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)

The Happy Farmer

When we lived in Maine, we had our "coffins" for our raised bed gardens. Mark built them, filled them (no easy task as they are 4 ft above the ground and soil is heavy), lovingly planted in them and...... I weeded. We did get tomatoes, herbs, zucchini (who DOESN"T get zucchini) and strawberries. But we also fed many bugs and wild critters in the neighborhood. So now we are in NoCal where the growing season is basically all year round. AND we have a (by NoCal standards) HUGE back yard. So my Happy Farmer is at it again. Only this time, he has made little graves.....

Yes, we now have three "beds" for all sorts of veg to be planted when the soil is the right temperature. Now, you may be squinting at this picture wondering what that little white thing is in the center plot..... And the board-sort-of-thing in the first plot..... well, those are my artistic embellishments. I put a "hand" coming out of the grave and a "headstone" with RIP over another. Mark did not laugh and just quietly took them away. No sense of humor in MY farmer when it comes to serious veg planting. And the circle with the pointy bush? That's our Christmas tree/Rosemary bush that we transplanted minutes before it completely died. The side toward the house is all dead with a few new sprigs bravely sprouting out the top. The remainder of the space is for herbs. Mark now owns cute little red women's rubber gardening clogs (it helps to have little feet and we couldn't find any men ones) that he leaves upside down by the back door. He left them right side up one night and they filled with rain water. He marches out to his patch and studies the soil and checks for weeds. Just to the right of the picture is the section of the garden used for square-foot gardening. Mark has made a very attractive pattern of little squares using bricks that are stacked behind our garage. Each little square will hold a veg and will be harvested and replanted. He even has a book that tells you how to do this. Unfortunately, the NoCal bugs and critters are VERY happy with Mark's efforts. Mark started seeds in little peat pots held in a big tray with a plastic lid and safely growing on our deck. But every time he transplants a baby chardlet, it is quickly eaten. He has sprinkled slug bait around. No change. So he threatened to get some "poison" to kill the whatevers that are eating HIS veg. I vetoed this as I felt it might kill US before any whatevers were harmed. We have also learned that if you plant seeds - even flower seeds - in the ground, you must cover the area with chicken wire. We watched the birds (WHO HAVE A BEAUTIFUL FEEDER FULL OF DELICIOUS SEEDS) pecking in the garden AND flower box and EATING ALL MY FLOWER SEEDS. And the squirrels like to dig in the garden dirt too. But my happy farmer is not daunted. Each weekend, he slips into his little red clogs and surveys his crops. And maybe, if we are lucky, we might even get a veg or two.

NOTE: for those of you not familiar with "The Happy Farmer", check out this 44 sec video. It was a Suzuki piano/violin song our kids banged/scratched out long ago....
Click here to hear

Japantown History

Ron, my neighbor, is a wealth of information about this area. He grew up here and has lots of stories. But when Mark and I walk into Japantown, two blocks away, we are able to read about another side to the stories. Our Japantown is one of three left in the US - one in San Francisco and the other in LA. The members of this community speak about Japantown and its history with pride. I visited the oldest ongoing department store in San Jose - a store in Japantown that sells fabrics (why I was there of course) as well as other Japanese products. The woman working there told me of several of the celebrations that will be happening this spring, summer and fall. Not only are the residents that you talk to informative, but along the street are benches with images and stories carved into their surfaces. One building that I pass every time I walk to the Farmers' Market is the old Ideal Laundry. The "handsome, two-story fireproof brick building, erected at a cost of $30,000" (taken from the story on the bench) was founded by I. Tsurukawa. Brick seemed to be a very popular building material as many of the buildings burned - some due to normal fires and some to arsonists who weren't very friendly toward the Asian community. The building has beautiful blue tiles below the front windows. And its history since the laundry can be seen in the other signs attached to the facade. The before image is from the bench.

Another sad chapter in Japantown's history is the period during WWII. Anti-Japanese and Chinese feelings were always present in San Jose. I'll share stories and pictures of our Chinatown in another blog. But after Pearl Harbor, all Japanese on the West Coast were rounded up and taken to internment camps. In our Japantown, most residents were taken to Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming from 1942 to 1945. And in May, 1943 residents of San Jose passed a resolution opposing the return of the Japanese. An image from granite monument in Japantown:

 

According to Ron and my pet nanny (whose husband is Japanese-American and whose Japanese parents lived in Japantown during this period), once the government released the Japanese and they returned to Japantown, they began to rebuild their community. Many of today's businesses were started with with repatriation monies. And fifty years after the war, Japantown is a colorful center of Japanese culture.... and, of course, food.

Fine Dining.... Make that FUN Dining in SJ

I realize that I spend lots of blog time and non blog time thinking and talking about food. I do find food fascinating. And now that we are living in such a diverse community, I have found it great fun to try new cuisines. Mark and I ate at an Ethiopian restaurant a few weeks ago. We have had Japanese, Mexican, Greek, German.... and In-and-Out. Now those of you familiar with West Coast dining experiences will probably wonder why I have included a fast-food-drive-through-orange-and-red-and-white "restaurant" in this list of exciting cuisines. Well, In and Out is more than a McDonald's or a Burger King. NOTHING is frozen. The fries start as potatoes ON SIGHT and are made into french fries right on the spot. And the meat is not frozen either. But the best, and most fun, part of going to In and Out is the SECRET MENU. It is a bit of a cult thing to know what is on the unpublished menu and rattle off the selections to the cheery young person (ALWAYS a young person) at the drive up window or counter. And if you look at your receipt, the secret item is IN their system and prints on the paper with the price. I ordered fries "Animal Style" - that's fries with grilled onions, cheese and special sauce (which is NOT Thousand Island dressing- even though it looks and tastes like Thousand Island dressing). I would not recommend eating this in the car as it is quite drippy. I am anxious to try the choco-vanilla swirl shake (chocolate AND vanilla shake swirled not stirred). Sometimes when Mark and I have had an especially long day shopping and doing errands, I insist on stopping at an In and Out. Our Garmin Nuvi helps us find one close by (not an easy thing to do.... they are not as frequent as Mickey D's or the King). And we have a new one only 5 minutes from the house! Now I realize that a steady diet of this type of food is not good for me.... I saw Super Size Me. But occasionally it is a real treat. So if you are out this way, let me take you out!
Click here to see the Secret Menu :In and Out Secret Menu

A Story in Stones

Last week, Mark and I went back to Grass Valley. Mark went for work and I went to explore again. But this time, we stayed at a B&B in Nevada City, another small town just beyond Grass Valley filled with gold rush and mining history. I only had half a day to wander and the local museum was closed. So I decided to head out to Donner Pass, site of the long-ago cannibal-esque activity of the Donner party. Now, I must admit a bit of gruesome interest in seeing the site where IT happened. But, Donner Pass is a big place and I never found the ACTUAL spot. But I did find a beautiful lake and snow and even a snow storm which I excitedly drove through thinking about Maine all the way. And, if you read the Wikipedia entry about the Donner party, some of the group wintered in 1846-47 on Donner Lake and there was SOME eatage there. So all was not lost..... unless you were in the Donner party.

Note snow squall on right where I was heading......

I did find an interesting cemetery in Nevada City. Like food, I find cemeteries a highlight of any place I visit. It may seem a bit bizarre, but I enjoy the grave art, the names and family connections. I try to imagine what someone with the name of Ebenezer or Delilah would look like in 1877. So when I saw "Pioneer Cemetery" on the map, I hunted it down. The actual pioneer cemetery is from 1851 and in really bad shape with most of the stones missing and wooden markers stuck willy nilly to, I assume, mark graves. On the other hand, the Catholic cemetery next door is in GREAT shape. Thank God for the Catholics! Most of the stones are older. But there were a few new-ish graves as well (2009). I found many Irish Catholics especially dating from the second half of the nineteenth century. And also many Italian Catholics from the same time and later. One group of stones told a very interesting story.......

If you follow the stones, Eliza J Spargo and James Donnelly, both from Ireland married and, by 1857 had arrived in Newark NJ where their daughter was born. As was the custom, Eliza was 14 years younger than her husband. Their daughter, Eliza J married Colin McCuskey, also from Ireland by 1876. I would guess that Colin and James were working the gold fields in California when Colin met and married James' daughter. Colin and Eliza had a son JR McCluskey. Two years after he was born, his mother died. I would also guess that the grandmother then raised the boy. When JR's father died at age 54, the mother-in-law had the headstone made. And the grandmother and grandson died in the same year...... Great stuff for a novel.
Now, I have to tell you that none of this was the real highlight of the trip...... On the way home, we stopped outside of Sacramento and bought a bike..... and not just ANY bike...... but a TANDEM BIKE. Yes, you heard me. Mark has been researching tandem bikes online with the idea that if he sticks me on the back and drags me along, we will be able to do rides longer than 7 miles. So he has been searching and searching for a good reasonably priced tandem. And he found one....... oh dear. I will be posting more on our progress.

Sports Bar Virgin

Yesterday, Mark and I wanted to watch the Olympics mens' hockey game between USA and Canada. Because we have this super-duper system of antenna and TIVO, we do not get MSNBC. So I suggested we do what most poor college students do...... find a sports bar. Now many of you may not find this a unique idea, but I have never watched a game in a sports bar. And, being new to SJ, I didn't know of any sports bars. I went online and began searching..... While many advertised that they showed football and Sharks hockey, none mentioned Olympics. We decided to write down a few addresses and take a chance. We took light rail downtown and first saw a great show at the Quilt and Textile Museum - Joan Schulze retrospective. I took a class from her 15 years ago and she is amazing. She takes quilts to an artistic place that speaks to me. After leaving there, we wandered in the rain up and down the city streets searching for a bar with just the right elements...... The first was TOO FULL..... the second was TOO CLOSED..... and the last, the Britannia Arms (better known as the Brit) was JUST RIGHT. They had empty tables where Mark and I could spread out, lots of beer choices, good appetizers and LOTS of flat screens. Being a sports bar virgin, I wasn't sure what to expect. As the game began, the tables began to fill up..... lots of young-ish men bonding together over vast quantities of beer. The full table facing east was rooting for USA. And the full table facing west was rooting for Canada. With sons in and of Canada and daughters-who-play-hockey in the US, I was on the fence. We ordered our beers and appetizers (lots of salt and grease!) and settled in. Then a young woman who was followed by a guy holding a camera came to our table.... she was from the local NBC station and interviewing people about the game. Apparently a lot of Sharks players are playing on both teams (who would have known??). She wanted to get our thoughts about the game. And before I could protest, Mark announced that Sure, his wife would LOVE to talk to them. Oh my! Do I have pepper in my teeth? What kind of things were they saying in the Olympic interviews I watched last night? Should I sound knowledgeable or cute? It's so hard when you don't have time to prepare for your moment of stardom. Then she was asking me about the Sharks.... (the kind in the movies??) and who I was rooting for and what did I think about the game..... So I explained that we weren't Sharks fans.... YET (Phew, I remembered to throw that in at the last second) and that we had moved from Maine (how long can I keep claiming that?) and that we had 2 sons in Canada (forgive me Clint-who-lives-in-OR for the little white lie on TV) and 2 daughters in the US and most of them played hockey..... and the final foot-in-the-mouth was my bravado statement that I didn't think the score would be very high as they were both good teams (are they??). She thanked us and moved on. So back to the game..... it was very exciting to watch.... the patrons, I mean. Especially when a goal was scored. One of the 2 tables would erupt in cheers while the other would moan and swig beer. Come to think of it, they ALL would swig beer. And the final score was 5-3 USA. I REALLY hope that last statement to the TV lady is NOT on the air.
So, over all - the pros of going to a sports bar to watch sports:
1. snacks and beer that I didn't have to buy or serve or clean up
2. crowd watching - the energy is infectious, I found myself shouting, moaning and swigging right along with the kids
3. friendly staff who take good care of you - like having a mom when you are sick
4. being interviewed for the news - no one EVER came into my living room to interview me
And the cons:
1. public bathrooms - this one was clean and being a girl in a mostly male crowd, it was usually empty
2. chairs - not our squishy recliners
3. having to maintain "proper sports bar" behavior - like looking at the game ALL the time and acting really excited ALL the time and only knitting during the breaks between periods so you don't look like a bored old lady and not flossing or picking your teeth (not that I do that ALOT at home) and asking Mark game questions in a low voice so fellow sports bar patrons won't realize that you know very little about what is happening
All in all, I would say that it was a very fun evening and I would be happy to do it again. I'll keep you posted.