Poet who wrote “I grow old … I grow old … / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled”

Downtown DavisWELCOME TO

Students have the power to keep businesses alive Study up for your Davis citizenship test

Every year, it seems, as the longest-tenured member of this esteemed newspaper, I am given the task of recounting Davis’ glorious and sometimes inglorious past for this special edition. Or sometimes they just want me to tell the newcomers — mostly UC Davis students and new faculty — everything that awaits them in the glorious town of Davis.

I’m now halfway through my 52nd year of typing for a living, all at The Davis Enterprise, which may mean that upward mobility has passed me by, even if it does make me a so-called expert on all things Davis.

Given that I get to live here and write about all the people, places and things in this unique and charming town, I’m not complaining.

People say they move to Davis for the schools. Yes, they’re sometimes talking about elementary schools and high schools, but they’re also talking about UC Davis, which used to be known as the University Farm.

Now, of course, UC Davis has gone from teaching people how to be farmers to teaching people how to be a million different things. Or just how to be themselves and successfully navigate the world once they graduate.

Quick, name another college or university that has a law school, a med school, a vet school and cows right outside your dorm room.

Davis, you should know, is the City of All Things Right and Relevant, also hailed by some polls as the Most Educated City in America.

The Big University, which had only a handful of students when I was attending early in the Dark Ages, now boasts the aforementioned med school, vet school and law school, plus men’s and women’s basketball teams that compete favorably at the very highest levels of their sport.

Several years ago, according to the Wall Street Journal, the UC Davis was the No. 5 public university in the land. It also has one of best hospitals in California, and all sorts of disciplines that are highly rated nationally.

That’s high praise from a diverse group of sources.

However, being the Most Educated does not necessarily make you the Smartest City in America. There’s a difference. A very big difference. In fact, let me count the ways.

Davis is a town where half the folks have a Ph.D. and the other half think they should. This makes for some interesting discussions downtown in any one of our town’s 413 coffee houses.

We have med school deans, law school deans, more bicycles than people and a chancellor who one day decided he’d rather be at UC Davis than Georgia Tech. Now that’s saying something.

In terms of other educational institutions in town, you should know that a Davis High School graduate won the Nobel Prize, and another Davis High grad has won more Hawaii Ironman titles than most people have toes.

You should also know that Davis celebrated its 100th anniversary as a city in 2017, which means despite our quirkiness, we must have been doing something right or we’d have self-destructed many years ago.

Some folks are aware that the town was once known as Davisville. Then one day we dropped the last five letters, apparently so we wouldn’t be confused with Vacaville, Roseville, Weaverville, Danville, Emeryville, Oroville, Placerville, Watsonville, Porterville, Susanville and Coupe de Ville.

Or maybe UC Davisville just didn’t have the proper ring to it.

I give credit for Davis surviving for so many years to the great folks who have stuck their necks out and not only run for local office, but served in local office, occasionally coming up with something wonderful and occasionally making us all chuckle.

Davis has decided it wants to be carbon-neutral by some fixed date in the not-too-distant future, but no one is exactly sure what that means or how to go about accomplishing it. So, if someone asks you what you’re doing to achieve that goal, best to have a ready answer that at least pays it lip service. Like you gave up pasta carbonara.

At the beginning of every year, each Davisite is given a punch card with 10 little circles on it. To maintain your local citizenship, you must get all 10 circles punched by the end of the year or you’ll be forcibly relocated to Woodland.

You get one punch for attending the world-famous Farmers Market on a Saturday morning.

You get another punch for attending a UC Davis football game at UC Davis Stadium on a Saturday evening. You get an extra punch if the Aggies actually win, which happens far more often than not.

You also get a punch for marveling at the art work on the gigantic East Area Water Tank at the exact instant of the summer solstice or for eating frozen yogurt at YoloBerry while managing to refrain from adding even a single topping.

Yet another punch is awarded if you can successfully identify the correct words that match

DPNS, DCCNS, DHS, AYSO, NDE, DJUSD, DSIS, ASUCD, URC, AM-PM, DQU, PTA, PAT, PETA, PBR, ARC, AARP, CCE, FFA, HHHH, MAK, AAA, AT&T, B&L, DLL, DWR, R&R, PG&E, SPCA, YCCC, CACA, CAAA, DAC, RCIA, STEAC, UCC, UCD, UNICEF, UPS, CVS, KDRT, DDBA, DAM, IM, DMTC, DMV, MRAP, MRAK and YOLO. Another punch for correctly pronouncing “Oeste” of “Oeste Drive” and “Oeste Manor.” (Hint: rhymes with “toasty.”) In no time at all, you’ll be a certified Davisite and your citizenship in this fine town will be Goings Facebook and Instagram assured for another year. pages. If you know of a business — Reach Bob Dunning coming or going in the area, con- at bdunning@davisenterprise. tact her at wendyedit@gmail. net

Fred Gladdis/enterprise File photo

Name another college or university that has a law school, a med school, a vet school and cows right outside your dorm room.

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