Some things never change
The French have an expression:
”
La plus
ça change …
”
It means
”
the more things change …
”
and what’s left implied is the second half of the sentence:
”
… the more things stay the same.
”
My body double, Bob Valenzuela, had asked me to check local
movie listings from the summer of 1958. As is my habit, I quickly
got a little side-tracked.
Some things never change
The French have an expression: “La plus ça change …”
It means “the more things change …” and what’s left implied is the second half of the sentence: “… the more things stay the same.”
My body double, Bob Valenzuela, had asked me to check local movie listings from the summer of 1958. As is my habit, I quickly got a little side-tracked.
The F-Paper was a very good read 50 years ago. It was larger than it is today; the wide, wide pages offered a Cinemascope experience, blanketing a large desk. If you lived in San Benito County, or once lived in San Benito County, your death was front-page news. If you dropped in at Hazel Hawkins Hospital on Monterey Street, that made the paper, too. Much of the paper contained world news, and there were few photos that didn’t depict a row of suited men, posing stiff-backed in front of the camera.
But there was a lot of local news as well. A cooking contest sponsored by the paper brought hundreds of recipes from local readers. Hearst Castle had just opened to the public, and the paper recommended the four-hour drive highly. San Benito High graduated 102, many of whom became prominent members of the community.
Many of the most interesting bits gleaned from the 50-year-old pages come from the advertisements. A house could be had for not much more than $10,000. Tipton Motors had begun selling Triumphs, and a cute little British sedan went for the asking price of about $1,700.
Potatoes could be had for a penny a pound and prime rib roasts were 75 cents a pound.
San Benito County had its share of issues as well.
San Juan Bautista was struggling to secure affordable bids to improve its antiquated water system. The Hollister City Council commissioned a survey of local residents.
They identified Hollister’s greatest need as local job development, followed by youth activities and a community pool, followed by better sewer and water systems.
Huh?
In 2008, Hollister is about to cut the big red ribbon on a new waste water treatment plant. San Juan is still talking about updating its water system. The public pool at Bolado Park that was a popular asset in 1958 is entombed under a thick mantle of concrete and nearly 50 percent of the working population leaves the county to punch a time clock.
Are we making any progress at all here?
Perhaps it’s the Pollyanna in me, but 50 years later, I’m still optimistic about the future in San Benito County.
I still may not be willing to drink the tap water in San Juan in a few years, but Hollister’s new sewer treatment plant is reportedly ahead of schedule and nearly ready to do as thorough a job as any plant now operating. The county Economic Development Corp. is being coy about who the candidate is, but negotiations continue for a new executive director. Moreover, the Hwy. 25 bypass will return Hollister’s main drag, San Benito Street, to the community. That should offer opportunities for a downtown resurgence.
We’re still waiting for that community pool, but school and community sports leagues, the city recreation department, YMCA and a host of other youth groups ensure that it takes determination for a kid to be bored around here.
Perhaps the community’s halcyon days were not lived in 1958. We just may be living them now.
In other news
Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, stopped by the office this week to talk about a pet project. After reading in these pages that the director of the National Park Service, during a visit to Pinnacles National Monument, said she would be open to national park status for our very own natural wonder, Farr got to work.
Farr said national park status may present some problems because of the structure of the park service. For example, a full-fledged park is required to have its own separate legal and accounting divisions, he said. That could prove impractical for a relatively small park like Pinnacles.
But elevating the monument’s status to an administrative unit for a National Heritage Area is a strong possibility, Farr hinted.
“We’re working with the National Park Service,” he said. “We’re going to introduce a bill in the new Congress where we hope to get more support than we’ve gotten from the Bush administration.”
