Half Moon Bay Memories & El Granada Observer

Let me explain: A long time ago I decided to do a story about wrinkles, you know, about how obsessed women are with them and the lengths they will go to eliminate them–that was the idea– but my story was going to have a lot of humor. My story was going to be very funny.

Wrinkles are funny, right?

I took the idea to the San Jose Mercury News’ magazine–which was very hot at the time. The editor and his magazine were widely admired, and I convinced the editor to let me write this “laugh your head off” article about wrinkles for his great magazine.

I worked hard on the piece–I wanted it to be everything I promised it would be–there was the well known San Mateo County dermatologist who told me women should stick Scotch tape on their faces in order to prevent laugh lines and crows feet from developing. Stunt them before they grow– especially when talking on the phone, he said, women should wear Scotch tape in strategic places.

I interviewed a Berkeley author who had just published a book about my subject and then died in a freak car accident soon after. Besides the usual advertising promises from the cosmetic industry, I collected unusual and ancient rememdies for wrinkles like special, smooth rocks encased in what looked like a lovely jewelry box.

I also interviewed a couple of Coastsiders, one of them was Pete Douglas, the famous Miramarian ( one who lives in Miramar) and runs the world class jazz house, Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society. Anyone who knows Douglas knows he is opinionated, has a wry sense of humor–and most importantly for me, who was writing a humorous story about wrinkles, Pete has a craggy face. I thought: this man knows facial lines and from his vantage point at the Bach he is a great observer of life.

But the interview with Pete turned out to be far more serious than I ever thought he’d be. Very understanding and sympathetic.

To the bitter end, I believed my wrinkles piece was hilarious and didn’t get the hint that things were going badly–even when I read excerpts to my friends and didn’t get laughs. Not one. The truth was, the story flopped, and in the end, the magazine gave me a “kill fee” for it. They paid me to go away.

In the next post, I’ll write-up the interview with Pete.

Isn’t it a bit large? Big, compared to the surroundings?

… As a great man (my boyfriend, Burt) has said: “If you hang long enough, you’ll get used to it.” In other words we humans can get used to anything–but should have to?

The Reefs at Moss Beach

Charlie Nye’s father, also called Charlie Nye, saw opportunity when his neighbors gave up after the Ocean Shore Railroad showed signs of faltering.

The 1906 earthquake, with its epicenter at nearby Mussel Rock, struck a mighty blow at the work the Ocean Shore was doing near Devil’s Slide. After having read personal horrifying accounts of the earth moving in downtown San Francisco, I can only imagine the shaking at the Slide.

In the 1880s Mr. Wienke, whose wife,Meta, was distantly related to the sugar king Claus Spreckels, established a beach resort at Moss Beach. Getting people to come was hampered because Wienke’s hotel was isolated and the carriage ride a long, dusty, uncomfortable one. The railroad, which planned an iron road from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, promised to deliver untold number of tourists–and now nature had reduced all that to temporary rubble as the Ocean Shore people cleaned up and took financial nventory.

I guess the railroad was committed to see their project through to the bitter end and they plowed ahead–even coming up with a couple of little gas powered coaches, much, much cleaner burning than the billows of black dirty smoke emitting from the coal-powered engines as they choo choo-ed across the Coastside landscape.

“My father had a chance to acquire ‘The Reefs’ which was built by Wienke,” Charlie Nye, Jr. explained.

That was exciting for what the Reefs had been built right on the sandy beach of the present day Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. There was no foundation as the building stood on 16-foot stilts.

Charlie Nye: When the Reefs was first built it was built on the sand and there were rows of bathhouses on one side and a dance floor on the other side where they used to have an orchestra. There was a road to the beach and people used to drive down with their horse and buggies. There was a chute we used to sllide groceries down from the cliff to the beach.”

A romantic place like this instantly drew the famous of the time, the botanist Luther Burbank, breeder of plums and prunes, and many other plant varieities, and the great writer Jack London, who loved the sounds of the sea and whose adventurious sea stories were read by every male child.

Guests fished, boated and hunted abalone.

On the day the Reefs officially passed from Mr. Wienke to Charlie Nye, the new owner faceda smelly problem.

Charlie Nye (deadpan): A dead whale had washed ashore–and it was highly potent. They tried everything they could think of to get rid of the carcass. Finally they blew it up with dynamite and there was just more whale over everything.

It was either Charlie’s father or Mr. Wienke who had done the interior decorating at The Reefs, using only what could be found locally. Every inch of wall, from floor to ceiling, was covered with silvery blue abalone shells. The abalone chowder was a big hit and in later years Charlie Nye’s father revealed the secret to his delicous recipe: mince the abalone in a sausage grinder.

Promotional pamphlet for Moss Beach, circa 1915

Front: Back:

What our own County History Museum located in Redwood City’s historic courthouse will soon look like:

777 Hamilton St, Redwood City
650.299.0104

Two views of the new de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park by my artist friend and landscaper Leon Kunke. Looks llike an upside down copper pyramid.

By the way Golden Gate Park looks the best it’s looked in a very long time. The waterfalls are gushing and they’ve done fresh planting everywhere, all around the park. Impressive. The de Young’s new look, however, remains controversial. I love it!

(Photo: A view of the drive-in part of Alves Dairy: )

In February 1978 Alves Dairy sold its last bottle of delicious chocolate milk. I interviewed owner Ernie Alves a few days before the famous south of Half Moon Bay dairy closed down forever. We stood outside the 1950s-style drive-in dairy and talked about the history of the Alves family and the dairy.

Part II

Ernie Alves struck me as a guy who knew everything about farming so I was amazed when he confessed, “As far as cows go, strange as it sounds, I have never milked a cow until a month ago. I’ve always been in processing. I had to give our milker a day off, so my wife, my daughter and I milked the cows. I guess we’ve done it about three times now.”

1977-78 had been a rough year for the Alves family. His brother Frank was driving the dairy’s van back from Pescadero when he was involved in an accident. Frank’s injuries included a twisted neck and broken back.

Ernie: It took three men to replace Frank. This last year has been one madhouse as far as I’m concerned.

That was one of the reasons the Alves family decided to close the dairy, lease the land and sell the cows.

Ernie’s ancestors immigrated from the Azore Islands, settling in Pescadero in the 1800s. The family produced cheese at the rustic Willowside Ranch on a stretch of scenic Stage Road marked by a grove of mammoth eucalyptus trees.

(Is this the colorful Willowside Ranch? photo by Suzanne Meek)

(Photo: In the 1970s M/M Alves stand in front of their Victorian house on Kelly Ave, formerly known as the “Ben Cunha” house .

Ernie: Then we took one cow and somebody wanted milk. Pretty soon we had two cows, then three cows. When they got too large for back of the house, the cows were moved down to where the Little League fields are.

A decade later a barn was built with a room to bottle raw milk.

Ernie (a student at the time): We had a walk-in box and the whole bit.

Ten more years raced by and a bigger barn was built. The Alves converted a building near the Victorian house into a processing plant. The milk was carried in 10-gallon cans from the ranch (the Little League fields) to the plant.

Ernie: The way I remember that the plant was built in 1941 is that we had two bricklayers, and it was December of ‘41 when we started it. The war had begun. Highway 1 wasnot here as you see it now: Main Street was Highway 1.

Coastside County Water District Candiate Jim Marsh outside El Granada Post Office this morning:

Great quote Marsh found from Mark Twain:

“Gold is worth fightin’ for,
Water is worth dyin’ for”

Neighbor/realtor Carole Delmar has added her picture to her for sale signs.

Carole at our Easter Garden Party (2005)

Today: POST (Peninsula Open Space Trust) Meeting at the Quarry?

If you go back a few posts you’ll see Galen Wolfe’s watercolor including the Ocean Shore-era bathhouse at El Granada beach.