Springtime is Stampede Time in Chowchilla
The opening lyrics to the theme song from the television western series Rawhide say all that needs to be said: “Rollin, rollin, rollin.
59th Annual Chowchilla Western Stampede cattle drive. Picture by Steve Newvine
The herd was rolling. It was rolling down Robertson Boulevard in Chowchilla, California.
The herd of cattle was the highlight for day one of the annual Chowchilla Western Stampede. About one-hundred young steer were led down the city’s main thoroughfare in the heavy rain on the traditional second Friday in March.
The cattle drive is the kick-off to a weekend of rodeo-related roping activities and a tip of the western hat to the cattle raising heritage of this northern Madera County city of about nineteen thousand people.
The Stampede cattle drive brings out the area’s most dedicated cattle people. Picture by Steve Newvine
Rodeos and related roping events are nothing new to the Central Valley, and certainly not new to Chowchilla. 2016 marked the fifty-ninth annual event.
The cattle drive kicks off the weekend as the animals are led from the Chowchilla Fairgrounds, turning east on Robertson Drive, moving down the street until turning right at the intersection just before Highway 99, and then completing their drive right back to the Fairgrounds.
Led by area horsemen and women, alongside cattlemen and young people on horses, with local law enforcement providing the parade security, the drive passes by in a matter of minutes.
It is tradition that keeps the cattle drive going year after year. After all, there is no practical reason why the cattle need to be moved in what amounts to a giant circle in the town’s original business section. It’s done for the community and those who want to get some idea of what a western cattle drive looks like up close.
It’s one of the few opportunities many people will get to see an actual herd of cattle moving down a paved roadway.
Chowchilla Western Stampede. Photo by Steve Newvine
The Chowchilla Western Stampede gets an early start in January with an annual fundraising dinner. Money raised from that dinner is used to award scholarships for agriculture-based education at Chowchilla High, Mariposa High and Yosemite High schools.
The highlight of the dinner is the naming of the Stampede Grand Marshall. This year, local cattleman, former rodeo star, and area business owner Bob Ragsdale was named Grand Marshall.
I tried unsuccessfully to reach Bob to talk about his Grand Marshall honor as well as his rodeo career. But outgoing chairman of the Stampede, Tom Martin told the Merced Sun Star that Bob was the ideal candidate to be Grand Marshall, “He’s a superstar of the rodeo arena, but more importantly, he’s a superstar of a man.”
More than six-hundred people attended the fundraising dinner when Bob was named Grand Marshall.
Bob Ragsdale was born in Montana and began taking part in rodeos while in high school. He qualified for the National Finals Rodeo every year from 1961 to 1975 for calf roping, steer wrestling and team roping.
He was inducted into the St. Paul Rodeo Hall of Fame in Oregon, named to the Rodeo Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and was recently honored by the Montana Pro Rodeo Hall.
Steer from this year’s cattle drive make the turn to head back from where they started at the Chowchilla Fairgrounds. Photo by Steve Newvine
The three-day Stampede event is usually held on the second weekend in March.
It features such events as team roping barrel racing. Top finishers are awarded cash and western oriented prizes.
The cattle drive has been one of those things I’ve been meaning to do over the past few years. Living in nearby Merced, it seemed like there was no reason to put it off any longer.
So I made my way south to Chowchilla to take it all in. I’m glad I did.
So rodeo season is off and galloping in the Central Valley.
While the Chowchilla Western Stampede may not be the biggest event among the many communities who stage activities to celebrate their cattle raising heritage, it has a lot of heart with fifty-nine years of success.
In 2017 when the event reaches its’ sixtieth anniversary, we’ll once again hear the hooves clacking down Robertson Boulevard.
Rollin, rollin, rollin.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
To read and hear the Merced Sun Star’s report on the Stampede dinner, http://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/local/community/article54038230.html#storylink=cpy
Golden Valley Alumnus Serves State Future Farmers of America
There were two things that stood out for Danielle Diele in her senior year at Golden Valley High School in 2013-14: her busy schedule and the joy she got from her involvement with the Future Farmers of America (FFA).
Danielle Diele, California FFA Leadership State Board-Reporter moments after her name was called for the election results at the 87th State FFA Leadership Conference, Selland Arena, Fresno. Picture courtesy of Danielle Diele
In high school, Danielle enjoyed swimming and water polo, her AP (advanced placement) classes, and a competitive atmosphere.
“I always felt challenged by a rather busy schedule,” she said. “And that kept me striving for more.”
In spite of a hectic calendar, there was always time for FFA in high school. She served as an officer in her chapter for three years.
In her senior year, she served as Miss Merced County. She and some school friends started Cinderella’s Closet providing over two-hundred prom dresses for other young ladies in the community. The Closet was handed down to younger classmates and is now in a third year of operation.
Upon graduation from Golden Valley in 2014, Danielle headed to college at California Polytechnic Institute in San Luis Obispo. She joined the local FFA chapter there.
Over 81,000 Californians are members of FFA, making it the largest concentration of future farmers anywhere in the United States. We know them by those distinctive dark blue jackets they wear. FFA is a big part of County fairs all over the state including the Merced County Fair. Having raised a market hog for three years at the Fair, Danielle knows this well.
In April 2015, she was elected to the post of State Reporter for the California Association, FFA. The post involves more than three-hundred days of travel annually. She has taken one year off from her studies at Cal Poly to devote herself fully to the FFA post.
California FFA Leadership Team members- Picture courtesy: Danielle Diele
“We finish our spring semesters, and then move into the FFA Center in June,” she said. “From there, we go on countless industry tours and meet with industry leaders, represent FFA and Career Technical Education as we meet with many legislators, as well as the California Secretary of Agriculture, Karen Ross, and the United States Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary, Krysta Hardin.”
Another big part of Danielle’s official duties center around Chapter visits throughout the state. “We meet with an FFA Chapter and stay one night with a Chapter Member,” she says. “The next morning, we go to school with the member, and teach three leadership workshops.” Chapter visits generally run from September through January, averaging about four schools per week.
Danielle at MCOE, Caption: Future Farmers of America State Reporter Danielle Diele speaks before three-hundred guests at the Merced County Office of Education Annual Education Report luncheon in Merced. Photo by Steve Newvine
Danielle’s official role as State Reporter brought her back to Merced where she spoke before the annual Merced County Office of Education Report Luncheon held February 25th(a second luncheon for western Merced County was held a day later in Los Banos). In Merced, Danielle spoke before a group of three hundred educators, legislative staff, elected officials, and business leaders. Her message before the group attending at Yosemite Church in Merced focused on Career Technical Education (CTE).
“Career Technical Education values critical thinking, problem-solving, and a Learn-By-Doing approach,” she told the group. "Higher level high school courses are the knowledge, and Career Technical Education is the application of that knowledge."
She told the Merced group about the diversity of farming she’s seen from the vantage point of her statewide role within FFA. She has toured large agriculture enterprises such as Foster Farms in Livingston, met farmers from around the world at the World Ag Expo in Tulare County, and has met many farm families all over the state. She shared a story with her Merced audience about staying with a small farm family. The mother of this family offered her the only bedroom in the house with a mattress.
“My perspective has changed immensely this last year,” she said to me via email response to my questions. “I have seen the struggles that people of all kinds have, and I am grateful that each home welcomed me with open arms, no matter the situation.”
Danielle Diele, California FFA Leadership Board-State Reporter.Picture: www.calaged.org)
Danielle returns to her full-time student status after her term as State Reporter ends later in the spring. She plans to attend graduate school after finishing the undergraduate degree.
She wants to become an Agricultural Communicator. Her passion and desire is to advocate for the agricultural industry.
She has had an incredible opportunity representing FFA throughout California. She says she has grown as a person.
“There is no such thing as a 'typical' day serving as a State FFA Officer,” she said.
On the 99- Turlock’s Big Bulldozer
That big bulldozer building in Stanislaus County along California’s Highway 99 marks a fortieth anniversary in 2016.
The office for United Equipment in Turlock. Photo: Steve Newvine)
Highway 99 offers a lot of interesting things to see, but the sight of that big bulldozer in Turlock is one place that few people can forget. It is a two-story office building for United Equipment Company in Turlock. It’s been a functioning office for the company since opening in 1976.
The idea for building a structure that would serve the growing company and attract lots of attention came from company founder Harold Logsdon back in the mid-1970s. At the time, Highway 99 was going through an expansion to accommodate an ever increasing traffic flow.
The building was designed to replicate a Cat D5 bulldozer. The building was constructed with steel, aluminum, plywood and redwood. It is twenty-one feet high, twenty-eight feet wide, and sixty-six feet long. It provides two stories of office space.
“Dad wanted something that would stand out,” Harold’s daughter Brenda told me in 2008 when I interviewed her for my book 9 From 99, Experiences in California’s Central Valley. A lot of companies were moving to locations close to the expanded highway. United Equipment joined in with the influx and created an office that would also serve as a three-dimensional billboard.
“Dad asked an architect to come up with a design for a bulldozer to sit on top of a building,” Brenda Schmidt said. The architect gave the idea some thought and suggested that the building itself could look like that familiar piece of earth-moving equipment.
“My father approved the plans, and the building project was launched,” Brenda said.
That was in 1976 and people have been viewing the bulldozer building ever since. United Equipment still operates from that office, even though the company has expanded considerably in the past forty years. Mitch and Dustin Logsdon remain in place as company President and Sales Manager respectively.
“The building has been excellent for our company,” Mitch told me recently. “It gives the company a little notoriety and that’s good for business.”
Painted bulldozer yellow, the building combines functionality for a business office with authenticity and attention to detail. The dozer blade is a room housing the facility’s water sprinkler system. The dozer appears to be pushing dirt, and on careful inspection, one can tell that even the dirt and rock appear to have been placed with care and attention to detail.
Inside, the offices help the staff carry out the day-to-day business operations for United Equipment. The entryway includes a small display of news articles that have appeared in newspapers all over the world about this amazing building in Turlock, California.
In 2008, Brenda Schmidt shared a story about a phone call the company got from an equipment manufacturer in Saudi Arabia. She recalled the foreign firm had read about the big bulldozer, and wanted to know shipping dimensions for what was thought to be the real thing. The Saudi Arabian company thought the two-story bulldozer was an actual working piece of equipment.
“They were kind of disappointed when we told them it wasn’t real,” Brenda said.
The building has a worldwide reputation. Mitch Logsdon has traveled extensively for his work as President of the company. “I’ve seen pictures of the building on the desks of equipment executives in Tokyo,” he said.
The building still attracts a lot of curious folks from all over the state. Mitch says people have walked in to ask whether the building is a real office, or to see for themselves that is it not a real piece of construction equipment.
“We’ve heard stories of kids who were sleeping in their parents’ cars, awakened by Mom or Dad to see that giant bulldozer out their window,” Mitch said. “We still hear stories of parents pulling that prank on their kids.”
The City of Turlock in Stanislaus County has a lot to offer the rest of the world. Medic Alert, the company that is known for those ID bracelets that point out a medical condition to emergency personnel, is headquartered in Turlock. The City also is home to California State University at Stanislaus or Stan State as many people refer to the four year college.
Chances are hundreds of thousands of people passing through this stretch of Highway 99 in southern Stanislaus County have no idea of what other things Turlock has to offer. But one thing is for certain: they will likely never forget that big bulldozer.
Almost Famous- Meeting Authors, Politicians, and Actors
In a working career now approaching four decades, I am surprised at the number of celebrities I have met.
Saturday Night Live announcer Don Pardo and Steve Newvine. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection
My first career in television news afforded me many opportunities to meet famous people. Whether they were politicians seeking election, actors promoting a project, or heroes who accomplished something truly special, I have taken many memories from each encounter.
The first real celebrity I met was taxpayer advocate Howard Jarvis of California. Fresh from his victory in getting Proposition Thirteen approved in California and thus changing the way real property has been taxed in the state, he was in Binghamton, New York to support a campaign to make it easier for voters to put propositions on the ballot. I interviewed him for the television station where I was a general assignment reporter.
I also recall the movie Airplane had just come out and Jarvis’ cameo in that picture, where he sits in the back of a taxi cab throughout the movie, was clearly in the back of my mind. Unfortunately, I did not ask him about that appearance. I’m sure he would have given me a much more memorable response than he did on the subject of voter referendum.
I also met then candidate George H.W. Bush (or Bush 41) while at that first reporting job in Binghamton. He didn’t need the H. W. middle initials back in 1980 when he was trying to wrestle the Republican Presidential nomination from front-runner Ronald Reagan. Those initials were added once his son George W. became active in national politics.
I met Bush 41 again after leaving the field of journalism. About fifteen years later, the now former President spoke at the State University of New York College at Geneseo.
My wife and I met him at a reception following the speech. She asked him about raising children and his answer politely deflected anything specific.
A few years after that encounter, then U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton visited Livingston County, New York as part of an effort to visit every one of the state’s sixty-five counties. I remember asking her whether she had any dealings with wisdom teeth as my daughter was having dental surgery that week.
She looked straight at me and said Chelsea had her wisdom teeth removed, and that my wife and I should make sure my daughter had plenty of videos and lots of love to take her mind off the pain. There’s a picture of Mrs. Clinton standing next to me at the Yard of Ale restaurant in Piffard, New York.
Cover of Microphones, Moon Rocks, and Memories taken as two Space Shuttle astronauts arrive in Huntsville, Alabama. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection
While working in Huntsville, Alabama as a television reporter, I was assigned the space beat. Huntsville was the home of the Marshall Space Flight Center where several components to the space shuttle were developed and managed.
NASA had a tradition of sending astronaut teams to the local Space Centers following a mission so that the workers could be thanked appropriately.
The cover photo from my book Microphones, Moon Rocks, and Memories shows a very young me doing a live report as two astronauts arrive by plane in the background. Those two astronauts were Joe Engle and Richard Truly who flew in the very first space shuttle mission.
I also met Astronaut Walter Schirra as he visited the Alabama Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville where several actual spacecraft from the early days of the space program were on display. He was taken to a Gemini spacecraft that he flew in the 1960s.
I recall his remarks to the crowd as he wondered how he ever got into the tiny spacecraft in the first place.
Huntsville also gave me the opportunity to meet three stars of television: Pat Buttram (who played Mr. Haney on Green Acres), Efren Zimbalist, Jr. (from The F.B.I.) and Kay Lenz. Butrram and Zimbalist were campaigning for Ronald Reagan; Lenz was promoting a movie. Her career never really took off but she continues to do television roles. I saw her in an episode of NCIS a few years ago.
In the early 1980s, I found myself working in the newsroom of WOKR-TV (Now WHAM-TV) in Rochester, New York. It was there where I met television news icon David Brinkley. He visited our station’s new news center on his way to a speaking engagement at the Eastman Theater. I was too busy producing that afternoon’s six o’clock newscast to pay much attention to him, but I was able to attend a reception in his honor following his appearance at the Theater. As luck would have it, I had a chance to have a short conversation with him about local news (which he thought was pretty good back in 1983). I wrote an appreciation essay on his contributions to television news in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle following his death in 2003.
A few years later, I would meet the original On the Road CBS reporter Charles Kuralt when he visited CBS affiliate WROC-TV in Rochester where I worked as Executive Producer. He was brought into Rochester to speak at an evening event and our Station Manager imposed on him to stop by the television station to visit the news department.
I was helping a reporter write a particularly challenging sentence when the Manager brought Kuralt into the newsroom. We were in awe of this man who practically defined television feature reporting.
I recall he smiled a lot, did not say much, and had a pack of Pall Mall unfiltered cigarettes in his shirt pocket.
I met and spoke with authors David Halberstam and Doris Kearns Goodwin at the same speakers’ series (in different years) at the State University of New York College in Geneseo where I met President Bush. Halberstam had written The Fifties, and I recall our conversation centering on Elvis Presley. Kearns Goodwin spoke about the biography of Abraham Lincoln she was working on (she would title it Team of Rivals and publish it in 2005). Our brief discussion following the speech was about her book Wait Until Next Year. The book was about growing up on Long Island in the 1950s, coping with life after the passing of her mother, and being a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. We got on the subject of mothers: mine had passed away recently and Kearns Goodwin wrote extensively about losing her mom at a young age in that particular book.
I sat in the front row of a news conference where Jerry Lewis was promoting his performances in the traveling production of the musical Damn Yankees. I wasn’t in the news reporting business anymore (a friend in the business got me into the news conference), but I asked Lewis about a reference he made to a book he was writing on his comedy partnership with Dean Martin. He gave a very long and interesting response to my question. The book Dean and Me came out two years later.
Actress Teresa Ganzel and Steve Newvine. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection
Probably my favorite time meeting celebrities came in 2007 and 2009 when I attended the Game Show Congress in Hollywood. The Congress was formed to honor the significant contributors to television game shows. I met dozens of game show hosts, announcers, producers, and celebrity guest game players at these two events. These stars were accommodating to the attendees. They posed for pictures and I could tell they enjoyed the attention. I appreciated being around the people who entertained me so much on school sick days and summer vacation when I could watch daytime television in the sixties and seventies. I met Betty White, Don Pardo, Wink Martindale, Florence Henderson, and Teresa Ganzel among many others. Teresa played the Tea Time Movie Lady in the Art Fern sketches during the final years of the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. As we were posing for the picture, I told her how I enjoyed her work with Carson who had passed away in 2005. She told me, “We all enjoyed Johnny. He was wonderful to work with.”
From the world of music I met Davy Jones from the Monkees and music personality Mitch Miller during my years in Rochester, New York. Davy was in a production of The Real Live Brady Bunch, a camp stage show where actors played the roles of the Brady television family. Mitch, then in his seventies, lived in Rochester part of the year and was at the station to promote a Fourth of July concert (his birthday) where he would conduct the local symphony. Both were gracious and comfortable with their celebrity status. I think it was easier being a celebrity back then than it is today.
I’m glad it was a little bit easier back then because it allowed me to approach some of these celebrities, shake their hands, and talk about a variety of topics. These famous people, along with at least a dozen others whose stories I could not share for lack of time, were accessible. They appreciated the attention as much as we appreciated their sharing of themselves for a quick comment or observation.
It was a special time with some extraordinary people.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado by Rail
It’s been an item on my wife Vaune’s bucket list for several years: ride the California Zephyr across the country.
The California Zephyr. Photo by Steve Newvine.
We did not go the entire length of Amtrak’s iconic railroad route from San Francisco to Chicago, but thanks to our new grandson we accomplished a substantial portion of that journey.
To visit our grandson and his parents, we booked a sleeper car from Sacramento to Denver. We boarded Amtrak from the Merced station and then traveled to Stockton where we transferred to a bus that would take us to the Sacramento train station.
From there, we boarded the Zephyr for the thirty-plus hour voyage through four states. It was a bumpy ride at times, but such is life on a train.
The California Zephyr follows part of the trail blazed by the Donner party. This is Donner Lake. Photo by Steve Newvine
Heading into the Sierra Mountains, we saw our first winter snow in nearly ten years. From our compartment window, the vistas were spectacular as we viewed much of what California has to offer for those willing to move up in elevation.
Soon, we were in Nevada
Reno’s train line leaves little for the rail passenger to see. That’s the Sands Hotel above. Photo by Steve Newvine.
Early on in the mountainous region of the state, we enjoyed great scenery. However, a stop in Reno was less than spectacular because the train station that was designed to welcome Amtrak passengers had cement walls going about two stories below ground that only allowed us to see the top of the Sands and one other hotel.
The tourism promotion side of me scratched my head over the thought process that led to that design decision. Reno is a great small city, but you really would not know that from what you see at the train stop.
More mountains, pristine waterways, and wildlife followed as we headed through the western edge of Nevada. Before long, we were in the state of Utah where a stark landscape would eventually offer some of the most spectacular color we experienced on the trip.
Utah’s Ruby Canyon is a geological wonder and an amazing cacophony of color at sunset. Photo by Steve Newvine
Through the range of glacier-carved stone, our train window served as a high-definition viewing screen to admire a true world wonder. Cloud cover removed a good deal of the color on our eastbound trip through Ruby Canyon.
But on the return westbound trek, the sun offered ideal highlighting of the natural color that is a signature of this place. Later on, our conductor called attention to two bald eagles perched in a tree. We saw two more on the return trip as well.
At over 8,000 feet elevation, it was a very cold but strikingly beautiful stop along our trip in Fraser, Colorado. Photo by Steve Newvine
With about six hours to go before ending our journey, we crossed into Colorado and stopped at one of the highest points. On our journey going east and west, we stopped at Grand Junction and the community of Fraser.
Snow and cold is big business in this community that offers its residents and visitors many months of winter sporting activities. The sign at the Fraser train depot read that we were at 8,565 feet above sea level.
The final destination of our trip was Union Station in Denver. Photo by Steve Newvine
That’s a long way from Merced both in distance and in elevation. Most Central Valley communities are at sea levels of one or two digits. Our conductor noted that the Zephyr reaches the highest altitude of all the Amtrak train routes in the United States.
We arrived in Denver shortly after six PM mountain-time or approximately thirty-hours after boarding the Zephyr in California. As sleeper car passengers, our meals were included.
At every trip to the dining car, we were seated with two other passengers to fill out a four-seat booth. As a result, we met travelers from as far away as New Zealand, as well as passengers from such places as Canada, New Orleans, Michigan, Ohio, and even the Bay Area of California.
The conversations were great as we learned more about why people would spend a day or two, or for some many more, on a train when we all know there are faster ways to travel.
The answers reveal how sometimes it’s just good for the soul to kick back and take your time.
There’s an often-told saying that goes something like this: sometimes the journey is just as important if not more so than the destination. That certainly rang true for these travelers. Some told us that they were tired of crowded airports and TSA screenings; others wanted the stress relief that comes from not being behind a steering wheel.
A young woman, a recent college graduate, told us she’s glad there was no Wi-Fi available so that she and others could enjoy the ambiance that is unique to train travel.
Amtrak made sure that no one would use a gadget to disturb the other passengers. Earphones or earbuds were required and there were overnight quiet hours.
An Amish man we met shared his story about accompanying his wife on a health-related journey that would eventually take them to Mexico.
He characterized the experience aboard the train with just a few words: “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I think most of his fellow travelers would agree.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
Saint Nicholas
A few years back, one of my holiday traditions then was the role I played in a Christmastime church function.
St. Nicholas prepares for his visit at St. Agnes Church in Avon, NY. Photo: Newvine Family Collection.
The picture shows a Santa like depiction of Saint Nicholas that I had the privilege of assuming for a few years during the late 1990’s and the early 2000’s.
In case you don’t know much about Saint Nicholas, here’s a refresher. The real Saint Nicholas was a bishop in the fourth century in what is now known as Turkey.
He came from a wealthy family, and sought to use his blessings to help others. There are many stories of miracles attributed to him. In one story he asked for a portion of a wheat cargo from a transport ship, promising the sailors they would not come up short when they reached their final destination.
The sailors reluctantly agreed to give a two-year supply of wheat to the residents of a village. As the story goes, the sailors discovered when they reached their final destination that the total weight of their cargo had not changed.
Another story attributed to Saint Nicholas was about establishing dowries for three women in one family who were not well off. A dowry was customarily given to the groom by a bride’s family when she married.
Many times, women who could not provide a dowry would not marry. If they had no family to live with, they faced an uncertain future for themselves in a male-dominated society.
The Saint Nicholas story ends with the discovery of coins tossed through a window as the family slept. The coins became the dowry.
This story fed a legend that if children left their shoes near an open window at Christmas, they would awaken the next morning to find the shoes filled with gifts and treats from Saint Nicholas.
The telling of Saint Nicholas’ story was a tradition at the church in the community where my wife and I raised our two daughters.
The saint’s official feast day is December 6th, but our church, Saint Agnes in Avon, New York, had to schedule our celebration as close to that date as possible because it did not always land on a weekend.
Our two very young daughters participated in the event in the mid-1980’s when Father Charles Bennett was the first to put on the costume to tell “his” story, and give the children treats.
He passed away a year later, so the tradition nearly ended before it was really established. Fortunately, two other parishioners took over for the next several years to portray the saint.
It eventually evolved into the children leaving their shoes at the back of church before Mass, having Saint Nicholas visit after the homily (sermon), and finding a gift (usually candy) in their shoes as they left Mass.
In the late 1990s, the Saint Nicholas visit was again in danger of being stopped at our church. My wife asked me if I’d consider doing it just one time. I did it that time, and for a few more years I became the holiday time visitor for the congregation.
There was something special about putting on the costume
It started with a white cassock (a floor-length robe) and then was layered with a red surplice (a sleeveless robe that looks like a poncho). Then a special bishop’s type hat and a long white beard were added to complete the costume.
It was hot underneath those garments, especially the beard. But it helped transform me into the man who lived a long time ago and who would share his story with children so they could once more enjoy his visit.
I was also fortunate enough to portray Saint Nicholas at the religious education classes for two parishes. The younger kids probably confused Saint Nicholas with Santa. The older ones probably just went along because it was taking place at a church.
While being Saint Nicholas for children was gratifying to me, two special times when I put on the costume stand out because the audience was not young folks.
Our parish Deacon asked me to bring Saint Nicholas to a juvenile detention facility
A small holiday party was planned for a group of teenage boys who were incarcerated. The message was tailored to this specific audience. Ina thank you note following the appearance, the Deacon told me that most of these young men had very little to look forward to during the holiday season, and that my appearance showed that someone out there cared about them.
The last time I put on the costume was Christmas night in 2003. Our family spent the Christmas evening together by producing Saint Nicholas’ final visit. I had already accepted the job that would bring me to California and would be heading west in another month.
My two daughters asked if Saint Nicholas would come to the nursing home where they worked and visit with the residents. My wife and I arrived shortly after the residents had dinner, and we stayed for quite a while visiting with these seniors.
It was one of the last things we did as a family before we were separated by thousands of miles.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that you have some cherished memories to recall at this time of year too.
Steve is grateful to his wife Vaune who helped recall some of the Saint Nicholas memories and who helped edit this column.
UC Merced at 10
Our community’s educational centerpiece reaches an important early milestone.
Photograph from the first graduation ceremony at UC Merced in 2006. Picture taken at the UC Merced exhibit at the Merced County Museum
One can extract a lot of joy while looking at this photograph
It shows smiling students in cap and gown at the time of their commencement ceremony escorted by the Chancellor of the institution. This photograph has special meaning to me. It’s from the very first commencement at the University of California at Merced in 2006.
I was in attendance that May morning when the handful of students received their diplomas from the University. The campus had opened the year before, and these students had transferred from other institutions to complete the early steps along their higher education journey.
As the recently installed CEO of the Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce, I accepted the invitation to attend the ceremony. It was clear to me that this would be a very special day.
UC Merced is celebrating its first decade this year. Students started attending in the fall of 2005. A recent exhibit at the Merced County Museum featured three rooms of photographs, newspaper front pages, and icons from the University.
For a relative newcomer to the area, the exhibit offered a peek into the many steps it took to locate the campus in our community.
Icons from the construction of the first buildings at the UC Merced campus. Photo by Steve Newvine
The shovel pictured above was from the celebration commemorating the start of construction. The ceremonial ground-breaking capped off a multi-year effort to convince the University of California to build a Central Valley campus in Merced.
Locations in Fresno and Madera, among other places, were under consideration. The local effort started with a group made up of local education, business, government, and community people.
There were so many steps that needed to be taken along the way including: acquiring the land, green-lighting the development plans, and convincing political leadership beyond the borders of Merced County that this effort was good for all of California.
The local group never looked back as they kept the enthusiasm going through state budget cycles, supported the UC as it fought challenges in court, and helped bring back into focus the prize of a four-year state university amidoccasional perceptions that the community had lost momentum.
The story of how UC Merced became reality has been well documented by the University and local historians.
I cite a few for your information at the end of this column.
The first decade of UC Merced has been critically important to the Central Valley. Enrollment grows at a pace controlled by the University so as to not put any of the delicate development plans at risk.
The UC Board of Regents recently approved the so-called 2020 Project plan that will monitor growth as the student population rises to the full enrollment target of nearly ten-thousand. The campus continues to add new classroom and dormitory buildings.
The UC appears to be a constant state of construction.
To date, three Chancellors have led the institution: the late Carol Tomlinson Keasey, Steven Kang, and the current Chancellor Dorothy Leland.
Current full-time student enrollment is sixty-six-thousand with faculty and staff numbering now at fifteen-hundred full and part time.
A Merced Sun Star front page with the latest news about construction of the newest UC campus. Photo by Steve Newvine
As a community, we came together when a student attacked two students, one staff member, and one construction worker with a knife during classes in November 2015. University Police shot and killed the attacker.
The UC and the community of Merced County were united like a family as a result of the outpouring of compassion on campus.
And that takes us back to that first photograph
Students are the most important aspect of any educational institution. Over the years, we saw how students melded into the City of Merced along with their counterparts from Merced College. UC students wrote messages and campaigned hard to bring the First Lady in as commencement speaker in 2009.
The following year, students again worked diligently to bring NBC News Anchor Lester Holt to UC Merced as commencement speaker.
Athletic programs began as club programs in the early years of UC Merced. Now the Wildcats have organized teams in a number of sports. Photo: Steve Newvine
The first ten years have brought many highs, a tragic incident of campus violence, and a lot of pride to our community.
There’s no crystal ball to help us predict exactly what our UC, or our county, will look like in ten years. We wouldn’t want one anyway. We want to grow along with our college anchor, meet the future face-to-face, and live each day to the fullest.
But it will be fascinating to review these words in another decade when the campus marks another milestone. I hope to be among those telling the story of the community that could, and the University that made us all proud.
The UC history of the Merced campus can be found here: http://www.ucmercedplanning.net/pdfs/flrdp/2history.pdf
Merced County Historian Sarah Lim’s column on the UC Merced development in the community can be found here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article38302386.html
Steve Newvine’s tribute to UC Merced’s first Chancellor Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, written at the time of her death, can be found here: http://greatvalley.blogspot.com/2009/10/steve-newvine-legacy-that-endures.html
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
His newest book is a second edition of Finding Bill- A Search for Meaning. It’s available at Lulu.com
Letters from a Vietnam Veteran
My Uncle Billy’s descriptions of life as a soldier in the jungles of Southeast Asia tell a story of loneliness, bravery, and love of family
Letters from the pen of Specialist 4 William Newvine. From the Newvine Family Collection.
“So how is everything going on at home? Been out riding the Ski Doo very much? Or isn’t there enough snow yet”. Letter dated January 25 1965.
He was away from home, a long way from home. His family made sure he got frequent letters. My dad, aunt, and uncle sent them regularly. Some of my cousins and I sent occasional letters too.
His mother wrote to him every day.
He was my uncle Billy Newvine, known by his Army buddies as Bill. Bill served in the US Army in Vietnam. Surviving the jungles of Southeast Asia in some ways was the less-troubled part of his life journey.
He was killed in a car accident driving a brand new Chevrolet convertible he bought upon his return to the States.
The crash happened about six months after his military service ended.
I’ve detailed my journey to learn more about my Uncle through columns here on this website and in a short book called Finding Bill.
I was eleven years old when he was killed.
Bill Newvine in Vietnam, 1967. From the Newvine Family Collection
On a recent visit to my hometown, I visited my Aunt Betty, Billy’s only sister. I already knew he received a lot of letters from home, and that he responded when possible.
I asked Betty whether she had kept any of his letters. After searching around the family farmhouse where she has lived most of her life (and where Billy lived until he was seven years old), she found about forty letters Billy wrote to her while in the Army.
“After twenty days on the USN Walker, we got here. We got here on the ninth, but were not allowed in the harbor to the tenth. Then not allowed to unload till yesterday the fourteenth.” Letter written September 15, 1966, postmarked October 16, 1966.
He sent letters from many places. Some were from where he started his military life in Fort Dix, New Jersey. Other letters were from his pre- deployment time at Fort Lewis in Washington State. Many letters covered the entire time he was in Vietnam which spanned from September 1966 to September 1967.
I spent some time sorting through the letters Aunt Betty loaned me. I arranged them in chronological order, took several pages of notes, and made a few copies at the local drug store. What emerges is a story of a young man (just twenty-one years old) who misses his family, who has made new friends, and who is showing the courage to endure what he’s going through in the jungles of Vietnam.
Letters arrived to my Aunt Betty at a rate of about two a month during the time Bill was in Vietnam. From the Newvine Family Collection.
“…got almost two months in. Our time started September 2. So we are supposed to be back in the states September 2. We will fly back. The old man told us that…” Letter dated and postmarked October 27, 1966
I was taken aback by the passage above because of Bill’s sense of looking toward the end of his hitch. By the postmark, I can tell he had only been in Vietnam a little over a month. Yet, he is already explaining the details of how he will get back home in another eleven months.
Bill’s letters make it clear he was a dedicated soldier
Some of the unvarnished scenes he describes on the battlefield disgusted him, but he knew there was a job to do as well a story to tell his loved ones about what he was experiencing.
Bill Newvine (far right) celebrates Christmas 1966 in Vietnam. From the Newvine Family Collection.
“I pulled up and aimed and did not fire. But he fired and then you feel different and fired. My hand froze on the trigger I shot the whole twenty rounds.” Letter written December 16, 1966 and postmarked December 17, 1966.
There are also images of what he missed from home: family, friends, a snowmobile, and his sister’s farm. The letters are what I would describe as newsy. In a letter before leaving the United States, he tells his sister about mistaking members of the rock group The Animals for women in the Chicago airport. He frequently references winter in upstate New York and his favorite winter pastime of riding his snowmobile.
“Well how is the sledding around there? I guess Dad is having fun with his. I took more time over here to get out in November.” From the same December 17, 1966 letter.
His letters reflect research I did for the book Grown Up, Going Home where I include interviews with his Army buddies.
One friend told me how Bill would frequently mention his snowmobile and how amused Bill was with some of this buddies who just couldn’t believe that you could drive a snowmobile over a frozen lake in the middle of winter.
In another letter, Bill described what I call an altercation in a bar when a South Vietnamese soldier insulted two women. (“I gave him a love tap on the jaw… His buddy carried him out of the bar. The bartender bought us drinks.”) Bill writes that he was in that bar with his friend Paul, who is likely Paul Metzler, a man I spoke to for my book project.
Paul had a lot of nice things to say about Bill, but I recall the most touching story he shared was the one about a letter he received from my grandmother (Bill’s mother) a few months after Bill died in the car accident.
Paul told me how touched he was to receive the letter from the woman who had just lost her son. “It was a beautiful letter,” he said to me. “It broke my heart.”
Paul and Bill mustered out of the Army together and flew from San Francisco back east upon their departure from the service.
In another letter, Bill makes a reference to two soldiers from his unit who were killed while taking the camp garbage to a dump.
“Then yesterday we are here in base camp. Two guys made the trash run and there was fifteen VC inside the perimeter and killed them at the dump. That sure makes you feel funny.” Letter dated March 15, 1967 and postmarked March 19, 1967.
Those two men were Tom Nickerson and Clint Smith. I learned their story from the man who helped me research and find some of the soldiers who knew my uncle.
I found their names along with other soldiers my Uncle knew on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC in 2012.
Bill closed all his letters to my aunt Betty in the same way: So long for this time, Bill. From the Newvine Family Collection.
The story of Bill Newvine: son, brother, uncle, friend, and Vietnam War veteran continues to be told. These letters my Aunt Betty saved for nearly fifty years offer another side to this forever young man. Betty’s forethought to keep the letters is a special gift.
Bill Newvine, a typically quiet person, learned to survive during his time in Vietnam. Whether it was defending the honor of a woman in a barroom, or taking out an enemy Vietcong soldier bent on doing the same thing to him, he fought and endured.
From the letters this seemingly shy young man wrote, it is apparent that Bill perhaps expressed himself best with the written word. His letters are part of his legacy.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
He is including a new chapter about the letters his uncle wrote in the second printing of the book Finding Bill.
Central Valley Honor Flight- A Tale of Two Men
A World War II serviceman is paired with a Valley man on a trip of a lifetime
Foy Foster and his Honor Flight Guardian Jerry Jackson. Photo by Vaune Newvine)
Jerry Jackson is a history buff with a special fascination for World War II. His passion for the brave soldiers who served during the war led him to a fund raising dinner for Central Valley Honor Flight, the non-profit organization that has been taking World War II veterans to Washington, DC to see the memorials to our service men and women.
“I have a particular interest in the European theater,” Jerry told me. “My grandfather served there during the war.”
Jerry’s interest in his grandfather’s service, coupled with a weekly radio program airing in the Central Valley, buttoned up his desire to take the next step to learn more about Honor Flight.
“Paul Loeffler put a face and a voice to my interest in World War II through his weekly radio program, Hometown Heroes”, Jerry said. The radio program airs on a Fresno radio station. All the interviews with World War II veterans are archived on the Hometown Heroes website.
Jerry attended a fund raising event for the organization and soon discovered he wanted to volunteer for Honor Flight as a guardian for the next mission of Central Valley Honor Flight.
Guardians serve their assigned veteran throughout their Honor Flight experience. With most living World War II veterans now in their eighties and nineties, it’s important that they have someone at their side throughout the duration of the trip.
“We’re told right up front that we stay with our veteran throughout the trip,” Jerry said. “We are there to serve them.”
Jerry’s desire to serve Honor Flight came with a big barrier. The volunteer guardians are asked to contribute one-thousand dollars toward their own cost to fly to and stay in the nations’ capitol. As the father of three, with two in school and living at home, that contribution might have been the deal killer.
“I told my wife I wanted to go, but that I shouldn’t because of the cost,” he said. “She suggested starting a Go Fund Me campaign on-line.”
That on-line fundraising effort paid off for Jerry. Family and friends were enthusiastic in their support and made contributions. The success of his campaign on Go Fund Me, coupled with a family yard sale, got him to the point where he could do it. Soon, he had the money to make the contribution.
He got vacation time off from his job working for the Madera County Public Works department. The next step was to meet the veteran he would be accompanying to Washington.
About two weekends before the Honor Flight left, Jerry met his veteran.
Veterans, their Honor Flight guardians, and other volunteers assemble at Castle Airport in Atwater, Merced County. Photo by Steve Newvine
He’s Foy Foster
Foy served in the Army Air Corp as a bombardier in a B-24. He flew 35 missions out of England in the 734th Squadron of the 453rd Bomb Group. Jerry met Foy at the veteran’s home. Jerry took Foy to an informational meeting and dinner held in Atwater.
“He’s a great guy,” Jerry said. “After meeting him I told friends I’m looking forward to our trip.”
Foy Foster is indeed a great guy. In an interview for the radio program Hometown Heroes, Foy described his war experiences.
He enlisted in the Army Air Force as soon as heard of the Pearl Harbor attacks on December 7, 1941.
“I was overcome with patriotism, and I couldn’t imagine our country being attacked like that,” he told Hometown Heroes host Paul Loeffler. “After basic training in San Antonio, I was sent to Albuquerque, New Mexico for bombardier school. I got my wings in 1942 as a Second Lieutenant."
While he was a cadet in Albuquerque, he was chosen to sit in the co-pilot’s seat for a mission.
In the pilot’s seat was film star Jimmy Stewart
“He was very nervous all the time,” Foy said. “He kept telling me to keep my eyes moving and watch out for other planes.”
Stewart made the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life after leaving his service in World War II.
“Colonel Stewart was so skinny,” Foy told Hometown Heroes. “He was a great guy.”
Right around the same time as his encounters with the Hollywood actor, Foy became an instructor for six months in the southwest. He would later volunteer for overseas duty. He then became an instructor for B-17 pilots, and then chosen as a staff officer for a newly formed 453rd Bomb Group flying B-24s.
“We were so busy for about four months teaching,” Foy said. “We were anxious for the real thing.”
“I remember our first mission out of England to France, it was all new to us,” he said. “In later (missions) we had flack, pieces of metal, throughout the air. Every minute over Nazi Germany we were under attack.”
Foy also took part in D-Day. He told Hometown Heroes:
“We had to gear up and leave at midnight for a bombing at daybreak. .. We met up with the others over England. There were planes everywhere. .. Our first mission was to drop bombs on the German army. We flew back to England, reloaded, and flew back…That first day we did three missions.”
Foy endured the loss of his flight crew (he was grounded on that particular mission due to a bad cold), as well as attacks by friendly fire.
He served honorably. Upon his return to the states, he went to college, married, and raised a family.
And now, he’s on a final mission to pay his respects to his lost comrades and to accept the thanks from a grateful nation.
A grateful crowd wishes the Central Valley Honor Flight participants a safe trip. Photo by Vaune Newvine
Central Valley Honor Flight departed Monday morning, October 19 from the air strip at the former Castle Air Force Base. The veterans and their guardians were greeted by what some described as the largest send-off crowd in the short history of Honor Flight.
This current group of Honor Flight honorees is made up of sixty-one men and two women. They come from all over the Central Valley, with some thirteen counties represented on this trip.
For guardian Jerry Jackson and his assigned veteran Foy Foster, a friendship has started. They are two men bound together for a trip to honor the men and women who gave so much by defending our nation.
To hear the entire Foy Foster interview from Hometown Heroes, go to: http://www.hometownheroesradio.com/episodes/ Scroll down to episode 161
For more on Central Valley Honor Flight, go to: http://www.cvhonorflight.org/
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
He has written Finding Bill, a story about his uncle who served in Vietnam.
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
A Journey with Rotary to the Paul Harris Fellowship
Paul Harris was a Chicago area attorney at the turn of the last century. Believing that a lot of positive things could happen when business people got together and worked collaboratively, he founded the service organization now known as Rotary International.
While the logo for Rotary is a gear wheel, the name actually represents the original meeting tradition of rotating the site of the weekly meeting among the members’ places of business.
The Paul Harris Fellowship was created to recognize contributors to The Rotary Foundation: the arm of the international service club that funds all kinds of humanitarian projects around the world.Most notable among these projects has been the elimination of polio worldwide through vaccinations in third world countries.
Rotary identified that universal goal of eliminating the disease and with the laser focus of a well-organized business, took on the challenge and achieved the goal.
While Paul Harris Fellows are recognized for reaching designated levels of support, contributors may also name someone else as a Fellow in recognition of that individual’s special achievements.
What makes this designation special for me is that I have not been an active Rotarian for the past eight years.I asked for inactive membership status when I changed jobs and knew that the travel requirement would make it nearly impossible for me to attend regular meetings of my Rotary club.
I had been in Rotary since 1995, serving in three clubs over an eleven-year period.I was President of my club in upstate New York for a one-year term.
When I asked to be moved to inactive status, I knew that Rotary would not be as big a part of my life now as it was before. But I believed in the Rotary Foundation.Wiping out polio worldwide was an achievable goal and the organization was primed to make that happen; and it did.
There have been other projects that are just as significant.When the Indian Ocean tsunami hit Sri Lanka in 2004, Rotary was there to help in the aftermath.Safer water for parts of the world where that just doesn’t happen has been a priority in recent years.
Rotary has been to earthquake worn areas within hours of the initial shocks.There are hundreds, of projects where Rotary International stepped to the plate, rolled up some sleeves and got down to the business of helping people.
So when it was clear to me that I would not be an active Rotarian as least through the duration of my current job, I did experience a sense of loss.At practically every Rotary meeting, someone mentions the work of Rotary and the need to support the Rotary Foundation. During my first ten years in Rotary, I heard lots of speeches about the work of the Foundation.
But during those early years, there were other demands on my family. About all I could do then was make a few token donations.
In the end, it was a twenty-year journey from becoming a member of Rotary International to achieving the Paul Harris Fellowship. While I haven’t been part of a local club in nearly a decade, I remain very proud of the journey and very blessed to be part of the effort that is stated so clearly in the organization’s Four-Way Test:is it the truth, it is fair to all, will it build goodwill, and will it be beneficial.
For more on Rotary International, go to www.rotary.org
Community Spirit Makes a Team’s Dream Come True
Meet the Titans Elite baseball team.They are an age twelve-and-under local travel team made up of players from Merced, Atwater, Chowchilla, and LeGrand. The team has played in tournaments sanctioned by the United States Specialty Sports Association. (USSSA)
A travel team is defined as a group of really good players, sometimes playing for different teams, who form a stand-alone team.This year, the Titans Elite set out to play the game they love in a ballpark connected to baseball tradition.
They did that, and much more.
Back in 2013, the team put in an application to play in a tournament held in Cooperstown, New York.
We know that Cooperstown is the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.It is also the home of the Cooperstown Dreams Park, a premier destination for travel teams.
The park has twenty-two fields, and the week the Titans played, they were among one-hundred-and-four teams competing from all over the United States.
The tournament was played in early June.The team left central California on June 5th and returned June 11th.
Playing is not cheap.The cost for each player is $895.The same rate applies for coaches. When you add in airfare and other expenses for the week, it was both a distinguished honor and a high price tag to play.The cost for each player for this dream week at the home of baseball was approximately $1,600.
That’s where the community came into play.Coach Kent Floro says the commitment by the players’ families combined with the generosity from the local business community and others helped make it all possible.
Money was raised from local businesses, service clubs such as Merced Breakfast Lions and North Merced Rotary, along with other organizations and individuals who made contributions.
Kent provided me with the details of the Titan’s performances on the field in Cooperstown.
Teams representing twenty states were represented in the tournament.The Titans finished in the top twenty-five among the one-hundred-and-four teams.
On the first day of the tournament, they defeated the Mid-Atlantic Shockers from Maryland 19 to 3.Later that day, they beat Thunder Academy from Colorado 21 to 5.
On the second day, the Titans defeated the Salt City Sox of Utah 11 to 2.Later on day two, they defeated the SBA Life Heat from Florida 8 to 5.
It was then on to day three of the tournament and another Florida team.The Titans beat the PL (Pembroke Lakes) Bulldogs of Florida 12 to 8.Kent says this was a great game for the Titans.
“The Bulldogs are one of top teams in the tournament and were ranked number three in the state of Florida.”
The Titans first loss came after that game when they came up short to the Germantown, Tennessee Giants 13 to 5.
“That was the one game I thought we should have won,” Coach Floro said. “But I think the emotion that it took to beat the Bulldogs earlier combined with the players being a little worn out from the trip all hit at once.”
Then came the single elimination playoffs; single elimination meaning that once you lose, you are out of the tournament.In the first round, the Titans advanced by defeating the Longwood Longballers from Florida 14 to 2.The next step in the playoffs pitted the Titans against the number five top-ranked team: the Utah Marshalls.The Titans were defeated 18 to 5.
“Titans Elite did outstanding in this tournament,” Coach Floro said. “We are from a small area while many of the other teams were picked from large metropolitan areas or an entire state.”It’s believed some of the teams flew in players to help them on the single-elimination part of the tournament.
The week was full of excitement with many of the young players living away from their families for the first time in their lives.The players had a great experience in the home of baseball. “They represented our community both by playing exceptional baseball and as real gentleman while we were in the camp,” Kent told me.
The week started with a flight from the west coast to the east coast.After ground transportation from the airport to Cooperstown, the players were sealed away at the camp where they stayed throughout the tournament. Parents could not come into the camp area after the first day.From Friday night until Thursday night the following week, players and coaches were together playing the game they love on their field of dreams.
Visitors cannot go to the village that is the home of baseball without taking in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.Part of the Titans Elite week in Central New York included a day at the Hall of Fame.They saw the plaques of Hall of Fame members, viewed displays of iconic pieces of major league baseball history and took in the natural ambiance that defines this very special place.
Everyone agreed that as great as the Hall of Fame is, no one can truly appreciate all it has to offer the baseball fan in just a one-day visit.
One of the visitors from the Central Valley expressed his feelings from visiting the Hall of Fame in just one word, “Awesome.”
The group likely got a break from the poor summertime air quality in the Valley.Upstate New York, especially in rural areas such as Cooperstown, has some of the cleanest air in the United States.
They probably saw upstate New York agriculture, which is primarily dairy farming.They saw many hills and lots of deep green foliage.New York State, as well as most of the northeast United States, has no drought worries with above-average annual precipitation.
So while the run to the top ended with the loss to the Tennessee team, the Titans Elite can look back on several stunning individual achievements.
Kadon Floro (Coach Kent’s son) made the final round of the Home Run Derby and ended up finishing tied for fifth place. Kadon also had a .520 batting average for the tournament.Other high batting averages were:Hunter Stonier ( .500), Jake Sapien (.435), Gerald Braxton( .409), Danny Murphy (.350), and Aaron Martinez(.300).Home run leaders among the Titans for the tournament included:Kadon Florio with five,Aaron Martinez with four, and Jake Sapien with three. Hunter Stonier, Fernando Ruvalcaba, Gerald Braxton, Cooper Lanz, Cole Schortzmann and Michael Trejo all had one home run each in the tournament. Antonio Cortez and Gerald Braxton teamed up to pitch an outstanding game against the PL Bulldogs.
The Titans came back from their adventure in upstate New York with some outstanding accomplishments that made the communities of Merced, Atwater, Chowchilla and LeGrand proud.Ranking fifth among one-hundred-and-four teams in a national tournament is quite a feat.
And there’s more to come for the Titans Elite.They have another national tournament coming up in late October that will be played in Las Vegas.
Tournament batting averages, home run tallies, and pitching achievements notwithstanding, the real prize from their week in Cooperstown can be summed up by Coach Floro.
“It was a memory of a lifetime.”
MEET THE TITANS ELITE
Gerald Braxton
Louie Ceja
Antonio Cortez
Kadon Floro
Cooper Lanz
Aaron Martinez Jr.
Daniel Murphy II
Nathan Richards
Fernando Ruvalcaba Jr.
Jake Sapien
Cole Schortzmann
Hunter Stonier
Michael Trejo
Coaches: Kent Floro, Neal Richards, Vince Sapien, Tony Cortez, Aaron Martinez
For more on the Cooperstown Dreams Park, visit www.cooperstowndreamspark.com
Steve Newvine lives in Merced and grew up in a small town about eighty miles north of Cooperstown.He is indebted to Ken Stonier for leading him to the story that became this column.
Polaroid Memories-Instant and Enduring Photographs
As you can see in this photograph, some winters were extra snowy in upstate New York when I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. That’s my brother Terry and me standing on top of the snowbank with the road sign at waist level. The family car, a 1964 Pontiac Star Chief (a topic of a Merced Sun Star essay I wrote about five years ago) is parked below.
This is just one of dozens of photographs my Dad took with the Polaroid camera he received as a Christmas gift from my Mom back when I was growing up.Mom rightfully deserves the title of Queen of the Camera in our household, but with her Christmas gift to her husband, we had a King of the Camera for all things Polaroid.
Cameras were originally the domain of professional photographers in the mid to late 1800s.George Eastman’s Kodak cameras took photography to the casual user in the late 1800s.Edwin Land’s invention of the Polaroid in the late 1940s, changed personal photography again by making it possible to see the picture shortly after it was captured by the camera.
One can only wonder what either inventor would think about today’s imaging processes with digital cameras and cell phones that can take pictures.
Keep in mind that a Polaroid camera, and the capacity to deliver a photograph within sixty seconds of taking the picture, was high tech for the early 1970s.Back then, it seemed as though everyone in the family was impressed at the magic that would come out of that small shoebox sized camera.
I remember that if black and white film was in the camera, the picture could be treated with some kind of substance that prevented the photo paper from curling.If the more expensive color film was being used, the picture would be mounted on a sticky-back card.
This shot of my Mom and sister Becky celebrating their birthdays was typical of the kinds of pictures taken during my years growing up.Usually on the evening of a birthday, some of our cousins and other family members would join the birthday celebration.
Neither my Mom nor my sister seemed to mind sharing the spotlight when their birthdays (spaced one day apart) would come around.As you can see from the look on my sister’s face, birthday celebrations were a happy time.
In addition to birthday parties, our family albums were filled with photos documenting holidays, graduations, confirmations, vacations, and other special events.
My parents also took pictures of ordinary events such as a card party in our kitchen or a game of croquet played in our backyard.
When I visit my boyhood home, I take one of several photo albums to the local drug store and scan as many pictures as I can.
My Dad let someone else shoot this Polaroid picture of him on vacation in front of our camper trailer.All of our summer vacations during my years growing up involved packing up the trailer, and heading off to one of several State parks for a weekend in the wilderness.
Usually at the beginning and end of the summer school vacation, we’d take the trailer out for a weeklong vacation.Anyone who has done this knows that while it can be a challenge packing for the extended time away from home, setting up the campsite, and then living with one another in close quarters, it could also be a lot of fun.
At one place in the Adirondacks, Golden Beach State Park in Raquette Lake, several families from my hometown would head out to the campsites during the same week.For that particular vacation, it felt like we were never really away from home with all the family and neighbors who joined us.
Fortunately for me, a lot of those memories live on thanks to the many photographs my Mom took on her Kodak Brownie, and my Dad shot on his Polaroid camera.
Steve’s 2010 essay on the family Pontiac was included in his book Microphones, Moon Rocks, and Memories.To read that essay and a few others from that book, follow this link and click “Preview” under the cover image:
A Golf Farewell at Stevinson Ranch
Among the victims of the 2015 drought is Stevinson Ranch Golf Course in northwestern Merced County, California. Local media reported the owners have agricultural interests nearby and those interests, combined with a general decline in the number of golf rounds at the course, forced a business decision to divert water from the fairways to farm fields.
Ever since the decision to close Stevinson was made, a lot of golfers are playing one last round at a memorable and challenging course.
Impressive course
I first played Stevinson in 2006 in a charity tournament shortly after moving to the community.I remember being impressed with the course but frustrated that I had to travel over a half-hour from downtown Merced over country roads just to find it.
Actually, the distance was a minor nuisance.The fact was that the course intimidated me.It was tough and I needed more time to develop my game.I stayed away for the next eight years in favor of courses that were easier to get to and not nearly as daunting.
About a year ago, a golf buddy of mine suggested we go out there again.My game had improved over the years and I found the course to be formidable and maybe even better than I had remembered the first time.We played there twice in 2014 and we were set to play again in 2015 when we read reports that the course would close in July.
Closing in July
Recently, we headed out to Stevinson for our last round.I brought my camera along.We had an early tee-off slot and that allowed us a little more time to take in the sights of the Central Valley countryside.Before long, the irrigation will be shut off.I wanted to enjoy this course in its bright green against a clear blue sky on a cool late spring morning.The weather cooperated.
Every hole on this course has a name, but I never took the time to connect these names with their respective piece of the landscape.Maybe if I had played the course more frequently, I would have become familiar with the names.Thanks to the score card saved after the round, I can refer back to each hole by name.
I took a photograph at what was once my nemesis.A pond on the number four hole goes by an ironic name of Eden.I’m sure the pond at Eden has captured many golfers’ first shots over the years.The pond water was gone the day we played.It’s just a dry bed of rough.It’s still a hazard, but it seemed less intimidating without the water.
Number six is aptly titled Risk & Hope.My approach shot landed in one of several sand traps that seem to circle the putting green.
Risk & Hope lived up to its name on this final round.With about one-hundred yards to the green, I took out my trusty seven-iron.I thought the risk was possibly overshooting the green.I hoped to land close to flag.I ended up in a bunker in front of the green. I’ve been in those traps before, but I didn’t seem to mind it as much this time around.
I’ve always admired an old tree stump that remains near an irrigation creek between holes ten (named Long) and eleven (named Wetland).I get the feeling that stump was there long before Stevinson became a golf course.I suspect it will remain there in the years to come.
I got a par at both par threes on the back nine: number twelve (Devil’s Pot) and sixteen (Hawk Perch).I also made par on the par four number fourteen (Alps).I ended the par five number eighteen (Home Cape) going one over with a six.I turned around and took one last picture of the cart path that brought us to the end of the line.
Picture- Stevinson 18- looking backcaption:Stevinson Ranch Golf Club.Photo by Steve Newvine
Keeping score
It’s been a rare opportunity for a guy who spent over twenty years trying to figure out the game of golf to now have the chance to play every week.I’m thankful that my game has improved to a point where I no longer use the phrase, “I’m having so much fun, why bother keeping score?”I keep score and keep trying to improve.There’s a long way to go, but I’ve never enjoyed the game more than I do right now.I’m grateful to a couple of golfing buddies who have accompanied me from time to time on some of the better courses in the Central Valley.
Stevinson Ranch scared me the first time I played there in 2006.I have by no means tamed this venue.But I have given the course my respect as it has brought out the best in me as far as the game of golf is concerned.
The blessing of golf
Golf has always been about blessings.I’m in reasonably good health to play.I can afford it as long as I keep an eye on discounted green fees and decide that I don’t need the latest club available at the sporting goods store.I’m blessed to be able to play this game.I’m blessed to enjoy it as much as I do.I’m blessed every time I get to walk outdoors and view the outstanding scenery surrounding many California courses.I’ve also been honored to meet some genuinely nice people on the fairway and in the clubhouse.
To the staff that kept this course up to an exceptionally high standard especially in these past two years, thank you for your care and customer service.
To the owners who made what was probably a very difficult business decision, thank you for hanging in there so long.
To everyone connected with Stevinson Ranch Golf Club, it’s been a pleasure sharing my passion for the game on those beautiful fairways, challenging bunkers, and demanding putting greens.
I have taken memories from playing there that will last me the rest of my life.I will miss it deeply.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
Lunch, Laughs, and Letterman
I don’t stay up to watch his show anymore, and I haven’t been a regular viewer in several years.I’m catching up on these final shows via CBS.com.The whole farewell thing with Dave is reminiscent of what I went through twenty-three years ago when Johnny Carson left the Tonight Show after nearly thirty years as host. Toward the end of that historic run in 1992, it seemed to me that every broadcast of Carson’s was special.
While I’m a fan of Dave’s, I had a much deeper sense of generational change when Johnny retired.
But Dave’s departure from nightly television reminds me of how his career has intermingled with my adult life.
My wife and I sat in the audience of his short-lived morning talk show in 1980.We were on our honeymoon as my then television station bosses arranged for a special tour of the studios and tickets to this new live morning talk show.
The show was funny, the host was quirky, and practically no one watched it.After the live broadcast, Dave came up into the audience and sat in front of us to record some promotional announcements for upcoming shows.
We saw those promos when we returned and I believe it’s still on an old broadcast video tape now buried in a pile of stuff that has traveled with me over the years.
Dave’s morning show went off the air after only a few months in 1980.A year-and-a-half later, he began Late Night with David Letterman.The hour-long talk show followed the Tonight Show Starring, Johnny Carson.Thanks to our VHS tape recorder, I was a regular viewer.
When Johnny left the Tonight Show in 1992, Dave’s fans were disappointed that he was not offered the job to replace Carson.Dave remained with the Late Night program for another year until his contract expired and CBS hired him to take on Jay Leno in a true battle for late night television dominance.
Jay won that battle, but it seemed to me that while Leno had bigger audience numbers, Dave had the better of the two shows.
In the late 1990s into the first few years of the 2000s, a good friend of mine would join me in midtown Manhattan once a year for an afternoon in the city followed by being in the audience for a taping of either Late Show with David Letterman or Late Night with Conan O’Brien.Both were great shows, but I’m especially fond of the two times I saw Dave’s show from the audience inside the Ed Sullivan Theater.
One time was in the Christmas season.Tom Brokaw was one of the guests.Being a former newsman, Brokaw was a guest I always enjoyed.He was clearly one of Dave’s favorite guests.
Another time was in the summer when the movie Moulin Rouge came out.Actor Ewan McGregor was one of the guests.At that time, I never heard of the guy.The musical guest that night was Moby and I recall being impressed at how quickly the crew could set up the stage during the commercial break right before he took to the stage.Thanks to Google, I now have learned the day of that show was June 21, 2001.
Those trips to New York City to meet my friend for a day of lunch, laughs, and late night show tapings were quite a test of endurance for me.I would get up around four AM, and then drive about six hours to a train station in Tarrytown, New York.
Following about an hour of travel on the rails, I’d emerge from Grand Central Station and walk to an agreed upon destination to meet up with my buddy.After a quick lunch, we’d do what I call the “poor man’s” tour of the New York City by taking in such iconic locations as the Dakota apartment complex where John Lennon lived and died, the restaurant where exterior scenes were shot in the television series Seinfeld, and my favorite venue: inside 30 Rockefeller Plaza where such iconic shows as Saturday Night Live are produced.
We’d have to get in line for the Letterman taping around 3:30, and after being moved from a gathering area in a building across the side entrance to the Ed Sullivan Theater, we’d take our seats inside and were coached as to how to behave while in the audience of a national television show.We were ready for a brief audience welcome by Dave and then the magic that is live-on-tape television was underway.
Live-on-tape means the show is performed as though it was being done live with no stops of the recording machines unless a major problem occurs.
When the taping was finished around 6:30, my friend and I would shake hands and depart:I would head to Grand Central while he headed to Penn Station to catch our respective trains.Barring any train delays, I’d get to my car in Tarrytown around 8:00 PM, and then head on back to either a hotel or a relative’s home for a well-appreciated good night’s sleep.
We did those trips annually for about four years, and then my friend moved to the west coast.My wife and I followed with our own west coast adventure a few years later.
While I’ve been to Hollywood to see a couple of television shows in production, I still have a longing for the days when I embarked on an annual endurance test to travel several hours to see David Letterman’s show
David Letterman began his late night television career just a couple of months prior to my becoming a father.He leaves television as I enjoy the privileges of being a grandparent.I remember watching that very first show on CBS in 1993.
I remember the night Johnny Carson did a walk-on to hand him the Top Ten list and symbolically “hand off” the late night throne- without saying a word.
I remember the broadcast a week after 9-11 and how in some satisfying way, he helped bring back some normalcy.
I remember the night he returned from heart surgery and nearly cried as he thanked his medical professionals that were brought on stage.
Thirty-three years have passed.
Thank you David Letterman, for entertaining me through fatherhood and for keeping the laughs coming as I became a grandfather.
You deserve to retire with all the accolades and all the memories.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
Life through Vinyl
We have the good people at Parade magazine to thank for telling readers that April 18 is National Record Store Day. Those seeking to make money from the music business have designated this day to bring attention to the resurgence of vinyl records. Many popular music artists are releasing special songs on vinyl . Once thought lost forever with the advent of compact discs and eventually digital music delivery, vinyl is enjoying sort of a comeback among those who prefer their music played with a needle and a turntable.
I made the move to compact discs about ten years after that format started back in the 1980s. But I’ve always held on to a few vinyl records because they bring back memories of my younger years when it was the best way to listen to music on your own terms.
The Monkees
The very first record I owned was this one from the Monkees. There was a time when I could tell you the exact order of songs on that album. I actually got both the first and second Monkees albums on the same day (my birthday), but I opened and played this one first. I would eventually acquire every record the group released in their short career, which lasted two years (the length of their television series) with several reunions over the past few decades.
Elvis Presley, the NBC-TV Special Soundtrack
While the Monkees represent the first music I would actually own, it was Elvis Presley who would instill my appreciation for popular music. I watched his NBC television special in late 1968 and became a fan instantly. I bought it from the closest thing we had to a music store in my hometown: a rack of records at a dry goods store. The soundtrack album propelled him into the third and final phase of his performing career, eventually clearing the way for his iconic jumpsuits and the hard living lifestyle that many suggest ended his life way too early at the age of forty-two in 1977. It begins with the song Trouble (“you lookin for trouble, you came to the right place…”) that he first popularized in the movie Kid Galahad. It ends with the inspiring If I Can Dream. I just found out this spring that If I Can Dream is my daughter Colleen’s favorite Elvis song. Good choice. The song has been covered over the years by such artists as Barry Manilow and Della Reese, but Elvis made it his own.
Goodyear/Columbia Great Songs of Christmas
I experience most of the holiday seasons through the lens of Christmas music. The Goodyear Tire company, through an arrangement with Columbia Records, released a compilation album of holiday music annually in the 1960s and 1970s. My mom bought this one from the local Goodyear dealer in hometown (Sylvester Burkhart’s Garage on Main Street in Port Leyden). This particular album has the distinction of being the first album my mother purchased when our family bought a record player in the early 1960s. I connect right back to the family living room in my hometown when I play this album.
These are three of the long playing albums that helped define my life in vinyl. We always had records playing in the house. My fascination with recorded music fed a desire to work as a disc jockey for a few years while I was in college. To this day, I occasionally put on an old vinyl record and listen to it with all the scratches that come from playing them over and over when I was much younger.
Long playing albums from my era generally had about ten to twelve songs, split between the two sides. Some record players allowed you to stack up to six so that the music could continue for well over an hour.
New York, New York by Frank Sinatra
I can’t forget the singles: the forty-five RPM (revolutions per minute) discs that so many of us from that generation had. I still have mine, but I don’t play them as much as the LPs (long-playing) albums that spun at thirty-three-and-a-third RPM. My friends and I would play them in the jukebox at the Leyden Elm diner (better known as Hazel’s) in my hometown.
But this one forty-five has special meaning to me. It’s Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York. It was recorded in 1980 and remained Sinatra’s signature show stopper in the remaining years of his public performances. It was also the last brand new single I ever bought from a music store. It would take a few more years before I’d consider myself a Sinatra fan, but there’s no doubt this single was the starting point.
And if that’s not enough to drive home how significant this record is to me, I can add that it was released in the same year I got married. A husband better not forget the year he got married. I have this single to remind me.
Records have a way of doing that for me. They bring back a memory of when I first received a particular album or single, they connect me to my hometown, and they help me remember important times in my life.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
For more on Record Store Day, go to www.recordstoreday.com
Completing the Apollo 13 Circle in Colorado
April 11 is the forty-fifth anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission to the moon. Apollo 13 was the mission that never landed on the lunar surface, but it became a legendary story of a true test of courage and ingenuity from the US space program. I had the recent good fortune to visit family living in Colorado. As I was preparing to leave at the Denver Airport, I encountered a statute that in many ways has completed a circle I started with Apollo 13 some forty-plus years ago.
The statue is of Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert. The bronze cast shows Swigert in his astronaut suit. The plaque refers to Swigert as “Astronaut and Congressman Elect.” He was about to begin his first elected term in the US House of Representatives when he died from cancer in the early 1980s. I asked a fellow Californian who was viewing the statue with me to take this picture.
In my youth, I followed the space program with great interest. As a young boy, I was in front of the television set many times for rocket launches. My family circled around the set in July of 1969 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
I was a hardened space fan, but even I was becoming disinterested in moon landings after the second one (Apollo 12). I recall seeing Apollo 13 lift off on April 11, 1970, but my life was beginning to be occupied with all the things teenagers encounter.
My interest level changed two days later when we learned there was a problem aboard Apollo 13. News reporters on television tried to explain something about an explosion aboard the spacecraft, and how the astronauts were moved to the lunar module as plans were made to bring them back to Earth. I recall feeling concerned, but confident that the crew would make it home safely.
The now familiar story ends with a successful return to Earth for the three astronauts.
Commander Jim Lovell wrote a book called Lost Moon about the mission. Fred Haise worked in private industry after retiring from NASA. Jack Swigert lived in Colorado and was elected to the US House of Representatives. He died before taking office in 1982.
I never realized just how serious the effort to return the astronauts to Earth was until many years later when I started reporting on the space program as a television reporter for WAAY in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center was in Huntsville, so anything about the space program was a local news story in northern Alabama. During my short time in Huntsville in the early 1980s, I learned more about how dangerous the Apollo 13 mission was as the ground crew worked the problem to bring the crew home safely.
A few years later, the Ron Howard film Apollo 13 introduced a new generation to the story behind the story of that mission. For many years, watching the movie was a family tradition in my house. During the time when I was working as an adjunct college lecturer, I used clips from the movie to demonstrate leadership principles. The movie remains one of my all-time favorites.
I met astronauts Jim Lovell and Fred Haise in 1996 when both appeared at a business conference I was attending. I was told at that event that this was the first time the two appeared together in public since the end of the mission.
Seeing the statue of Jack Swigert in Denver brought back many of those memories. From childhood passing on through my teen years, I experienced the excitement of the space program transition to a less intense interest as I grew older. I saw that passing interest reinvigorate as a journalist working in a town where space exploration defined the community, I re-lived, if only for a few moments, the thrill of reporting on the first three Space Shuttle missions. As a slightly bit older adult, I reconnected with my passion for the space program thanks to the movie Apollo 13 and the opportunity to meet the two surviving members of the crew.
And now a bronze statue of the astronaut who survived that ordeal only to be taken much too early brings it back full circle.
Apollo 13 showed us that bravery isn’t just about knowing the risks and acting anyway. The forty-fifth anniversary of that historic mission gives all of us an opportunity to spend a few moments reflecting on the successes we have experienced and the obstacles we have overcome.
Apollo 13 has also shown us that leadership comes in all shapes and sizes. From the crew’s courage under fire, to the steady seriousness demonstrated by flight director Gene Kranz , to the short-sleeved NASA technicians who offered solutions that kept the astronauts alive as the spaceship was being brought back home, Apollo 13 has proven the very best we all can do by working together.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced. He worked as a Space and Science reporter for WAAY-TV in Huntsville, Alabama from 1980 to 1982.
Welcome to the World Grandson
My wife and I recently became grandparents. Our grandson came into this world surrounded with a lot of love. For the first time in my life, I’m a grandpa. The best assessment I’ve ever read of how a child can change a person comes from that expert on family relationships: Alice Mitchell. She’s the mom of comic strip character Dennis the Menace.
Her view on how grandfather’s change comes in a recent cartoon where we see Dennis playing with his dad. Dennis’ grandfather remarks how amazing it is that a boy can make a man out of his father. Alice responds by saying, “And a boy out of his grandfather.”
I’d like to offer my special welcome, along with some grandfatherly observations, to my grandson. Some of my reflections come from experiences with my two grandfathers. Most of it comes from experiencing firsthand what it’s like to be a grandchild.
Welcome to the world little boy.
This is Earth grandson. It’s a unique spot, and now it’s a special place because you are here.
You came into this spot two months early, but you put up with all the tubes and monitors that helped make you stronger. You also had the help of some wonderful medical professionals who have made it their life’s work to help little folks like you. They helped you until you were well enough to leave the hospital and start living at home.
You have two wonderful parents. I know one of them real well. Your Mom was a bundle of joy, someone who enjoys an adventure, and someone who truly loves her family. You already know this, but she’s a great Mom. Dad is a good guy too. I’ve known him about ten years now and I know he’s the real deal. You are in excellent hands.
Someday, I hope your parents will take you to the family reunion on your grandma Newvine’s side of the family. They take lots of pictures throughout the reunion day, but the part I like is after the midday meal when they line up each generation of relatives for a special set of group photos. You may not think much of it at first, but my experience has been you’ll grow to appreciate those generation photographs in later years.
Someday, you might visit my hometown.
If you see it in the summer, you’ll enjoy county fairs, weekend picnics, and extended family in practically every surrounding village. If you visit in the winter, be prepared to see lots of snow. You can take part in downhill and cross-country skiing, ride a snowmobile, and build up your muscles when someone hands you a snow shovel after a big storm.
As you get to know me, you’ll find I like a lot of things young people enjoy. I keep a kite in the garage and know a perfect open field near our house where we can fly it on a breezy spring day.
When you get older, I’ll take you to a driving range where we can hit a bucket of golf balls. On cold days, we can stay inside and put together a jigsaw puzzle.
When I was about ten years old, my Grandpa on my mom’s side of the family took me and a load of scrap metal to a junkyard. The people at the junkyard weighed the car before and after we unloaded the cargo. My Grandpa was paid for the scrap metal by the pound. Upon leaving the junkyard, he took me out for breakfast.
It’s funny how I still remember that day as though it happened a week ago. I want to do something like that with you.
My other grandfather lived down the street from my house. He had hands that seemed as big as a coffee pot and as tough as a claw hammer, but he was kind and gentle, and had a smile that no one forgot. He lived to his mid-nineties and brought a lot of joy to a lot of people. I’m hoping for a nice long life too, not only for you but for me. I want to spend a lot of time with you, my grandson.
I promise you that I’ll try to help create memories for you of a grandfather who won’t take you or anyone else for granted.
I’ve had two pretty good role models in my grandfathers.
We’ll have a lot of fun.
Welcome to this world grandson.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
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