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May 2020 • ALAMO TODAY & DANVILLE TODAY NEWS • PAGE 1
& M AY 2020
GARDENING FOR VICTORY THEN AND NOW
By Jody Morgan
Early in 1917, Charles Lathrop Pack began talking about creating “war gardens” in the United States. With European farms ravaged by war, the United States was working already to feed millions of people across the Atlantic. Pack identified idle land in parks, private yards, school grounds, and company properties that could be utilized to grow vegetables and fruit. His movement quickly caught on. Once again, when the US entered World War
SRVHS Choir creates Give Us Hope music video available on YouTube.
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART AND SONG ARE
By Linda Summers Pirkle
Early 1940s Alamo World War II Victory Garden replaced the front lawn at the Mauzy home on Ramona Way in Alamo. Left to right, Kay Mauzy Wightman, grandmother Addie Oswill Glass, and Claudia Mauzy Nemir. Photo courtesy of Claudia Mauzy Nemir.
II, the concept of growing and preserving food at homes across the country was successfully implemented as Victory Gardens. Today, many homeowners facing food anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are turning a third time to gardening for victory. Pack, third-generation forestry expert and businessman, established the National War Garden Commission in March 1917, weeks before the US declared war on Germany. Luther Burbank, self-styled plant engineer responsible for creating 800 new plant varieties in his California gardens, was the only commission member from west of the Mississippi. Colorful posters and informative literature on growing and preserving edibles fueled the campaign. The Federal Bureau of Education launched the US School Garden Army, enlisting children as “soldiers of the soil.” In 1918, Jackson's Furniture Company in Oakland, California offered two sterling silver trophies: “One Cup goes to the Grammar School with the best war garden at school. One Cup goes to the Grammar School with the
See Gardening continued on page 17
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They sang in New York after 9/11, they traveled to New Orleans to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2006, and they performed in Houston with their “Rebuild and Renew” concert after Hurricane Harvey. The San Ramon Valley High School (SRVHS) choir is accustomed to bringing their gifts and talents to those in need. The confinement caused by the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders was not something that would stop the SRVHS choir from doing what they have been doing for years under the leadership of Artistic Director Ken Abrams. Give Us Hope, a video featuring the combined SRVHS choir, was released in April 2020. Unable to meet to perform together, each of the 45 choir members filmed themselves singing in their own homes. The keyboard accompaniment, played by Laurie Hugill, was recorded at a spring concert at SRVHS performed in March. Then, with the technical expertise of alumni and video editor, David Flashner, the voices were added back in one by one.
See Hope continued on page 12
STEPPING UP By Linda Summers Pirkle
If you are reading this article in May, you made it through many weeks of shelter-in-place orders. You may have learned more than you ever thought you would know about flattening the curve and physical distancing. We are living in extraordinary times. Another extraordinary time was WWI. If you were able to see the film 1917 before the closure of movie theaters because of the COVOD-19 virus, you know the story is about a soldier who is ordered to deliver a vital message to a commander, and to do so he must travel through enemy territory. There is another WWI story you may not know. It’s a true story about a lowly bird, a pigeon named Cher Ami. It was a story that captured the imagination of the world, without the benefit of social media when people were looking
See Pigeon continued on page 16
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Volume XX Number 5
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Volume XI Number 5
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