Yosemite Welcomes and Challenges
-Southern California pair complete a dozen hikes, looking ahead to Kilimanjaro
Brennen Thompson at the bottom looking up Half Dome at Yosemite National Park. Photo: ValleyTough.com
What would you say if you hiked eleven mountains throughout California, and then stared at the bottom of the awe-inspiring Half Dome at Yosemite National Park.
If you were this former upstate New York transplant to California, there is just one sentence:
“It’s going to be long day!”
For the past year, Brennen Thompson and his climbing partner Garrett Wright have been climbing mountains.
Every month, the pair has been making their way through a series of climbs throughout California.
Starting with Sandstone Peak (southern California), they set their sights on a new mountain each month.
Over the course of twelve months, they made it to Mount Wilson, San Gabriel Peak, and Mount Whitney among others.
Half-Dome at Yosemite was number twelve.
They intend to wrap up this year-plus adventure with a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro this summer.
Brennen shortly upon entering Yosemite National Park. Photo: ValleyTough.com
Each climb has been done with purpose.
They raised over seven-thousand dollars to benefit charities in Brennen’s hometown in upstate New York.
But there was more to this effort than raising money for non-profit organizations.
As a new Californian in late 2019, Brennen was committed to making his time in the Golden State impactful. Once the COVID crisis hit, the resolve to succeed became even stronger.
In the Our Community Story column from a year ago when the climbs started, he said, “What better time to give back.”
The Yosemite climb began with a 4:00 AM wake up, a breakfast of pre-cooked oatmeal with fruit, and the trip to the trailhead.
“I was surrounded by massive shadows like El Capitan and, of course, Half Dome,” he said.
Brennen Thompson is originally from Herkimer, New York. He moved to southern California in 2019. Photo: ValleyTough.com
Midway up the cables of Half-Dome, Brennen’s awareness of the gift of life was heightened.
“After encountering trees the size of skyscrapers, waterfalls that couldn’t be imagined, and views that take your breath away, I was a little more thankful to be alive than normal.”
Peanut butter sandwiches, nuts, and granola kept the pair nourished during the adventure.
After five hours, they made it to the top. Brennen took it all in.
“Climbing the sub-dome cables was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done,” he thought to himself. “Can’t wait to see what they’re like on the way down.”
Thinking initially they would take in a few moments with the solace of nature before heading down, they met another climber who has done the Mount Kilimanjaro climb the pair intends to do this summer.
“We stayed up there longer than normal, probably an hour.” By then, it was time to head back down Half Dome.
It took four hours to make it back to the valley floor using the same route.
“Going down the sub-dome was actually harder than going up!” Brennan explained. “Baby steps, and don’t look to the left or right.”
This was Brennen’s first time in Yosemite. “I was overwhelmed with the beauty and couldn’t have been more pleased with the hike.”
Brennen taking it all in at the top of Half Dome. Photo: ValleyTough.com
As spectacular as Yosemite was, and as ambitious as the total package of twelve hikes has been, the real challenge is coming up soon on the other side of the world.
The pair will head to Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa later this summer.
After that, who knows what is in store for this pair of Californians who promised to make an impact and who are delivering on that promise.
To paraphrase Brennen’s own words, it may indeed be a long and satisfying climb.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
Brennen Thompson’s story is featured in his book Can Do Californians, available at BarnesandNoble.com and at Lulu.com
You can view summaries of the Valley Tough mountain hikes at YouTube.com and on the ValleyTough.com website
Pedaling Police Escort-
Merced officers lead a community bicycle ride along the Bear Creek paths
Bicyclists are welcomed to the Pedaling with the Police event sponsored by the Merced Police Department. Photo: Steve Newvine
It’s not uncommon on a spring Saturday morning to see groups of bicyclists pedaling the trails along Bear Creek in Merced.
But on this particular Saturday, part of Memorial Day weekend, this group had a special escort.
Officers from the Merced Police Department provided the leadership and protection for participants in the Pedaling with the Police riding event.
The group met at the Merced Open Air Stage in Applegate Park, and then headed along the Bear Creek trail to Parsons Avenue and on to a rest stop at Rahilly Park.
Pedaling with the Police began at the Merced Open Air Stage. Photo: Steve Newvine
About thirty area bicyclists of all ages took part in the free event.
“This is something the Department’s Bike Unit wanted to do to for the community,” said Police Community Affairs Officer Emily Foster.
A pair of older cyclists liked the idea of a police escort along the Bear Creek trail.
“This is good for all of us,” one of the pair said.
The pace was kept with the help of officers from the Department’s Bike Unit. Photo: Steve Newvine
The group headed to the bridge on G Street, and then changed sides of Bear Creek to be in position for the eventual midway point at Rahilly Park.
Once at the park, the bicyclists had traveled three-and-one-third miles. It was time for a break.
“We think it’s important for everyone to know that police officers do a lot more for the community that what is seen in some of the media,” Lieutenant Foster said.
“We’re here now to have a lot of fun with our citizens.”
The group stopped at G Street to change sides from South to North Bear Creek. The switching of sides was made much safer with the Merced Police escort. Photo: Steve Newvine
All that was required for this six-and-a-half mile bike ride was a safe set of wheels, the stamina to complete the ride, and a positive attitude.
“C’mon dad,” one seven year old encouraged his father as the ride was underway.
Whether it was a son with his dad, a daughter with her mom, or a husband-and-wife pair, folks were taking advantage of perfect bicycling weather.
Sunshine and blue skies helped provide the ideal setting for a leisurely bike ride along Bear Creek for the participants in the Pedaling with the Police event. Photo: Steve Newvine
This is the second event the Department has done after enduring the worst of the COVID restrictions.
The first was Star Wars themed activity held on May 4th (may the forth be with you).
“We’re glad with COVID coming to an end, we can host more events like this one,” said Lieutenant Foster.
The returning cyclists had a good workout in the fresh air, a nice outing on a spring day, and hopefully a better understanding about the role police officers play in keeping everyone safe.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
His latest book, Can-Do Californians, is now available in a hard-cover version as well as paperback.
Steve Newvinelives in Merced.
His latest book, Can-Do Californians, is now available in a hard-cover version as well as paperback.
Tour Guide, Golfer, and Fisherman
Remembering a beloved family member
The high school yearbook photo of Ed. Photo: The Portal
Memories are churning away in the days following the passing of my cousin-in-law Ed.
Ed was older than my other cousins, so I never saw him as a cousin. He was younger than my uncles, so he was not like an uncle to me. But thinking back on the things we did, the conversations we had, and the laughs we shared, he was clearly my friend.
A shot of the Yankee outfield from the seats during Ed and my visit to the Stadium in the early 1970s. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection
I wrote about Ed in two of my books. In Growing Up, Upstate, I share the story about the time Ed took me to New York City to see the City for the first time, and to see the Yankees take on the California Angels.
In Growing Up, Upstate, I share the story about the time Ed took me to New York City to see the City for the first time, and to see the Yankees take on the California Angels. Ed's cousin suggested we drive into the city.
We drove all over midtown Manhattan well past midnight. When we got back that night we were introduced to the family St. Bernard. When the dog snarled at Ed, he punched it in the nose. The dog never bothered us for the rest of the weekend. As with most of life's adventures, it wasn't about the game.
It was about driving to New York, seeing the city at night, and getting to the stadium the next day. All of it made for a memorable weekend in my life.
In Course Corrections, I devoted a chapter to a family golf tournament Ed organized.
Here’s an excerpt:
In the 1980s, I played golf with Ed many times when visiting my folks in northern New York. Midway through the decade, he conceived an idea for a family-wide golf tournament. ..The Snyder side of the family, my mother’s side, took a lot of pride in our gatherings. Thanksgiving dinner was held at our matriarch Kate’s home then later at my mom’s house.
Easter dinner started with Grandma Kate’s home, then later moved to my aunt Tootie’s place. There was generally at least one outing every summer on Lake Ontario.
With frequent graduations, confirmations, and other special events, there seemed to be a lot of times when the extended family would get together… ..For a few hours on a Saturday, we played, we laughed, and we admired our tee-shirts (specially designed for the event) . ..non players like my Mom and Dad, showed up to provide moral support before heading over to Ed’s house for the post tournament picnic. There, everyone showed up with pot luck dishes in hand.
After our meal, Ed took on the role as master of ceremonies and awarded prizes to the outstanding golfers. It seems as though just about every player picked up some kind of prize. We had a few laughs. The children enjoyed the festivities. Some of us thought: wait until next year.
Ed did not teach me how to fish, but he sure made it a heck of a lot more fun.
I was a teenager when Ed and I were talking about fishing. His grandfather had a pond that had a lot of bullheads ready for the taking. We both had fishing poles so we decided to have a go at it. We must have caught at least a couple of dozen of them.
I say “we” caught them but Ed took them off the lines. Bullheads have a sting and like any fish, they are going to fight as they are taken off a line.
We caught so many fish that Ed made a third fishing pole out of a long tree branch. He tied fishing line to one end, attached a hook to the string and watched as the fish gobbled away.
When we ran out of space in our bucket, we left the pond and headed to my uncle’s house who cleaned the fish. My uncle’s family ate the fish the next day. I did not care about eating the fish; I just enjoyed the adventure of it all.
With his daughter’s help, Ed wrote a book about a memorable family member. He served our military by way of the US Air Force.
His father was killed in action in the closing months of World War II. All of this helped shape him into the man he became. He was a logger most of his working life.
His work was primarily done in upstate New York, but it took him out-of-state including the west for a brief time. Work injuries forced him to give up the job.
He died from heart complications that intensified following his second COVID vaccination. He leaves behind two children, his dear wife, a ton of relatives, and many friends.
I miss him, and regret that COVID concerns likely kept my dad and me from visiting him on my last trip upstate. But I have the memories. And they are good memories.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
His books: Growing Up, Upstate and Course Corrections are available at lulu.com
COVID Concerts-
Coping with streaming concerts in the lockdown era
The Merced Symphony Association posted a holiday concert to YouTube in late December. Portions of the concert, including this scene pictured, originated from the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland. Photo: Merced Symphony Association.
My wife and I were not big concert goers.
If we got out to an occasional Playhouse Merced community theater production or even a rare music performance at the Gallo Center in Modesto we consider ourselves lucky.
Like many people before March 2020, we took a lot of things for granted.
COVID 19 changed all that.
The virus altered everything. Face masks, social distancing, hand sanitizer, health department guidelines, vaccine wait lists, and the list goes on.
Add enjoying live music to that list.
I don’t mean the YouTube videos and Facebook concerts we’ve been seeing. They are fine, but nothing will replace being in the concert space as the music happens.
The Grand Ole Opry was the first to engage fans with live streaming concerts at the start of the COVID lockdown. Live weekly concerts have been streamed on Facebook since the start of the lockdown. Photo: Grand Ole Opry
In Nashville, Tennessee, the country music showcase Grand Ole Opry started streaming one-hour weekly concerts as soon as the crisis started in March 2020.
The shows were presented with the blessing of the local health department and that included no in-person audience at first as well as other COVID protocols.
The Opry prides itself on holding consecutive weekly shows since 1925. The Opry had a tradition to keep up. The weekly concerts have been broadcast on radio station WSM every week for ninety-five years.
The group Ellas will be performing live via live stream on January 29 as part of the UC Merced upSTART series.
Besides helping us remain safe by keeping us away from public venues, the move to streaming performances has provided other benefits.
Shows on social media sites allow viewers to comment as the performance takes place; providing instant feedback and a sense of shared experience.
Being able to pause to tend to an interruption is nice. There’s no need to dress up for the show. There’s also no chance of being annoyed by a rude attendee who either talks, texts, or gets up from their seat during the performance.
But I’m willing to accept some of those annoyances in exchange for having live music where I can be part of the audience in person.
It may take a little while longer for those days to return, but we are patient.
Once live in-person performances resume, I promise myself never to take them for granted.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
His new book Can Do Californians is available at barnesandnoble.com and at lulu.com
Veterans- Now Never Forgotten
How Merced and other Areas are Honoring those who Served
Mark Bolte, the son of Air Force Colonel Wayne Bolte holds the sign that honors his dad along M Street (Veterans Boulevard) in Merced. Photo: City of Merced
All around the nation, and right here in Merced County, the service and sacrifice of our soldiers who served the nation’s military is being recognized at Veterans Day.
In the City of Merced, a sign honoring Air Force Colonel Wayne Bolte was put up by a City work crew back in the spring of 2020. Colonel Bolte’s son Mark read a biography of his dad at a City Council meeting in May.
Wayne Bolte’s plane crashed in Vietnam in 1972. At the time, he was listed as Missing in Action. A search for remains proved unsuccessful.
Wayne was a Major at the time of the mission. He was promoted to Colonel following the incident. He is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.
For an unknown reason, Colonel Bolte was not included in the original eighty signs that were placed along M Street (also known as Veterans Boulevard) in the City. He lived in Merced and was stationed at Castle Air Force Base.
At the time the original signs were put up in 2018, the City said more names would be added as City staff, working with local veterans groups, verified other Merced residents who were killed in action.
Field of Honor Caption: Merced’s Field of Honor recognizes service men and women. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection
Once again, the community will honor the men and women who served in our military with a special Veterans Day tradition.
In Merced County, Merced College’s Yosemite Avenue frontage will be the sight of the Field of Honor. Hundreds of American Flags honoring area veterans will be set up.
Merced Sunrise Rotary has been organizing the event for the past few years. Some activities associated with the Field of Honor, such as the Race for the Fallen 5 K run at Merced College, have been called off this year due to the concerns raised over COVID-19.
At least one runner from last year plans to do the 5 K anyway in support of veterans.
My hometown newspaper’s story about the veterans banner project
I’m particularly proud of what the people in my hometown of Port Leyden, New York are doing to honor veterans.
Funds are being solicited right now to purchase banners that will hang on utility poles throughout this village of six-hundred residents.
Those banners will honor dozens of veterans whose families and friends are supporting the effort.
There are two soldiers in my immediate family who served in the military. My uncle Bill Newvine served in the Vietnam War. My uncle Jim Newvine served in the Korean War. Photos: Newvine Personal Collection
In the Newvine family, banners will honor Specialist Four William Newvine. Billy served in Vietnam and returned home in 1967. He died tragically in a car accident in May 1968 within months of leaving the Army.
My other uncle, Jim Newvine served in the Korean War. Jim is the oldest son of my grandparents Art and Vera.
Army photographs of my great uncles Chester Dean (left) and Charles Dean. Both served in World War II. Chet was killed in a training accident in Wales one day before D-Day.
One generation beyond, my great uncles Chester and Charles Dean served in World War II. Charlie fought from Italy and returned home to raise a family. Chester died in a training accident, detailed in a column I wrote in May.
It pleases me that each of these four family members will be honored with banners in the project going on in my hometown.
For our veterans, recognition was never sought. But these displays of honor are no doubt appreciated by those still living.
For those who have passed on, banners and flags help keep memories alive among those left behind.
These are ways for communities to show the sacrifices of their soldiers will never be forgotten.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
He wrote Course Corrections in 2019. That book is available on Lulu.com. His new book Can Do Californians will be available in December.
Politics and Sleep Deprivation
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Memories from 1988
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The political parties are staging their conventions in August 2020.
2020 and COVID-19
We’ll be hearing a lot about the political conventions taking place in the final two weeks of August 2020.
Most of the coverage will contrast these COVID era conventions to those of years past.
One of the thrills from my fifteen years covering local news on television was the Republican National Convention in 1988.
The station I worked at in Rochester, NY was part of a group of stations that chipped in resources to fund a Washington, DC bureau.
We were able to get interviews from our local legislative delegation on issues of interest in our communities.
An extension of that model was tested in 1988 when the company decided to take the bureau to both Democrat and Republican conventions.
Each station sent extra personnel to provide more coverage for our local audiences. My colleague Rob was assigned to produce coverage for the Democratic Convention.
I was assigned to produce the coverage for the GOP Convention in New Orleans.
My press credential from the 1988 GOP Convention. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection
Our local team flew into New Orleans on the Saturday before the convention.
We began taping reports on Sunday
It felt like one big story that took almost a week to report. Most of our days began with meetings of the state and local delegations. Those were breakfast events with a guest speaker.
Actor Charlton Heston was the guest speaker one morning. While he did not part the Red Sea as his Moses character did in the movie, he did create some excitement among the party faithful.
Most of our daytime hours were devoted to working in and around the Superdome to interview Republicans from the Rochester area.
I recall the afternoon when Presidential nominee George H. W. Bush announced his choice for his running mate. Once it was clear Dan Quayle was the choice, everyone scrambled for telephone lines.
I recall a good forty-five minutes of busy signals as we tried to call out.
This was long before cell phones became part of the journalist tool kit.
The closest I got to a souvenir from the week I worked the 1988 Republican Convention was this instant photo taken with cardboard cutouts of Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection
President Ronald Reagan was the keynote speaker on the opening night of the convention.
We were in our workspace at the Superdome, and you could hear the roars from the crowd as the President and Mrs. Reagan were brought into the convention.
Many of us worked our way to the upper level of the arena to get a glimpse of the President.
Two nights later, I was in the room when George Bush made his acceptance speech. That means I was there when the words “Read my lips, no new taxes,” were uttered.
Throughout the week, there were plenty of moments that still take up a little space in my memory. Those moments include sitting in the audience of the Larry King overnight radio program.
We were just looking for a place to sit after a long day covering the events. Larry made reference to us on the air during the program.
My lasting impression was how little sleep I got during the week, and how easy it was for me to fall asleep once I got back home from New Orleans.
It was the busiest week in my career up to that point, and I enjoyed practically every minute.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
He worked as a television journalist in the 1980s and 1990s.
You can reach him at SteveNewvine@SBCGlobal.net .
He latest book is Course Corrections, and is available at Lulu.com
A Special July-
A month marking a milestone anniversary
My friend Andy, who taught me the game of chess, was among the first to congratulate my fiancéeVaune. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection.
July will always hold a special place in my memory. This month, my wife and I will celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary.
The pathway to my wedding day actually started several months prior to July.
Almost from the moment when my wife-to-be answered yes to my marriage proposal, the plans for that special day were underway. We started telling friends and family about the engagement.
Among the first people I spoke to outside of my family was my chess partner and good friend Andy.
Andy was an older man who lived with his daughter near the apartment I rented at the time.
His story about coming into my life and teaching me the game of chess was told in this space about four years ago
For several months, Andy and I played chess weekly at his daughter’s home. We enjoyed a great friendship during the time I got to know him as my career was getting started.
He would always ask me how my girlfriend was. When she became my fiancée, he was very happy for both of us.
With about one-hundred, fifty miles separating our parents from us, wedding planning was challenging in 1980. Here we are opening a gift from a family member. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection.
As Andy and others were told about our engagement, there was a growing list of things to do in preparation for the big day.
Plans started taking place in Ilion, New York where my bride-to-be had lived right up until she left for year three of her college education.
Details that needed to be worked out included scheduling the ceremony with the local Catholic church, reserving a reception venue, hiring a professional photographer, and a whole array of things that had to be done in preparation for the most important day in our lives.
Complicating matters was being about one-hundred, fifty miles away from my bride-to-be parents’ home.
By July, all of that planning was out of the way.
My niece Tina, brother Terry, and good friend Tim in a grainy photo from the rehearsal dinner the night before I was married. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection.
I can remember the month of July 1980 like it happened forty weeks ago rather than forty years.
I started the month in a new apartment that would become our first home as a married couple. We each gave up our individual apartments and rented an upstairs living space from a nice widow. I lived there for the three weeks leading up to our wedding.
My bride-to-be had moved back with her parents once the lease on her apartment had ended.
The wedding week was amazing. It was described in my 2018 book Stand By, Camera One:
There are a lot of things a married person remembers about his or her wedding day. I remember many details. There was the ceremony, the reception, and the honeymoon that come to mind immediately. But a special memory for me from that weekend was the rehearsal party held the Friday night before the wedding.
My dad used his membership in the Boonville Elks Club to secure the Ilion Elks lodge for the party. The local club catered a buffet held right after the rehearsal at the church. The Ilion lodge was in the same block as the church.
What made it stand out for me was the unifying of two families. Most of the bride’s relatives had never met the relatives from the groom’s side. The dinner, preceded by appetizers at my soon-to-be in-laws house, was a great start to what has now become a four-decade marriage.
The rehearsal party gave me a chance to greet my college buddies who made the trip. Ray was my first roommate from my first semester at Herkimer College.
At the time, he was working in his hometown of Albany. While we spoke on occasion over the previous four or five years, this was the first time I saw him in person since my sophomore year in college.
Tim is a friend I met at Syracuse. He was one of my ushers for the ceremony. Over the wedding weekend, my college friends Matt, Guf, and Rick were welcomed guests.
The rehearsal party got us all in the right mood for what was to come the next day. But for me, it really signified that two families were coming together thanks to the blessing of matrimony.
After Vaune and I said goodnight, I headed to a local motel where my family had booked some rooms for the out-of-town family members.
The motel had a small bar, so after saying goodnight to everyone, my brother Terry and my friend Tim went to the bar to have a “farewell to bachelorhood” bottle of Genesee Beer. When we finished the beer, we all headed back to our rooms to go to sleep.
That was the closest thing I had to a bachelor’s party. But I never felt as though I missed out on anything.
I was surrounded by family and good friends. I was about to get married.
It was a very happy time leading up to the most important day in my life.
All of this happened in July, forty years ago.
I’ll never forget that incredible month.
The month of July will always hold a special place in my memory.
Stand By, Camera One is now available in a hard-cover edition at
A Museum with a Sense of Humor-
My return visit to the Merced County Courthouse Museum
One of the displays at the Merced County Courthouse Museum “Beyond Appearance: Portraits of Merced County Women” exhibit shows two mannequins dressed in period costume, and wearing face masks. Photo: Steve Newvine
There’s a lot we can say about the mid-June reopening of the Merced County Courthouse Museum.
Closed for three months due to the COVID crisis, the doors swung open June seventeenth to pick up where the Merced County Historical Society left off.
By the looks of a display of two mannequins dressed in period costume, with the inclusion of modern-day face masks, it’s clear the Museum and the volunteers have a good sense of humor.
County Historian Sarah Lim was permitted to reopen the Museum as part of the public health structure for ushering business and non-profits back into operation.
The Museum was in the middle of the first exhibit of 2020, “Beyond Appearance: Portraits of Merced County Women” when it closed down due to the COVID outbreak. Photo: Steve Newvine
With most of the restrictions lifted, and new health and safety protocols in place, the Museum is getting back to business in pursuing the mission to preserve local history and educate the community on the past.
The women’s exhibit had just launched in the first quarter of 2020 and never really got a chance to be seen by many in the community. That’s all changed now.
This photograph is among dozens from the Museum archive that are on display in the exhibit “Beyond Appearance: Portraits of Merced County Women” underway until September 20. Photo: Steve Newvine.
The Museum is one of those attractions that could be taken for granted. With limited hours of operation, a reliable core of volunteers, and a presence in an iconic building, it might be easy to just pass by without thinking of the on-going work of the Historical Society.
But when access to this community asset was taken away due to the health restrictions brought on by the coronavirus, many may have lost a connection to this repository of local history.
My wife and I took in a tour shortly after reading about the reopening on MercedCountyEvents.com.
The Merced County Women exhibit is thought provoking.
With sections on agriculture, equal rights, and the role of women as consumers, there is a lot to see and read.
I spoke to the membership of the Merced County Historical Society in February. To give that talk today, I would be governed by the rules of social distancing. Photo: Sarah Lim, Merced County Historian
I was the Museum’s keynote speaker for the annual meeting held in early February.
I remember a nearly filled County Board of Supervisors meeting room followed by a potluck style reception.
It’s amazing how a few months living in the COVID era has changed things.
The courtroom exhibit, part of the permanent collection at the Merced County Courthouse Museum. Photo: Steve Newvine
The permanent exhibit continues to impress me.
On the third floor, the courtroom exhibit remains as a long-standing reminder of the importance of our judicial system. The visitor can take a seat and take in the ambience of a real courtroom.
The school exhibit harkens back to the days of one-room schoolhouses. The visitor is taken back to a time when school was in session.
The old time kitchen and housekeeping exhibit brings back memories, or at least recollections my grandparents shared with me when I was a child.
The kitchen display at the Merced County Courthouse Museum. Photo: Steve Newvine
On the main floor, there are many exhibits in the different rooms worth viewing a second time.
My favorite this time around was an old fashioned phone booth in the main hall.
There’s a Superman costume hanging up inside the booth.
Once again, here’s a museum with a sense of humor.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
You can reach him at SteveNewvine@sbcglobal.net.
His book Course Corrections is available on Lulu.com
The Merced County Courthouse Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 1 pm to 4 pm. COVID restrictions apply. (209) 723-2401, www.mercedmuseum.org
Welcome Back Customers-
Some Stores Try Soft Opening Post COVID
The entryway to the Helen & Louise clothing store at 1804 Canal Street in Merced is decorated in a big way as the shop welcomes visitors back inside following the COVID restrictions. Photo-Steve Newvine
If celebrating is worth doing, often times it’s worth overdoing.
Take for example the big display of balloons that cover the upper façade to the Helen and Louise clothing store in downtown Merced.
“It’s been a great day for us,” said Bree Migliazzo about the return of customer traffic inside the store at the corner of 18th Street and Canal Street.
Since the start of the COVID restrictions in March, Helen & Louise kept their business going with hope that the day would come when customers could come back inside and shop.
When that day finally arrived May 8th, they reopened with a big celebration.
“The outdoor design came from Collective Creations, a local company", Bree said. “ Another local business, Jen’s Cakes, prepared special treats to celebrate the occasion.”
Merced Antique Mall is one of several downtown Merced stores that reopened to indoor customer traffic as part of the relaxing of some of the COVID restrictions impacting retailers. Photo- Steve Newvine
There was optimism among the vendors at the Merced Antique Mall along Main Street as well.
“We’re going to try it, and we hope it pays off,” one of the vendors told me as we were greeted at the entrance.
What the Antique Mall and several other Main Street businesses are trying is part of a broader effort to get commercial activity restarted in the community.
The COVID restrictions closed businesses deemed non-essential by the State Health Department.
In accordance with Governor Newsom’s shelter in place executive order issued in March, Merced’s downtown was effectively closed for business.
“We used the time to deep clean the entire store footprint,” the manager at the Merced Antique Mall told me. “Most of the vendors are offering specials to help get merchandise moving.”
As of May 8, restaurants such as the Bella Luna on Main Street in Merced continue their take-out sales in hopes that they will soon be able to serve customers in their dining area. Photo- Steve Newvine
The sign in front of the Bella Luna restaurant has the same message seen since the start of the COVID restrictions. A customer can come inside to pick up an order.
The dining establishment, along with many other restaurants, is open but only for take-out.
It’s hoped the easing of restrictions on dining rooms will be the next step toward fully restoring area restaurants as comfortable gathering points for customers who work or shop downtown.
Customers wait until Wells Fargo personnel determine there is sufficient social distancing space inside the branch in downtown Merced. Photo- Steve Newvine
Institutions like the Wells Fargo branch on 18th street allowed customers inside with a staff person at the door to make sure social distancing rules were followed.
Banks have been opened throughout the restrictions, but with shoppers and others returning to downtown, the line at the local bank branch appeared to be much longer than in recent days.
A staff person at the bank noted that the longer line may have been more about the traditionally heavier traffic on Friday.
She says the bank is using the same protocols employed at the start of the crisis.
Customers can come inside, but social distancing is the norm with someone stationed at the entrance to allow just the right number of people inside at any time.
“Most of the traffic is done at the teller window,” the staff person told me. “But if a customer needs to meet with a banker, they must make an appointment.”
All around the community, we’re observing the first stages of the return to normalcy in retailing, the restaurant industry, and banking.
It’s been a rough two-month period for local companies.
Many are hoping customers haven’t forgotten them. Bree Migliazzo from Helen & Louise said it best when she described how it feels to have customers coming into the store once again.
“We’re welcoming them with open arms,” she said. “It’s great to have them back.”
Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
His book Course Corrections- My Golf Truth, Fiction, and Philosophy, is available at Lulu.com
Passing Time in the COVID Era-
What I will not take for granted post “shelter-in-place”
A handwritten message at an area golf course offers a blunt take on social distancing. Photo: Steve Newvine
I don’t know about you, but this shelter in place stuff is growing weary.
I’ve had my fill of television ads telling us “we’re in this together”.
Grocery shopping is not just about getting what we need right away, but also about picking up things now that we might need in a few weeks because we can’t be certain of availability.
And, I need a haircut.
I’m taking advantage of the slow return to normalcy in the Central Valley. Some golf courses and public recreation sites are reopening with COVID distancing rules in place.
As I entered a store this week, I saw a sign on the door saying “no entry without a facemask”.
Gas prices continue to fall with some area stations selling regular for under $2 a gallon. But we’re not putting many miles on our cars with almost everything shutdown.
This time of shelter in place has been the right thing to do for public health. As we resume our regular activities in the coming weeks, I’m going to renew many of the activities I’ve taken for granted.
This includes:
- Going to the coffee shop with a friend for an hour of catching up and caffeine
- Returning to brick and mortar church services
- Making a haircut appointment.
A casual round of golf is one of many life experiences I will not take for granted when normalcy is restored in the post COVID era.
Here are some other activities that I will not take for granted once COVID is over:
Newspapers
I’m fortunate to have home delivery for a daily paper, mail delivery for another paper, and easy access to the weekly paper. It’s great to go to the driveway or go to the mailbox and pick up the news. While on-line access to local news is fine, the presence of a real paper newspaper is my preferred method of getting the news.
Golf and outdoor recreation
I’m glad some area courses are back in business. But it will all seem real when we can go to any of our local parks and see them full of activity.
Here’s a stack of books the folks living at my house have read over the past several weeks. Photo: Steve Newvine
Reading books
My pack-rat storing of books from the Friends of the Library shop, garage sales, and thrift stores created a good foundation for reading during shelter in place. We’re looking forward to the reopening of these sources of books, as well as the reopening of our local book stores.
I’m anxious for thrift store donation centers to reopen so we can give away our gently used books for resale.
Dental and optometrist appointments
These professionals had to end routine services during the crisis. We miss them, and remain mindful of how important they are to our overall health.
Phone calls, including video calls. Both incoming and outgoing checks from family and friends are appreciated all the way around. The practice should not have to stop when this is over.
Email and social media
When I say social media, I mean the good kind: pictures of family, friends, vacations, and even the exotic entrees some of our friends might order at restaurants.
Unfortunately, the angry political social media will continue.
Listening to music
My collection of compact discs continues to provide hours of entertainment, centeredness, and pleasure. There’s no danger that will stop, but I will always be grateful for the gift of music. Shopping in stores here in Merced County.
I miss my runs to the Mall, shopping plazas, and Main Street in Merced. I especially miss the Merced Antique Mall where I could always find something I didn’t realize I needed.
The cultural events that add some zing to our lives. I want to see the marquee at the Merced Theatre tell us about the next show coming to town.
I want to be in the audience for a performance from Playhouse Merced.
I want to have the dilemma of having to choose between a concert at Merced College and an event at UC Merced that might be taking place at the same time.
We want our regular lives back.
Here’s hoping we return to the new normal in Merced County real soon.
Signs of the COVID Times
The marquee sign at Merced Mall reminds people that Big Lots and Target are open. Photo: Steve Newvine
How Merced is coping in the corona virus era
The marquee sign in front of Merced Mall has become a barometer of our community’s response to COVID.
Immediately after Governor Newsom imposed quarantine at home restrictions on March 19, the sign informed passersby that the Mall was closed.
It is a sign of the changing times in Merced.
A clerk at a neighboring store told me how he felt when he drove past the Mall with all the empty parking spaces.
“It’s eerie,” he said without breaking his smile. “I never thought I’d see a time like this.”
In the days since the restrictions were announced, the sign was changed to reflect that the nearby Target and Big Lot stores were open.
In the foreground heading East on Olive, the sign promoting the Mall expansion project remains.
Barriers have been placed at the parking lot entrances at St. Patrick’s Church in Merced. Photo: Steve Newvine
We’re now in the COVID era where church parking lots are empty, and lines form a half hour before some grocery stores open.
The churchgoers turn to televised services on line or on their televisions.
The shoppers are hoping to find TP, paper towels, hand sanitizer, and a myriad of food products that seem to disappear overnight.
Some call it the COVID era. Others call it the hoarding era.
A grocery store clerk lamented, “In the store I asked a man I know who is single why he needed two large packages of toilet paper. He just looked at me and said ‘Why should you care?”
Empty paper product shelves symbolize the state of flux in area retailing. Photo: Steve Newvine
On a lighter note, I recognized an acquaintance waiting in line at a store that opened early one weekday morning just for seniors.
He told me, “I feel as though I’m at my fiftieth high school reunion with all these familiar faces.”
We know this crisis will change the face of commerce in many ways. Restaurants are converting to take-out and delivery transactions as dining rooms are shut down.
The iconic Branding Iron sign waits for the day the popular steak house reopens. Photo: Steve Newvine
On Sixteenth Street, a familiar neon sign has gone dark. Merced’s Branding Iron sent a message on Facebook in late March saying they were shutting down until further notice.
The management thanked customers for their support in the post adding, “Alright, so we kept going as long as we could but the time has come now when we HAVE to shut down completely until further notice.”
While the primary shopping area is closed to shoppers, construction crews continue their work on the Merced Mall expansion. Photo: Steve Newvine
The signs we see, whether in front of the Mall, or taped to an empty store shelf, each share a part of the COVID story’s impact on our city. Some may offer a ray of hope for the future.
Construction continues on the Mall’s expansion project. The project remains on schedule.
We’ll know things are getting better when the marquee changes one more time at the Mall, and when the neon is blazing again at the Branding Iron.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
He has written Course Corrections, My Golf Truth, Fiction, and Philosophy. The book is available at Lulu.com
Paying Respects to Porterville
Departments statewide, including Merced, sent firefighters to help out
The city block in Porterville where the Public Library once stood. Photo by Steve Newvine
The Porterville Library fire is a story that impacts many of us on several levels.
There’s the tragedy of two firefighters losing their lives battling the blaze, the arrest of two teens who now face charges of arson and manslaughter, as well as the loss of a community resource that served hundreds of families in the City along with many others from around this City of sixty-thousand residents.
Words come up short in trying to describe the feelings of citizens who lost two of their own.
At the heart of the story is the outpouring of help and the paying of respects to a community dealing with their loss.
This sign in front of the Porterville Elks Club announces the postponement of activities out of respect for the first responders. Photo by Steve Newvine
Upon entering the section of the downtown area where the library once stood, I spotted a sign in front of the local Elks club announcing the postponement of some events “with respect to our first responders”.
Respect seems to be the best word to describe what I saw upon my visit just a few days after the tragedy.
The fire broke out around five o’clock Tuesday evening, February 18.
Porterville Fire responded within minutes. A second alarm, signifying that more firefighting resources would be needed, was pulled within minutes of the first crew responding.
Captain Ray Figueroa and Firefighter Patrick Jones died fighting that fire.
There are beautiful descriptions of these two heroes on the Porterville Fire Department’s Facebook page.
The community of Porterville, and others, paying respect with this display in front of the Fire Department. Captain Ray Figueroa (left) and Firefighter Patrick Jones lost their lives fighting that fire. Photos from the Porterville Fire Department Facebook page. Photo illustration by Steve Newvine.
Departments from all over the area helped out to put the fire down, and in the days following there were departments sending in resources as far away as Los Angeles.
In Merced, Deputy Fire Chief Casey Wilson told me the department sent two firefighters to Porterville the next day to help relieve others.
Public safety barriers encircled the block where the remains of the Porterville Public Library once stood. Photo by Steve Newvine
As I entered the scene, there was a public safety yellow tape serving as a barrier. I asked a police officer nearby if I could go beyond the barrier to pay my respects. He told me they were not letting anyone other than employees who worked in that area beyond the barrier so that crews could work on removing the debris.
I thanked the officer, and told him I understood that decision. This tragedy has been hard on the police department as well.
It’s been hard on all first responders.
Flags fly at half-staff out of respect for the two firefighters killed battling the February 18th fire. These flags are in front of the Porterville Police Department and the Elks Club. Photo by Steve Newvine
Porterville is about one-hundred, thirty miles south of Merced. That seems like a long way, but this tragedy is shared across California.
On the streets of Porterville, I spoke with a firefighter from outside the region as he was heading to his department vehicle.
He told me he wasn’t familiar with the area, but he was here to assist where needed.
He, like many others, were showing respect to firefighters Figueroa and Jones by doing whatever he could to help out.
That’s what good neighbors do.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
Veterans Memorial Signs Pay Tribute to Merced’s Heroes
Signs Along Veterans Boulevard Call Out 80 Military Killed in Action
Signs Along Veterans Boulevard Call Out 80 Military Killed in Action. Photo by Steve Newvine.
Chances are family members of US Army Private Cornelius W. Tuyn are no longer in our community.
The same can be likely said for US Army Mechanic John R. Veary.
Both lived in Merced. Both lost their lives in World War I.
Thanks to the City of Merced, both are being remembered.
Chronologically, they are the first veterans to be honored in the City of Merced’s Memorial Plaque initiative.
*By Veterans Day on November 11, eighty signs will be lining a broad section of M Street in the City of Merced.
One of eighty memorial signs honoring veterans who lost their lives in US military service. Each sign names a service member from the City of Merced who was killed in action. Photo- Steve Newvine.
Among the men whose names appear on the signs is US Navy Corporal Robert M. Crowell who lost his life in World War II.
He was born in the same month that Private Tuyn was killed during World War I: October 1918. Crowell who served in the US Navy, died on July 2, 1944.
The signs are memorials to members of the armed services killed in action who were from the City of Merced. The memorials cover service members from World War I on up to the war in Afghanistan.
The signs have white lettering over a blue background. Individually, they recognize a soldier, his rank, branch of service, and years served.
Collectively, they make a very strong statement as to how our community shows respect to those who gave their lives defending our country.
“They are all from the City of Merced and all members who died in combat zones,” says Mike Conway, the City of Merced Information Officer.
These white on blue signs are on utility poles up and down M Street. Each one recognizes the service of a soldier from the City of Merced. Photo: Steve Newvine
Army Private Tuyn and Mechanic Veary are the only two Merced residents known to be killed in action during World War I.
Thirty-seven of the eighty soldiers memorialized on the signs served in World War II. The signs include the names of thirteen soldiers killed in the Korean War, twenty-one from the Vietnam War, and four from Operation Iraqi Freedom through the war in Afghanistan.
Among the Korean veterans is US Air Force Captain Ralph A. Ellis, Junior. Captain Ellis died on July 21, 1950.
The memorial to fallen veterans was a natural next step in the City of Merced’s journey to pay tribute for the contributions of all who have served in the military.
In recent years, Merced City Council renamed the bridge on M Street spanning Bear Creek to Veterans Memorial Bridge.
A section of M Street near the bridge now carries the name Veterans Boulevard.
In the most recent stage of renovation for the bridge, five flag poles were installed representing each of the five branches of the Armed Forces.
Flags from those branches of the military will now be flown on the bridge during special occasions and at other times to honor veterans.
Part of the list naming the eighty soldiers from Merced who were killed in action in our nation’s wars. Photo: Steve Newvine
The City’s Department of Public Works has been posting the new signs along M Street.
Of the twenty-one soldiers listed among the veterans who died in action in Vietnam, five were Marines.
That list includes Lance Corporal Juan B. Valtierra who was killed on January 5, 1966.
It’s an ambitious undertaking, and it will be an ongoing task to find, verify, and post memorials to other City of Merced veterans who may not be on the current list.
“We don’t believe it is a complete list,”Mike Conway says.“We are seeking the public’s help in making it complete.”
The city staff has started this project with the names of 80 military personnel from the City who have died while serving during combat.
One complication is limited records on World War I Veterans.
That is why Assistant City Manager Stephanie Dietz says her team needs help from the community.
“If your loved one was a City resident who died in battle and is not on this list, please let us know.”
The current list of the eighty City residents being memorialized is posted at www.cityofmerced.org/veterans.
The most recent death memorialized on the signs is US Army Private First Class Luca C. Hopper. Private Hopper died on October 30, 2009.
More names will be added as City staff, working with local veterans groups, verifies other City of Merced residents who were killed in action.
More names may be added if there are more deaths of City residents serving in the current war in Afghanistan. The names I chose to use in the column represent four branches of the armed services: Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines.
I selected one from each war America has fought since World War I, and I included two for World War I as there were only two in that category. Hopefully, when we see these signs we remember not only the soldier whose name appears, but all the men and women throughout the country who made the sacrifice.
Soldiers like Army Private Tuyn and Mechanic John R. Veary are remembered today, more than one-hundred years after they were killed in action thanks to this effort by the City of Merced.
We are grateful to these brave men for their service and proud of the sacrifice from all our veterans.**
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
He remembers his Uncle Bill Newvine who served in Vietnam in the book Finding Bill, available at Lulu.com
San Luis Reservoir-Looking Good at Fifty
2017 Marks the Golden Anniversary of the Completion of the Reservoir
People have used the San Luis Reservoir in western Merced County, California as a barometer of just how bad the drought was, or how intense the flow of melting snow pack from the Sierra Nevada Mountains has been.
The San Luis Reservoir in Los Banos, Merced County. Photo by Steve Newvine
I’ve always been impressed by this massive lake in the Pacheco Pass between Los Banos and Gilroy. The visitor center at the Romero Outlook always made for a convenient and safe rest stops on trips to and from the coast.
The Vista is impressive.
This spring and summer, friends and family who passed through the Reservoir along State Route 152 told us that the water level was at an all-time high. My wife and I made a visit there early in July to see for ourselves.
An up close look at the water in the San Luis Reservoir. Photo by Steve Newvine
Display inside the center. photo by steve Newvine
To a passing visitor not familiar with the Reservoir, it’s easy to lose perspective of just how high the current water table is.
During the drought years, it was relatively easy to see little or no water down below from the observation point. Now with water covering the Reservoir bed, it is clear that conditions have changed.
But to what magnitude that change has been felt, I had to ask the visitor center staff.
A staff person told us that at the peak of the California drought last summer, the Reservoir was at less than three percent capacity. At the time we visited in early July of 2017, we were told that the water level was just over ninety-eight percent of capacity.
There’s no apparent danger that this Reservoir will exceed capacity as the water is controlled coming in through the California Aqueduct from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta.
The water is held by the San Luis Dam or the B F Sisk Dam.
Water from the reservoir irrigates over sixty-thousand acres in the Santa Clara Valley. Electricity is generated as a result of all this water moving through the Reservoir.
The Visitor Center at the Romero Outlook of the San Luis Reservoir. Photo by Steve Newvine
The visitor center has a number of photographs and historical artifacts from its five-decade history.
President John F. Kennedy visited the area early in his presidency when construction of the project began. You can see that speech on You Tube.
In his speech at the dedication ceremonies on August 18, 1962, the President greeted the crowd humorously by saying,
“ It is a pleasure for me to come out here and help plow up this valley in the cause of progress.”
The fifty-fifth anniversary of that visit is August 18, 2017.
One section of the visitor center features Ronald Reagan, who visited the project during his term as California Governor.
Photographs of the two Presidents take up space along the walls of the visitor center.
Then Governor Ronald Reagan’s image covers part of a wall at the San Luis Reservoir. Photo by Steve Newvine
There’s a room with chairs and a loop of video that explains other details of this man-made wonder. The Reservoir is now moving into the sixth decade of operation to provide water and hydropower.
There’s a lot of history of how this western Merced County’s engineering and construction marvel was conceived, built, and maintained. It’s worth an extended visit the next time your travels take you through Pacheco Pass.
The vista of the Reservoir footprint is impressive. At times, it has taken my breath away. It may do the same for you.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced. He’s planning on releasing a new book about California in the coming months.
Merced Radio Station KYOS to Mark 80th Anniversary in October
If you listen to local AM radio station KYOS (1480 on the dial, 1480kyos.com on the internet), you have probably heard an announcer proudly announce at the top of each hour that the station has been serving Merced since 1936.
K97.5 Program Manager Dave Luna’s voice is heard on station promotional announcements for KYOS. Photo by Steve Newvine
On October 13, the station will reach a historic milestone: eighty years on the air.
The station began serving the city of Merced from a studio in the Hotel Tioga. It was a daytime station at that time. It would sign-on (a term that comes from a broadcasting regulatory requirement that a radio operator sign a program and engineering log) every morning and then sign-off at sunset.
It began with a relatively low-powered signal that could cover the city. In later years, the station’s signal was boosted so it could cover Merced County. The broadcast day eventually would be lengthened to 24-hours.
Throughout Merced’s history in the twentieth century and so far into these early years of the new century, the community has seen a multitude of change. One constant has been the AM radio station that has continuously been the voice of the community for eighty years.
Another constant for close to half of those eighty years has been radio announcer Dave Luna. He’s the Program Manager and morning personality for K97.5, the FM sister station owned by Radio Merced’s parent company Mappleton Communications.
Dave listened to KYOS as a teen growing up in Newman in Stanislaus County. He went to work for the station part time beginning in 1979 and has worked for the various owners of the broadcast group that includes KYOS full time since leaving college.
A bumper sticker from the heyday of station KYOS. Photo from KYOS.
“KYOS was the big top forty rock-and-roll station in Merced,” Dave told me from his K97.5 studio on Main Street in Merced. “It’s what all of us listened to in those days.”
Dave says he moved to the FM side of the house as more and more listeners gravitated away from AM stations. His time with KYOS follows a pattern that is close to a history of AM radio in the United States.
“AM radio is tough,” he says. “Some AMs have just shut down, some are hoping news and talk will save them. “
KYOS runs satellite driven programming of news and talk radio Monday through Friday. Weekend programming includes some public service programs and an oldies format with music from the fifties, sixties, and seventies.
An early broadcast home to KYOS. Picture from KYOS
One can only imagine what those early years for KYOS were like. Radio was still a relatively new communication medium. While there were network shows like The Jack Benny Program or Fibber McGee and Molly, Merced audiences likely were drawn to local programs.
As music became the primary program source for radio in the years following the start of television, stations like KYOS found their new niche and were big players in local communities.
“I remember driving by the KYOS studio at the corner of 18th and Main when I was a teen,” Dave Luna recalls. “You could see the thunderbird logo on the building and the announcer through the large glass window. My buddies and I would wave and the announcer might wave back.”
Those were glorious times that have faded somewhat for local radio in the advent of large corporate ownership, changing listener tastes, and automation.
The iconic thunderbird logo on the KYOS studio at G and 18th Streets in Merced. Photo from KYOS
But KYOS has survived. It may not be the powerhouse it was in the fifties, sixties, and seventies, but it has carved out an audience that prefers news and talk.
For many loyal audience members, it is a station they are familiar with and a place they feel comfortable listening to on a regular basis.
There are no special plans to commemorate the milestone KYOS will soon mark. While the station’s eightieth anniversary may be just around the corner, the focus in radio is always on the future.
And what will the station look like in twenty years when a one-hundredth anniversary may be in order?
“Radio now is still connecting with listeners who don’t want to pay for satellite services - Stations like K97.5 connect with our audience not only on the airwaves but also through social media.”
Local radio competes in a marketplace filled with many outlets for people to inform and entertain themselves.
Successful staff people, like Dave Luna with his over thirty-five-year tenure with the station, have found success by being resourceful and by being adaptable to changes in the work environment.
“I learned some valuable lessons from my dad about work ethic,” he says. “I have adapted and will continue to adapt as radio evolves.”
Dave Luna keeps rock and roll photos and vintage album covers on the studio wall at the Radio Merced offices on Main Street in Merced. Photo by Steve Newvine
Dave has seen a lot of change in his years with KYOS and K97.5. For him, the most drastic shift came when the Castle Air Force Base closed in the mid-1990s.
He said it was common when the Base was in operation to see many military people walking down Main Street in Merced on a weekday.
Those days are gone, but new days are on the horizon. A radio station that broadcast the news of the United States entering World War II, the election of a dozen presidents, the moon landing, and so many other iconic events, continues to inform and entertain listeners in and around Merced County.
Happy eightieth anniversary to KYOS!
Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
He’s written Sign On at Sunrise, a novel about a young man who works at an AM radio station in the 1970s.
Steve worked part time at radio station WBRV in Boonville, New York in the 1970s. That station recently marked its sixty-first anniversary.
The Central Valley’s Part in Tony Bennett’s Legacy
Tony Bennett turns ninety this summer. While fans around the world will remember him for the song about San Francisco, the Central Valley played a small, yet significant role the singer’s career.
Tony Bennett’s enduring music catalog. Photo by Steve Newvine
Elvis liked his style. Sinatra called him his favorite singer. It has been a remarkable career for the singer whose first records were made in the early 1950s.
Through the years, music formats changed. But Tony never really changed. Sticking to popular tunes better known as the Great American Songbook, he kept plugging along. Through good times and bad, he was around, “picking up the pieces” as he sings from an early hit, making music.
He was the first musical guest on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on October 1, 1962. He performed his newest single on that program. The tune, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, would become his signature song.
To me, the song is more than just a tribute to that “City by the Bay” as the song lyrics go. The song connects with the desire many of us have to go home. No matter where we end up in life, we’d like to think that home is always welcoming us back.
Tony once told an interviewer that U.S. soldiers in the Vietnam War would see the Golden Gate Bridge upon their return from the service. Invariably, someone would break out in song singing I Left My Heart in San Francisco.
As my uncle served in Vietnam, I’d like to think he and his fellow returning soldiers did the same thing upon their return to the states.
My journey as a Tony Bennett fan began in the mid-1970s when he was a frequent guest on the Tonight Show.
Johnny Carson preferred to have pop music artists of the Tony Bennett/Steve Lawrence genre. I was a teenager preferring rock-and-roll, but I liked Carson.
So I figured if Johnny favored these artists, they must be good. I was a Tony Bennett fan long before it was fashionable.
I realize now that the 1970s was possibly the most trying years of his career. At times during that decade he was addicted to drugs, his long time record label Columbia dropped him, and he toiled away in less popular venues before smaller crowds.
I remember seeing a picture of him taken from that time at a Rochester, New York area restaurant. The owner saw me admiring the photograph in the early 1990s. He pointed to himself standing alongside Tony in that picture.
He told me the photo was taken after a performance in western New York. The man shared with me how he saw the singer again twenty-years later and asked Tony whether he remembered that particular performance.
Tony told him “I don’t remember much of what happened in the seventies."
Life is Beautiful album by Tony Bennett
The first Tony Bennett record I bought was a long-playing 33 RPM called Life is Beautiful on the obscure Improv label. The album was made in the seventies; I found it brand new in a clearance bin at a big box store. The songs were well done. The title song was written by Fred Astaire.
In the 1980s, Tony kept plugging along and my only connection to him was through his frequent appearances on the Carson show. Toward the end of the decade, he would turn to his son Danny to manage his career. That’s when the new Tony Bennett emerged.
Danny was able to restore his dad’s recording contract with Columbia. He booked his father with some younger acts such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
He also got his dad featured in an hour-long MTV episode of the Unplugged series. That appearance featured duets with K.D. Lang and Elvis Costello. The live concert CD release captured the excitement of that evening and is credited with moving Tony to a new fan base.
In May 1992, Tony appeared on the last week of the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Tony sang two songs. One was Johnny’s favorite, I’ll be Seeing You. The other was I Left My Heart in San Francisco.
Mementos from Tony Bennett’s concert at the William Sayoran Theater in Fresno in 2004. Photo from the Newvine Personal Collection
And now to how the Central Valley played a small role in the legacy of Tony Bennett.
I saw Tony perform in Fresno in 2004. I recognized every song but one. That particular composition, All for You, he explained to the audience at the William Sayoran Theater, was a new song in which he tried his hand at writing lyrics. He performed it for the very first time on stage that night in Fresno. In his second autobiography Life is a Gift, he wrote of singing the song on stage that night in Fresno. “I was bowled over by their (the audience) reaction” he wrote. “They went crazy for it.”
The words for All for You were the only song lyrics he ever wrote.
I’d like to think I led the enthusiastic applause when he performed that song on that night. I know I was the most enthusiastic fan in the theater as he performed I Left My Heart in San Francisco.
I’ve already begun celebrating Tony’s ninetieth by playing his music daily. The music has endured, his interpretations continue to layer over the many songs in his catalog.
He is a class act. Happy Birthday Tony!
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
Energy and Enthusiasm, in the Early Years of Work
Learning about the untimely passing of a colleague from three decades ago brought back memories from working in local television news with some very special people.
Covering the news in Huntsville, Alabama. Photo from the Newvine Personal Collection
An email arrived recently informing me that a former colleague from my television reporting days had passed away.
After experiencing the shock from learning of Helen's death and having thoughts for her two grown children, I spent a few moments to grieve over the passing of my former co-worker. All three emotions: shock, concern, and grief were experienced in the course of an afternoon.
The first fifteen years of my professional life were spent as a television journalist working in a total of five local stations in different parts of the country. I cherish the memories from those years, and consider myself fortunate that I have stayed in contact with at least a handful of colleagues.
But there is a special place in my heart for the two years I worked in Huntsville, Alabama.
This column is not about how those good old days were so much better than it must be for electronic journalists working in the media today. It was a different time. Electronic news gathering in the 1980s was the only true high tech medium for the time. Journalists now have the internet, vest cameras, surveillance footage, cell phones, and webcams in their electronic toolboxes.
The rules were much different three decades ago with editors reviewing news copy, ethics guiding most decisions about appropriateness, and gut instincts playing an important role over decisions about fairness.
This is not about the differences from my time in the media to now. This is about the similarities; or at least what many of us hope endures over time: good memories.
Those years created many smiles.
While live on-the-scene reports were common on local television stations in the early 1980s, moving the entire news anchor team on location was a relatively new trend. Pictured are WAAY weather man Bob Baron, anchor Jim Marsh and the late Helen Howard in a newscast dedicated to summer recreation. Photo from the Newvine Personal Collection.
In those formative early years in northern Alabama, my coworkers and I learned a lot about the exciting world of local television news. The station had a remote van that allowed us to report from just about any place in northern Alabama and southern Tennessee.
I did my first live report from the local Republican Party celebration on election night when Ronald Reagan was elected President.
Our station experimented with lots of ideas that were new for the early eighties but seemingly normal in local news today. Some nights, we would take the whole anchor team including the weather and sports casters, on location and do the entire broadcast from the field.
From time to time, we would interrupt network programming to broadcast bulletins to our audience. This practice usually generated calls from viewers who missed something in the sitcom we were interrupting. My news director would dismiss the complaints with explanations to the staff along the lines of “they may hate us for interrupting, but they’ll remember us.”
I remember getting home one afternoon after pulling an early morning shift when the phone rang. The news department’s assignment editor dispatched me to the airport where a big fire had broken out. I had already worked about ten hours and was looking forward to a relaxing evening. But the story needed to be reported, and I got my instructions to meet the live truck at the airport. I arrived on the scene moments before the six o’clock newscast began, reported what few details I knew at the beginning of the newscast, promised the viewers more later, and returned with another live report before the newscast ended.
I’ll never forget the night before Thanksgiving in 1981 when I was sent to a remote part of the viewing area where a distraught man was holding his wife and young child hostage. My photographer and I, along with our competitors from other news media, stayed with the story until it ended in the early hours of Thanksgiving morning. Upon returning to the station, I worked on my script, recorded my narration, headed home, and took my wife out for Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant. It was the most sleep-deprived holiday I ever endured.
And there were little things about working with a group of good humored folks.
I remember calling the general manager's secretary by her name "Mrs. Higgins" using my impression of Tim Conway's old man Tudball's character from the Carol Brunett Show. I can only hope the real Mrs. Higgins appreciated the reference.
Even Helen, the person whose passing is now bringing up so many memories, got the best of me one night when I asked her to pick up a sandwich for me on the way back from a reporting assignment. I asked for a Whopper with no onions.
She had the sandwich made with triple onions. I was so hungry that I didn't notice the extra onions until about the third bite.
A very young Steve Newvine (bottom left) with co-workers in Huntsville, Alabama. Photo from the Newvine Personal Collection
The men in this photograph were the young Turks of the WAAY-TV newsroom in Huntsville, Alabama in the early 1980s. Shown here at a colleague’s farewell party, we were full of energy, enthusiasm, and optimism.
We would repeat a farewell party every few months as someone in the newsroom accepted a new job in another city. My colleagues were dispersed over the years to such places as Atlanta, New Orleans, Tampa, and in my case Rockford, Illinois where I became one of the youngest television news directors in the country in 1982.
None of us seemed interested in making Huntsville, Alabama our permanent home. The so-called Southern hospitality was wonderful. It was a beautiful city, but many of us were climbing up the career ladder.
My wife and I came to Huntsville as newlyweds. If we were looking for an adventure to start our married life, we found it there. We left about two years later shortly after the birth of our first child. There were high and low points for me professionally during that time, but as with anything meaningful in life, the good times outweighed the bad.
We were ambitious and excited about the work we performed daily at WAAY-TV. Most of us moved on, with only occasional phone calls and a Christmas card to keep us connected for a few years. Eventually, new work brought about new acquaintances. With time, only the memories survived.
So I remember the passing of our colleague Helen. I smile as I recall the time when our hopeful dreams carried each day, and we had no idea how life would end up for all of us.
They were the good old days.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced. He shared some memories of his work covering the US Space program while working in Huntsville in his book Microphones, Moon Rocks, and Memories.
Around the Valley with a Total Reading Time of Five Minutes
What the drought looks like at the former Stevinson Ranch golf course, why visitors love spending time at Hilmar Cheese Visitor Center, and a special designation for Our Lady of Mercy Church in Merced.
Photo by Steve Newvine
There are many signs of what the drought has done to the Central Valley. Drive through any residential neighborhood and you will find brown lawns and dirty cars. It is not surprising to go out to dinner at a local restaurant and see a sign that says “water served on request” as managers comply with California law.
The photograph at the top of this column shows the former hole number one at one of my favorite golf courses, Stevinson Ranch, before it closed in July. Rich green fairways lured golfers to this out-of-the-way world class course for several years. Management closed the course in July due to a drop in business coupled with the ever increasing need for irrigation water.
Now take a look at that same golf hole two months after the watering stopped.
Photo by Steve Newvine
This is What the Drought Looks Like in our Valley
Turning off the irrigation at a golf course pales in comparison to the thousands of acres of farmland throughout the state that have been shut down from production. The valley has gone through a very rough dry patch. Let’s hope we’ve seen the worst of it.
Photo by Steve Newvine
Hilmar Cheese Factory
After nearly a decade living in Merced County, I finally got to see the visitor center at Hilmar Cheese. Every year, the Center at 9001 Lander Avenue, welcomes more than 15,000 school students for field trips, at least 300 tour buses, and thousands of others.
Inside, there are displays showing the basics of cheese production. But as many of us know, making the dairy product at Hilmar Cheese is a sophisticated process. According to an environmental news website, the company employed nearly eight-hundred workers in Hilmar in 2010, with more employees at a facility in Texas. Hilmar Cheese turns out two tons of cheese daily.
The visitor center offers a welcoming environment for families, includes a gift shop, and offers a tribute to the agriculture industry in the valley. It’s worth the trip
Photo by Steve Newvine
Holy Year of Mercy
Finally, Our Lady of Mercy Church in Merced is set to welcome visitors from throughout California over the next twelve months.
Pope Francis has named the 2016 church year as the “Holy Year of Mercy”. The official name is the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
In the Diocese of Fresno, Bishop Armando Ochoa has designated Our Lady of Mercy as a “stationary church for the faithful” during the year of mercy. It’s expected the Bishop will authorize special Mass times and services throughout the church year, which runs from December 8, 2015 through November 20, 2016. The Our Lady of Mercy Preservation Foundation receives contributions for the upkeep of the church. A fund raiser was recently held at St. Patrick’s Parish Hall.
The church expects many visitors to come to Our Lady of Mercy over the next twelve months. The church is located at 459 W. 21st Street in Merced.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/hilmar-cheese
Thank You for Hiring Me
Labor Day is set aside to honor the virtue of hard work. It’s a day off for many folks, and just another day at the job site for many others. In the northeastern United States, Labor Day signaled the end of the summer vacation season.
Growing up in upstate New York, my first day of school was traditionally on the Tuesday following Labor Day.The Jerry Lewis Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy was held on Labor Day weekend up until a few years ago.
But if the first Monday in September is set aside to bring attention to our labor force, a day should be set aside to draw attention to the people who have done the hiring. These owners, managers, human resource professionals, and others deserve some sort of call out.
I occasionally think of the people who hired me for several jobs I held over many years.
Newvine Personal Collection
When my broadcasting career was launched at a small radio station, a man named Dave hired me at the end of a short interview for a weekend announcer. He needed someone fast, and with a recommendation from another staff person who knew me, the job was offered on a Friday without the standard voice audition. It was accepted immediately by me and I was on the air that weekend.
My first television job
A man named Mark gave me my first television reporter job.
He’s in the picture at the top of this column.Mark had several candidates from which to choose. After an in-person interview, I waited about a week before receiving his call that included points about the salary, benefits, and the expected working shift.
He did everything except offer me the job. He told me he would have to run his choice past the station manager and that if everything went well, he would call me the next day. I slept only three hours that night and waited all day long the next day for the call.
It finally came at 6:30 PM. The job was offered and I accepted on the spot.
When I switched careers in the mid-1990s, a man named Joe headed the search committee for the job of executive director at a chamber of commerce. The decision was not entirely his, but as the chairman of the committee, his view carried considerable weight. He saw some potential of bringing someone from a different field of work into an organization. I remember the phrase “transferrable skills” was used by him on several occasions.
Thirteen years later, a woman named Mary made the difference in my professional career by again seeing the potential of “transferable skills” to position me in a new role helping local governments save energy.
I try to call her every year on my work anniversary date to thank her for that leap of faith.
It’s important to be ready to work.
We hear a lot about education, job training and the so-called “soft” skills such as promptness, following through, and good customer service.
All of this matters. But when I think back on the successes I’ve had in getting hired in the first place, I always get back to the person who made the decision to invest their company’s resources in me.
They could have hired someone else. But something spoke to their decision-making process and helped swing the pendulum in my direction.
For that judgment, I say thank you!
We rightly focus a lot of effort in the direction toward finding and keeping a job. As we take a day off to celebrate Labor Day this year, I urge you to spend a little time remembering the people who said those two magic words:
You’re hired!
Steve Newvine lives in Merced and serves as the immediate Past Chair of the Merced County Workforce Investment Board.
His book Soft Skills in Hard Times is dedicated to the people who hired him at various jobs over the years.You may read a preview of the book at:http://www.lulu.com/shop/steve-newvine/soft-skills-for-hard-times-new-forward-teens-in-the-20-teens/paperback/product-20506951.html
Housekeeping with Golf, Graffiti, and a Good Friend
In this case, there’s some new information on a previous column that may be of interest. I also have an update on a column topic that I have tapped two other times in the past year. And the final item is about a good friend of mine.
The last time I did a housekeeping column, I thanked Modesto Bee writer Jim Agostino for the concept, especially for the phrase at the beginning of the piece telling the reader approximately how long it will take to read.
In this case, the estimated reading time is four minutes.
Stevinson Ranch Golf Course Flag, Photo by Newvine Personal Collection
Stevinson Ranch Golf Course just sent out an email to the people who were regular subscribers of their email service telling us that memorabilia from the course is for sale.
The course closed in July
People can buy flags from the putting greens for $20 each. The remaining golf hole signs, carved into wood and showing the layout of a particular hole, are selling for $100 each.
I took a picture of one of those flags when I played there for the last time a couple of months ago. My souvenirs from that course are the memories it gave me over the last couple of seasons when I returned there after an extended absence.
A flag would be nice, but I’d rather look ahead to the next challenging golf course that becomes my favorite.
Frankly, the whole story about Stevinson closing is kind of sad.
The owners did what they had to do. I don’t blame them.
I accept their business decision, but I now have a round to play somewhere else.
Mail Pouch Tobacco barn
Mail Pouch Barn, South Merced, Photo from Newvine Personal Collection
Do you remember the column that posted in April of 2014 - CLICK HERE on the Mail Pouch Tobacco restored barn sign on highway 99 south of Merced?
That column got a lot of shares and a lot of hits for which I am grateful.
I did an update a few months later - -"Barn Signs and Bureaucracy Collide in Mail Pouch Sign Controversy "- when I learned that the state transportation agency Cal Trans was forcing the barn’s owner to have the advertisement painted on one side of the building removed.
Cal Trans says that’s because the ad violated some rule regarding distance from the highway to where the advertising is displayed.
The rule seemed silly at the time and I said so. I believe I used the word “bureaucratic”.
The state of California ruled that the sign for Brent Jerner’s APG Solar company had to be painted over.
Ironically, if it wasn’t for Brent, the restoration would not have happened in the first place. He was the one who secured a grant from a non-profit agency that paid for a local artist to do the restoration.
The update to the story is even sillier than the bureaucracy I described in that second column on the Mail Pouch barn last year. The side of the barn with the solar company advertisement that had to be painted over is now covered with graffiti.
I’m not showing a picture of that because I don’t like giving graffiti trespassers the exposure they seek.
But to Cal Trans and their bureaucratic decision to take something positive and turn it into a negative, I do say “what do you think of the barn now?”
My first Merced friend
Steve Newvine and Jim North, Photo from Newvine Personal Collection
And finally, a personal note about the man I call my first friend in Merced.
Jim North met me at a golf outing at Stevinson Ranch about nine years ago. I was new to the community, and we were lumped into a foursome.
Little did I know that pairing would last all these years.
Jim was an Air Force veteran. He was one of many who came to Merced County to serve at Castle Air Base. After building a life with his family here, he made the community his home.
Upon leaving the military, Jim owned and operated the Hot Diggity Dog food cart seen at many community events.
Jim and I played golf on a number of occasions over the years. I’ll never forget a day at Rancho Del Rey in Atwater when I pulled out a ball that was part of a dozen given to me by a friend from upstate New York.
I told Jim the whole story and he listened patiently as I explained how this ball from a good friend, how it the last ball in a box of twelve, and how it had my name and birthday stamped on it in honor of my fiftieth birthday.
I then hit the ball into a pond. Jim looked at me, smiled and said, “Well, Happy Birthday I guess.”
Jim and his family have had a rough year.
I hope that story brings a smile to them because I still smile every time I think about it. Steve Newvine lives in Merced
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Contact him at: SteveNewvine@sbcglobal.net