Is An Important Place To Me, And Many Of You Have Spent Some Time With Me Exploring Its Magical Reef Which Is Internationally Known In the Marine Science Commuity For Its Amazing Biodiversity.
Right now there’s a state government review underway to formalize the boundaries of the reserve as part of the Marine Life Protection Act.
Supporters of the reserve have been hoping to make the reserve a little bigger and strengthen its protections and make them permanent. Our preferred proposal, which is endorsed by the board of the Friends of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, the Ocean Conservancy, and other marine conservation organizations, is called “Proposal 4”.
But recreational anglers have organized to support a proposal (Called Proposal 2XA) that may WEAKEN the current reserve, actually cutting it in half and opening the southern part to even more fishing than is allowed under current rules. Recently they have executed a letter/email-writing campaign that makes it look like there is tremendous support for their proposal and VERY LITTLE for ours!
The wrack is back. Actually it’s been back since April 1st. After the April Fool’s trip to the tunnel that isn’t there, and the sea arch that was, we decided to do one of our regular Invisible Beach checks.
We didn’t have any expectations as there hasn’t been any action from Neptune’s Vomitorium in about six months, and the ocean was as calm and wave-free as I’ve seen since last fall.
Surprise! A substantial pile-up of fresh wrack was on the beach above Neptune’s Vomitorium
with more stuff coming ashore.
Greedily gathering every treasure visible in the huge pile, we filled a very large bag. Taking it home I sorted, photographed, washed and stored away our bounty for future use. This first “cream of the crop” selection was definitely “high grade” as we say in the Marine Debris world.
I’ve returned three more times in the ensuing weeks and captured the debris released by the disintegration and decay of the wrack. Each time, I gathered a substantial, but decreasing, quantity of “lower” grade debris. It looks like the “lastawrack” time will happen soon, and we’ll have to be patient until this natural wonder visits once again. Enjoy. John
George Dunn’s entertaining Coastside Comet newspaper office was located in Moss Beach in the early 1900s, and the historic building still stands. He was one of the biggest local boosters of the Ocean Shore Railroad.
the Magician’s House— overlooking the far northern edge of the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach? Through the big picture windows, you can see the Pacific Ocean, always there, always dependable.
In the 1970s Mary Day’s warm Victorian-style home was, for some of us “newcomers,” the center of social life in El Granada. We also loved visiting the Channing Pollocks in Moss Beach (the Magician’s House), and everyone who did never forgot the special experience of being there.
Michaele Benedict says: I loved the picture of Mary Day playing the piano. I once taught one of her children–Chris, I think it was. They bought our little Lyon piano which had been bolted to the wall of a 35-foot school bus and had just about been shaken to pieces, but that wasn’t the
same piano she was playing in your picture. I wonder what ever happened to that piano.
June says: The Magician and his wife (Channing & Corri Pollock) died and the property in Moss Beach was sold—don’t know what happened to the piano.
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(Photo of the Magician’s piano and the magician’s dog, Sabre. The piano was in the bedroom.)
Mother Teresa, Jane Austen, Martha Stewart, the Marx Brothers: Joan McBride has a touch of each of them.
Recently, Joan was directing the Coastside Chorale’s weekly Tuesday evening rehearsal at the OddFellows Hall on Main Street in Half Moon Bay. The group is preparing for a special concert to be held in the Hall at 7:30 p.m. on
Saturday, May 24.
After warm-ups and some advice on breath control, vocal placement and phrasing, the Chorale began to practice a piece based on an Ogden Nash poem:
“The cow is of the Bovine ilk.
“One end is moo, the other milk.”
“Oh, don’t say ‘other’,” Joan said. “Say ‘udder’.”
And of course the choir cracked up.
With an age range of 14 to 80, the community chorus has featured humorous selections as well as classical repertoire and show tunes in their concerts over the past two years.
Joan sang with the 50-year-old group for a while when she, her husband and three children moved to the Coastside from Kansas in 1976. In the fall of 2006 Joan took over from Kay Raney as director.
After more than 25 years of teaching Special Education classes at Half Moon Bay High School, Joan retired from the Cabrillo Unified School District in June 2006—for a few months. She now teaches five subjects at the men’s county jail in Redwood City, preparing inmates for their General Education Diploma (GED). She directed the prison choir for a Christmas program this year.
At community Christmas carol sings, Joan usually conducts participating Coastside church choirs and the audience in the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah, as she did the past two Decembers.
Joan has been singing all her life. She was born in Belleville, Illinois, and sang for community organizations and events all through high school. When she auditioned for the music department at Milliken University in Decatur, Illinois, she was granted a full scholarship to study music. Meanwhile, Dick McBride, who had lived on the same Belleville street when and Joan were children, was attending Milliken on an athletic scholarship.
The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Dec. 17, 2006, with a dinner at Caddys (formerly Mullins Bar & Grill) attended by family, friends and some of the original wedding attendants. Joan sang the couple’s favorite song. Dick sits in the tenor section, and acts as librarian for the Coastside Chorale. He is a part-time marshall at the Half Moon Bay golf links.
“All my children are musicians,” Joan says.
Her eldest, Kris Ann, a physician in Seattle, played saxophone with the University of Southern California Trojan marching band, and now plays piano for her church, as does her son, Joan’s teenaged grandson Christopher.
Second daughter Kim, a lawyer, was a flute player who also sang in the church choir. She lives on the Coastside with her two daughters.
The McBrides’ son, Kelly, played oboe in high school, but traded his oboe for a saxophone and a carburetor when he went to college. He raced sports cars, and working on one was the cause of his untimely death in 1993.
Since her own college days, Joan has been a member of Sigma Alpha Iota, an international honorary music fraternity whose mission is to encourage, nurture and support the art of music. The organization gives scholarships, awards and student loans and furnishes music and instruments for special needs music students. It provides a cottage at the famous MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire for musicians who wish to study and work there.
Joan McBride has made a difference and is still making a difference in the lives of many students and singers, but somehow she also finds plenty of time for home and family. She taxis granddaughters to lessons and activities, cooks spectacular meals, makes award-winning quilts, reads voraciously and even builds doll houses.
The Coastside Chorale’s next concert will be at 7:30 P.M. Saturday, May 24, at the Odd Fellows’ Hall, 526 Main Street, Half Moon Bay. Sponsored by the Cabrillo Adult School, the group is open to anyone who likes to sing. For information, telephone Mrs. McBride at 650-726-9266.
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Michaele Benedict, seen here with her dwarf crabapple in full bloom,
is a noted musician and the author of this article. She will be the group’s piano accompanist on Saturday, May 24. Michaele’s latest non-fiction mystery is called “Searching for Anna.” For more information, click here
