I had eggs benedict with my daughter on my birthday on Park Row. That was a treat not for just the company, Jenny lives in Florida so we don’t see each other near enough, but also because of the food, which was delicious, and the setting. Park Row for those who don’t know, or who have forgotten the name, is the row of businesses across the parking lot of Valley Center on South Main Street in Salinas. As we ate our brunch, it was nearing 11 a.m., we compared that one block of businesses to what I remember as a child and what she remembered 35 years later.
I had to frankly admit I don’t recall which building the two main anchors, Penny’s and Sears, each occupied, but I do recall Woolworth’s and Joy Pers, which still exists but not just as a shoe store like when I was a lad, and the Polly Anna Bakery, which while still a bakery is no longer Polly Anna but the original sign still stands, albeit without Polly’s name. Jenny recalled a Ford’s being one of the businesses, but that I think came years after my family traveled to Salinas in late August to purchase school clothes or in mid-December to scour the businesses for the right gifts for Christmas. We ate at a nice little place called Arianna’s, very busy last Sunday, which I think is located where a one-time staple of Salinas shopping once occupied, Betty’s Pies. On the opposite end of Park Row is where Wayne’s Laundromat did business, once a highly frequented place for mothers before the age of disposable diapers.
After paying the tab, Jenny and I visited with Bob and Debbie for about an hour in their home just off South Main, across from Salinas High School. I first met Bob when he and I and 14 other single men lived in a massive 15-room, two-story house that for decades sat just past the old Italian Villa on South Main/Highway 68; long ago demolished. The religious group we belonged to back then once numbered in the hundreds but scandal revealed it as a cult, and over a short period of time, all went their separate ways. Debbie was our breakfast cook, which is, I presume, where the romance between she and Bob developed. Wen Jenny reached her mid to late teens and troubles with her mother arose, Debbie was there. Bob was one of the groomsmen for my wedding. And though Debbie and Bob are my age, they have remained close to Jenny for four decades now. Then with some rather quick farewells, Jenny rushed me to the bus stop where I made it onto the KC bus with seconds to spare.
It was not the end of the day for me, though. Yvonne is in town for a while with her daughter Deaira and her son Dayson and her son’s high school age daughter Destiny. Yvonne is the second child of five, her younger brother is Rick. I suppose about half of the people who attended last SVFair were born after Rick became head of maintenance, a recognizable face to thousands of fairgoers. A group of us met at Rick’s daughter Shauna’s house, I lost count, but it was quite a crew with good company, good food and good conversations. Heck, I even hopped off the teetotaler’s wagon long enough to enjoy two cold beers; something I haven’t done in over a year. All in all, it was a memorable birthday among many unmemorable ones and I appreciated being alive to enjoy it.
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And now it is time to get back to routine and tonight is the monthly board meeting of the Southern Monterey County Center for the Performing Arts. This group was established with the mission statement of supporting the King City High School Auditorium, home of the Robert Stanton Theater. While there have been discussions over the years on how and why that building was placed on school grounds instead of on public land, the fact remains that it does sit on property regulated by a budget, and budgets today are much tighter than they were when the Auditorium was built opened back in 1939, so the high school needs help from the public to keep that historic theater operating. This is not a closed group, anyone interested in the future of this South County gem can become a member, just shoot me an email and we’ll get you joined up.
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I think were my mother alive today she would be as embarrassed by my reactions as she was by my father’s reactions of 80-plus years ago. She once told a group of American Legion Auxiliary members, all ladies who had served in the services branches, that when dating my father in Des Moines, Iowa, in the early 1940s, they were avid movie goers, as were many Americans at that time, and his reactions to Road Runner cartoons embarrassed her. It seems when Wile E. Coyote failed in attempts to catch his prey, usually with the help of some contraption purchased from Acme, and would fall straight down until he disappeared in a poof of dust when he finally hit the desert floor, my father would laugh til he fell out of his seat. As a child I watched these same cartoons with only mild humor.
Today these cartoons make me laugh until the tears come. Don’t ask me why except that the coyote’s failures are funny, way funny. And what is more, I now am fascinated by what I didn’t really notice as a kid: background animation. Multi-colored rock formations, many with balancing boulders atop slim buttes, cloud formations, small hillocks, vast canyons and even the occasional bush or tree. They added to the whole visual impact in a very subtle way. I think I’ll sign off now and look for that coyote and his prey; I could use a laugh. And couldn’t we all.
Take care. Peace.
