A FREE Publication ISSUE EIGHTY FIVE • SEPTEMBER • 2022 Profile: Chris Duffley’s Blind Ambition Spotlight: Outrunning the Law During Prohibition MicroClimate: Hannig Cup/Union Cemetery Title IX Fifty Years and Counting
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Before signing off, I want to salute two tremendous journalists who recently left us. For an astounding 67 years, Vin Scully, 94, was the voice of the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. I met him once; he may have been the kindest and most genuine celebrity I’ve ever encountered. Another giant of letters, Roger Angell, not only reigned over America’s baseball writers; as a fiction editor of The New Yorker, he championed many young authors. He was 101. Sometimes, the good live long.
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Title IX, the landmark 1972 legislation that guaranteed girls and women equal access to education and related activities. It may have done more for women in the U.S. than anything but the right to vote. We asked writer Kimberly Carlisle, a 1980 Olympian and Stanford swimmer who was among Title IX’s first beneficiaries, to investigate the law’s wide-ranging impact, especially on the Peninsula. Kimberly’s story begins on page 8.
This month, we also profile an extraordinary young man on the opposite coast. Chris Duffley, who lives in Manchester N.H., is just 21 years old. He’s blind and has autism. He also has perfect pitch and an incredible story. For the past 11 years, he has toured the country as a singer and inspirational speaker. He ascends the stage of the Fox Theatre in Redwood City on Sunday, September 11. Our account begins on page 24.
September 2022 · CLIMATE · 3 T • LETTER FROM THE EDITOR •
The Peninsula’s history is a specialty of longtime journalist Jim Clifford, who pens our monthly column on that subject. This month, Jim is a double-dipper. His usual intriguing feature appears on page 30. Before, starting on page 16, is his fascinating article about the bootleggers who exploited the rough San Mateo County coast to smuggle illegal liquor during Prohibition.
Hungry for something new? Susan Jenkins offers her recipe for grilled nectarine salad topped with Gorgonzola and mint leaves — along with a brief travelogue about the charming town of Gorgonzola, Italy. Our other departments bring news of scooter rentals in Redwood City, renovations at the old Sequoia Hotel, improvements at the Union Cemetery, an attorney who’s one of our area’s most devoted philanthropists, and a young boy who grew his hair long just so he could cut it off and give it to cancer patients who had lost their own locks during chemotherapy.
4 · CLIMATE · September 2022 • TABLE OF CONTENTS • FEATURE Fifty Years of Title IX SPOTLIGHT8 San Mateo County Prohibition PROFILE16 Chris Duffley: Blind Ambition MICROCLIMATE24 Hannig Cup/Union Cemetery 14 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ����� 20 FOOD 28 HISTORY 30 On the cover: Crushing both academics and athletics, soccer star Aminah Evans of Sequoia High School already has offers from the U.S. Air Force Academy, the University of Nevada and Delaware State. Her dream school is Duke, with the University of Chicago a close second.
September 2022 · CLIMATE · 5 High School Seniors: Apply for a College Scholarship Based on Your Volunteerism. Redwood City Residents: Nominate an Outstanding dividual Volunteer or Business. Open to residents of Redwood City, Emerald Hills, and North Fair Oaks For information on eligibility and how to apply or nominate, go to sequoiaawards.org. We're Looking For Redwood City's Top Volunteers Application & Nomination Deadline October 31 This ad was provided as a courtesy of Neighbors helping neighbors - since 1938
6 · CLIMATE · September 2022 • CLIMATE • CLIMATE MAGAZINE Publisher S.F. Bay Media Group Editor Scott Dailey scott@climaterwc.com Creative Director Jim Kirkland jim@climaterwc.com Contributing Writers Kimberly Carlisle Scott Dailey Jim JanetSusanCliffordJenkinsMcGovernJimKirkland Photography Jim Kirkland Advertising Director Scott Dailey scott@climaterwc.com Editorial Board Scott Dailey Jim AdamKirklandAlberti Advisory Board Dee Eva Jason ConnieGalisatusGuerreroMattLarsenDennisLogieClemMolonyBarbValley CLIMATE magazine is a monthly publication by S.F. Bay Media Group, a California Corporation. Entire contents ©2022 by S.F. Bay Media Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use in any manner without permission is strictly prohibited. CLIMATE is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork. CLIMATE offices are located at 570 El Camino Real, Ste.150 #331 Redwood City, CA 94063. Printed in the U.S.A. Stop by Shops On Broadway for breakfast, lunch or dinner before or after Downtown Redwood City’s Summer Events! We’re right across the street from all the action! Dine in or order to go! Check out all of the happenings at 2107www.shopsonbroadway.comForwww.redwoodcity.org/events.SpecialDiningOffers,visitwww.shopsonbroadway.com.BroadwayStreet,RedwoodCityAcrossfromCourthouseSquare. Dinner & a Movie & More! In the heart of the Theatre District, Redwood City. Arya ChipotleCentury(650)Steakhouse367-4939Theatre(650)701-1341MexicanGrill(650)216-9325CyclismoCafe(650)362-3970DignityHealthGoHealthUrgentCare(650)381-0616FiveGuysBurgersandFries(650)364-3101HappyLemonNOWOPEN!(650)549-8148 Hella www.solasalonstudios.comPowerhouseMarufuku(650)Mediterranean362-4140Ramen(650)257-3012PizzaMyHeart(650)361-1010GymElite(650)369-6000SolaSalonTimber&Salt(650)362-3777VitalityBowls(650)568-1779
September 2022 · CLIMATE · 7 • CLIMATE • Lori Burrows Warren 650.642.8042 | lori.burrowswarren@compass.com | loribwarren.com | DRE 01963678 What’s going on with Real Estate on the Peninsula? Stay in the loop with Lori’s quarterly handwritten e-Newsletters Email lori.burrowswarren@compass.com today to receive future eNews INDOOR/OUTDOOR SEATING AVAILABLE! • OPEN EVERY DAY To order, please call (650) 369-1646 • 587 Canyon Rd, Redwood City Family Restaurant Serving Neighborhood Customers for 48 Years GourmetExcellentBurgers,Pizza,FreshSalad&Sandwiches,MexicanFood,TheImpossibleBurger&More!
• FEATURE • 8 · CLIMATE · September 2022 All-American Rebecca Dorst of Menlo-Atherton High School accepted a scholarship to UCLA en route to becoming a nurse.
In 1972, I was 11 years old and a bud ding swimmer in the Southeast. It was an Olympic year, and my family was living in Knoxville. My father, a career swimming coach, was studying for his master’s de Fifty years ago, Title IX changed young women’s lives� Many believe much work remains�
The 90,185 spectators at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena were about to lose their hearing� Minutes before, Briana Scurry, the goalkeeper for the U�S� women’s World Cup soccer team, had blocked an attempt by China’s Liu Ying in the post-overtime shootout that would decide the championship game on July 10, 1999� Now, with the penalty kicks knot ted at four apiece, 31-year-old Brandi Chastain of the U�S� had a shot at history� Slowly, meticulously, she settled the ball onto the small, white square 12 yards from the goal. She turned, walked back six steps, turned again, paused, and scrunched her forehead. Then she started forward, drew back her left foot and drove the ball toward the upper right corner of the net. The entire sporting world knows what happened next. Chastain’s winning kick matched Bobby Thomson’s “Shot heard ’round the world” for the 1951 New York Giants and “The Catch” by Dwight Clark that sent the San Francisco 49ers to their first Super Bowl in 1981. Chastain spun around, raised her head, pumped her fists and yanked off her jersey. Clad in just her soccer shorts and sports bra, she joined her teammates in a celebration that etched a defining image in the continuing progress of women’s athletics. Like virtually every U.S. female ath lete over the last 50 years, Chastain got her biggest break when Congress passed the legislation known as the Education Amendments of 1972. Among them was an update to the Great Society-era Ele mentary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Title IX in the 1972 law banned sex discrimination in “any education pro gram or activity receiving federal finan cial assistance.”Whatadifference those few words would make. Dreams of a Southern Girl
By Kimberly Carlisle
• FEATURE • September 2022 · CLIMATE · 9
IXShootingforEquality
Hogshead-Makar was a world-class swimmer, a gold medalist at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics who had accepted an athletic scholarship to Duke four years earlier. “My life was profoundly changed,” she says, “not just from sports, but by the opportunity for me just to go to college.” Opening Doors at Last Title IX’s most immediate and visi ble application was to high-school and college athletics, where opportunities for girls and women began steadily increasing in the latter 1970s. A study completed in 2006 documented a nine-fold increase in
10 · CLIMATE · September 2022 • FEATURE
“Other than the right to vote, Title IX is the single-most im portant piece of legislation ever passed for women.”
One of those academic and profes sional fields was music. When Stanford • the number of girls in high-school sports, and more than a 450-percent expansion in college athletics. A 2008 assessment of U.S. intercollegiate sports showed women competing on more than 9,000 teams — ap proximately nine per school. And the new opportunities extended beyond campus. “Title IX was the most ridiculous blessing I have ever received, then and now,” says Kim Oden, a 1986 Stanford graduate who became a twotime Olympian and member of the U.S. bronze-medal indoor volleyball team at Barcelona in 1992. “Our sport was grow ing exponentially at the club level and in visibility nationwide,” Oden says. “All of a sudden, women’s sports became serious.” In the summers between her Stanford years, Oden represented the U.S. in nation al and international tournaments. Beyond competing in the Olympics, she played the professional circuits in Italy, China, Brazil and Turkey in both indoor and four-person beach volleyball.
“Other than the right to vote, Title IX is the single-most important piece of legis lation ever passed for women,” says Nan cy Hogshead-Makar, an attorney, activist, author and expert on access and equality in athletics. “In the United States,” Hogs head-Makar continues, “education is the ticket to ride. It allows us to transcend so cial and economic classes, and can change how one fundamentally sees herself and how she understands the world.”
She left the pool and later attended Stanford, graduating in 1979. Nearly two decades later, she co-founded the Ameri can Basketball League. It was a profession al women’s organization that operated for two-plus seasons from 1996 to 1998 before folding in part because of competition from the newly formed Women’s Nation al Basketball Association, created and backed financially by the NBA.
“I was able to play volleyball and earn a good living until I was 34,” Oden says. “It was a mindset change.”
None went to college on an athletic scholarship. But that was about to change. Just seven years later, in 1979, I was one of the nation’s top college swimming recruits. Full rides promised a university education pretty much anywhere. I chose Stanford, and the course of my life — along with my small-town, southern view of the world — blew wide-open. I went from being a smart, athletic girl who was ostracized to a smart, athletic woman who was celebrated.
“After years of seeing women’s col lege basketball seniors get roses on their home court and then disappear overseas to play professionally, we decided to do something about it,” recalls Cribbs, now 77. “We started the ABL so little girls can see themselves as professional basketball players right here at home, and for all the women my age who played three-bounce basketball because in my day it wasn’t be lieved women could run the full length of a basketball court.” More than Athletics
As much as it benefited female ath letes, Title IX addressed all aspects of ed ucation. As Cribbs says, “It’s not just about sports opportunities. It’s about finance, medicine, law. The parity Title IX seeks to effect brings women into college in gen eral, and then into the workforce, who wouldn’t otherwise have been.”
Nancy Hogshead-Makar
gree and assisting the men’s swim team at the University of Tennessee. That summer, the women’s U.S. Olym pic swimming team chose the Tennessee facility for its training camp. Like a lit tle girl peering over the candy counter, I watched practices and collected auto graphs. Many of my swimming idols to this day populated that team.
As a swimmer in an earlier era, Anne Warner Cribbs experienced far different circumstances. Growing up in Menlo Park, she won gold at age 14 at the Pan-Amer ican Games in Chicago in 1959. The next year, she swam in a preliminary round for the victorious U.S. 400-meter medley relay team at the Rome Olympics. But after, like other young women of her time, she re turned to hometown salutes and little more.
• FEATURE • upset Ohio State and Michigan in the 1971 and 1972 Rose Bowls, none of the schools’ bands included women. At the time, it appeared the norm; a 2014 article in the Columbus Dispatch reported that before Title IX, “college marching bands typically were reserved for men.” Not that the Stanford band hadn’t tried — at least, well, once. Stanford was founded as a coed institution, and a 1947 article in the Stanford Daily invited female musicians to join their male counterparts. It’s not clear that any did; until the 1960s, the band was a traditional, fraternal, mili tary-style marching unit. The sixties’ dis mantling of cultural norms gave rise to the band’s irreverent halftime themes and wild scramble formations that many Stan ford fans still cherish. Nontheless, women remained absent. Until Title IX. “By the early 1970s, we were deep in protest of the Vietnam war, and the mind set was anti-establishment,” remembers Greg Hall, a retired Southern California banker who played clarinet in Stanford’s band from 1971 to 1975. This time, though, it was that very establishment — notably Republican President Richard Nixon, who signed Title IX — that in 1972 was compel ling bands and other collegiate organiza tions to admit women. “Eventually,” Hall says, “we fell in line.” In that fall of 1972, freshman Jacki Williams-Jones, another clarinetist, be came one of only six Stanford women who took the field with an instrument. A year later, she was the first band member to join Stanford’s athletic dance troupe, the Dol lies. She says she might not have attempted the latter but for the encouragement of her male bandmates. “Those guys my freshman year not only spoiled me; they gave me the cour age to try different things,” says Wil liams-Jones, who earned a master’s degree in education and spent a three-decade ca major groups such as the New York Phil harmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra hired women starting in the 1920s, the London Symphony and the Vienna Phil harmonic appointed their first female members in 1975 and 2003, respectively. Until perhaps the last 30 years, the jazz world also frequently shunned women other than singers and piano players. It may not be coincidental that current stars such as violinist Regina Carter, clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen and trom bonist Natalie Cressman emerged from college music programs post-Title IX.
Gavin’s assessment of music’s his torical sexism is well-founded. Although “Those guys my freshman year not only spoiled me; they gave me the courage to try different things. They continue to this day to be there for me in the best and the worst of times.”
Jacki Williams-Jones
“Yes, there has been progress,” VanDerveer continues. “But we are 50 years into this legislation, and you would be hard-pressed to find any major pro gram in compliance.” An oft-cited criticism of Title IX has been that male athletes in sports beyond reer teaching high-school French. “They continue to this day to be there for me in the best and the worst of times.”
Today, the university takes pride in its robust offerings for both women and men. Even so, coaching legend Tara VanDerveer believes the school needs to do more.
The director who oversaw the tran sition was Dr. Arthur P. Barnes, whose rock-and-roll arrangements turned march ing-band music upside down during the 1960s and 1970s. Today, Russ Gavin is the Dr. Arthur P. Barnes Director of Bands at Stanford. For him, having women in the band is a no-brainer. “Bands are great environments for coeducation,” he says. “In their best iter ations, they cross the gender spectrum of working together. Music has been histor ically sexist, and the gendered nature of music is a long-carried burden. I’m thank ful for Title IX entering the university landscape. The absence of female voices in an ensemble would be a significant void.”
September 2022 · CLIMATE · 11
Splitting the Pie Whether for music, history or physics, all educational institutions must answer to accountants. The most obvious and diffi cult challenge for high-school and college athletic departments is allocating funds for women while still supporting men, espe cially at schools that field expensive foot ball programs. Stanford, an early adopter of Title IX, incorporated women’s sports into its previous athletic administration and immediately enlisted the savvy and devotion of its alumni to raise money for scholarships.
“Stanford is still working hard to have gender equity,” says VanDerveer, the Set suko Ishiyama Director of Women's Bas ketball. “The challenge for Stanford and basically all universities and high schools is built-in bias and the financial challenge.
Produced by both sexes but in far greater volume by men, testosterone af fects growth, among other bodily func tions. Testosterone-suppression drugs greatly reduce strength, lean body mass and muscle area in transgender women. Earlier this year, however, the Internation al Olympic Committee reversed its previ ous policy that required at least a year of testosterone suppression for transgender female athletes, and punted the issue to the governing bodies of individual sports.
Reflections of an Athletic Woman
Losing Momentum? Today, Stanford and many other institu tions devote considerable means to sen sitivity training as well as investigating complaints and supporting victims. The of sports to more who wish to participate, and in helping us to change outmoded perceptions of what women and men do best.”
Title IX’s reach has been exten sive, but still applies only to ed ucational endeavors that receive federal funds. Other institutions, such as the Olympics, lie beyond its authority. Hogshead-Makar recently joined a United States Olympic Committee-sponsored commis sion to address potential abuse of its female athletes. Currently, she and her organization, Champion Women, are also studying Title IX’s implications for transgender athletes in women’s sports. “Title IX set clear direction re garding sex, where sex and gen der identity are the same,” she says. “But now, with fluid gender identity, we have sex and biology — specifically the unfair competitive advantage of testoster one — coming into question.”
“The challenge for Stanford and basically all universities and high schools is built-in bias and the financial challenge. Yes, there has been progress, but we are 50 years into this legislation, and you would be hard-pressed to find any major program in compliance.”
Tara VanDerveer - Photo courtesy of Stanford Athletics
12 · CLIMATE · September 2022 • FEATURE • football and basketball have paid the price when their programs have been cut to free up money for women’sHogshead-Makarteams. doesn’t buy it. “I had a son first,” she says, “and then his twin sisters were born. My son didn’t lose anything, but he did have to learn how to share resources. It’s part of being a good citizen.”VanDerveer says an ironic result of the rise of women’s col legiate athletics has come in the coaching ranks. “One of the un intended consequences of Title IX has been that because coaching women has become lucrative, men have taken a large majority of the jobs,” she says. “This is very unfor tunate for both the female coaches and the young girls who don’t ben efit from female role models.”
Among Title IX’s many successes, it has changed how women view themselves and their accomplishments. Cribbs recalls a telling moment from 1995, when Stan ford awarded 2,200 “Block S” varsity let ters to women who had competed before Title IX. The university invited three ath nationwide initiatives are so sweeping that the term “Title IX” may now stand more for safeguards than opportunities.
The growing number of men in wom en’s sports has coincided with increased reports of sexual harassment, abuse and assault. Recent cases have involved high ly publicized scandals within USA Gym nastics, Michigan State University and San Jose TheState.first legal action that tied harass ment to discrimination went to trial in 1980. A group of five Yale students em ployed Title IX’s protections to sue the university over alleged improprieties by a flute instructor, an English professor and a hockey coach. The women lost the case but won their objectives; Yale established a grievance system and the courts agreed that sexual harassment equaled illegal sex ual discrimination.
That bothers Hogshead-Makar, whose advocacy now includes cases of sexual abuse and assault. She alleges the shift has allowed many institutions to reduce or abandon their efforts toward athletic equality. “Right now,” she says, “across the United States, 200,000 women are still being denied college opportunities that rightfully belong to them.” High schools also appear to be strug gling with Title IX. “Despite its 50-year history designed to address inequalities, and despite a massive amount of progress,” says Sean Priest, principal of Sequoia High School in Redwood City, “we have not achievedNonetheless,equity.”he adds, “Title IX has been a valuable compass in guiding us through the challenges — number of teams, facility space, availability of coaches — in offer ing the valuable and formative experience
September 2022 · CLIMATE · 13 • FEATURE •
Sequoia High senior Natalie Gebhart leads her team on a practice run along Cañada Road.
Title IX’s greatest legacy may be two fold. First, it illuminated vast and con tinuing inequities. That was vital, because before we can create change, we must see the need. Second, and even more power ful, it reinforced and extended our soci ety’s fundamental belief in equality: Our belief that as women — for ourselves, our daughters and sons, their fathers and each other — we have and deserve the right to equal play and equal pay. Our belief that that principle extends to everything from playing soccer to playing the trombone, from studying, writing and speaking to coaching and teaching. And perhaps most of all, our belief that we have an inalien able right to receive equal access to edu cation in all its forms, free of harassment and stereotypes. We’ll still working on it. But here’s more evidence of progress. To celebrate Title IX’s fiftieth anniversary, Stanford this fall will induct Tara VanDerveer and eight other women into the first all-female class in the university’s athletic hall of fame. C “Title IX has been a valuable compass in guiding us through the challenges — number of teams, facility space, availability of coaches — in offering the valuable and formative experience of sports to more who wish to participate, and in helping us to change outmoded perceptions of what women and men do best.”
letes from different eras to speak: Cribbs, the Olympian, who didn’t swim for Stan ford but graduated in 1979; me, an alumna from 1983; and Anne Wicks, a volleyball player at the time. “I spoke about having no vision of women athletes attending college,” Cribbs says. “You spoke about wondering if you deserved the scholarship you were given and doing everything you could to be wor thy of it. Anne Wicks essentially said, ‘I earned this, and I deserve it.’”
“It happened that the normal Wednesday-night sailboat race was on my birthday that year,” Hannig says. “One friend wanted to help me put on a dinner for 100 people as a birthday gift, and another wanted to donate money.”
Ted Hannig has three passions — the law, sailing and philanthropy. He co-founded the Sequoia Awards, which honor volunteers in greater Redwood City, and chairs the Danford Fisher Hannig Foundation, which supports numerous local causes. In addition, he sits on the boards of various charities, including the Sequoia Hospital Foundation and Kainos, a home and training center for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
By Jim RedwoodKirklandCityattorney
The 2022 Cup, on August 13, charted the event’s seventeenth year and drew its largest crowd ever. More than 170 people attended, and the occasion raised $3.7 million — nearly the total for the previ ous 16 years. To date, the Hannig Cup has collected more than $7.4 million for charity.
The first campaign, titled the "Give Something Back Race," was intended as a one-time gig. It garnered $25,000. Its success inspired Hannig and crew to keep the ships sailing. After a couple of years, club member Kate Humphries surprised the assembly with a trophy that dubbed the race the “Hannig Cup.”
Recently, the organization announced the creation of the Hannig Cup Foundation, which will continue supporting se lected charities and advocating for the most vulnerable, from people to the marine environment. Also, in 2015, Hannig sold his home in Woodside and purchased 100 acres of prima ry-growth rain forest in Dolphin Bay, Bocas del Toro Province, Panama. Recently, he donated the parcel to the Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation (ITEC).
14 · CLIMATE · September 2022 • MICROCLIMATE •
Hannig wanted to honor three friends who had passed away: Pete Uccelli, owner of the former Pete’s Harbor Marina, and fellow yacht-club members Martin McDonough and David Crevelt. Hannig had an idea: Hold both a dinner and a race that encouraged fellow sailors to solicit contributions. Hannig asked if Sequoia Yacht Club members would be up for turning the next boat race into a fundrais ing event. All replied with a hearty “Aye!”
Event organizer Kathleen Harris says the club offers fund raising challenges beyond racing. For instance, if each crew member wears a certain designated color, $100 is raised. This year, each boat flying the Ukrainian flag earned $1,000. Past events have encouraged costumes and decorations, such as a pirate theme years ago.
“I have done my best to nurture it, protect it and prepare it for the future. But there comes a time as a parent when you know it is your time to step back. If you have done your job well, the
Sailing for Charity Ted Hannig
“I have treated this property as my child,” Hannig says.
Hannig’s law firm and other sponsors such as Black Mountain Properties of San Carlos have also come through with substantial donations. All monies go directly to designated charities. More than 100 causes have benefited, including the Leukemia & Lymphoma So ciety, Doctors Without Borders, the St. Francis Center, the Ron Davis Autism Foundation and multiple youth organizations, to name a few. The event is 100-percent volunteer-run; ticket sales for the dinner support the Sequoia Yacht Club Junior Sailing Program. For the sail boat race, participants collect money for the charities of their choice. Foundations frequently match those gifts and provide even more.
In 2006, Hannig found himself unexpectedly involved in yet an other cause — one that captured his love for sailing. It came through Redwood City's Sequoia Yacht Club, of which Hannig is a longstand ing member.
Reassembling History andPersonal Connection at the Union Cemetery
C Benny Morales
By Janet McGovern
September 2022 · CLIMATE · 15 • MICROCLIMATE • future is something to behold and believe in, to be amazed by and not to fear. That’s been the case with my daughter and now with this property.”According to The Bocas Breeze, a local Panamanian news out let, the donated acreage was conservatively valued at $3 million, and the property’s rare woods and animals caused appraisers to estimate a worth of up to $14 million. According to its website, ITEC “provides field courses in tropical ecology to college undergraduates and graduate stu dents. The courses offered include coral reef ecology, primate ecology, rainforest and canopy ecology, Neotropical herpetology, tropical bird ecology, animal behavior and canopy access tech niques, among others. ITEC’s educational reach is international, and it has received students from all over the world; 42 coun tries and counting.”
All the improvements, Klebe adds, help make the landmark cemetery more accessible and interesting for visitors. After all, the grounds capture much of the mid-Peninsula’s early history and connect today’s residents with people whose lives may still touch them in unexpected ways.
Three decades ago, Redwood City’s histor ic Union Cemetery was a mess of untend ed overgrowth and vandalized graves and monuments. Local resident Jean Cloud, who had labored for years to get the cemetery on Woodside Road both recognition and res toration, told a newspaper reporter in 1991 that the situation was so bad that families had removed their fore bears’ headstones. “People take these things,” Cloud said. “They say, ‘When it’s safe, I’ll take them back to the cemetery.’” Spin forward to 2022. Kathy Klebe, today’s cemetery board president, wants anybody who may have a headstone or other marker stashed away in a garage or toolshed to know it’s safe to bring it back. Not only is the cemetery now on the National Reg ister of Historic Places in a much better state of repair, Klebe says, but several restoration projects have recently put “puzzle pieces” back Fortogether.years, many stray chunks of granite, marble and wood have been stored in a windmill on the cemetery grounds. Klebe found what turned out to be the missing top piece of the monu ment for the Eikerenkotter family from the nineteenth century. People from the Roman Marble Company of Redwood City have put it back into place. Similarly, disjointed fragments that demar cated the final resting place of George and Willie Bullivant, who died in early childhood around 120 years ago, have been reassem bled by the V. Fotana Company of Colma.
In Woodside’s early days, for example, the Dalve family owned what is today the Pioneer Saloon. Descendants still reside in the area, Klebe says. She recently got their permission to have their family’s wooden markers repainted by Red wood City parks department employee Ben ny Morales, who volunteered his time. Along with another wooden memorial, the markers have been treated with a preservative to keep them from deteriorating further. Though decades have passed since Cloud put out the call, Klebe thinks residents may have a headstone or perhaps a decora tive cemetery item and not realize where it came from. “I think people don’t know what they have stored if they’ve put their tools or rakes on it,” she says. Perhaps a family has inherited a house and found an old headstone in the garage but didn’t know where it came from. Klebe wants to assure people their discoveries will be cared for. She encourages people who think they may have a piece of the old cemetery to email her at kathy@historicunioncemetery.com.
Burns PBS series on Prohibition? No worries�
16 · CLIMATE · September 2022
For a glimpse of the Roaring Twenties, just take a walk on the wild side — to the remote bluffs and hidden beaches of the San Mateo County coast� Long before surfers discovered Mavericks, rumrunners rode the pounding waves to bring illicit liquor to the Peninsula and San Francisco�
San Mateo County’s rugged shore kept smugglers a step ahead during Prohibition�
• SPOTLIGHT •
By Jim MissedCliffordtheKen
Archieves
Cops vs. coutesy Redwood City Libray
Photo
Speakeasies Were Everywhere In addition to the railroad tunnel, other reminders remain from the Gatsby age.
The Coast Guard boarded a smuggler’s boat near Moss Beach, took the vessel in tow, and left only one sailor to supervise the seized ship. The crooks overpowered him, cut the towline and sped away. The crew on the Coast Guard cutter let go with rifles, machine guns and a deck gun, but the lawbreakers managed to outdistance their pursuers in the dark. The next morn ing, hatches and wreckage floated ashore, proof that the gunfire had, at the least, hit the fleeing boat. One of the more interesting coastal remnants of the nation’s dry spell sits near Shelter Cove in Pacifica. There, government agents blasted shut an abandoned railroad tunnel that bootleggers used for a ware house. Author Barbara VanderWerf re counted the saga of the tunnel in her book, “Montara Mountain.”
The 354-foot-long tunnel was built by the Ocean Shore Railroad, an ill-fated ven ture designed to link San Francisco with Santa Cruz. The railroad, whose slogan was “Reaches the Beaches,” lasted from 1907 to 1920, when autos increasingly lured away passengers. Faced with continuing mudslides, the company never completed its 75-mile route down the coast.
September 2022 · CLIMATE · 17 • SPOTLIGHT •
BootleggersL
ike much of the California shore line, the San Mateo County sea board was a natural for smugglers. The Coast Guard had difficulty enforcing the National Prohibition Act, which lasted from 1920 to 1933. One steam er, the Ardenza, brought in 25,000 cases of Scotch in 1924 on a voyage that extended from Scotland through the Panama Canal. Most ocean-borne booze, however, came from Canada. Half Moon Bay offered an excellent entry point because of the ar ea’s many landing sites, nearby roads and sparsely populated settlements. Violent encounters between bootleg gers and the authorities were frequent. Au thor June Morrall recalls one such fight on her website, “Half Moon Bay Memories.”
“At night, rumrunners took over the cove, known then as Smuggler’s Cove, to off-load thousands of bottles of illegal whiskey from Canadian ships,” she wrote. “The next day, the whiskey was for sale in San Francisco speakeasies.”
18 · CLIMATE · September 2022 Mitch Postel, president of the San Mateo County Historical Association, says visi tors shouldn’t be surprised.
Still, it was the contraband artists and their customers who stole headlines with colorful tales that were sure to bait news reporters. Take the case, no pun intend ed, of Jack Mori, who hired an armada of small boats to haul liquor to a dock at what is now Pacifica. In 1921, police confiscated $50,000 worth of alcohol, including 1,000 cases of whiskey, at Mori’s roadhouse. It constituted one of Prohibition’s richest sei zures in the county.
Lighthouse keepers had a bird’seye panorama of many operations. Jes sie Mygrants Davis, daughter of Pigeon Point’s assistant keeper, called the smug glers “quite ruthless men.”
“They were audacious enough to use the lighthouse derrick to unload their ships,” Davis recalled. “They always came on moonlight nights, so we could see them clearly.”
Accepting the Republican presidential nomination in 1928, Herbert Hoover said of Prohibition, “Our country has deliber ately undertaken a great social and eco nomic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose.” If that was true, then San Mateo County could have been considered a laboratory. It had all the in gredients — hijackings, stills, gunfights
The Moss Beach Distillery during Prohibition.
Davis is quoted in “Shipwrecks, Scal awags, and Scavengers: The Storied Wa ters of Pigeon Point,” by JoAnn Semones of Half Moon Bay. The chronicles include the story of the night Davis’s father, Jesse Mygrants, was forced at gunpoint to drive a band of rumrunners eight miles down the coast.
How Did Prohibition Happen?
Among the most popular haunts to day is the lively Moss Beach Distillery, which overlooks the ocean from a cliff that once shielded smugglers. The restau rant boasts a fabled flapper ghost known as “The Blue Lady,” who, some say, wan ders the beach in search of her lover. Built in 1927 by Frank Torres, whom Morrall describes as a “Peruvian world traveler,” the establishment was originally dubbed “Frank’s Place.” According to legend, the clientele, said to include mystery writer Dashiell Hammett, was so influential that the place was never raided.
• SPOTLIGHT •
The coast’s reminders of the Gatsby age include the Moss Beach Distillery, which boasts a flapper ghost known as “The Blue Lady.” Some say she wanders the beach in search of her lover.
“On the coastside, at various times, nearly every prominent building served as a speakeasy — even (Pacifica’s) historic Sanchez Adobe,” he says.
Other spots known for their shady past include the Miramar Beach Restau rant, called the Miramar Hotel during Prohibition. It was designed specifically as a speakeasy, complete with revolving cabinets and other secret compartments for booze. An imposing private residence in Pacifica known today as “Sam’s Castle” was called “Chateau LaFayette,” popular not only for its alcohol but also its restau rant and dance floor. The operators were rumored to be so confident of avoiding ar rest that they signaled boats when to bring their illegal cargo ashore. Hoarders Were the First Targets Before bootlegging, the era’s main source of liquor was not “rotgut,” but, rather, good stuff stashed by rich people who had planned for Prohibition. Shortly after booze was outlawed, newspapers carried numerous stories about private stocks sto len from homes. In a research paper in 1978, Eileen Wieland, a student at the College of San Mateo, reported that such thefts occurred almost daily in the early years of Prohi bition. Fame provided no safety shield. Wieland wrote that the San Mateo home of Bank of America founder A.P. Giannini was hit in January 1920 by brazen but dis appointed bandits who found only wine. They left a note reading, “We’re looking for booze. We don’t like your vino.”
“What America needs now,” he said, “is a drink.”
It all came crashing down — officially, at least — on January 17, 1920, when Prohi bition took effect. The “noble experiment” lasted nearly 14 years until its repeal at 5:32 p.m. on December 5, 1933. At that moment, ready to lift a glass but also weighted by the Great Depression and the nascent threat of Nazism, President Franklin D. Roosevelt summed up the national mood.
September 2022 · CLIMATE · 19 and speakeasies. In that sense, it reflected much of the nation. Experiments are supposed to pro duce answers. To many members of the generations that followed Prohibition, the biggest question was this: How did the United States get to the point that alcohol was Theoutlawed?temperance movement stretched back to the early 1800s. But historian Dan iel Okrent, author of “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition,” believes its ulti mate genius was Wayne Wheeler, an attor ney and leader of the Anti-Saloon League, founded in 1893 in Oberlin, Ohio. Okrent says Wheeler was able to bring together groups that on the surface seemed directly opposed to one another.
C • SPOTLIGHT •
“Wheeler’s devotion to the dream of a dry America accommodated any number of unlikely allies. These groups included the Ku Klux Klan, which joined the radical Industrial Workers of the World in the drive against liquor."
California’s legislature ratified the Eigh teenth Amendment in 1919, joining coun terparts in every other state except Rhode Island. But popular support may have remained tepid. Gary Kamiya, author of “Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco,” wrote in the San Francis co Chronicle in 2018 that the City trailed only New York in its wide-open accep tance of unlawful boozing. Kamiya wrote that the Anti-Saloon League “argued falsely” that Californians beyond the San Francisco-centered “whiskey strip” backed Prohibition. As the Peninsula grew to become a San Francisco suburb during the first two decades of the 1900s, residents may have objected more to drinking establish ments than to drinking per se. In 2007, the Redwood City Public Library Ar chives Committee published “Redwood City: A Hometown History.” In a chapter titled “Saloons, Breweries and Bordel los,” now-retired Redwood City librari an Mary K. Spore-Alhadef explored the county’s quest for respectability. After the 1906 earthquake, Spore-Al hadef wrote, families began moving south from San Francisco. Many who left behind the City’s highly visible vic es brought with them an early version of what later became known as “family values.” As their number grew, Spore-Al hadef said, sentiment “began to turn against the saloon.” Even so, increasingly popular fraternal organizations began to supplant taverns as places where self-de scribed “family men” could indulge in alcohol-fueled conviviality.
FREE WATERFRONT FAMILY FESTIVAL
Who Really Supported Prohibition?
Saturday, Oct. 1 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 451 Seaport Court, Redwood City, CA Enjoy a fun-filled day on the bay Oct. 1 at PortFest! Scan to learn more.
C
Writing in Smithsonian Magazine in 2010, Okrent observed, “Wheeler’s devo tion to the dream of a dry America accom modated any number of unlikely allies. These groups included the Ku Klux Klan, which joined the radical Industrial Work ers of the World in the drive against liquor. The Klan’s anti-liquor sentiment was root ed in its hatred of the immigrant masses in liquor-soaked cities; the IWW believed liquor was a capitalist weapon used to keep the working classes in a stupor. An ti-German hostility in World War I also played a part. A dry Wisconsin politician named John Strange said the ‘worst of all our German enemies … are Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz and OkrentMiller.’”wrote further that Wheeler’s organization made common cause with social reformers who wanted to wrest political control of cities from forces they thought purchased the immigrant vote through saloons. Suffragists such as Eliz abeth Cady Stanton fought not only for a woman’s right to vote, but also, through the temperance movement, sought to pre vent the wages of working wives (money that legally belonged to their husbands) from filling the cash registers of corner bars. Prohibitionists also joined racists whose greatest fear, Okrent said, was a black man “with a bottle in one hand and a ballot in the other.”
20 · CLIMATE · September 2022 Jessica Manzi, Redwood City’s transportation manager, reports that riders rented the town’s 250 new electric scooters 3,776 times in just three weeks after their introduction July 15. The scooters are provided by Bird, a “shared micromobility” company in Santa Monica whose advertising proclaims, “Give gas the bird.” Manzi recently answered Climate’s questions about the new initiative. Why this program?
It’s another non-driving option for short trips in town. We want driving to represent less than 50 percent of all trips by 2040. Does the city get a cut? The city receives 15 percent of the revenue per trip. How does it work?
Riders do not have to return them to a specific location — but they have to stay within Redwood City’s service area (shown on the app). We will soon be working with Bird to assign parking spots for scooters in high-demand areas such as downtown and the Caltrain station. YOU MISSED IT• New Scooter Program Gets Traction Hair Love
• IN CASE
First, you install Bird’s mobile app on your smartphone. The ride costs $1 to start, and then 49 cents per minute, with a $3.50 minimum (a 5-minute ride). Bird’s community pricing program offers various discounts. A few tech details? Bird’s electric scooters can travel about 20 miles when fully charged, with a maximum speed of 15 mph. They also have an identifying barcode and contact information, along with a GPS device that communicates their location. Scooters are seen parked, or left, all over. Shouldn’t riders be returning them?
Step back two years, when local historian Dee Eva took seven-year-old grandson Ricci (pronounced Richie) and his brother, James, to Minnesota to visit family. There, Ricci and James met with cousin Enzo, who in turn introduced them his friend, Parker, who was being treated for leuke mia and had lost his hair. Upon returning home, Ricci vowed that he would let his hair grow so he could donate it to Locks of Love, an organization that makes wigs for cancer patients who lose their hair through chemotherapy. Between then and now, Ricci grew his hair to 14 inches in length, before giving it all up to a buzz cut to help cancer patients.
• IN CASE YOU MISSED IT•
Kids and parents tried roughing it — af ter a fashion — at the Redwood City and San Carlos family campouts at Red Morton Park and Burton Park in July and August. Like the food and entertainment, the tent cities at both locations were impressive. Redwood City firefighters flamed up burgers and hotdogs, as did the San Carlos Lions Club. Parents tended sleeping bags and tents while kids ran and played. Later, fire pits provided just the right heat for that great camp tradition, S’mores. Games, live entertainment and stargaz ing at the RWC camp were mirrored at Bur ton Park, where a big-screen showing of the Disney film, “Encanto,” capped the evening.
September 2022 · CLIMATE · 21
Family Camping Without Leaving the Neighborhood
Dani Gasparini
The Sequoia High School Alumni Associ ation held its fifteenth annual picnic and barbecue fundraiser on Aug. 20. All alum ni were invited; representatives attended from the classes of 1944 through 1998. Campus tours were led by principal Sean Priest, and the day included performanc es by the school’s choir and cheerleaders. A classic car show delighted more-sea soned alums, who remembered driving the flashy sets of wheels when they were new. As in past years, Bruce Utecht, Class of 1985, served as master of ceremonies. Many from the Class of 1972 were on hand to celebrate their fiftieth graduation anniversary, and members of the Class of 1962 observed their sixtieth. “It's such a great time for people to visit and catch up with old friends,” said alumni president Ken Rolandelli.
Sequoia High Alums Celebrate
22 · CLIMATE · September 2022 • IN CASE YOU MISSED IT•
Above: Graduates admired classic cars, many of them from their youth. Artist’s rendering of the proposed renovation and expansion.
The anticipated new name: Hotel Sequoia, the origi nal name from 1912.
Sequoia Hotel Prepares for a Name-Flip and a Facelift
The Redwood City Downtown Business Group on Au gust 9 hosted a presentation of the proposed renovation of the 110-year-old Sequoia Hotel, on the corner of Main and Broadway. Dani Gasparini, principal in the project along with husband Alyn Beals, described how the in side of the hotel’s façade will be reconstructed to create seven stories that will house 82 rooms. Also included will be a ground-floor restaurant and a top-floor bar, both open to the public. The vision is of a “boutique” inn, rather than a mainstream hotel. The new establish ment will be aimed toward corporate visitors and will carry a rate of $650 to $750 per weeknight (Gasparini and Beals expect cheaper stays on the weekends). “This is more than a development project for Alyn and me,” Gasparini told the audience. “We want this to be a legacy to our history and love for Redwood City.”
More information: www. hotelsequoiarwc.com
Above: The class of 1962 held a pre-picnic gather ing at Harry's Hofbrau in Redwood City.
September 2022 · CLIMATE · 23 EventInfo:Tickets: Crawl begins at Downtown Library 1044 Middlefield Road Redwood City “Pub-Libations“ Redwood City Library Foundation Fundraiser An Upscale Pub Crawl Wednesday, Sep 21, 2022 5-8pm,Tickets:$50 In Recognition of Banned Books Week Stroll downtown and enjoy libations at different drinking establishments. Each pub will feature a banned book and discounted beverages. In 1922, there were speakeasies pubs had to quietly let people know where they could share a drink. In 2022, we are making sure libraries don't become speakeasies for banned books! Hometown Holidays is back! Come prepared to enjoy a kid's carnival, vendors, food & beverages, Santa photo opportunity and a "Hallmark" parade. A NEW DATE! Saturday, December 10th, 2022 from 10 am - 6 pm • CLIMATE •
24 · CLIMATE · September 2022 • PROFILE •
How’s this for irony? The song that launched Chris Duffley’s career was called “Open the Eyes of My Heart � ” Then again, maybe it’s not so strange after all � The tune, a Christian pop standard from 2001, is about trying to see God � Literally speaking, that’s not possible, at least in this life � But there are many ways to perceive � And Duffley has mastered quite a few� At 21, singer and inspirational speaker Chris Duffley shrugs off his autism and lack of sight�
If anything, the tech explosion of the past 40 years made May 19, 2001, a pretty good day to be born. It’s safe to say Duffley’s life and career would be far differ ent without computers and especially the Internet. A video of Duffley singing “Open the Eyes of My Heart” at age 10 in his native New Hampshire has attracted more than 3.6 million views over the last 11 years. That clip and others, including films of three performances of the Star-Spangled Banner at Boston’s Fenway Park, led to singing and speaking engagements nationwide; the Covid pandemic forced the cancellation of a planned tour to South America and Asia in 2020.
Photo courtesy of Grace Wise Photography
September 2022 · CLIMATE · 25 Start with hearing. It helps that he has perfect pitch, which a music teacher and therapist dis covered when Duffley was seven. Then there’s touch and dexterity. Duffley’s father, Steve, says Chris can tap on his iPhone’s Braille keypad fast er than most sighted people can wiggle their thumbs. He also possesses a keen understanding of technology, which has led to a side job that may become Duffley’s ultimate calling — testing websites to help make them accessible to people with vision loss.
• PROFILE •
Blind Ambition
By Scott Dailey
The decision was difficult for another reason, as well. The Duffleys already had four other kids under the age of 10. Be fore adopting Chris, Steve and Christine asked how they felt about having a new baby brother who was blind and would need extra love and attention. The re sponse: A unanimous thumbs-up. When Chris was seven years old and starting first grade, there came addition al news: He had autism. The diagnosis wasn’t completely unexpected; among other things, it explained why Chris had banged his head on the floor as a toddler, and was currently poking his eyes, living in his own world and conversing only by repeating what people said to him. His birth parents both had drug problems. Duffley ar rived more than two months prematurely. He weighed just 1 pound, 12 ounces. His blindness also resulted from his far-too-early birth. The newborn spent 100 days in the neonatal unit at a Florida hospital. •
With that, it might have been seren dipity — or maybe not — that the family was seated in the audience when a police detective named Joe Hoadley started sing ing Chris’s favorite song at a gathering of Eight Days of Hope, a Christian relief or ganization that was helping to rebuild the small Mississippi town of Bay St. Louis four months after Hurricane Katrina blew much of it into the Gulf of Mexico.
One thing Cristine and Steve didn’t believe was that Chris lacked in telligence. He had been labeled developmentally delayed, but Steve says that by age three or four Chris could already re cite the capitals of all 50 states. He was especially attracted to sounds — both ones he could hear and ones he could am plify through the micro phone of his kiddie kara okeInmachine.fact,he was fall ing in love with electronic gadgets, and microphones in particular. Christine’s mother, Ann Matchekosky, whom Steve describes as the family’s “respite and help,” was a church music leader. While driving Chris to physical therapy and oth er appointments, she sang in the car and taught him to harmonize.
The continuing gigs will include a performance at Redwood City’s Fox Theatre on Sunday after noon, September 11. In formation is available at www.foxrwc.com.Duffley’sbirth date may have shown good tim ing, but the circumstances were something else. His birth parents both had drug problems. Duffley arrived more than two months pre maturely. He weighed just 1 pound, 12 ounces. His blindness also resulted from his far-too-early birth. According to Steve, Chris spent 100 days in the neonatal unit at a Florida hospital. It seemed a miracle that he lived long enough even to be ad opted by Steve and his wife, Christine, who brought him to their home in Man chester, N.H., in August 2002. Calling Steve and Christine devout Catholics is like saying Beethoven was a pretty good composer. Both say their faith gave them the courage to take Chris in. Christine, especially, says she was wary of having a “savior complex.” When she first saw Chris, he was just short of a year old and was back in the hospital with double pneumonia. The enormity of what she and Steve were considering filled her with understandable anxiety. She turned where she always did — to prayer. “I believe God spoke to my heart,” she says. “He told me, ‘Do not be afraid. I will take care of everything.’ And I re ceived that as a sign of trust that every thing was going to be okay if I stepped out in faith to bring Chris into the family.”
On that night in December 2005, the now-retired Hoadley — Steve says the bad guys in Meridian, Miss., called him “Scarface,” after the Al Pacino movie char acter — began the soft, contemplative lyr ics to “Open the Eyes of My Heart.” Chris gazed at Steve, who scooped him out of his chair and carried him to the makeshift stage. Chris sang next to Hoadley, who shortly handed him the mic. Steve says, “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.” (Hoadley is not the same Joseph Hoad
• PROFILE
26 · CLIMATE · September 2022
• PROFILE •
“That statement, in particular — I felt really awkward,” Chris says. “Because I was, like, I can go out,” he says, empha sizing “can.”
September 2022 · CLIMATE · 27 ley, a fired police officer in Caldwell, Id., who currently faces charges of roughing up suspects and tampering withThedocuments.)invitations started flowing in to sing at church es, conventions, sporting events and disability-relat ed occasions. Teamsters Union Local 25 in Boston had adopted autism as a charitable cause, and flew Chris and Steve to the or ganization’s international convention in Las Vegas in July 2011. Chris sang the National Anthem, and the cheers began as he approached the climactic high note in the song’s next-to-last line. A week later, he sang the Star-Spangled Banner again, when the Boston Red Sox asked him to perform for the team’s Disability Aware nessInNight.2017, he was invited by the Ca nucks Autism Network, founded by the co-owners of the Vancouver Canucks National Hockey League team, to sing Andrea Bocelli’s arrangement of the Ital ian folk tune, “Con Te Partirò.” With one rehearsal, he sang harmony with the world-renowned Canadian vocal group, the Tenors, and then joined them with an other of Chris’s favorite tunes, “Lean on Me,” by Bill Withers. The Duffleys and Chris’s teachers and therapists all say Chris was well-accepted by his siblings and schoolmates. Once the other kids got over the inevitable awk wardness, Chris, who graduated from high school two years ago, was just anoth er student who happened to carry a cane and sometimes slept in class (especially history). Steve and Christine say the two of them are naturally positive, “yes, we can” kinds of people.
Another frequent misconception about disability — especially autism — is that it equates with low intelligence. (A T-shirt for the hearing-impaired succinct ly expresses the resulting frustration. “I’m deaf,” it reads, “not stupid.”) Christine and Steve credit Chris’s teachers and ther apists for consistently challenging their C “We know we inspire oth ers in their faith journey, with people that have families with children with special needs. We inspire them to raise the bar.”
Duffley joined with members of the special-needs ministry at First Baptist Concord Church in Knoxville, Tenn.
“We know we inspire others in their faith jour ney, with people that have families with children with special needs,” Christine says. “We inspire them to raise the bar.” Chris, too, sees his work as a religious calling. Not long ago, he founded an Internet-based Christian radio station where he spreads his mes sage and spins his favorite songs. Of his career and his unanticipated celebrity, he says, “It wasn’t really to make me known. It was to make God known.”
The current phase may not last for ever, at least not exclusively. Chris still loves the road, but a new cause beckons — making the digital world more accessi ble to people with disabilities, especially those with visual impairments. This year, he earned a certification to test websites’ compatibility with “screen readers,” which transform Internet content into au dio and Braille.
One thing is certain: It’s not for noth ing that the Canucks Autism Network is usually shortened to “CAN.” For Chris, it’s no big deal — just the way life should be. His continuing ambition is to build in dependence for the visually impaired. “I feel inspired,” he says. “I want to make a change in certain things.”
son, who attended regular classes with the help of a paraprofessional starting in kindergarten. Christine says much of what the Duffleys consider their ministry focuses on en couraging other parents to create high expectations.
But it hasn’t been universal. Chris was recently taken aback by an encounter with a grocery clerk in Manchester. He understands she was trying to be nice. Nonetheless, he was a bit miffed when she told him, “It’s good you’re able to get out and go places.”
2. Cut nectarines or peaches in half and remove the pits. Drizzle each section with a bit of oil, then grill until charred and warmed through, about 3 minutes per side.
• FOOD by Susan Jenkins • 28 · CLIMATE · September 2022
1/2 cup toasted and roughly chopped hazelnuts
A trickle of extra-virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons honey
Grilled Nectarine Salad from Northern Italy
A shake or two of Kosher salt
A few years ago, after three weeks of touring Rome, Florence and Venice, I decided to venture from the main sites and journey to the small town of Gorgonzola, northeast of Milan. I was expect ing four days of quiet reflection, and the quaint city of slightly more than 20,000 inhabitants did not disappoint. From its humble beginnings as a small station for changing horses, Gorgonzola has achieved worldwide renown, mostly for be queathing its name to its highly regarded variety of blue cheese.
As I had hoped, Gorgonzola (the town) was an idyllic place to meander along twisting, narrow streets flanked by green-shuttered windows. Se renity enveloped me. I walked for hours, hearing only my sneakers crunching on the ground, chil dren playing in parks and women laughing from three-story, yellow-brown houses whose kitchens gave off enticing aromas all day. Small cafes wel comed me with strong coffee and fresh food, of fered with warm smiles and a compelling story or two. I ate Gorgonzola cheese almost everywhere I went. It was smooth and lush, with a crumbly, soft texture and a nutty aroma. I thought that just look ing at it could make it melt, and every bite seemed more succulent than the one before. I encountered Gorgonzola served over green salads and pasta dishes, and even on a cheeseburger. And it always perfectly complemented wines such as Bordeaux, Zinfandel and Sauternes. This salad, a variation of one I had there, boasts the summery richness of Gorgonzola com bined with grilled nectarines, toasted hazelnuts and fresh mint. It can make a complete lunch or a delightful preamble to either a simple or formal dinner. For those who have always wanted to visit (or revisit) Italy, it may create the tipping point for a memorable trip to one of the world’s great desti nations for food.
C Grilled Nectarine Salad with Gorgonzola Cheese 4 ripe freestone nectarines or peaches 1/2 cup whole mint leaves 1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola
1. Preheat grill to medium-high.
3. Transfer the fruit to a serving platter. Drip honey over the top and add mint leaves. Sprinkle with Gorgonzola, hazelnuts and Kosher salt.
September 2022 · CLIMATE · 29 • CLIMATE • weTogether,design places that inspire people. 855 MAIN STREET
• HISTORY by Jim Clifford • 1939 International Expo Featured Redwood City’s Futuristic Dwelling C Redwood City was home to the “house of the future” during the 1939 Golden Gate In ternational Exposition, an event that drew more than 10 million visitors to the new Treasure Island, constructed in the middle of San Francisco Bay for the festivities.
The Redwood City Tribune forecast that “during the next few months thou sands from all over the nation will visit this beautiful residence” at 839 Blandford Boulevard. (Note the significant use of the number 39 in the address.) Current owners Hunter and Holly Volk have never seen that level of interest, but they concede the house in the Edgewood Park area is a traf fic-stopper of sorts. “This place is neighborhood central” during the summer, Hunter Volk says while standing next to a window that looks out onto a backyard that forms the center of his U-shaped home. The term “backyard” scarcely applies; it’s more of a patio or a plaza that, in the old Spanish tradition, was the gathering place for a town’sDuringcitizens.aquick tour of the 3,110-squarefoot home, reportedly designed by Menlo Park architect Arthur D. Janssen, Hunter pointed out many art-deco touches, in cluding a built-in vanity in one bathroom. Other reminders of times past are wall buzzers for summoning servants. Large windows and hardwood floors stand out as the dominant features of the three-bed room, three-bath home. “There are windows everywhere,” says prior owner Jodi Garehime. “I could have been the nosiest person in the neighborhood. I could see everything going on around us.” She and her husband Bill lived in the house for 33 years. “It was hard to leave,” Gare hime adds. “We loved the place.”
Garehime says she heard a one-third scale model of the house was displayed at the Treasure Island exposition, which cele brated the opening of the Golden Gate and Bay bridges. Technically, the event was not a “world’s fair,” an official designation reserved for the 1939 extravaganza held in NewTheYork.house was not in the best shape in 1983 when the Garehimes moved in. They had to sandblast gray paint, which covered the bricks that make up the home’s exteri or signature. In addition, bushes had been allowed to grow wild and covered a few windows. Garehime says it was “a labor of love” to get 839 back to its original glory. Built especially for the fair, the house was the pride of Redwood City. The Tri bune of July 18, 1939, announced in over sized letters that the town had its “Own Model Exposition Home.” In fact, the house was one of many for the fair, accord ing to the Redwood City Historical Re sources Inventory, a 2019 report prepared for the city government. Certain Bay Area houses were designated “homes of the fu ture” to show fair visitors from other parts of the country how Californians might
The San Francisco Chronicle featured an entire section on the homes, reporting that the Blandford house was the work of the local chamber of commerce and realty board. The Chronicle agreed with the Tri bune that the house represented a varia tion of “the early California Hacienda.” In hindsight, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to see the “rancher” label looming for the “house of tomorrow.”
The Tribune described the Redwood City house as “a modern adaptation of the early California period.” The house combined “simplicity with every modern feature of home construction,” the Tri bune’s reporter continued, concluding that the “model home finds a perfect setting among the oaks.”
The 1939 price? According to the ar chitectural publication Pencil Points, the house was listed at $12,000. An adjacent lot was included.
30 · CLIMATE · September 2022 • CLIMATE • live. In addition to the Blandford house, other such homes on the Peninsula were in Burlingame, Menlo Park and Palo Alto.
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