Linda Montalto Art Opening at Moon News, Sat Nite: 7-9PM

Linda Montalto says: “I hope you can come to my opening at Moon News this Saturday night. Richard will be playing. We’ll have some food and refreshments.”

To read more about Linda, click here

When Linda says

Richard will be playing, she is referring to her world famous classical guitarist husband, Richard Patterson. Yes, he plays the classics but have you heard him do Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven?”

Here’s Richard Patterson (at right) with Stevan Pasero (at left) playing at the Hastings House last year.

ART OPENING
June 7, 2008
Saturday, 7 to 9 PM
Linda Montalto
Paintings
Moon News Bookstore
315 Main Street
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019

Refreshments and live music

Photographer Michael Wong said: “Got To Get Her Into My Life.”

Here’s the true story by Coastside Photographer Michael Wong, Spring Mountain Gallery

In the year 1959, my family moved to Pacifica, CA., from San Francisco. All of a sudden, I was in peaceful Westview School. Up until then I had to fight to survive in the tough city. That year in second grade, I met a cute little girl named Deborah Hagler. We were immediate friends.

They sent me away to a new school for third grade, but in forth I was back. Debbie and I were kind of an item even at that tender age.

Debbie and her sister Laurie were artists in many ways. Debbie would have kids standing over her shoulders to watch her draw; her specialty was horses. I can remember the teachers would send them from classroom to classroom so that they could perform their singing and ukulele act: “We Ain’t Got a Barrel of Money”. They harmonized beautifully, and I was spellbound.

In one incident, I asked Debbie to please draw a horse for my wall.

Debbie drew a stick figure, and threw it at me. I laughed it off, but was puzzled. 36 years later, I would find out her reason. My whole childhood world would change drastically in the fifth grade. My Mom and Dad announced that we were moving. We packed up and I said goodbye to friends, teachers and to little Debbie Hagler.

Life wasn’t too bad at the south side of Pacifica. It was more of a surfer, coast part of town. I made friends, as all children do. Attended Terra Nova High School, and graduated in 1970. I won’t go into all that I’ve done with my life because that’s not what this story is about. Fast forward to the year 2000, 30 year class reunion coming up. As I logged into classmates.com, I couldn’t believe how many of my old classmates were writing online. It was unbelievable, almost a timeless world where we felt like teenagers again, writing stories and reuniting. The class reunion was a two-day success, including about 10 teachers. We had a blast, and a lot of it was planned through classmates.com.

Then the reunion was over, all that could be written on classmates was posted. Bored, I jumped over to our rival school, Oceana. As I read their posts I ran into a topic: “Westview Kids”. As I scrolled down, there was a class photo from my 4th grade class, my very young smiling face was something that I hadn’t seen for decades.

Who the hell posted this? Scrolling down I saw that it was Deborah Hagler. Almost 40 years had past, seeing her name gave me an exciting, wonderful feeling. I wrote to her through the message boards. She replied by telling me: “You were my very first boyfriend”. Since this was a public message board, we quickly went to private email.

Many emails and phone calls later, we made a date to meet in person. Our first meeting since we were very young children, it was as if we had never parted. We were instantly close….very close!! Oh, of course the question came up about the stick figure horse. It turns out that she was very upset (at 9 years old), because I had turned my attention to another girl in class.

Well, I have my horse drawing on our wall, and I have the bride that I was meant to be with all my life. Debbie and I were wed on January 9, 2002. For many pictures and stories about our life together, check out debwong.com

“Armadillo’s” Mahogany Meditation Pyramid Last Seen 30 yrs ago at the “Worm Farm” in San Gregorio

But where is it NOW?

Richard Ledford aka Armadillo writes:

Hello again June,

Here is the 33-year old picture of the mahogany pyramid taken in Yorba Linda, CA. Assembled over an 8-foot square plywood base, the triangular faces were all precision beveled to make clean invisible joints, as you can see. Front face tilted out on brass hinges mounted at the base.

All other assembly hardware was custom made from 100% brass & copper, as I did not want any magnetic effects from steel or other ferromagnetic metals to be present.

It was meant to be a meditation space, and for doing experiments with Pyramid energy.

I had hoped that tests would be done to see how worms placed inside would be affected. Lost touch before doing any follow- ups on those questions.

Richard Ledford (aka Armadillo)

1930s: Lillian Renard Tells Us What It Was Like Working At The Moss Beach Post Office

[Photo: Lillian Renard at Half Moon Bay Joe’s Restaurant]

A Typical Day working at the Moss Beach Post Office in the 1930s

Story by Lillian Renard

When I graduated from the Half Moon Bay High School in 1931, I was offered a job at the Moss Beach Post Office by R. Guy Smith, the Postmaster.

I was glad to get the job as there weren’t many jobs available in this small town. Picking peas and wiring and bunching strawflowers were a few of them.

The mail arrived by truck at the Post Office n the morning and was sent out in the afternoon. I distributed the mail to the mailboxes, sold stamps and money orders and weighed packages to be mailed. Also sold the daily papers that came on the mail truck.

I soon found that not only did I work in the Post Office but the Postmaster was also a Telephone Company Agent. There was a Telephone Switchboard at one end of the Office. Automated Dialing had not been installed yet on the Coastside. . So besides being a Post Office Clerk I was also a Telephone Operator.

I soon found that I was a Jack of all Trades. There was a branch of the County Library in the side room where books were available to be borrowed. To this very day my niece, Elaine Teixeira gripes that I wouldn’t let her take out certain books.

The Postmaster was also an electrician who did electric wiring so there were electric items and some hardware there to be sold. There was usually an electric refrigerator and or a radio to be sold also. I actually sold a refrigerator once but didn’t get a commission. I guess that wasn’t done at that time. When the radio didn’t sell the Postmaster gave it to me for Christmas and I was glad to get it. That more than made up for the lack of commission.

The Telephone Switchboard was another story. There were local lines and party lines but only 2 Long Distance Lines . One party line had 7 parties on it so when some one was using it too long and another person wanted to use it an argument would start and “Get Off The Line” and more would be heard.

During the World War II years I moved to San Francisco to work at Southern Pacific. When the war ended, my fiance returned from the Pacific area. He had been gone for 4 years, 4 months and 4 days. We were married Dec. 9, 1945.
————
A little silent video called ” Lunch with Aunt Lil and Elaine M. Teixeira at Joe’s Half Moon Bay. Burt is in it, too. Also, Bev Cunha Ashcraft and her friend were lunching behind us. Coincidentally, Elaine Teixeira and Bev Cunha Ashcraft went to school together in Half Moon Bay.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/1129691[/vimeo]

Coastside Writers: Wouldn’t it be fun to see your work published in a French ezine?

Walter Ruhlmann is a writer and the editor of the French ezine: mgv2>datura. He has published the work of Erich von Neff, whose short story, “Pete’s Cafe, can be found here, on the Half Moon Bay Memories website.

In the following email, Walter invites writers and poets to submit their work to his publication.

———–

Hi Everyone
The 2nd issue of mgv2> datura all in English is now on line. Come & read the various poets published this time at

http://mgversion2.free.fr

mgv2_en is the B-Side of a French literature ezine – mgv2>datura – which will
dedicate its space to English speaking poets & writers from all over the world
next September. The short-stories and poems, and whatever is published then,
will be uploaded along with a French translation of their work.
It could be you as long as submissions for this forthcoming issue are now
opened.
Please send up to 5 poems or 3 short-stories/prose pieces of work to
[email protected]

Hope to hear from you soon.

Best

Walter Ruhlmann – editor http://mgversion2.free.fr

1970s: The Last We Saw of Amesport Landing

Image: The pilings were the last reminder of Amesport Landing at Miramar Beach. Photo by Maria Demarest.
And to pass the slow moving days in Miramar back in the 1970s, some of the locals met at funky Albert’s hotel where they sat beside the picture windows, had a drink (or three), and tried to out-guess each other on how long the pilings would be visible to the naked eye. I know, I know, I’ve shared that story with you before. I still love it, though.