, however, Mayor Dave Shuey said the council agreed with Lawrence that City Hall was more fitting. “That is just the most unique, historic, beautiful building in town,” Lawrence says of
City Hall. In 1885, Paul DeMartini completed the stone and wood winery building, setting it into the hillside near what is now Clayton Road. Before that, the surrounding land had been owned by Joel Clayton, who had planted 28 acres of grapes. The city purchased the building in 1988, after it had sat unused for many years. In August 1997, the refurbished, three-story building re-opened as City Hall. The $3 million renovation received both the Governor’s Historic Preservation Award and the California Preservation Foundation Design Award. Delivery of the banners is expected in late April, and city crews aim to have them in place before the May 6 and 7 Art and Wine Festival. The 15 forest green banners will be on permanent display on Main, Center, Oak and Marsh Creek in the downtown area. Six extra banners will be kept in storage for backup. Although Lawrence doesn’t own a business in town, she enjoys being a part of the CBCA. She has also chaired Oktoberfest for the past two years. “We’re just members of the community who want to give back to this beautiful city we love,” she says.
After almost five years of occupation by the Germans, Willem Ridder and his family were getting desperate. Food was in short supply, and the harsh winter in Rotterdam, Holland, had been almost unbearable. “We were closed off,” he says. “And the Germans got meaner and meaner.” Sitting in a makeshift cave by their home, the 14-year-old Willem waited quietly as his older brother Henry listened to a covert BBC broadcast on a headset. “Willem,” his brother exclaimed, “they’re going to bring food!” So early on that Sunday morning of April 29, 1945, the brothers awoke their parents and went outside to await the food drop from the British Royal Air Force. “After a while, you think you hear something. And then, you know you hear something,” says Ridder, who will never forget the “beautiful sound” of the Rolls Royce engines in those British Lancaster bombers on a mission of mercy. “Then all of a sudden, one of the planes swooped over the house. The whole house was shaking,” he says. “We could see the pilot. There were guys standing in the doorway of the plane, waving.” Sitting amidst war memorabilia in the study of his Oakhurst home, Ridder pauses as he recalls that glorious day. “I still cry, you see, when I tell it,” he says simply. REMEMBERING THE HEROES Although that first drop missed its target and mainly ended up in the water, the British and U.S. forces made many successful food drops before Rotterdam was liberated in May. “That whole effort saved thousands and thousands of people,” Ridder notes, “not only because of the food but because of the psychology of it all.” To honor those involved in the humanitarian missions, a memorial will be dedicated on April 28 in Terbregge, a suburb of Rotterdam. Ridder’s friend, Henk Dijkxhoorn, has been working with Dutch officials to erect the monument to Operations Manna and Chowhound. At the 50th anniversary of
BANNERS HONORING THE DEMARTINI WINERY (City Hall Building) will grace downtown lightpoles in time for Art and Wine.
See Ridder, page A10
‘New’ Joel Clayton document discovered by chance BEV BRITTON Clayton Pioneer
Janet Easton carefully removes the aged document from its protective sleeve and slowly reads aloud the details of the estate of Owen Keef, who died in February 1868. But she isn’t looking for information about Keef ’s shanty or his 30 head of cows, but rather the signature at the end – that of town founder Joel
Clayton. “This is invaluable,” says Easton, president of the Clayton Historical Society. “It’s the only thing we have with his signature on it.” Clayton attorney Joel Harris recently donated the item to the Historical Society, along with a variety of court documents from the late 1800s. “He wasn’t sure if he was handing us something that we had already stacks of,” Easton
recalls, “but we were so happy.” Harris purchased the lot of historical papers at an auction from the PBA Gallery in San Francisco. “They were selling things by the box, by the binder,” says Harris, who calls his winning bid of about $60 “a steal.” The attorney purchased the probate documents to frame for his Antioch office. “ I liked the ones that listed assets and what they were worth in the 1800s,”
says Harris. According to Easton, old court documents turn up now and then. “When the county
microfilmed them, they just put them in big dumpsters in the back,” says Easton. She has seen See Document, page A6
New document contains museum’s only original Joel Clayton signature