Pajaro Valley Magazine February 25, 2022

THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF THE PAJARO VALLEY

FEB 25 - MAR 10, 2022

THE

‘OLD’ GENERATION

A supplement to The Pajaronian

Watsonville musician tackles aging in latest hit song P4

TRAVEL P7 | PHOTO GALLERY P8 | FEATURED HOME P10

Make Y o 2021 IR ur Contrib A ut Throug ion April 1 h 5!

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Plan Your Retirement

MAGAZINE

21 Brennan St, Suite 18, Watsonville, CA 95076

FEBRUARY 25 - MARCH 10, 2022 | PAJARO VALLEY MAGAZINE

The LPL Financial Advisors located at Bay Federal Credit Union can help you prepare for the future you want with a personalized retirement plan.

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Phone: 831.761.7301

CEO & Executive Editor

Dan Pulcrano Publisher

Jeanie Johnson

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Ad Director

Debra Whizin Editor

Make a complimentary appointment today!

Erik Chalhoub Contributing Writers

Erik Chalhoub, Johanna Miller, Tarmo Hannula, Sarah Ringler

Visit www.bayfed.com or call 831.479.6000, option 7

Advertising Account Executives

Lisa Buckley, Sue Lamothe, Kate Kauffman Ilana Packer, Tiffani Petrov Editorial Production Manager

Investment Services

at Bay Federal Credit Union Available through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC

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Phaedra Strecher Cover Photography:

Courtesy of Michael Gaither

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Cover story

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Travel

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Photo Gallery

or Obligations

at Bay Federal Credit Union

Published by WatsNews, LLC, Watsonville, CA. Entire contents © 2022. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form prohibited without publisher’s written permission.

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LOCAL BAND Michael Gaither

FEBRUARY 25 - MARCH 10, 2022 | PAJARO VALLEY MAGAZINE

and His New Best Friends perform regularly in the local area.

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Feeling like an elder Michael Gaither’s new song speaks to a generation

By HUGH MCCORMICK

His hit new single “We’re the Elders Now” was inspired by his 92-year-old father’s passing a little more than five years ago.

A

PAJARO VALLEY MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 25 - MARCH 10, 2022

Courtesy of Michael Gaither

t age 39, bordering on 40, I’ve started to exhibit some telltale signs of aging. My grunts when extricating my tired bod from my couch or bed have become more pronounced. I’m hearing songs I grew up with on the oldies and classic rock stations. I’m not on Tik Tok, Snapchat or “cool” new social media. And my bladder has become a sinister force of evil—an arch enemy that I battle each day.

Local singer-songwriter extraordinaire Michael Gaither has admittedly begun to feel the bittersweet crush of old age himself. His hit new single “We’re the Elders Now” was inspired by his 92-year-old father’s passing a little more than five years ago.

Gaither let the track—about the confusing and unsettling moment when you realize you are no longer young; that you are now part of an older and wiser generation that you’ve been taught to admire, look up to, and revere your entire life—sit for a while before revisiting it and releasing it earlier this year.

The song is written for those, like Gaither, who aren’t so old, but find themselves parentless. “This is us now. We’re the new elders. Now we’re the old ones,” he says.

Gaither, a lifelong resident of the Central Coast, is a longtime fixture in the local music scene. A student at Watsonville High School and then Cabrillo College and San Jose State University, the musically obsessed 58-year-old majored in “radio, TV and song.”

He’s putting his degree to good use today, writing and producing music and working as a DJ for the ➝6 edgy and now-legendary radio station KPIG.

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Courtesy of Michael Gaither

‘MUSIC NERD’

Michael Gather is a wellknown performer around the Pajaro Valley.

FEBRUARY 25 - MARCH 10, 2022 | PAJARO VALLEY MAGAZINE

ELDER

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“I was always a music nerd,” Gaither admits. “But KPIG shaped my tastes and outlook on music and song.”

A serious tune For 15 years, Gaither and his award-winning “New Best Friends” ensemble have traveled throughout California, playing Americana originals and covers of well-known tunes from influences like Tom Petty and John Prine. With five CDs of original music in his bag, Gaither and his “Best Friends” craft songs about the nostalgia of smalltown life with keen observations of the human experience.

Gaither is a storyteller through and through, and he blends his terrific melodies with wit and a huge helping of humor. Before his music and songwriting career really took off, he worked as a standup comedian. He even sold jokes to iconic late-night personality Jay Leno.

There’s little humor in “We’re the Elders Now,” though. The song is serious with an honest, endearing and heartfelt message.

“My mom died at age 52 when I was 29. My dad passed away five years ago at age 92. It was hard. I still miss them both. I’m an only child so it was this realization— oh it’s just me now,” Gaither says seriously.

For the song’s accompanying video, Gaither collected photos of people with their parents when they were kids and contrasted them with images from today—when they were older and parentless.

“I got photos of friends, fans and family and the video accompanying the track really became a tribute to family. The song is bittersweet.

Not to the point of being a downer, though,” Gaither says.

Wealth of inspiration Gaither loves his guitar. It’s his baby. But he also plays the uke, harmonica, banjo and percussion.

When Covid hit he spent most of his time at home—like everyone else. Soon though, the stircrazy musician played a socially distanced concert at El Vaquero Winery in Watsonville. The show

went so well that it became a regular Friday night gig.

Unlike most bands, Gaither and his “New Best Friends” played a lot during the pandemic. At first his gigs at Vaquero were solo affairs, but soon he was joined by his bass player. His primary singer, backup guitarist and drummer entered the fray next.

“That became the five-piece New Best Friends ensemble,” Gaither says. “I love to play each gig a little differently. Two-piece. Three-piece.

Full band. I like the flexibility.”

The regular Friday gigs allowed Gaither and his friends to practice old tunes and covers, and to introduce new music like “We’re the Elders Now” (which quickly became a crowd favorite).

The band had a distinct advantage over other musicians. Workshopping new material in front of a large live audience (40-100 people each night) allowed them to innovate and get creative.

Gaither takes the “write what you know” approach to music. Backed up by his talented friends, many of his songs—his stories—include

local people and events. His song “See You on the Other Side”— inspired by the pandemic—won first place in the Great American Song Contest in the singer/songwriter category.

“I have a solid library of songs about where I live,” Gaither says.

“Anything really good or really bad there’s probably a story in it. And I got a lot of songs out of the craziness that was 2020.”

To prep for this piece, Gaither and I talked at length on the phone and exchanged numerous text messages. Turns out, we’re not as cool (or young) as we thought. A recent poll of 2,000 British youngsters between the age of 16-29 found that “cringe-worthy” emojis used by “old people” include the OK hand, red love heart, thumbs up and grimacing face.

I can’t even count the number of times Gaither and I happily thumbed up each other during this past week. And after reading about this study I’ve come to seriously question my emoji game.

At 39, I’m already feeling like an elder.

TRAVEL

A sampling of Oakland Meeting friends, visiting sites during a trip to the East Bay

By TARMO HANNULA

HISTORIC HOME A log cabin stands in Jack London Square on Oakland's waterfront. The famed American author once lived in the cabin where it was built in Dawson in the Canadian territory of Yukon.

CITY CENTER Lake Merritt is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods

in the center of Oakland.

both indoors and out, we found a table inside after ordering at the counter. Their homemade soba noodles and everything else we had was superb.

The centerpiece of Jack London Square is a rustic log cabin with a bronze statue of a wild wolf keeping watch out front. While the wolf stems from London’s famed novel, “The Call of the Wild,” the cabin offers an intriguing slice of history.

It was originally built in the rugged Alaskan wilderness and was London’s home for a year as he and thousands of others poured into the region during the Yukon Gold Rush days of 1897-98. A Jack London enthusiast, Russ Kingman, ended up buying the cabin but not without a quarrel: Historians in Dawson, Canada, also wanted a slice of the London legacy so they agreed to cut the cabin in half.

Kingman’s half was then shipped and rebuilt on the Oakland waterfront around 1968.

Right next to the cabin is the world-famous Heinfold’s First and

Last Chance Bar, which is also a place London frequented. The rustic wood shack, with its heavily tilting wood floor and bar, offers a steamy taste of the past, with its walls covered with early day photos of Jack, his friends and surroundings of the early 1900s.

We found Wise Sons Jewish Deli for breakfast on Franklin Street. Though their bagel breakfast was fantastic, the tab of $35 for two bagels and one coffee was staggering!

Street metered parking was easy to find near the Oakland Museum of California where we took in the bounty of their exhibit. The centerpiece was “The Mothership: A Voyage into Afro-futurism," which featured more than 50 artists in recognition of Black History Month.

On our way home, we stopped by the small town of Niles, wandered their streets and sampled a few antique stores before heading home to Watsonville.

PAJARO VALLEY MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 25 - MARCH 10, 2022

Waterfront Hotel for our night at Jack London Square in Oakland.

Our third floor room offered a dramatic, sweeping view of the Oakland harbor and a life-sized bronze statue of Jack London standing at the water’s edge. Right away, we were stunned at how exciting that area was, with scores of trendy shops, cafes, micro-breweries, wine bars and restaurants.

A wide path, dotted with benches and informative signs, made for an inviting stroll along the harbor’s edge. While some businesses were shuttered, others were booming with business.

A TV show we’ve come to relish is “Check, Please! Bay Area,” where a group of four guests visit their choices of restaurants and then sit down to compare notes. One of those spots caught our attention: Soba Ichi, a Japanese restaurant in Oakland, so we headed there for dinner. Though fairly crowded,

Photos by Tarmo Hannula

My wife Sarah and I have developed a pattern of treating each other to a night on the town as a birthday gift in places such as San Francisco, Sacramento, Big Sur or Carmel.

In keeping that tradition, Sarah reserved a room at a hotel in Oakland on Jan. 29 for my gift.

We took Highway 129 to Highway 101 north and then rolled up the East Bay on Highway 880 through Fremont and Hayward to San Leandro where we met our longtime friends Jimmy and Carol for coffee.

Our friends suggested Zocalo on Bancroft Avenue where we found an outdoor table to take in the busy downtown life. We’ve found that tracking down friends on our various journeys, even if it only means a quick coffee, takes the trip to a deeper and more meaningful level.

We enjoyed catching up with them before heading further north to the

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PHOTO GALLERY Have a recent photo you’d like to share? Send it to us for consideration by emailing it to echalhoub@weeklys.com or mailing it to 21 Brennan St., Suite 18, Watsonville, CA 95076. Please include a brief description of the photo as well as the name of the photographer.

SOAKED December rains

flooded agricultural fields along Beach Road in Watsonville.

Tarmo Hannula

LEVEE TRAIL A man walks his dog on the levee of Salsipuedes Creek beside a system of metal hoops that cover a berry crop.

Tarmo Hannula

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Groomed agricultural fields surround a weathered barn on Riverside Road in Watsonville.

Tarmo Hannula

FEBRUARY 25 - MARCH 10, 2022 | PAJARO VALLEY MAGAZINE

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Real Estate of Mind

Schneider Estates, Inc.

This has been nobitium the longest-running, highestOre resciis qui utam estrum appreciating, craziest-making “up” market que inimint invent ati ut fugiasp ienihil anyone has ever seen. For ten years, a historic igentotatem auda Tomlevel Brezsny’s low of supply hasquamus held swaymolupta and leveraged quiat. a remarkable rise in intensity, competition and Luptas berisqui andi simi, quo of course,diprices.

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