Past chamber presidents tells local history, part 1

4-29-2019

By Michael Raffety

Back in January Cherie and I attended the installation of officers for the El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce.

Each year the program includes a list of chamber presidents going back to 1925. Cherie and I underlined every one we recognized, which included a lot we had personally known and met.

Of course the county chamber is older than 1925. The three oldest members of the Chamber of Commerce date back to 1917: The Mountain Democrat, Carey House Hotel, and Placerville Shakespeare Club.  The Shakespeare Club was originally located on Union Street and was moved in about 1955 to its current location on Bedford Avenue when Union Street became Highway 50. It looks like it always belonged in its current location with its mature landscaping.

Two chamber members date to 1924: PG&E and AT&T.

The first chamber president I recognize in 1926 was Clarence Barker, owner of the Mountain Democrat.  The Barker family bought the Placerville Times in 1958 in what one might call a distress sale when the owners of the Times got a divorce in San Francisco. Acquiring the Placerville Times doubled the circulation of the Mountain Democrat. It was sold to the McNaughton family in 1961. I met the original purchaser, F.F. McNaughton, when he visited the Mountain Democrat after I started working there. He was in the first graduating class of Columbia Journalism School. His grandson, Foy McNaughton is now CEO of McNaughton Newspapers, which includes the Mountain Democrat, Fairfield Republic, Davis Enterprise and assorted weeklies.

I notice that Guy Wentworth was chamber president two years: 1929/30. I searched Bing (I refuse to Google) and my best guest is Guy Wentworth had something to do with Wentworth Springs, after which Wentworth Springs Road in Georgetown is named.

The next name I recognize is L.A. Raffetto, president in 1935. John Raffetto Jr. was chamber president in 1942, followed by Danno Raffetto in 1971. Danno has a cool classic Jaguar that he restored. Raffetto is an Italian name unlike Raffety, which is an English name. The Raffettos owned the Cary House. When I came to town it was called the Raffles Hotel and featured a bar and restaurant called the Redwood Room.

The Clift Hotel in San Francisco also has a Redwood Room. The last time I was there I was looking for it on the wrong street. It’s on Geary Street. Originally it had a large reproduction of gold-colored Klimt painting. It’s a famous bar.

The Raffles was rechristened the Carey House and the Redwood Room disappeared.

It is no longer owned by the Raffetto family.
The next name I recognized was 1935 president A.H. “Sandy” Murray. He owned Murray Stationery. He married a Raffetto. In 1944 he joined the Navy, serving until 1945. His wife Isadeen, ran the store in his absence. They sold the store in 1949, according to Wikipedia, and he bought El Dorado Distributing Co.

I never met Sandy Murray. He was someone my wife knew. Murray was elected to the Placerville City Council in 1946. He and two other councilmen were recalled in 1977 over their votes reduce the power of the city manager. Coming out on the winning side of that issue was Carl Borelli, who served 24 years on the City Council until he took office as an El Dorado County Supervisor in 2001, dying in 2003. He was never a chamber president, but he was a person who always got things done. He was someone a person could always count on to do even the littlest thing or the biggest thing like getting a public restroom built downtown.

Robert Lutz, 1947 president, owned Lutz Motors. My wife and I bought two Chryslers from Lutz motors.

Ted Atwood, president 1949, was the son of the founder of Atwood Insurance, which he sold in 1963 to Maurice Erickson.

1954 president Leo Barrett was my wife’s uncle. He had a car dealership at one time and also served as Placerville City Treasurer from 1964 to 1984. He was among the visitors at the hospital after Cherie gave birth to our daughter Natasha in 1981.

Harry Chadwick, 1961 president, was a title company officer and a man of influence about town. Another person of importance about town was local PG&E manager Milt Coffee, president 1962. Following Coffee was 1963 president Charles Fogerty. My late father-in-law hired Fogerty to fight PG&E over the right to build a commercial center under some power lines. Fogerty later became a superior court judge.

Following Coffee at PG&E was a woman whom I vaguely remember. Following her as PG&E local manager was Jim Abercrombie, who was chamber president in 1993 and was master of ceremonies for this year’s installation. He retired from PG&E and became manager of the Calaveras County Water Agency, followed by being hired as manager of the Dorado Irrigation District.

Robert Combellack was 1964 president. He served a number of years on the Placerville School District board of trustees.

Another Robert was president in 1965. Robert West owned Placerville Lumber Co. in Smith Flat. Nothing remains of the lumber company. The train that served it and Michigan-Cal Lumber Co. in Camino is now a paved hiking trail. When I first came to Democrat in 1978 there was an at-grade crossing of Highway 50 at the end of Smith Flat to near Motor City, which later became a skating rink in the middle of a trailer court. There had to have been a second at grade crossing in Camino.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chamber presidents reveal local history, part 2

5-13-2019

By Michael Raffety

Howard Heilman was a well-known Realtor based in an old house in Pleasant Valley. He was also El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce president n 1969.

In 1972 Patrick Riley was chamber president.  Riley was a lawyer who really wanted to be judge for the longest time. He finally got appointed when Lloyd “Bud” Hamilton retired from the bench and Riley won a gubernatorial appointment to finish Hamilton’s term. He then ran for election as an incumbent in 1990, retiring in 2002.

Leonard Stroud, chamber president in 1974 was an insurance salesman. After he retired he took up a quixotic political cause, which I can no longer remember. I just remember his booming voice at the Monday morning meetings of the Taxpayers of El Dorado County.

Edwin Mathews, 1976 chamber president, is currently retired as a real estate broker. He and his wife Sandy own Coldwell Banker in Placerville. Though he is retired Sandy still runs the business. They are both really nice people – a requirement to succeed in real estate.

The very next year Greg Boeger served as chamber president for 1977. Boeger and Dick Bush were the pioneers in reviving the wine grape industry in El Dorado County after it had disappeared during Prohibition. Boeger has expanded his acreage under cultivation on Carson Road and his winery now produces quite a variety of wines, including Italian varietals.

Ford McCoy, chamber president 1980, was my favorite Realtor. In 1981 he sold us the property we built our house on. We found the property through him and bought it on a rainy day in January. It wasn’t listed. Someone had planned to put a mobile home on the lower part of the property, but for some reason backed out. We figured out how to build on top of the hill and moved in in 1983.

Pamela Masters, 1982 chamber president owned Sierra Gold Graphics. She was followed in 1983 by Jim Bartley, who had worked for the county and then went into private business selling computers when they were novel. My wife’s CPA business sent tax returns off to a service that produced computer printouts, the kind with holes down both sides. This was long before Turbotax.

Vern Sayles, 1984, chamber president was a real estate agent who became manager of the Board of Realtors for a long time and represented them before the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors.

Bob Laurie was a former chief assistant county counsel who went into private practice. In the Vietnam War he flew a spotter plane for the Army. He later served a term on the California Energy Commission. Laurie served a second time as chamber president in 1988.

Delores Garcia, chamber president in 1986, was a longtime Certified Public Accountant. Her last office was in the balcony office overlooking Main Street from Fountain Plaza. She was also a longtime member of the Placerville Soroptimist Club. After her death the El Dorado Foundation bought the whole building.

Dave Bolster, chamber president for 1990, comes from a well-known Apple Hill family and earns a living as a real estate agent.

Jim McIntire, chamber president 1987, owned the local Goodyear Tire Co. on Broadway. He also was a partner with Carl Borelli in Venture Village next to Raley’s. Goodyear’s lease on its building ended and the building’s owner sold it to Les Schwab Tires.

Jerry Klovee served as chamber president in 1989. He was the main promoter of the Highway 50 Association.

Jim Webb served as chamber president in 1991. Webb was general manager of the Mountain Democrat from 1985-87 and then publisher until 2009 when he retired. Jim and I had a great relationship. We were all pleased when he replaced a nine-month GM we called the Shark.

Madeleine Tammi, chamber president 1992, started Blue Ribbon Personnel Services, which has turned into a great business, very well run. EID uses temps at Sly Park from Blue Ribbon. The Mountain Democrat has used Blue Ribbon at times to provide front office help.

Chamber president for 1994 was John Winner, who was county assessor at the time. He later retired and runs a Christmas tree farm. Karl Weiland is now county assessor. He is a member of the 20-30 Club and does a real funny skit during the wheelbarrow races at the county fair.

Betty Franklin followed Winner as chamber president in 1995. She ran a catering service for quite a while..

Fred Faieta served as chamber president in 1996. He operated a campground and ropes course at Coloma. Another CPA was chamber president in 1997 – Terri Prod’hon.  Larry Caso, an Edward Jones investment advisor served as chamber president in 2001.

Wendell Smith, chamber president 2004, worked for a Sacramento company previously and owns some horse property in the Georgetown area. Following him was Vicki Barber in 2005. She was county superintendent of schools for 19 years, retiring in 2013. Both she and her husband run an educational consulting business.

Breaker Glass owner Kevin Brown followed as chamber president in 2006. He also serves on the El Dorado Union High School District board of trustees. Another business owner, Mike Kobus, was chamber president in 2008. His business in Kobus Pest Control, owner of a big ant sculpture.

Kirk Bone served as chamber president two years in a row, 2009-10. He is the political spokesman for Serrano Development. He is also involved bishopric affairs for the Episcopal Church. He’s an all around astute guy.

Supervisor Shiva Frentzen served as chamber president in 2013. She followed Brian Jensen, who at the time, 2012, worked for PG&E.

Christa Campbell, chamber president in 2015, was involved in education for a longtime. She is also known as the doughnut lady at Rainbow Orchards, where her husband Ron Heflin, a former college professor, grows apples and blueberries.

The final chamber president I know is also a Mountain Democrat publisher, Richard Esposito, who has done a great job keeping the paper financially viable, particularly by publishing semi-annual regional magazines. That was something I tried to talk my first publisher into doing. Not counting the Shark, I worked for three publishers and liked everyone one of them. Esposito, who also has a very charming wife, Janey, served two years as chamber president, 2016-17. He was named GM in April 2009 and by August he had the publisher’s title. That was a tough year to be a newspaper publisher. It was a tough year to be editor. Not only did he turn the financial ship around, but he was asked to do the same with the newspapers in Davis and Fairfield.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weather and Japanese ‘justice’

5-27-2019

By Michael Raffety

May was shaping up to be a month to get a lot of weed whacking done with it getting up to 80 degrees May 13. Then the next morning, May 14, the first rainfall was recorded. So far seven days have seen water in my rain gauge. As of the writing of this column the forecast is for only one more day of rain.

So far May has seen 4.75 inches of rainfall, which is almost triple the 144-year average of 1.65 inches for May.

The season total as of May 23 is 41.85 inches, which is 106 percent of the 144-year season average and 108 percent of the cumulative total through May, according to the Mountain Democrat’s 144-year rainfall chart.

The cool weather associated with the rainfall has brought the daytime temperature average down to 68.5 compared to the 17-year average of 77.2 percent for May. Overnight lows as of May 23 have been 49.5 degrees compared to the 17-year average of 63.3.

. . .

Gen. Douglas MacArthur did a good job setting up a peaceful democracy in Japan, but he overlooked their legal system. Instead of a presumption of innocence and basic rights against warrantless searches and habeas corpus the Japanese have a system that is little better than the Chinese system.

Here is one tidbit about Chinese Communist “justice”:  “In 2018 China’s Jiangsu province acquitted 43 people while convicting 96,271,” according to a May 20 Wall Street Journal editorial about Hong Kong allowing extradition of its residents to Mainland China.

By following the twists and turns of Carlos Ghosn we are learning that the Japanese justice system isn’t much better. Ghosn was chairman of the board of both Renault and Nissan, with the later addition of Mitsubishi automotive company.

Originally Nissan was near bankruptcy. Ghosn and Renault rescued Nissan. As a result Renault owns 40 percent of Nissan and Nissan owns 15 percent of Renault. The two companies combined their design and other synergies spelled out in “an alliance agreement so secret that only a handful to top executives have read it.”

“Renault would like to propose a holding company as a solution to the unhealthy situation at Nissan” one of the people said. “It’s clear the alliance is not functioning properly,” according to the April 27 WSJ.

Carlos Ghosn had also talked about such a merger and had planned to fire the chief executive of Nissan, Hiroito  Saikawa . Saikawa sneaked around and came up with some info on Ghosn and worked with Japanese police on what may very well be trumped up charges. He lured Ghosn to Japan, where he was arrested as soon as his private jet landed in Tokyo Nov. 19.

Nissan has been plagued by a scandal about faulty inspections at its manufacturing plant. It has also begun losing money and is cutting back on production of pickup trucks. I see Toyota pickups and American brands of pickup trucks, but I rarely see Nissan pickup trucks. That’s a prescription for losing money.

Saikawa calls that unwinding Ghosn’s strategy His stockholders are not happy. Part of that “unwinding” included having prosecutors charge Ghosn with financial crimes, of which he has said he is innocent.

Police can question Ghosn up to six hours a day without a lawyer present. He is not allowed a watch and loses any concept of time as the lights are left on 24 hours a day. On holidays and weekends he is essentially left in solitary confinement, no visits from his wife. Ghosn, 65, was released from jail in early March on $9 million bail and largely confined to a house monitored with cameras.

Then on Aril 4, 20 prosecutors and their assistants woke Ghosn and his wife up at 5:50 a.m., confiscated all his notes, her phone and her Lebanese passport. They didn’t allow her to call the lawyer or an interpreter. They also forced her to testify. Her husband was arrested on a new charge.

Ghosn’s lawyer, Junichero Hironka, said what prosecutors confiscated was communications with his overseas lawyers. “This clearly violates his right to a defense and a fair trial,” Hironaka said.

Ghosn was released from jail April 25, but was not allowed to see his wife without court approval, which he called “cruel and unnecessary.” But it was the only way he could get released from jail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Vietnam era to the Berlin Airlift and D-Day

6-10-2019

By Michael Raffety

Last night, June 5, one of the fellows I was sitting with at the Legion ‘s monthly dinner asked if I served in Vietnam. An obvious question, considering my age and the fact I was wearing a golf-style shirt with a Navy insignia on it. I explained that I volunteered for Antarctic duty and my orders came in as my squadron of A-4s were training for Vietnam.

It was the one time volunteering paid off in the military. When you have the lowly rating of airman and you are assigned to an aircraft carrier the first assignment is the scullery crew. My General Quarters station was the forward garbage room. I spent the heat of a Memphis, Tenn., summer working in the Marines scullery (washing dishes) waiting for a billet to open up for me to attend avionics school. After 18 weeks of electronics fundamentals and extra studying I was rewarded with mopping up at the Chief Petty Officers Club. When I saw a notice on the aircraft carrier about volunteering for Antarctica I applied. I forgot all about until my orders came in.

By the time I made Petty Officer 3^rd Class and was still assigned to the A-4 squadron based in Jacksonville, Fla., I didn’t feel like I knew anything more than changing black boxes, which is what I eventually got to do on the aircraft carrier.

The Antarctic Squadron, based at Quonset Point, R.I., was a vast improvement. I made 2^ndClass Petty Officer and they sent me to schools in Virginia Beach, Va., for training on specific pieces of equipment – radar and UHF radio. They also assigned me to the base electronics shop in Quonset Point to work on all that gear on the bench. I still have a circuit diagram of the UHF radio on which I used colored pencils to outline the different circuits.

So, no, I didn’t serve in Vietnam. I spent nine months on an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, five months in Antarctica and five months in New Zealand.

My dad had something of a similar experience. As an officer the Army assigned him to duty near Anchorage Alaska. That’s where he spent World War II. As far as I can tell his outfit didn’t have any involvement in taking back the Aleutian Islands from Japan. They started training him as a supply officer, which is why he was assigned to Berlin during the Airlift.

The Berlin Airlift began June 24, 1948, when the Soviets blockaded the city. West Berlin was surrounded by Soviet occupied East Germany. The communists cut off train and autobahn access in an attempt to starve the Western Allies out of Berlin. Instead President Harry Truman ordered an airlift.

By the time it really got rolling the planes brought in 8,000 tons per day and a plane landed or took off every 30 seconds. When it ended May 12, 1949 the airlift had delivered 2.3 million tons of food, supplies and fuel (coal for the Germans). That airlift also created the modern control tower and trained a lot of pilots in instrument landing. When we toured Berlin a couple of years ago we talked to a woman who had just gone to see the Berlin Airlift Museum. Until then she had known nothing about it, never heard of it.

As I write this Dec. 6 it is the 75^thanniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Normandy. By June 11, 326,000 troops and more than 100,00 tons of military equipment had crossed the English Channel. That followed the initial invasion force of 156,00 troops from America, Great Britain, Canada, France, Norway and others. There were five beaches over 50 miles of Normandy, with Omaha Beach sustaining the most casualties – 2,400 Americans. It took 6,000 ships and landing crafts, 50,000 vehicles, 11,000 planes. Total killed during the invasion were 12,004.

Germany reunited in 1990. It’s been 29 years since then and 70 years since the Berlin Airlift ended. It’s easy to understand how Germans have grown accustomed to having their whole country back and many were youngsters in 1990 or weren’t even born then.

The French, however, have not forgotten. “Today France has not forgotten to those who we owe our right to freedom,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at D-Day ceremonies in Normandy June 6.

“To the men who sit behind me, your example will never grow old. Your legend will never die. The blood that they spilled, the tears that they shed, the lives that they gave, the sacrifice that they made, did not just win a battle, it did not just win a war… they won the survival of our civilization,” said President Donald Trump.

According to American Legion magazine, in 2018 there were 496,777 U.S. World War II veterans still alive.

 

 

 

 

 

Santa Catalina, the island of romance

6-24-2019

By Michael Raffety

I already had a tan from working outside spraying weeds and whacking weeds. I was surprised to find my face sunburned and my nose turned to an ugly red and peeling mess.

I blame it on pino grigio. Really, though, it was a two-hour three-course lunch we had at the Wrigley Mansion on Catalina Island. It’s actually called Mount Ada after William Wrigley Jr.’s wife. And that’s how the locals know it. Say Wrigley Mansion and they don’t know what you’re talking about.

The lunch was fabulous, served on the patio with a view of the Avalon, the harbor and the casino that Wrigley built in 1929.

The Wrigley mansion includes about eight hotel rooms on the second floor. We were just there for lunch. No prices on the menu, but the bill was a lot less than I expected even after the waiter opened the second bottle of pino grigio. For about the first half hour or so we had the deck to ourselves. It was overcast, so we didn’t realize how sunburned we were getting.

It was 2.5 miles uphill to Mount Ada, so we took a cab up and a cab down.

We had already walked to the botanical gardens and around town totaling up nearly 4 miles. The cab was a smart move because we noticed there was no walking path to Mt. Ada, leaving pedestrians at the mercy of speeding golf carts and vehicles using the yellow line as a mere suggestion.

In 1958 the Four Preps had a song written by Glen Larson and Bruce Belland reach No. 6 on the Billboard 100. It kept playing long beyond its reign on the Billboard 100.

“Twenty-six miles across the sea

Santa Catalina is a-waitin’ for me

Santa Catalina the island of romance

Romance, romance, romance.

It’s actually 30 miles and it takes about an hour on the Catalina Express catamaran hydrofoil.

We arrived in time to change our 8 a.m. reservation to the 6 a.m. Catalina Express. We ate breakfast on the island at Original Jack’s Country Kitchen.

After touring the botanical gardens and catching a bus back into town Cherie made a reservation for 11:30 lunch, which is the earliest it opened. Afterward the cab took us right back to the Catalina Express terminal and we changed our 3 p.m. reservation for a 2 p.m. boat, which enabled Cherie and I to get cleaned up and dress up for the installation dinner for Cherie’s association back at the Hyatt Long Beach.

Cherie’s makeup protected most of her, but I had a red face for three days.

William Wrigley Jr. made a fortune when he began manufacturing and selling chewing gum. He bought Santa Catalina Island in 1919. This is the 100^thanniversary of him buying out all the stock in the Santa Catalina Island Co. Wrigley Jr. died in 1970 at his Phoenix, Ariz., mansion

His son Phillip K. Wrigley established the Catalina Island Conservancy in 1972 and in 1975 transferred all the family ownership of the island. A smart move. By that time property taxes from Los Angeles County were starting to add up for the entire island. The conservancy owns 90 percent of the island but the Santa Catalina Island Co. owns two golf courses and assorted resort properties.

Wrigley Jr. was a real trailblazer with incredible wealth. In 1925 he bought into the Chicago Cubs and eventually owned the team outright, building Wrigley Field. He built the first major office building north of the Chicago River. The Wrigley Building is two towers, 21 and 30 stories. In 2011 it was sold to Zeller Realty Group. In 2008 the Wrigley Company was sold to Mars Inc.

There are still Wrigley descendants who have houses on Catalina Island. We could see a big white one on the hill opposite from where we were eating lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Queen Mary: Long Beach’s art deco museum

7-8-2019

By Michael Raffety

The results are in for the 2018-2019 rain-year. Total rainfall was 42.75 inches. That led to a slight increase in the average rainfall over the past 145 years to 39.46.

June daytime temperatures averaged out to 86.4 degrees vs. the 17-year average of 86.8. Overnight temperatures dipped to 62.2 degrees compared to the 17-year average of 63.3. The cool-down this past week helped change the final results.

July begins a new rain-year. The 145-year average is .04 inch of rain. Average temperatures for July are a toasty high of 94.3 with overnight lows averaging 63 degrees over 17 years.

The temperatures conform to a calendar year. At the midpoint of the calendar year the average of all monthly average temperatures is a high of 77.5 degrees and a low of 51.5 degrees Fahrenheit. That pretty much sums up our climate, along with the 39.46 inches of average rain. Pretty nice place to live, isn’t it?

. . .

While we were in Long Beach we visited the Queen Mary. Interestingly, the ship was fast enough to outrun torpedoes and German U-boats during the Second World War. It served as a troop ship then, transporting 15,000 troops at a time

The tour guide described the ship as having a side-to-side motion while crossing the Atlantic, even a feeling of flexibility. It may have been fast, but it produced seasickness. I remember crossing the Atlantic on the aircraft carrier Saratoga on its way to its homeport in Mayport, Fla. It didn’t seem to move at all. I only noticed a very slow and limited motion up and down, and I only noticed when I went out on the fantail to take in the sunset. The ship didn’t really seem to rise high and it certainly didn’t move from side to side. One could hardly feel it from inside. Of course, we weren’t making a winter crossing in stormy weather.

The Queen Mary has turned its first class rooms and staterooms into hotel rooms. It has more than 300 rooms available plus a spa and exercise room. After our ship tour we went downstairs and found ourselves in the hotel lobby of the St. Mary’s. There are also a couple of restaurants and an ultra art deco bar.

The hotel rooms all feature original art deco woodwork, but modern curtains and bedding, fixtures and amenities.

The entire ship is an art deco museum. It was launched in 1934 and made its first trans-Atlantic voyage in 1936. It slast voyage in 1967 was to Long Beach Harbor.

It’s gone through several phases of management. The current management seems more successful. There are areas available for corporate meetings and banquets. There is a wedding chapel that is real popular. We got to tour the original room with the theater stage and a projection booth included in the high and very decorated mantel of a fireplace.

The ship originally had two indoor swimming pools and now only has one pool that is for viewing only, being unsuitable for swimming.

The bridge is pretty rudimentary compared to the bridge of the Catalina Express. The bridge includes two ship’s steering wheels, an auxiliary wheel and three engine room telegraphs. And sit has ome mechanism for dampening side-to-side movement.

The 75,000-ton ship averaged more than 34 mph while crossing the Atlantic.

In July 1943 the Queen Mary was hit with a rogue wave that caused her to roll 52 degrees. Another 3 degrees and she would have capsized, according to a book by Dr. Norval Carter, who part of a military hospital on board at the time.  The incident inspired Paul Gallico to write his novel, the Poseidon Adventurein 1969, a fiction in which the SS Poseidon actually turns upside down. The movie version came out in 1972.

Long Beach paid $3.45 million for the ship, outbidding the Japanese. It has cost a lot more to turn it into a success and maintain the hull and interior. Some of the exterior teak decking has been recently replaced.

The ship’s 1,000^th  trans-Atlantic crossing was to Long Beach.

 

 

 

 

Sports passes – each one tells a story

Sports passes – each one tells a story

March 3, 2019

By Michael Raffety

Since my wife retired she has been going through old paperwork from when she had her CPA practice and tossing things out, either through the shredder or recycling bin. In the course of those perambulations she presented me with a large envelope she found in the storage room.

It contained a bunch of press passes and political buttons, primarily from the mid-1980s.

It was from the glory days of when Steve Carp was sports editor. In fact, he was the first official sports editor of the Mountain Democrat.

Besides keeping up with all the local high school sports Steve, taking me along as photographer, covered the Sacramento Kings even before they became the Sacramento Kings.

One of my photo passes was a single game photo pass for the April 6, 1985, Warriors game against the Kansas City Kings at the Oakland Arena.

I also have an undated press pass for a Lakers vs. Kings game at what was then called Arco Arena. Professional sports clubs provide dinner for the press. They also have a beer machine, which I never used while working, but one of KCRA’s on-the-air sports anchors did and it began to show in his performance. I can’t remember if they canned him or if the Kings banned him from the beer machine or both.

I had two “Daily Working Photographer” passes for Giants games in 1985. They provided lunch for the press covering the game.

The 1984 Giants All Star game was organized chaos. There must have been at least 200 press people there. All the press members received a goody bag and a box lunch. Seats were assigned. My field location was Auxiliary Section 3, Row 12, Seat 15. It actually was a pretty good location for photographing the game. The best shot of the game, which I missed, was Rickey Henderson striking out, which ended the game. He turned around and gave a sheepish grin right after swinging and missing.

Steve was always on the lookout for different sports. One of my Arco press passes from Dec. 18, 1985, was for seat 40 at the Comacho vs Roach boxing match. Hector “Macho” Comacho died of a heart attack in 2012 at the age of 50. Freddie Roach lost that match but he finished with a record of 40 wins out of 53 matches. After retiring from boxing he coached boxers such as Manny Pacquiao, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Amir Khan and others.

Two UC Berkeley games at Memorial Stadium I photographed for Steve were Oregon State vs. California Oct. 15,1983, because an Oak Ridge running back was playing for Oregon State and an Aug. 31, 1985, game because California vs. San Jose State involved Steve’s alma mater of San Jose State.

I have two armband field photo passes for the United States Football League. The first one is April 27, 1985, for the Oakland Invaders vs. the Arizona Outlaws at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The big draw there was quarterback Doug Williams, who jumped from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Arizona Outlaws. The owner of the Tampa Bay was only going to pay him $400,000. The Outlaws paid him $3 million with a $1 million signing bonus.

In 1986 Doug Williams signed with the Washington Redskins, which he led to winning Super Bowl XXII in1988 over the Denver Broncos.

On June 15, 1985, Steve Carp and I covered the Oakland Invaders vs. the New Jersey Generals. The main story of the Generals was Heisman Trophy winner running back Herschel Walker. He was an exciting player to watch and to photograph.

Walker went on to play for the Dallas Cowboys, the Vikings, the Eagles, the Giants and was brakeman for a two-man bobsled team in the 1992 Olympics. In 1999 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame (He played for Georgia).

In 2010 and 2011 Walker participated in two Mixed Martial Arts matches and won them both.

Walker gained 5,562 yards in the USFL and 13,787 in the NF

Steve Carp went from the Mountain Democrat to the Oregon Statesman in Salem, Ore. His aggressive sports reporting didn’t go over well with the plaid shirt sports writers. He had his tires slashed. That’s when he moved to the Las Vegas Sun, where he stayed until he retired in 2018. He covered the Running Rebels basketball team, boxing and later professional hockey. Steve was a five-time winner of Nevada Sports Writer of the Year and is in the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame. He is now senior editor of GamingToday.

Fabulous February sets up Miracle March

Belltower 3-18-219

By Michael Raffety

What a fabulous February! The 2019 total rainfall for February was 11.4 inches. That is 177 percent of the 144-year average for February of 6.44 inches. In fact, when I plugged that figure into the 144-year rainfall Excel spreadsheet it was enough to shift the average for February up to 6.62 inches.

The cumulative total rainfall for the 2018-2019 season as of the end of February is 29.45, which is 107 percent of the 144-year average of the February cumulative average of 27.55 and 75 percent of the 39.44 inches for the entire season that ends June 30, 2019.

While February’s total rainfall was almost double the 144-year average it was a record. In fact, there 21 times that February saw more rain than this year. Among those were the big flood years of 1936 and 1986, which recorded 19.31 inches and 18.87 inches, respectively. The former was the most rain recorded in February.

This February will be remembered especially in Pollock Pines and Camino. Repeated heavy snowfalls left people without garbage service, mail delivery and propane delivery for extended periods of time. Many lost power and some lost landline phone service. Pollock Pinesians were forced to rely solely on their supply of firewood and wood stoves or fireplaces to heat their homes. That’s roughing it.

And how about those two women who got lost cross -country skiing while it was snowing and built a snow cave to survive? It was another fascinating story only available to readers of the Mountain Democrat. If you just picked up the paper today at a newsstand subscribe today. Don’t miss the next big story.

Another February snow story besides Pollock Pinesians filling their garages with garbage sacks were the EID hydro crews who slogged through the snow to cut up 100 pine trees that fell across the flumes and canals due to the heavy snow.

March is often called Miracle March when precipitation before this month has been low. March always seems to bring enough rain to fill EID’s reservoirs.

The 144-year average for March is 6.18 inches of rain with the record set in March 1907 of 20.54 inches. The least amount of rain in March is 0.11 inch set in 1926. Out of 144 years of Mountain Democrat rainfall statistics March rain totals above 10 inches 29 times, which is 20 percent of the time. We have a good shot at getting in that range of 10 inches or better. As of March 2 when I am writing this column I already recorded .15 inch for the prior 24 hours.. The week ahead reveals a forecast of rain five out of seven days. The 30-day forecast calls for more rain interspersed with periods of enough sunshine get outside and work or take a hike.

February’s temperature was an average of 48 degrees in the daytime and 37.8 degrees overnight. That compares to the 17-year average of 59.1 in the daytime and 36.8 overnight. I have noticed my digital thermometer often will drop a degree between 6:30 and 7 a.m. March starts to warm up with an average high of 63.6 degrees and lows of 41.6.

After March the weather becomes generally less noteworthy, with a 144-year average of 3.47 inches of rain in April and 1.65 in May. Average daytime temperatures hit 67.3 in April and 77.2 in May. By June it’s pretty much over and average daytime temperatures are 86.8 degrees. Irrigation season begins then and people with lawns start their sprinklers. Talk switches from rain and snow to how hot it is as July clicks over to another rainfall season of 2019-2020.

Although with the huge depths of snow at the Tahoe ski resorts some could stay open through May, even June.

January rain sets up the season rain total

2/18/2019

By Michael Raffety

It was encouraging news to read Dawn Hodson’s Mountain Democrat story about the Feb. 1 snowpack being at 100 percent (98 percent at Phillips Station, also known as Vade).

January’s precipitation measured up to be 8.45 inches, which is 114 percent of the 144-year average of 7.43 inches for January.

That adds up to 18.05 inches for the 2018-2019 rainfall season that began July 1. That season total is 86 percent of the cumulative average of 21.11 inches as of January, according to the 144-year Mountain Democrat rainfall chart.

The January daytime temperature average of 57.1 degrees Fahrenheit was a tad cooler than the 17-year average of 57.3. But overnight temperatures were warmer due to cloud cover. This year the month’s lows were 44.2 versus the 17-year average of 36.7 degrees.

February is off to a good start as of Feb. 4 when this column is being written. The rainfall recorded today for the previous 24 hours made for a total of 2.85 inches of rain for the first three days in February.

It’s a good bet we’ll meet or exceed the 144-years average of 6.44 inches of rain for February. That same chart shows no zero precipitation months in February. The most rain recorded in February was 19.31 inches in 1936. Second most was 18.87 inches in 1986, with 2017 coming in third at 17.40 inches.

Either way you look at it those three records are big numbers that wreak havoc downstream from us. The year 1936 saw flooding in Sacramento Valley and also in Southern California. In March 1936 there was flooding all over the East, including Washington, D.C., leading to the creation of the Federal Emergency Management Act.

In February 1986 Folsom Dam came very close to being overtopped. The Sacramento area saw some levy breaks and bridges torn from their foundations as 50,000 people were evacuated. Then-Rep. John Doolittle got the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers to build the $1 billion emergency overflow chute at Folsom Dam.

The year 2017 saw an El Dorado Irrigation District canal blow out. Various emergency repairs that year added up to $17 million. After a payout from the district insurer, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the California Office of Emergency Services EID is on the hook for about $7 million. The district is still pursuing additional reimbursement from FEMA/Cal OES.

The 144-year average annual rainfall is 39.44 inches.

Thirty years out of 144 February has seen 10 inches of rain or more fall. In 22 of those years the season total has been above 39.44. That is 73 percent of the time. The real decider is March. A big February and a good March will add up to a pretty good rain year. So far this year we have had rain every month beginning with October. It never rains in October on my birthday or our wedding anniversary except when we hosted a 30^thwedding anniversary party at our house in 2010. That October recorded 5.68 inches of rain, including on the day of our anniversary party.

It’s not the Famer’s Almanac, but I think there is more insight available in the Mountain Democrat’s 144-year rainfall chart and the 17-year temperature records than either the Almanac or Puxatony Phil.

Michael Raffety is retired editor of the Mountain Democrat and a Placerville area resident.

‘Monet the Late Years’ exhibit under way at de Young

Feb.22, 21019

By Michael Raffety

Art correspondent

“Monet the Late Years’ is an exhibition of about 60 paintings Claude Monet executed in the last 12 years of his life.

Monet was “pushing beyond the boundaries of Impressionism to the foundation of 20^thcentury art,” said Thomas Campbell, the new chief executive officer of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Campbell, hired from the Metropolitan Museum of New York, addressed the press Feb. 13 before the Monet show opened to the public Feb. 16 at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. The exhibit will continue there through May 27. Afterward it moves to the Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas.

The exhibit was actually assembled and organized by George Shackleford, director of the Kimbell Art Museum.

“Far removed from his earlier, more representational production, the artist’s paintings close in on a stylistic painting Monet did in his 70s and 80s,” Shackleford wrote in a press release. “But they were among his most triumphant of his long career – because in his mid-70s Monet decided to reinvent himself, mining his past, yet creating works like nothing he had ever done before.”

Monet stopped painting in 1910 as his wife Alice’s health declined. She died in May 1911 of leukemia. In 1912 Monet completed the paintings from the Venice trip he had taken with Alice [not part of this exhibit]. The next year he learned he had cataracts and in February 1914 his oldest son Jean Monet, from his first wife Camille, died.

Yet later in 1914 Monet began his new work painting water lilies and other garden views, flattening the sense of perspective until it was all but eliminated.

“The water lilies are the most extraordinary pictures in our collections,” said Melissa Buron, Director of the Art Division for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “You don’t get to see (all) these pictures in dialogue,’’ adding that they are “breaking the bounds of painting.”

One third of the paintings in this exhibit come from the Musee Marmottan Monet in Paris, a hard-to-find museum that has the largest single collection of Monet paintings, primarily from his late years.

Other paintings in this show come from the Kimbell Art Museum, from the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, from the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, the National Galley in London, the Philadelphia Art Museum (think Rocky Balboa running up the steps), the Art Institute of Chicago, from museums in Portland, Ore, Honolulu, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, museums in Japan, Switzerland, Phoenix, St. Louis, San Antonio, Houston and a number of private collectors. It is a comprehensive collection of Monet’s work between 1914 until his death in 1926.

Monet eventually had eight gardeners working for him at Giverny, even so far as following his instructions to clean the dust off the lily pads. They also helped him carry his large canvases outside where he began his paintings before moving them back into his large studio to complete.

Monet began painting ever larger canvases, some on the order of monumental. Two lily pond paintings were so huge they were dioramas, which he donated to the French people after the Armistice of World War I. They were glued to the wall of the Musee l’Orangerie in Paris. They survived the German occupation of Paris. The Nazis couldn’t loot what was glued on a wall.

The large panels that he started in 1917 developed into the monumental project that he eventually saw as a gift to the people of France in honor of the victory in World War I. He wrote his friend Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau with this offer. The panels were installed by 1922.

Photographs taken in his studio by art gallery owners reveal how Monet kept making painting adjustments on the sections of the panels. The panels are 77.55 inches tall and 328 feet long. Altogether the two panels cover 656 linear feet of wall surface. Painting them required huge quantities of paint and larger brushes than he had ever used.

When he returned to regular easel painting it was challenging to again work without the large brushes and broad strokes. Many of his late paintings involved large canvases that appear to have eased the transition to smaller canvases.

The very latest of Monet’s paintings began looking more abstracted, a few almost looking like paintings by American Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock (1912-1956).

Monet’s late year paintings flattened and eliminated perspective, and with their intense color, became the foundation for 20^thcentury art on both sides of the Atlantic.