Month: October 2008

So let’s have an auction.

I ask: What if the young people leave?  What if there is a “brain drain?”

Actually, the White House, originally the simply furnished home of pioneer James Johnston and his Spanish wife, Petra, still stands, now a bright historic landmark perched on a gentle rise south of Half Moon Bay. The uniqueness of the house stems from Johnston’s choice of architecture, very old New England.

Passengers, usually romantic ladies, sailing aboard vessels headed for San Francisco wrote of seeing  The White House as they passed our coastline.

To read the story (by Chuck Kozak) at Coastsider.com, please click here

To read the “El Granada Observer’s” story about Nancy, please click here

Nancy Maule was also a “star” in my 1981 documentary, The Mystery of Half Moon Bay. To view the show, please click here

[Image: San Francisco developer Charles Kendrick used this photograph to publicize Granada as a new place to live.]

[Jim Elliott and Carole Delmar earlier this year.]

Congratulations Jim!

Wife and Coastside realtor Carole Delmar says: Jim was picked for the top 17 finish carpenters in the Unites States to participate in a De Walt tool contest. He won lots of tools and now has 2 months to submit a project. His head can hardly fit through the front door! But he is in a very good mood and we like that!

What’s a finish carpenter, please click here

The Stories Inside:
Northern California at Work
California – 85 years after the Gold Rush
Where Spring paints a State with Wild Flowers
Bridges, from Grapevine to Steel
A Palette from Spain
Flashing Fashions of Old Spain

One image was shot by famous Bay Area photographer Gabriel Moulin. You’ll have to imagine the photo because I cannot reproduce it here. The caption reads: Roses climb to the very tip of a Redwood at La Honda, San Mateo County. Rich in scenic charm, ingratiating in climate, these wooded valleys are set with many country homes of San Franciscans. Known locally as “the Peninsula,” this region is famed for its cut flowers and fine vegetables, including artichokes. Over motor highways and on suburban trains commuters pour in and out of San Francisco.

The advertisement on the back of the 1936 magazine reads:

Individual Income Tax return….and don’t forget the 608 gallons of gasoline you bought last year

Remember in filing your Federal Income Tax Return, that you can deduct any taxes you paid on your 1935 gasoline purchases–a total of $32 is the national average.

Remember, too, that this year you’ll buy another 608 gallons. That’s a business-size order. It deserves business-like consideration.

Guesswork….that’s what influences a lot of people to buy a certain gasoline. But it takes a great deal more to make the country’s leading bus lines and airlines decide what gasoline “they’ll” use.

They believe that the size of their orders entitles them to the true “facts” about the gasoline they buy.

The Texas Company believes that “every” motorist…even those who do only an average amount of driving….those who use only the national average of 608 gallons of gasoline a year….also deserves to know these sincere facts about Fire-Chief.

Purposely developed as an emergency grade gasoline, Fire-Chief meets the Federal specifications* for “emergency” vehicles. Yet it sells at “regular” prices.

Tourists carried the demand for Fire-Chief into all 48 states. Recent surveys indicate that more tourists now prefer it than other gasoline.

The bus companies compete each year in a national contest for “efficiency in maintenance.” All of the first-prize winners for the last six years have been regular users of Texaco products.

You’ve probably seen a Texaco station or dealer in your very neighborhood. There are more than 40,000 from coast to coast.

Next time you need gasoline, try a tankful of Texaco Fire-Chief. Let these facts about it speak for themselves in your car.

*Federal Specification VV-M-571 for Emergency Motor Fuel

Texaco Fire-Chief
Tune in on the “Jumbo” Fire-Chief Program
Direct from New York Hippodrome
Tuesday Evenings at 9:30 EST
Coast-to-Coast N.B.C. Network
——

Is this a match?

That’s me wearing the Prince Valiant “do,” circa what was then called junior high. And next to me is Javier Bardem, the gorgeous  star of “No Country for Old Men.”