David, James, Mark - Christmas Eve 2007
OTX West
Oakland Technology Exchange-West is the creation of Bruce Buckelew, a man dedicated to providing every student in Oakland with a computer. I learned about Buckelew when the Chronicle published a story about his receiving an award from a national foundation, the American Institute for Public Service.
On December 4, I drove to an address in the heart of inner city Oakland. I found a big, well-maintained warehouse where donated computers are refurbished to help students keep pace with their peers. In addition to storage and workspace, Brandy and I discovered a large, well-lit classroom with rows of computers. There, at-risk youths and their parents or guardians complete a three-hour training program before receiving a free computer.
I donated our used, iMac computer. It was in good working condition and ready for reuse. Buckelew founded his nonprofit Technology Exchange in 1995 after retiring from a 25- year career with IBM. He has made a difference in the lives of thousands of students in grades 6-12. It makes the heart glad to know about people like Bruce Buckelew.
Craig’s List
How could we get along without Craig’s List? With three-year-old Sophia coming with her parents and baby sister for Christmas, we needed a toddler bed. Billie went to Craig’s list and located a Million Dollar Baby Sleigh Toddler Bed available in Berkeley.
The seller turned out to be a young Frenchman returning to France with his family after a six-month computer study program at Cal Berkeley. He and I loaded the bed into our PT Cruiser while Billie and I chatted with him about current French politics and our trips to France.
Sheep from the Goats
To make room for the toddler bed in our computer room, and to prepare for re-carpeting, we moved furniture around and Billie cleaned out files and shredded a lot of old records. In the process, she discovered some fascinating “historical documents.”
One of my favorites is a yellowed newspaper clipping from our years at St. Augustine’s in Santa Monica. It was sent by Lucille Lewis, a parishioner, who wrote in the margin: “Billie, as promised. Love, Lucille.”
The clipping was a 1985 letter to the Editor of the Evening Outlook:
Editor: I am ashamed of St. Augustine by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, featured in your recent article. They are lost in apostasy. They take the Adversary’s position on major Christian moral issues.
The Lord will ultimately sort out the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the chaff, and the Christians from the humanists.
Betty Lou Stewart
West Los Angeles
I guess Betty never heard of Christian humanists. Our aim at St. Augustine’s was to be an inclusive congregation that put God’s people and their needs first.
Bottle Club Christmas Party
That’s “bottles” as in bottle collecting, not wine tasting, although wine flowed freely at the annual Christmas Party for the Golden Gate Historical Bottle Society. Billie and I attended the event, held on December 5 at Bertola’s Restaurant in Martinez.
Known for its county government offices and historic sites like the home of John Muir, Martinez is most famous nowadays for a sprawling beaver dam on a portion of Alhambra Creek running through the heart of the city. You may know about the beavers. They have been attracting visitors from far and near, but it’s unlikely you have heard of the old, three-story house next to the creek. It houses Bertola’s Restaurant.
TV crews climb on the roof to place spotlights when filming the beavers, but they leave the house, with its strong odor of Italian food, in the shadows. Each of the three floors, as well as the basement, has tables and chairs for diners. The décor is plain if not stark, and the rugs have needed replacing for years. Bertola’s attraction is huge helpings of home cooked meals at modest prices. Our bottle club, which hosts its members for the Christmas Party each year, likes that arrangement.
When Billie and I arrived, some club members were already sitting at the bar on the first floor. We purchased glasses of the house red ($5 for two) and headed for the third floor where the party was to be held. Folks began drifting in. Dress and manners are informal at these events. There is a lot of teasing back and forth. Most of the members have belonged for 20 years or longer. They are like a big, rowdy family.
One young woman took all the orders and served the food. She was fast and efficient. In addition to 20%, the members always give her a few historic bottles. She says her mother and grandmother are jealous. Carafes of wine, baskets of hot, fresh bread, and large platters of food disappeared in record time. Dinner conversation was mostly about bottle shows and cruises.
As the dishes were cleared away, the President tried to hold an election of officers for 2008. There were wisecracks and laughter because we re-elect the same officers every year. Then came the big announcement. Our annual show will be held at the Solano Fairgrounds in April. No one can remember when it was held anywhere else. Last of all, there was a drawing for historic bottles in Christmas wrap. The thing was rigged so that everyone went away with at least one bottle. I drew a pre-Civil War mustard bottle. Billie received a Pacific Union College Dairy milk bottle from the 1930’s and an 8 ounce wire hoop top cream bottle with an embossed patent date of Nov. 15, 1898.
We took Brandy, who had been sleeping in the car, some of my pot roast, and left for home. Beavers are the big attraction downtown these days, but we think of Martinez as the place where our bottle club holds the Christmas party.
Publisher Shows Interest
James has been critiquing proposed books for a major textbook publisher. His astute observations, based on experience teaching adults in Louisiana and Oregon, have earned a request from the acquisitions editor to write a prospectus for a textbook of his own.
Busy as he is, with teaching jobs at two colleges and a family that includes a 3-year-old and an infant, James promised to have his proposal ready by the first of the year. Congratulations, James! Best of luck landing a book contract.
The Trouble With Dentists
Dentists are always finding something wrong with your teeth. When my mother-in-law, Faye, was in her 80s, she told her dentist: “I’ve never had trouble with my teeth before.” It was true. She was blessed with good teeth and never had a cavity. Billie and her sister remember Faye aggressively brushing her teeth for a long time every day. That must have contributed to her good fortune.
“I hate to say this Mrs. Loit,” the dentist replied, “but your teeth are getting old.” That thought had never occurred to her.
Old age comes to all of us, and to every part of us. Recently, I made an appointment with my dentist to have a cap glued back on one of my teeth. A hole was discovered beneath the cap. I had to make another appointment to have the tooth prepared for a new cap that would cover the “hole.”
On my return visit, the tooth was cleaned out and x-rayed and a mold made. On a third trip, the following week, a gold cap was glued in. On that visit I endured a painful probe of the gum to be sure the new cap reached down far enough.
The dentist told me he would like to see me do a better job of flossing, so I wouldn’t have another tooth decay at the gum line. Believe me, I am determined to become an Olympic flosser. I don’t want to sound like an “anti-dentite,” but the dentist’s office is not one of my favorite places.
Never So Proud
I was never so proud of my college. Harvard recently announced a new financial aid program to benefit middle-income families. The School already offered one of the most generous aid programs of any university for low-income families, asking nothing from parents earning under $60,000 yearly.
Now, parents earning between $60,000 and $120,000 will pay a percentage of their income, rising to 10 percent. Families with incomes between $120,000 and $180,000 will have to pay 10 percent of their incomes, but no more.
Harvard’s new President Drew Gilpin Faust was concerned that even students far up the income ladder were discouraged from applying because of Harvard’s tuition of $45,620. The University was becoming more and more a school for only the most wealthy. Faust is determined to reverse that trend.
You Are Not The Queen of England
Dorothy Hill is a feminist, teacher, author, and pioneer UCC woman minister. She was the first Director of Christian Education we hired at St. Augustine’s in Santa Monica. Dorothy believes in experiential education. She re-named our Sunday School “The Sunday Experience” and made it inter-generational.
Under her leadership we held the first Mass on the beach. Children and their parents built the altar out of sand and everyone on the beach was welcome to participate. She also had us celebrate in the alley behind the church, using trash barrels and an old wooden door to form the table altar. The theme of that celebration was the need to reclaim, recycle, and repair the environment.
Dorothy always included the children themselves in lesson planning sessions. Once, she poured the contents of a box on the table. There were D batteries, wire, and flash light bulbs. “Can you make light?” she asked the children. Soon, one child connected battery to bulb with a piece of wire and the bulb turned bright with light.
“Can you make more light?” Dorothy asked. After a time, the children learned to line up several batteries and connect them to a bulb. That produced a stronger beam.
At this point I and every other adult present was ready to teach the “moral:” the more people, the more love, the more “light.” Dorothy showed the restraint of a great teacher. She drew no conclusions, refused to “tie a bow” on the lesson. She knew if a child figured it out for herself, she never would forget it.
Dorothy has been retired for years but is sharp as ever. She reports the following in her Christmas letter THE HILLS ARE ALIVE…IN 2007:
Dorothy’s knees gave out. We asked the doctor about having knee surgery. He responded, “No, you are too old for that.” Dorothy then replied, “I don’t think so! The Queen of England had knee surgery when she was 103 years old!” He said, “Well, you are not the Queen of England.” Dorothy then said, “Well, you certainly are not her surgeon, either!” So, she goes back to Aquatic Therapy every week for two hours.
That indomitable spirit carried Dorothy through years of lively ministry and made her countless friends, both young and old.
Anglophiles note: Queen Elizabeth has her own You Tube channel.
Family Christmas
Our family is blessed this Christmastide. Everyone is in good health. The younger generation are employed and doing well. We hope all of you are prospering, too.
It has been very cold here. Rob and Marty are spending Christmas in Eugene with David, Jean, and Jon. Rob told me it was cold there. He also reminded me that cold weather fits the season much better than if it was hot.
Present for our family gathering on Christmas eve were David, Cathy, and Perry, James and Tanya, Sophia and Stella, both recovering from colds, Mark and Sanae, Billie and me. Billie prepared a wonderful meal. We had turkey and ham, dressing and gravy, green salad, mashed potatoes, baked yams, green peas, cranberry-orange relish, jellied cranberry, bread and butter, pickles and olives, red and white wine. Dessert was Marie Callender's pumpkin and apple pies and coffee.
On Sunday Mark and Sanae and David had visited the Wine Country. David bought sparkling wine at the new Coppola winery in Sonoma. He brought two bottles to the party Christmas Eve, and we toasted each other before dinner. This was the first time in some years the three boys had been together. We had them stand in front of the fireplace while Sanae and I took their picture. Sanae got the best shot. Mine is included in this blog.
We decided gifts would be only for the children this year. Perry received many nice things, and so did the little girls. Sophia showed herself adept at tearing the wrapping off presents. At one point she did a joyful dance that was a star performance.
In a world where so many people are suffering and democracy seems off course in America, we were thankful indeed for a happy and harmonious family Christmas. We send out our love to you all.
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast,” wrote Alexander Pope. Hope certainly is the theme of Christmas, portrayed in dramatic imagery of light shining in the darkness. We hope you have a shining 2008.
Happy New Year!
