Warts and all,
we’re still small
You know you live in a small town when you know your mail
carrier’s kid’s name, and where she’s hoping to attend college. A
complete stranger offers unsolicited advice about picking out the
perfect melon at the Wednesday farmer’s market. Your oldest child’s
kindergarten teacher still inquires about her, even though she put
down the Crayolas to move on to first grade 15 years ago.
Those are not hypothetical, but very real encounters we’ve
enjoyed recently.
Warts and all,
we’re still small
You know you live in a small town when you know your mail carrier’s kid’s name, and where she’s hoping to attend college. A complete stranger offers unsolicited advice about picking out the perfect melon at the Wednesday farmer’s market. Your oldest child’s kindergarten teacher still inquires about her, even though she put down the Crayolas to move on to first grade 15 years ago.
Those are not hypothetical, but very real encounters we’ve enjoyed recently.
And then came the Tuesday edition of the local daily. The top headline screamed about a person who was shot by a sheriff’s deputy and later died, the second incident within a month in which an encounter with deputies ended in death.
On the right side of the page was another headline; one telling us of a fatal shooting thought to be linked to gangs.
It’s pretty sobering. Welcome to Hollister, 2007.
San Benito County has its share of problems, and this week offered grisly reminders that some are pretty darn serious.
It’s no news that we could use more police on the street, as a colleague with more than three decades in newspapers pointed out. But there’s cause for us all to feel a little guilty.
How well are we taking care of one another? The man who died after being shot in the stomach last weekend was believed to be high on methamphetamine. The gang-related shooting sprayed a neighborhood with bullets.
Why hadn’t friends and family stepped in long before? What could have been done before the bullets started flying?
Here’s a suggestion: why don’t we all care enough just to say something?
The same day we read of the deaths, we passed a group of about eight boys, probably none older than 14. Several had climbed into the branches of a street tree directly across from Sunnyslope School for the purpose of snapping those branches off.
The damage leaves a block crowded with apartments on a busy street a little more blighted, certainly. But the damage was being inflicted in the middle of the day on a crowded street. And nobody stopped.
A few blocks down the road guilt set in. But nobody turned around to ask the boys to consider the foolishness of their fun.
We’re not advocating confronting dangerous people, but it wasn’t so long ago that when we encountered kids riding their bikes on sidewalks downtown, we’d explain that they might crash into someone leaving a business and injure them. Invariably our conversations ended with the kids either walking their bikes or heading into the street where they belong.
Growing up in a much smaller Hollister, we knew that if we crossed certain lines our parents were certain to get a call from an adult. Sure enough, we were caught and caught again almost whenever we started to get stupid.
Maybe it really does take a village, not just to raise a child, but to nurture us all.
There’s still hope
Enough seriousness. This is, after all, still a small town, and as proof, one needs look no further than the Internet.
It came to light this week that several local businesses and organizations have opened “Myspace” accounts.
Myspace is a site popular mostly with teens and pre-teens who use it for social networking. It gives them a chance to post pictures, gossip, trash other kids and generally behave the way adolescents do.
The Hollister Downtown Association has a great site, one with a calendar of events, a blog that has not yet started to fill in and a list of “friends,” including the edgy comedy group Supafloss.
HDA’s page identifies it as a “19-year-old female.”
Actually, the downtown group dates to 1987, making it 20, but it seems to be a girl’s prerogative to fudge a bit on her age.
The HDA Myspace address is complicated, but not to worry. The Broken Wing, a downtown club, has its own page and a much simpler url (http://myspace.com/thebrokenwing). From there, there’s a link to the downtown association, officially identified as a friend.
The Broken Wing actually is not a bad place to start your Myspace experience. Make sure the computer speakers are on before visiting, because a trip to the club’s page includes a rockin’ blues soundtrack and pictures of lots of friends, including a Chihuahua that does not appear to be 21 years old, but it’s always difficult to ask a Chihuahua for ID, since they typically don’t carry wallets. And even if they did, they don’t have the thumbs they’d need to pull out the old driver’s license.
For the record, the Broken Wing is a 50-year-old male, and that’s probably a pretty accurate depiction of the target clientele.
The Broken Wing’s Myspace page also is a pretty accurate depiction of the place, an upscale club with some billiard tables located in what used to be a bank. The background’s black and the photos feature people who appear to be having fun.
So is the HDA page, which shouts “hometown USA” through it’s tasteful wallpaper and user-friendly appearance.
There are other local businesses rumored to have Myspace pages, but those are the only ones we could find. Since we’re closer to the Broken Wing demographic than HDA’s, we’re a little Myspace challenged.
But nevertheless, downtown Hollister meets the premier virtual teen meeting place. Are we quirky or what?
Notebook is compiled by Mark Paxton, with contributions from other staff members whenever they feel like it.
