Hop Shopping

Because I wasn't a "quilter" in Maine, I'm not sure if they have the quilting event called a Shop Hop. These marathons are very big here with one about every other month. A shop hop is a coordinated effort by an area's quilt stores to get customers in to buy stuff. Quilters are very good at buying stuff whether they need it or not. So, at one of the Wednesday meetings, my partner in crime, Julie (she got me into quilting) and another partner, Susan decide to spend a day hopping from shop to shop. This particular shop hop is in the northern East Bay area and goes to places I've never been - a bit like Star Trek. I offer to drive - I have a comfy car, I want to learn my way around the area, I have Garmin Nuvi so we won't get lost, I'm a control freak - all the usual reasons. Now, the newspaper that describes the shop hop lists the 23 - that's right, 23 - stores that are participating. The store farthest north is in Winters and the farthest south is in Hilmar. I realize that you nonNoCals have no IDEA where these places are. And neither do I. But Google Maps says that it is 150+ miles between these towns and would take 2.5+ hours to just drive from one to the other with no stops. So you can see, that covering ALL 23 stores will be a real task. So the stores have spread the fun over 2 weekends (they count Thursday through Sunday as a weekend). We will only spend one day hopping. To do this efficiently, I spend several hours mapping our route. You would think that this is a military campaign. And it is, a bit. The newspaper gives you hints on how to have a "successful shop hop": #1 Do your homework, plan your trip. CHECK! #2 Save gas, carpool. CHECK! #3 Snacks! (they put in the exclamation point, seriously!) CHECK! #3 Map, the newspaper has a small nondetailed map in it. CHECK! #4 Simplify, bring preprinted address labels CHECK! #5 Laugh, have fun along the way. CHECK! And something that they DON'T mention but that every Hopper knows, is a large bag to carry all your purchases in. And in this bag is the LIST of all the stuff you think you need to finish ALL the projects you collected from the last Shop Hop but haven't finished. AND little bits of the fabric from these projects that you need to match or find or just want to hold for security. So, here's how it works...... you go to the first store on your itinerary. There, they have you register (hence, the address label so you don't waste time WRITING when you could be SHOPPING) and you get a "passport" with all the stores on it. Each time you arrive at a store, you get the passport stamped. At the last store you go to, you turn the passport in. All TOTALLY COMPLETED passports - yes, that's a passport with 23 stamps - are put in for a drawing. The Grand Prize this year is.... get this.... (and I'm quoting from the newspaper) $100 Gift Certificate from EACH OF THE 23 SHOPS ON THE HOP! So once you have purchased stuff at all the stores and traveled miles and miles and hours and days and you win...... you get to do it all over again! Oh boy!! The second and third prizes are $50 and $25 gift certificates at each store..... Hmmmmm. Each shop also has a basket put together with "goodies" - fabric, books, patterns, notions, tea, cookies, candy (quilters LOVE to snack). When you enter the store and get stamped, you fill out your name and phone number (not your address - so you need ANOTHER set of labels or you are forced to waste time writing) and put your ticket in a box for the basket. We were told at one store that some hoppers come in, get stamped, put the ticket in the box, get the goodie bag and leave for the next store. Cheaters!! Where is the fun in that? No idle browsing through racks and racks of books, patterns, notions. No fondling of bolts and bolts of fabric. No chit chatting with the store owners and other hoppers. I know that this goes on because I heard funny noises coming from an aisle of bolts behind me. When I peaked around the corner, a woman was slowly running her hand up and down a length of fabric and making little moaning noises. SERIOUSLY! And Susan sat by the cash register at every store and chatted up the owner about all the details of her life and business. And Julie examined every pattern in every store.... well, almost every pattern. Now, about the goodie bag... when you arrive at a store, you are sent to the Shop Hop check-in desk. At the desk, you get stamped, register for the basket and get a small bag full of stuff. It's a bit like trick-or-treating for quilters. The bag may contain little bits of fabric (I'm talking 3"x3"), candy (of course), bumper stickers, business cards with discount coupons for your next visit, a quilt pattern for a block that is part of the the BIG Shop Hop Quilt that each store made. Most of us just put each little bag in our big bags, giggling that we would open them all when we got home tonight. The fun never ends....
On the appointed day, the ladies arrived at my house. We decided not to be too crazy about this and start at a decent hour.... So we got on the road at 10:30am. FIRST SHOP HOP NO NO. You MUST start early to get the maximum number of stores in for the day.  I decided to start with the 2 stores in Fremont - 20 minutes away - so we could jump right in. What I didn't realize, is that each store has snacks at each check-in sight. Oooooo, Sure I'll have one of those brownies as I shop. I was feeling a bit peckish. When hopping with a group, it is important to have good hopping manners..... even if you get through the store in 5 minutes, you don't hold onto the store's door handle tapping your foot while the rest of your hoppers chat and peruse and fondle. So I did the store again...... and again..... But once we had been in 2 stores, I got my rhythm and was better behaved. And I did have my list and my bits of fabric. By lunch time (yes, we were hungry despite the brownies and other snacks - after all, hopping is hard work!), we were ready to sit and talk about projects and fondle purchases (lots of fondling in this group) and eat yummy food in a strange town. And then the next store had carrot cake! Perfect for after lunch...
Finally, it was 5:30 PM and we had been to Fremont-Fremont-Danville-Concord-Martinez-Antioch-Brentwood. Susan was pushing for Livermore (it's just down this road and on our way home!). But, alas, all good things must come to an end and the Hop stores closed at 6pm. We got to Livermore at 6:10pm. So we joined commuter traffic and headed home. But there was still the goodie bag adventure to look forward to.....AND the next Shop Hop! I''m starting to plan the route all ready!

A Walled Community

Each week, when Mark and I walk or bike to our Farmers' Market, we pass an empty city block surrounded by a chainlink fence. Inside the fence, you can see cement floors - some with linoleum still on them - and asphalt streets between. I asked my neighbor Ron what the story was behind this space. He said that the city owns the land and used the space for vehicle maintenance. The buildings have been torn down and the property is supposed to be developed into a high rise with stores on the ground floor - a common plan around here. But the current economy has put all that on hold. And then he mentioned that before that, the area was a Chinatown..... This peaked my curiosity. Ron didn't have many details. So I did some research and learned that - Yes. That block was once surrounded by a brick wall that protected a whole community of Chinese families.....
According to a document created for the Society for Industrial Archeology Conference in 2008, the community was called Heinlenville. The San Jose area was once full of many prejudiced people. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, this community lynched 2 men, tarred and feathered another and happily loaded Japanese Americans onto buses headed for internment camps. The anti-Asian sentiment was rampant. Before the Chinatown in my neighborhood, there were two other Chinatowns in San Jose. Both were mysteriously burned. A German immigrant, John Heinlen purchased the block and created a safe place for the Chinese families to live. Mr Heinlen built a new Chinatown entirely of brick despite outrage from the general public. He then rented these buildings to the Chinese. This community continued from 1887 to 1931. Heinlen was a German immigrant who came to California for the gold rush. He and his wife attended a Methodist Episcopal church that taught Chinese children. The church mysteriously burned in 1869. After the second Chinatown mysteriously burned, Heinlen offered some property to the Chinese businessmen. The property (near my neighborhood) also bordered the large homes of many of San Jose's wealthiest members. There was a parade in protest of Heinlen's actions and the city council tried to dissuade him from doing this. He refused.
"At the time, just five years after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the prejudice
against the Chinese was intense. And the presence of opium dens and gambling parlors
made it an easy target for newspapers who dubbed Heinlen “Ah Heinlen”. Heinlen died in 1903 at the age of 88. None of his seven children married. The Heinlen empire dissolved quickly during the Depression, when his heirs were no longer able to collect rent or pay taxes. The Heinlen Co. went bankrupt, and by early 1932, the City cleared away most of Chinatown, leaving only the temple and a few structures. In 1949, the land became a corporation yard, where the city parked and repaired its trucks." (from the article mentioned) One of the best parts of living in "downtown" (as my SJ friends call my neighborhood) is that it is a mix of so many cultures. We have a Buddhist temple, Latino iglesias, an Afro-American gospel church, a Philippino church and an Islamic center all within a short distance of our home. I can shop at Mi Pueblo or several Asian markets all within walking distance. It makes me realize that the world is a small place. And it is best to get along.


Note: to read the full article about San Jose,click here
(the link is to a Google document and may not open in Safari)