St. Vincent de Paul holds its annual barbecue fund raiser, a vegetarian and vegan restaurant downtown gets some kudos and local businessmen turn to security shutters to combat crime

Friday, October 5, 2018

 Welcome to Bakersfield Observed. Our mission is to celebrate life in Kern County by focusing on newsmakers and events and the local characters who make this such a special to live. Send your news tips to rsbeene@yahoo.com.

 * ... HOMELESS BBQ: One of the older organizations in town dedicated to helping the homeless is the St. Vincent de Paul homeless center off Baker Street, which held its annual barbecue fund raiser this week. Organizer Deborah Leary said more than a thousand New York steaks were served

Thursday evening, along with Casa Munoz beans, a salad and dessert. This facility feeds hundreds of homeless every day as well as provides them showers and a place to pick up mail. St. Vincent closes daily in the afternoon - it is not an overnight facility - and serves an important role in giving a helping hand to our growing homeless population. Among those I spotted were Monsignor Craig Harrison, Teri and Barry Goldner, Fran and Gregg Gunner,  Judge Robert Anspach and his wife Rosemary, their daughter and son-in-law Dr. Tom and Mary Berry, Eleanor Etcheverry, Gordon and Lynn Westhoff, Jim Sakowski and so many more.

 * ... CRIME: How bad is crime locally? Well, it is so bad that the King Door Company is doing a brisk business in security shutters for local businesses. Company owner Roman Ruiz said local businesses are being regularly broken into, and they are taking steps to combat this dangerous new wave of crime. King Door now offers a wide range of metal security shutters and steel reinforced doors. Some of their clients include a new California Highway Patrol facility, school cafeterias, Infiniti of Bakersfield, United Rentals and the Kern Oil Refinery. A sign of the times.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "To anyone that ever gave up on me all I have to say is ... good call."

 * ... MAMMA MIA: I finally stopped by Mamma Mia's, the new Italian restaurant downtown run by a chef who worked at Luigi's for more than 20 years. As expected, the menu features some Luigi's look alikes, as well as some new offerings. The night we were there it was jammed and service was spotty, but the food was excellent. My beef: my salad, the size of a normal dinner salad, cost a pricey $12.99. Yikes.

 * ... HEN'S ROOST: Meanwhile if you are looking for something more healthy, either vegetarian or vegan, try the Hen's Roost behind the downtown Post Office on G Street. Run by Jaclyn Allen and a small but dedicated staff, this new twist on a health food restaurant features some of the best non-meat burgers in town, including the "Impossible Burger" featured here.

 * ... MEMORIES: Check out these photos of 19th Streets back in the day, and today. Something went wrong methinks.

Memorial Day in Bakersfield, Monsignor Craig Harrison readies for a 10-day fast in an Italian cave, and the end of an era on local television

 * ... MEMORIAL DAY: Did you know Memorial Day was initiated to honor those in the Union and Confederate armies that died during our Civil War? Originally called Decoration Day, it was first

celebrated on May 30, 1868. On this Memorial Day, I took time to remember Harold Swysgood, a young infantryman who died in the battle of Anzio in January 1944. He was 20 years old when he died in Italy. His younger sister back in the tiny hamlet of Saint Marys, Ohio, was my mother.

 * ... FATHER CRAIG: I had a chance to catch up with Monsignor Craig Harrison at a dinner party this weekend, and he shared that he is headed to Italy next month for his annual pilgrimage to Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, founder of the Franciscan religious order. This will be Harrison's 44th trip to Assisi, where he spends 10 days alone in a dark cave (no bathroom, no electricity, just a notepad, one candle - it has to last 10 days - and the barest of meals that show up at the cave entrance). "I don't see anybody for 10 days, nobody," he told me. "It's a time of reflection and you find yourself talking to butterflies and birds." Harrison called it a "Franciscan cleanse" and it is something he looks forward to every year. Curiously, I find the whole concept appealing.

* ... END OF AN ERA: When Jackie Parks left KERO TV after 27 years in Bakersfield, it truly seemed to mark and end of an era when local anchors stayed on and embraced this community as their home. Within an hour of her last newscast last Friday, Parks joined fellow former anchors Lisa Kimble Edmonston (KGET, KERO) and Robin Mangarin Scott (KERO, KGET) at the home of former KBAK reporter and marketing director Don Martin to share stores and toast the future. Parks is headed to Maryland to join husband Todd Karli at a local affiliate.

* ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "Whenever I start to hate my job I think about the camera crew who has to follow the Kardashian’s 24/7."

 * ... SPOTTED ON FACEBOOK: Friend at Memorial Day BBQ: I see you wasted no time with the white pants. Me: These are my legs.

 * ...MEMORIES: My friend Susan Reep submitted this tidbit to see if it would spark any memories: "I have lunch quarterly with a group of Hollywood High alums, and one said her family used to stop for ice cream long ago in Bakersfield on their way up the valley. She thinks it was Carnation. Does anyone remember a Carnation ice cream shop or plant? By long ago I mean 60 years or thereabouts."

Eye on First Friday: a tribute to our emerging downtown arts district

 The renaissance of the downtown Bakersfield arts scene continues and finds a new voice with "Eye on First Friday," a video blog by former TV talents Lisa Kimble Edmonston and Don Martin. Martin is the brainchild and creative genius behind First Friday, the monthly celebration of the arts. Enjoy

One woman's testimony to the Christmas spirit and more bad form involving cell phones at the Post Office

 * ... CHRISTMAS SPIRIT: Many thanks to reader Alice Brown for dropping me a note that brightened my day. She returned home last Sunday to find a plate of cookies left at her house with a note attached. "It said I had been RACK’ed," she said. "The card also said, this Christmas season, we are counting down the 25 days of Christmas by performing 'Random Acts of Kindness' each day. So often we get caught up in the shopping and forget the real reason for Christmas.  I just want to say thank you to the wonderful and caring person who shared this with me and I will be sure and continue this 'random act of Christmas kindness.'  Merry Christmas to everyone!"

 * ... STINSON'S: I stopped by the annual Customer Appreciation Party over at Stinson's Stationers to touch base with owner Ben Stinson. Every year he opens his warehouse to 800 customers, treating them to a barbecue lunch and drawings for dozens of prizes, including flat screen televisions. Ben takes to a microphone like a Southern minister at a tent revival, regaling the crowd with stories while promoting his business. Stinson's is just another example of a locally owned, family business that has weathered the downturn well.


* ... BAD FORM: This from former local TV anchor and now manners columnist Lisa Kimble Edmonston. She pulled up behind the downtown Post Office to mail a letter and sat there until she realized the woman parked in front of her was on her cell phone. "I got out of my car, walked my letter to the mailbox, tapped on her window to alert her that she had a line of six cars deep behind her ... and she was totally unfazed!"


* ... WHO KNEW? Did you know that the television  series “Pan Am” co-stars Bakersfield native Kelli Garner? She’s also had a number of film roles with actors like Drew Barrymore and Leonardo DiCaprio.

 * ... CROSS COUNTRY: East Bakersfield High School cross country teams of the 1960s will be honored at the "Run for the Dream" indoor track and field invitational meet, January 21, 2012.  Bob Farley, former cross country and track coach at Fresno State, researched and found East Bakersfield High School was the most successful cross country program in the valley through the 1960s. The guest speaker will be Billy Mills, Olympic gold medalist of the 1964 Olympics (documented in the movie "Running Brave"). The meet will be held at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, starting time 1:30 p.m. Thanks to  Richard Villalovos for sharing this.

* ... BAKERSFIELDISM: Dennis Horack writes that you may be from Bakersfield if "you remember all the great men's stores we had when shopping for a sport coat or suit: Coffees, Caspers, Harris and Franks, Richmond Brothers, Seilers and Robert Hall. Back when dressing up for church or the office was the norm, my closet was full of sport coats and suits from the above retailers. I say out with today's casual manner of dress and back to the dress-up mode. My opinion is probably in the minority, but I am old school."

Recession takes toll on nation's consumer confidence and spotting a Bakersfield landmark in Prague

 * ... CONFIDENCE: Nice to see gas prices down to around $3.50 a gallon around town, a welcome reprieve for local drivers. But it's clear this is about the only good news out there. Consumer confidence in the economy has plunged, thanks to a volatile stock market, high unemployment and political paralysis in Washington, D.C. The latest survey by the University of Michigan now shows overall consumer confidence at the lowest level since 1980. That has forced folks to sharply curtail spending, not only on major purchases like new cars and appliances but on everything from eating out to new clothes.

 *  ... SMALL WORLD: In the category of "it's a small world," Larry Adams wrote that he visited  Prague recently with his grandson, Matt, when they stopped in a small sandwich shop that was adorned with old Coca-Cola signs. "To my absolute amazement in front of my table was a picture of the Sill  Building with a gigantic Coca-Cola sign on the roof. I thought 'not possible' but when I looked closer there was Kimball and Stone Pharmacy on the ground floor! I was almost speechless." The $70 lunch was not memorable, he added, "but seeing that picture was worth the price of lunch."

 * ... KUDOS: Hats off to Lisa  Kimble Edmonston, the former  TV anchor and now local writer who won some well deserved recognition from her alma mater. Turns out Lisa has been named 2011 alumna of the year from Mount St. Mary's College, recognizing her years of community service.

 * ...  SPOTTED: In the parking lot of Fresh and  Easy at California and Stockdale Highway, a young mother is scolding her two children as she casually tosses paper cups and fast food wrappings from the back seat of her black SUV onto the pavement. Candidate for mother of the year?

 * ... STILL THE JOCK: Local golf shop owner Ken Hurlbert took a break from building custom clubs to compete in the California State Games Track Meet recently in San Diego. After a 50-year absence from the sports, he took first place in the Masters Division (ages 70-74) in shot put, discus and javelin. Hurlbert was joined by his University of Redlands teammate, Charles Wilkinson, who still holds the all time Redlands javelin record with a throw of 248 feet and 9 inches back in 1961.

 * ... RIP: Karla Jadwin wrote to remember James Michael Ellison, who died recently at the age of 67. Though he left Bakersfield a dozen or so years ago, he made a big impression while here "This was a wonderful, giving, funny guy," she wrote. "We met in Kiwanis when he served as president two years before I did. Since retiring from the Lompoc Fire Department and coming here to head the Red Cross he earned the nickname Pugsley ... because the goofus almost always wore striped T-shirts and Bermuda shorts to work!" Keep this family in your thoughts.
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 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: From Riley Parker: You might be a Bakersfield old timer if you remember Lloyd Plank as the then 25-year-old manager of The University Shop and we all thought he was "old."