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‘Our Town’s’ Grover’s Corner a portrait of University City SANDY LIPPE You are probably familiar with the Thornton Wilder play, “Our Town,” set in the mythical town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire from 1901 to 1913. The play was produced at The Old Globe Theatre in 1975 with Craig Noel, the founding director of The Globe, playing the role of stage manager. University City is a lot like Grover’s Corners, a compact community of regular folks making a living and a life, revering the town children, recording ordinary events and even listening for the train whistle as the train hurries through Rose Canyon on the way to important places like downtown San Diego or Los Angeles. In “Our Town,” the locals can set their watch to the train heading to Albany, New York. In U.C., the locals can do the same. Churches, synagogues and schools dot the main street of University City and the four corners of gas stations at Genesee Avenue and Governor Drive are community identification marks. The library is on our main street, east of the four corners, as is our town’s gathering place to the west, Standley Park. Kids ride their bikes to and from school, as well as to Standley Park. “I can’t do anything bad there,” a youngster once confessed, “because somebody else’s mom might see me and tell my mother.” It’s true. Just as in Grover’s Corners, everybody seems to know everybody else. The library bike rack and parking lot are full most days. The Postal Annex in the Marketplace is west of Governor and Genesee. Jane Reilly keeps tab of how everyone is doing and always lends a sympathetic ear to her customer friends. She gives continuity to the community. Her customers are her friends, just as in “Our Town,” where Mr. Morgan, who owns the drug-
www.SDNEWS.com Volume 16, Number 36
THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2011
San Diego Community Newspaper Group
View from52
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store, or Doc Gibbs, who checks on friends in Grover’s Corners. The post office also has longtime employees: Beth, Kathy and Susan. They don’t just sell stamps; they hand out concerns and compliments. Beth’s son is serving his country overseas in the Middle East, and Beth knows about our sons, daughters and grandkids. Kathy has been a generous volunteer for U.C. Celebration over the years on July 4. Living in the community, she’s one of us. Susan is interested in the families who stop by her counter. Times were changing for Grover’s Corners when automobiles were introduced. Change was in the air. “And now they are bringing in these auto-mo-biles; the best thing to do is just stay home. Why, I can remember the time when a dog could lie down all day in the middle of Main Street and nothing would come to disturb him,” Mr. Morgan says. Today’s technology is yesterday’s first automobiles in our University City-set drama. Change is in the air in our town. Will our little post office close because email is riding a wave of success, supplanting the letters and bills we paid to mail at the post office? Will we lose the human touch provided by our friends who are clerks? Will our passion for the technology world wipe out the people-topeople experience and isolate us even more? Standley Park’s lovely, capable director, Sarah Anderson-Erazo, has served the community well for years. With the budget gap, Standley Park may lose her talent and genuine care for our “Grover’s Corners.” We celebrated Sarah’s rites of passage: going to college, getting married and now soon becoming a mom. We want to keep her around and we wonder if the city fathers and mothers understand the close relationship we have with folks like Sarah who come into our communities and hearts. Is there SEE VIEW FROM 52, Page 5
Bishop’s lady graduates proceed to their seats on May 27 during the school’s 101st annual commencemnt PAUL HANSEN | Village News ceremony.
Marching toward their futures Right: Alec Fisher receives the Cindy Greonendyke Sportsmanship Cup, awarded to one boy and one girl each year at Bishop’s.
BY KENDRA HARTMANN VILLAGE NEWS
t’s that time again. The time of year when high school seniors reach the end of their long sojourn and get to walk down an aisle to receive a piece of paper that says they never again have to walk those school halls or set foot in another high school classroom. It’s the day when the place they’ve known for the past four years becomes their alma mater and a part of their past. Students nationwide are attending graduation parties and spending some last-minute time with friends, listening to commencement addresses and buying up dorm room furnishings by the truckload. In La Jolla, there is a treasure trove of high schools filled
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with talented students, and they’re all experiencing the excitement of not knowing exactly what their future holds. Where they will end up and what they will become is yet to be known, but for SEE GRADUATION, Page 3
TI DE LI N E S
Moon snail 'unphased' by own fancy footwork BY JUDITH LEA GARFIELD | VILLAGE NEWS Did someone dump a boatload of broken gaskets off La Jolla Shores? The rubbery-looking things do resemble refuse from human activity, but actually they are the result of many moon snails' (Euspira lewisii) reproductive efforts. A common resident of the local sand community off La Jolla Shores, the moon snail is the largest of its species, reaching about 6 inches long in these parts. The snail's thick, globular, shell (to about 2 inches across) varies in color from cream, to tan, to yellowish, to orange-yellow. Thin brownish striations overlap the base color. Other pastel hues often sneak into the inner spiral regions. I usually see the snail plowing half-buried through the sand using its impressively large pale-pink foot, a blob of soft tissue about four times the volume of its shell. Because of this
SEE TIDE LINES, Page 9
A moon snail fully revealed shows the size discrepancy between its shell and monstrous soft foot (about 5 inches long). ©2011 Judith Lea Garfield