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The Calaveras Chronicle
“On The Road”
April 2015 ● 18
Philosophy Town
David Alford
When
is a town not just a town but also a
philosophy? When the town is Bolinas,
California. Bolinas: even the name seems Italian
or even mystical, like Atlantis, almost Oz.
If your map is big enough, you will find
Bolinas on the coast about an hour North of
San Francisco, across from Stinson Beach,
hugging a curving shore and a bird-filled
lagoon, “The City” visible off in the distance
to the East. But if you are traveling on the
road, you won’t find any sign for Bolinas;
locals tore down so many signs that the
authorities gave up, finally, and left the place
incognito.
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The philosophy, then, is ‘leave us alone, don’t Barbara Hall’s “Sandpipers Three”
bother us.’ It could be said, in a way, that
every town has a philosophy, even if vague and Every year, there is a “Freebox” show in the community
unexpressed, but none that I’m familiar with seem to center in which locals put on one of the world’s funkiest
reek with an overwhelming perfume like Bolinas does. fashion shows: dogs, kids, masks, wild hats, old clothes,
glittering ‘do’s,’ all applauded by appreciative townies.
Sure there are places in town where the unidentified
public is welcome: Smiley’s Hotel and Saloon, the Vic’s “Grand Hotel,’ on a side street, is the kind of
Coast Café, even the very benign public beach, natural artistic junk shop almost defunct now in our modernized
habitat for beginning surfers, and, now, even a world, stuff piled high in mounds, stacks of books,
manicured little park in the middle of town that many boxes of old jewelry, statues, clothes, pots and pans,
locals think is too gentrified, as well as a few very you name it. Vic has a couple of rooms upstairs which
small shops that sell stuff mostly to tourists who have earn the name ‘hotel’ for about 60 bucks a night, but
broken through the anonymity barrier, though the he’s only open whenever he feels like it.
proprietors don’t seem to care whether anybody buys Surfers, derelict travelers, bums, anybody can sleep in
anything, But there seem to be more dogs wandering their vans or cars unmolested on a side street next to
the streets than tourists anyway, and they all are, well-maintained public bathrooms. It is as if the desire
for anonymity blends with tolerance and the best kind
logically, unleashed.
of libertarianism, ‘don’t bother me’ means ‘I won’t
A few years back a big developer tried the usual bother you.’
capitalist maneuver to make big bucks off the gorgeous
lay of the land and coast, including the installation of a Every so often, there is a luncheon/gathering of a group
water system to service the subdivision and the usual called ‘The White Caps,’ an extremely low key pot
array of big stores, hotels and other intrusions, but the luck reunion of old timers (white hair!) the current
people of the town soundly defeated the attack in a ‘chairman’ of which is now about 80. Nobody brags,
nobody presents credentials, nobody has to ‘be
referendum.
somebody’ in this casual get-together. It is like the
Because water and sewage treatment is so limited, if very best of family, of acceptance.
you are lucky enough to find a vacant lot in town you
can’t build on it, but existing homes approach an Our pals, Dale and Judy, personify the town exactly.
average of $1,000,000, so the populous is either an Dale, my age, is a jazz clarinetist, poet and composer,
aging remnant of the 70’s, hippy and artistic fragments, and Judy a notable artist who has a tiny gallery in the
or nouveau rich who are drawn to the town’s lazy town. They’ve had a home up on what is called the ‘big
ambiance. Some residents are a mixture of both: mesa’ for many years and let us use her studio occasionally
writers, scientists, artists who have made it big in the as a place to crash. These very kind people exude humility
outside world and now want the repose of this town’s about who they are, very like the town itself.
atmosphere.
All of these eccentricities, and far more, are the exact
Eccentricities abound in Bolinas. The local bookstore opposite of pretentious. Dressing up, in town, means
runs completely on a trust basis with a donation box changing your sweatshirt, and even a notable author,
and no clerk present. A sign says, “Ordinary book, $1; like Jerry Mander, to whom Dale introduced me at the
Outstanding book, $5; Extraordinary book, $20” and “Freebox” fashion show, was indistinguishable in the
so on. Nobody knows and nobody cares, though the crowd. He ran off to his car to get to get me a copy of
owner says, when pressed, that he makes as much his latest book, and then he disappeared like a mirage.
money as any normal bookstore. I have George I’ve hesitated about writing up Bolinas, because it
Orwell’s four volume complete essays I ‘bought’ there. deserves to be undisturbed, it is so free, so
I won’t say how much I paid for them.
unencumbered by crass commercialism and bullshit, so
laid back and yet so filled with unheralded creativity
Back of the vibrant community center, redolent with and artistry, all lapped by a sweet beach with exactly
pageants, festivals, celebrations, and next to the very zero exploitation. If you visit Bolinas, please drive in
local community market, there is a town institution quietly, become as calm and as unpretentious as
called “The Freebox,” a donation place for clothes, possible, and breathe in the unstated but pervasive
furniture, art objects, trinkets, junk, antiques.
philosophy of the town.
The Calaveras Chronicle
Stearns’ Page
April 2015 ● 19
The Elusive Butterfly
FINE ART REPRODUCTION SERVICES
By Jim Stearns
To those of us who care about such things, there are some
utterly fascinating creature migrations on this planet. There are
the Humpback whales, who travel over 15,000 miles from the
northern seas of Alaska and Russia to the warmer waters of the
equator. Millions of caribou travel thousands of miles to their
calving grounds in the Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska.
On Australia’s Christmas Island, 50 million red crabs make
their way from the sea and go miles into the forest to mate and
then return to the sea a few months later. In Africa, a million
wildebeest shake the ground for miles, as they travel hundreds
of miles into the Serengeti in search of food and water.
A relatively short but particularly fascinating migration is that
of the Emperor penguins. They travel 60-100 miles inland to
their designated breeding sites. When they arrive the females
will lay an egg and then pass it on to their husband. Their
husband will take care of the egg for the next 4 months while
the females are off feeding in the sea. During this period the
males all huddle in one big pack and take turns moving from
the outside of the group to the inside, so they share the burden
of absorbing the brutal winds and cold that can reach 60 below
zero and 100 mph. When the first eggs start to hatch, in August,
the females return and the males go off to feed in the sea. Then,
before the males return, the females will leave their chicks and
travel to the ocean to feed. When the males arrive they will
find their chicks by a unique mutual call and then feed them.
Along with most everyone else, I really knew very little about
the Monarch. How and why these gentle, gorgeous, fragile
creatures do what they do is nothing short of a natural wonder.
Their brains are smaller than a pinprick, their wings are like
tissue paper and they could fit in the palm of your hand.
How the whole complicated process plays out is even more
intriguing and mysterious. The generation that leaves Mexico
in the spring makes it to the Gulf States where they mate and
die. The next generation makes it to the northern part of the
U.S. where they mate and die, living only about a month. The
next generation makes it back into Canada and along the U.S.
border where they mate and die in about a month and the
fourth generation, now the great, great grandchildren of those
that left Mexico, emerge from caterpillars and in late summer
begin the epic 2000 mile journey south to Mexico. Somehow
Still, amongst all the incredible journeys there is one migration this fourth generation lives 9 months and survives the winter
that to me is the most jaw dropping and magnificent of all. A in Mexico and then the first leg of the return journey north.
hundred million butterflies begin from Winnipeg, Toronto, Lake
Huron and Detroit. They’ve never before traveled far from Scientists are just beginning to discover how this all works,
where they were born and are seemingly ill prepared physically but they still have not the slightest clue why. Still there are
and mentally to make the 2000 mile trek to the mountains of mind dazzling components. They’ve taken a bunch of them
Mexico. Millions will die along the way. They cross the great off track and released them from the eastern seaboard and
lakes buffeted by winds. They hunker down in storms and dodge after a couple of days of flying due south, they reorient and
predators along the route. They cross over the industrial belt and move southwest to rejoin their cohorts.
over the vast central plains of America. They venture over
hundreds of miles of scorching Mexican deserts, and then After decades of study the Monarch and their miraculous
hundreds more miles through the Sierra Madre. Averaging 50 migration, much of it remains a profound mystery. They’ve
miles a day, it takes them a couple of months to complete their been able to finally figure out how it plays out, but they still
phenomenal excursion, finally arriving at 10,000 ft. in a 60 are baffled by many of the components of this utterly
square mile region in the mountains of Mexico, where they will impressive life cycle. When did it start? How do they navigate?
remain through the winter before starting north again in the Why do they do it? Scientists want desperately to understand,
and most times I am grateful for that, but the fact that the
spring.
Monarch butterfly leaves everyone dumbfounded and awe
Even as a young boy I found butterflies, particularly Monarchs, inspired is somehow refreshing. Maybe it’s better sometimes
to be enchanting. Like many of us, I captured the caterpillars to let go of the hand wringing and forget about analysis and
and put them in a jar with leaves, sticks and a little water, dissection. For me these spectacular little creatures offer the
covered the top with foil poked with holes and waited perfect opportunity to let go of the why? why? why? and
simply say Wow! Wow! Wow!
(unsuccessfully), to see the emerging butterfly.
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