Neva Reece: The Coastside Song That Should Be Mandatory in Half Moon Bay Schools

I always come back to the 1981 “Mystery of Half Moon Bay” documentary I wrote/produced for KCSM. Click on the link to watch it; I think you’ll enjoy the program.
While I was working on the project, I asked local songwriter/singing sensation Neva Reece

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to come up with a song for the hour long show. Neva has since moved away but I remember her as a sweet, very talented young woman, who, after I asked her to write a song, got to work right away.

[Thanks to Peter Adams for the photo above.]

Neva’s music never made it into the show [just like some of the interviews ended up on the “cutting room floor.”] I want to share with you the lyrics for “On the Coastside,” an original song by Neva Reece:

On The Coastside (by Neva Reece, copyright 1980)

Stick me in a pocket down by the sea

If you can’t find me, that’s where I’ll be

On the Coastside, diggin in on the Coastside

—–

We’re proud to say we’re not L.A.

San Francisco nor San Jose

We’re just a string of little towns

Down on the Coastside

——

The City and Marin are flashy and fun

They’re as crazy as anyone might want to be

That’s why you’ll find me on the Coastside

When I’ve been away for over a day

When I drive down the Slide

You can hear me say

I’m back home again, back home on the Coastside

——–

Sandy beach, blue horizons

Meeting me everyday

Is it really surprising

This is where I’ve come to stay?

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A few weeks ago I heard from Neva. Here’s her message:

JUNE!! – Long time no see….You might be interested to know that I was visiting with some other former coastside folks over the holidays – Liz Lindstrom and Mickey McKinney, who are still living in Port Townsend, Washington. A wonderful and beautiful and poignant place as well.
Thank you for all the memories and updates in the site. I will come back and visit again when I have more time. Presently setting up for the start of school after the holidays. I have returned to work as a school librarian after many adventures in music, magazine publishing, concert production, and radio news.
Hope to hear from you!!!

Neva

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Photo: In 1980 KCSM Camerman Jim Threlkeld sets up a shot of Pillar Point for “The Mystery of Half Moon Bay.”. Almost out of the picture is Director Rick Zanardi.

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Spanish Colonial Revival in HMB

(1915-1935)

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From: Coastside Cultural Resources of San Mateo County, California (1982)

The Spanish Colonial Revival style structure, also known as Mediterranean, is identified by red roof tile and stark white stucco; although many of these structures today are painted in various hues. There was originally little color, except for the terra cotta of the tile and (frequently) the burnt sienna paint on the wooden window frames. Ornamentation is restrained, with wood or wrought iron used for second-story balcony railings on larger homes and window grills on cottages. Arches are common, either in the front porch, front windows, front door, or all three. Extending from the side of many Spanish Colonial Revival style homes is a stucco wing, with another arched opening. Depending on its size, it may be an entrance to the backyard or to the garage.

Gail Holland: It Takes a Real Writer….

gail-red-jpg2.jpg(Photo: El Granada Author Gail Holland)

Dealing with any type of illness, physical or mental, has to be a difficult project for a writer–because there is no way that a good writer can avoid becoming emotionally involved in the subject he or she is researching and writing about.

The writer tries to play the observer, objective and untouched, but writers are much closer to actors than you may think. Like actors, writers absorb and breathe in the low and the high points of whatever they’re working on. And the “whatever,” seeps into the skin, the heart, and the mind.

El Granada author Gail Holland ([email protected]) took on a very difficult subject in 1985 when she wrote: “For Sasha with Love: An Alzheimer’s Crusade,” the tragic story of the elegant San Franciscan Anne Bashkiroff, whose husband, Sasha, was suddenly crippled with incurable Alzheimers. Anne and Sasha, originally from Russia, had been very much in love.

In the 1980s when Gail wrote “For Sasha with Love,” finding help, resources, and any kind of support for victims of Alzheimers was nearly impossible. Institutions refused patients with the condition. It was a dead-end, a life sentence.

We can thank Anne Bashkiroff for founding the “Family Survival Project, ” now called “Family Caregiver Alliance,” which helped bring Alzheimers into public consciousness– and the insightful writer Gail Holland for telling us the whole story, sparing no details.

For today we know the parameters of this crippling disease– and the desperation of those who live with loved ones that have lost their faculties. In fact, Alzheimers victims frequently have lost their entire life’s history, as if the memory disk has been accidentally erased or wiped clean.

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I’ve known Gail Holland for many, many years and I remember attending the “For Sasha, with Love” booksigning. I was proud to get both Gail’s and Anne’s autograph. Anne Bashkiroff was both beautiful and a woman with a presence. gailsautograph.jpg

Publication of the book attracted a lot of attention. The book was reprinted in 2007 by Purdue University Press with a new title: “Forget-Me-Not,” including updated information on caregiving.

When I met Gail, who has a charming English accent, she was working at the San Francisco Examiner, writing long feature articles. On one occasion she shared her bound collection of newspaper stories and I was envious of her talents. She was and remains a “hot” writer. Continue reading “Gail Holland: It Takes a Real Writer….”

Media Observation: Too Much Love At CNN Dem Debate?

By June Morrall

Last night, I watched part of the CNN Democratic debate with the two surviving candidates: Hillary and Obama.

Suddenly it seems as if the other “hopefuls” have dropped away overnight. It happened very fast.

What struck me was the love fest. It made us viewers feel good, sure, it did–but isn’t it strange that Hillary and Obama should become so smoochey after they’d been criticized for doing the opposite? For attacking each other on what some called superficial issues?

Who are they listening to?

True, the pundits complained on MSNBC, FOX, CNN & etc. The complaints I’m referring to were Hillary & Obama’s use of traditional (gotcha!) political strategy.

Now, it’s as if the script has been re-written. At least for one night: Let’s try this scene, the writer, director and producer suggested. Let’ see what happens, what the audience says.

And that’s what we got last night: a new scene. Act II called “Let’s Make Lovey-Dovey.”

While it was, indeed, a departure from the expected, would we really want to see Hillary and Obama smiling and supporting each other at all the debates? Wouldn’t their television encounters become dull?

In the end, it’s not the kind of political entertainment we have become accustomed to.

——–

My friend Lynn says: “My opinion?  They are aligning themselves for a Clinton/Obama ticket or an Obama/Clinton ticket so they must play nice. Although I don’t know if Hilary would settle for second place. ”

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1950s: Half Moon Bay’s Famous Spanishtown Dons

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The Spanishtown Dons
By June Morrall
[I wrote this in 1993. Gives a bit of insight into HMB’s famous precision drill team champions.]

Coastsiders were so proud of the Spanishtown Dons that they planted their name in huge cardboard cut-out letters on a hillside for all to see in the 1950s.

There was so much to be proud of–as the Dons, a precision drill team, had their many successes splashed across the front pages of the Half Moon Bay Review. Drilling before thousands of spectators at hundreds of exhibitions, they were repeatedly rewarded with national and state championship titles.

Drillmaster Manuel Sousa, once honored as San Mateo County’s “Man of the Year,” organized the Dons in 1947. Attired in colorful “Zorro” style outfits with sashes and sombrero hats, the Dons responded to commands in Spanish, researched and brought back to Half Moon Bay from Mexico City by Belle Vallejo, a teacher and prominent Half Moon Bay resident.

Once you witnessed their precision performance the Spanishtown Don were hard to forget.

In 1949 the Dons logged 4,000 miles, including an exciting trip to Chicago, courtesy of the Half Moon Bay Lions Club. That year their expenses totaled $4,700, most of it budgeted for buying uniforms. These were not insignificant figures almost 50 years ago. The team was supported by generous donations from Coastsiders. The Dons also worked at fairs and sold tickets to dances to raise money for their expenses.

The owner of the Palace Miramar Hotel gave the Dons $10 for every $100 worth of tickets they sold for the popular “Mid-Winter Dance.”

By 1951, the Dons had won their 100th award. They became so well known that Ed Sullivan invited the group to appear on his television show, “Toast of the Town.” They also turned up as guests on Art Baker’s “You Asked For It.”

Each spring they made their annual appearance in a Half Moon Bay benefit appearance for th American Cancer Society, honoring Gasper Intoschi, a former member who had succumbed to the horrible disease.

In August 1954, the Dons traveled by Greyhound bus, driven by Coastsider and Greyhound employee Kyle Bowman, to Milwaukee, site of the competition for the prestigious national men’s drill championship title. Without previous experience, Bowman agreed to be their flag bearer.

dons2.jpg (Photo: L-R: Larry Hewitt, Chairman, Spectacle of Music; Jean Bradshaw, Don’s Banner Girl; Captain Manuel Sousa; Patsy Speer, Majorette; Delores Mundrich, Don’s Banner Girl and Dean Potter, Mayor, South Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Accompanied by the talented majorette Patsy Speer, who also won a first place trophy, the dons easily retained their title. As they marched before 100,000 onlookers, they also scooped up the award for the best drill team in parade.

That evening in Milwaukee, the Dons were the featured group in what was billed as “The Annual Spectacle of Music”.

Continue reading “1950s: Half Moon Bay’s Famous Spanishtown Dons”

1985: The Bach Society: Story by John Whitinger

From the San Carlos Enquirer-Bulletin (May 1985)

Story by John Whitinger (Photo by Paul Fry)

“So you saw Mick Jagger at a Rolling Stones concert. You saw him through the binoculars, man. That’s about as close as you’re going to get.”–Pete Douglas

“The Bach Society: Every Sunday the Douglas Beach House Becomes an Intimate Setting For Jazz by the Seaâ€?

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“Reap this righteous riff:

“Nobody knew what was going to happen next. Joey Baron was hitting every surface of those drums. He was exploring the undersides of the cymbals, licking his fingers and moaning them across the skins, even hitting the metal stands. His eyes were closed tight, and his black curls shook with the eruptions of his jazz artist’s hands. The sound was like some weird, exciting Indian mystic dream. Even band-leaders Red Rodney and Ira Sullivan looked on in total awe.

“There was not an unspell-bound set of eyes at the Sunday afternoon session of the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society as jazz drummer Joey Baron was doing his job—namely, tearing down and totally reassembling everybody’s concept of what his instrument could be. As the last of the sun’s rays were hitting the Douglas Beach House at Miramar on Half Moon Bay, Baron was playing jazz.

“A lot of people are intimidated by modern jazz. To paraphrase former down beat editor Grover Sales, jazz musicians have always pushed the technical frontiers of their instruments far beyond classical boundaries, doing things with brass, reeds, the string bass, and drums that symphony players said couldn’t—or shouldn’t—be done.

“But in the mind of Pete Douglas, jazz impresario of the beachfront Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, the spontaneity and avant-garde sound of bebop, as played by Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk, is nothing to be intimidated about.

“Why are we intimidated?â€? a reflective Douglas asks. “Jazz musicians of the modern period did not write their music to intimidate us. It’s part of us. Our musicians are a part of ourselves and when they’re at their best, we’re going to make discoveries about ourselves. It’s not a commercial product to appeal to our easiest emotions. It’s something that’s digging in and presenting in its different ways what we’re all about.

“’If we choose to hear the best of our culture, we’re going to enjoy life better, we’re going to know more about what we’re about, and we’re going to have a never- ending venture about life. And what the hell else is there?’

“Over the past two decades, this kind of dedication in the brillance of bebop has been the trademark of Douglas’ Oceanside jazz hangout. Pete Douglas’ ‘Bach Society’ is special because it’s one of the few small intimate jazz clubs left in the United States where the legends of jazz routinely play.

“Jazz greats who have ‘blown’ the Bach Society include such legends as reedmen Sonny Stitt, Pharoah Sanders, Lew Tabackin and Dexter Gordon; pianists Bill Evans, Hampton Hawes and Roland Hanna; drummers Art Blakey, Billy Cobham and Eddie Marshall; Milt Jackson and Cal Tjader on vibes; trombonist Julian Priester; and guitarists John Abercrombie, Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd.

“He’s spent his adult life advocating jazz and today, at 57, Pete Douglas is like a patriach of the modern scene. With the hip, bohemian intellect of the 1950s, Douglas reflects, through a wreath of pipe smoke, on the scarcity of small jazz clubs like his own.

“’Since the early modern jazz scene things have changed in the whole entertainment world, man. In the pre-television era, people went out more. They went to clubs and followed their musicians. They singled them out in public, became personal with them. They compared them, man, like swapping baseball cards. It used to be that you hung out in jazz clubs and started picking upon the names and started following these people.

“’Well how can you do that now, when we don’t have hardly any small jazz clubs to go and heart great jazz in anymore? Record stores don’t let you play the records so you can learn about different bands or particular instrumentalists. And all that’s left over are these major concerts and festivals where you’re far removed from these musicians and the chance to even talk to them.

“’ So you saw Mick Jagger at a Rolling Stones concert. You saw him through the binoculars, man. That’s about as close as you’re going to get.’ Continue reading “1985: The Bach Society: Story by John Whitinger”