Here are MORE articles from my past life as a journalist---that probably should have stayed lost. This first one is from Central Valley magazine on the Livermore wine area. The rest are from a short-lived south valley publication called "Talk" that spotlighted people/places/events and other things of note around the sooth central valley. O' joy.
May I have this dance?
Tulare Senior Center’s Senior Prom doesn’t put age on romance
By Shawn Gadberry
{Talk Staff Writer
By the time Candy Valdez’s high school prom rolled around, he didn’t get to go. He’d been drafted. But last Friday, he and his date, Stella Ybarra, went to the Senior Prom at the Tulare Senior Community Center.
“I’m making up for it now,” he says. “I’ve been to three of these.I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Valdez wasn’t the only one. More than 100 seniors showed up to dance down memory lane, reliving their high school days while having fun with the friends they have today.
While dances are held at the center every Friday night, this specially themed dance is one of the highlights of the year.
“They look forward to this dance,” Holly Tisthammer, recreation supervisor, says of the attendees. “If you remember your high school prom, it’s probably very similar.”
The prom had a ’50s theme to it, right down to the Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe cutout figures. Like any prom, there wasa photo area where couples could have their picture taken against a backdrop. A balloon arch and a mirrored ball added to the festivities, and the music of the Bobby Seals Band kept the prom-goers dancing.
And, like most traditional proms, a king and queen were chosen. Roy and Betty Bruyneel received the honor this year. They were crowned by last year’s winners, Bill and Grace Zenner — both of whom are in their 90s.
“It’s nostalgia,” says Bobby Watts, dance committee chairman. “When you’rea senior, you like to relive the years you were young in.”
Arline Zech, Kathy Hamilton and Juanita Gomez are wallflowers.
“We don’t have partners, but we came anyway,” Hamilton says.
“It’s fun,” Zech says. “Everyone gets dressed up. We always havea potluck. There’s no liquor, but we don’t need it.”
“Seniors area lot more active today than they ever were in the past,” Watts says. “When you have seniors in their 80s dance better than people in their 40s, that’s a great thing. These seniors get into this. They have fun.”
Fun is what the night is all about. Whether it’s dancing, visiting with friends or having some food and punch, the dances at the Tulare Senior Community Center always draw a crowd with the Senior Prom the highlight of the spring season.
“It’s in the style and era that people like,” Watts says. “It’s not just open to seniors. It’s open to those 18 and older. Last year, we had some high school kids who came out to help decorate and they stayed for the dance. They said our dance was more fun than theirs.”
But there’s more than just nostalgia that links this group. Like members of a high school senior class, there is a bond that has grown between these people over the years.
“After a while you get to know everyone and it gets to be a great big family,” says Peggy Paul. “You’ll find here in this group of people the divorced, widowed, or those who are just lonely. We’ve become a big family.”
{ Live& learn }
news and info from inside education
Head of the class
Visalia student remembers her father’s lesson
By Shawn Gadberry
{Talk Staff Writer
This spring, like dozens of other high school seniors, Cindy Espinoza will be graduating. Espinoza is leaving witha 4.22 grade point average.
Although she has not pickeda college yet, she’s been accepted to several of California’s major universities already and Notre Dame is flying her out to visit the school (she’s one of only 40 graduates in the nation receiving this honor).
But despite all of her advanced placement classes and extracurricular activities, this Mt. Whitney High School senior’s most memorable lesson came from her father. And that lesson is the root of her hard-earned success.
If you ask Espinoza what being poor means to her, she’ll probably tell you peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That’s because, when she was younger, peanut butter and jelly were all that her parents could afford and they ate the sandwiches daily.
“I still can’t eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches now,” she says.
Espinoza’s parents had immigrated from Mexico. They were field workers raising six children on a very limited income. Things looked rather dire, but Espinoza’s father realized the value of an education and the doors it could open for you.
While working in the fields by day, Mr. Espinoza started attending night school, taking English and business classes. During this time, he and his wife got jobs as custodians and things improved at home.
Her father opened his own business and things were picking up. However, while he was ona trip to Mexico, tragedy struck. Espinoza’s father died.
“We just got a phone call one day,” she says. “It wasa really big shock.”
Her father’s death last year came just before final exams and the big end-of-theyear cross country meets. Espinoza found herself lost in her grief.
“It was really hard coming back and getting back into my work,” she says. “I just sat there. My grades were starting to fall.”
While laying in bed one night, she began to think about her father and the lessons she had learned from him on the importance of education.
While she had already worked so hard in her academic career, she knew he would not want her to give up now. With renewed effort, she completed the school year— which included four A.P. classes and being named All-American on her cross country team —with flying colors.
“She’s one of the best students I’ve ever had,” says Marlin Roehl, A.P. literature and composition instructor. “She’sa quiet student, but she’s very insightful, very knowledgeable. She writes with beautiful style and content.”
Roehl says keeping up with academics is hard enough, but that Espinosa, in addition to cross country, has become involved with so much.
When not studying, Espinoza has found the time to work with DECA (an association for students interested in marketing), Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), helping with the Salvation Army at Christmas, working with Boys & Girls Clubs in the summer, editing the school yearbook and babysitting her younger siblings to help out her mother.
“She’s just exceptionally kind,” Roehl says. “Her heart is in the right place. She knows the hardships of life, the joys of life and she’s just really accomplished.”
And, although she hasn’t picked where she’ll be going to school, Espinoza is already planning on a double major. She hopes to becomea pediatrician, but to also geta bachelor’s degree in business. Her father would be very proud of her, and when she finishes, she’ll never have to eat peanut butter and jelly again.
8 LIVE & LEARN: Do you havea story to tell about education,a student or something going on in the schools? Let us know! E-mail talkeditor@fresnobee.com putting Live& Learn in the subject line or call (559) 441-6755.
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Photo/Perry Cooper
Cindy Espinoza hopes to become a pediatrician, but to also geta bachelor’s degree in business. While still in high school and participating in school activities, she helps her mother, Teodora Martinez, with her siblings.
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{ Enjoy }
the local entertainment scene
In the spotlight
Visalia Community Players are ready to ‘Play On!’
By Shawn Gadberry
{Talk Staff Writer
F or those who enjoy their theater, the curtain is about to rise on the latest production by the Visalia Community Players. Rick Abbot’s “Play On!,”a play withina play, isa hilarious farce that is sure to cause riots of laughter in the audience. “It’sa fantastic show,” says director Louis Emery. “It’s a smart and well-written play.” The play involvesa group of actors who are putting on a play called “Murder Most Foul”— a type of British drawing room murder mystery. Over the course of three acts, the story goes from initial rehearsal, to dress rehearsal and the final performance —but along the way, everything goes wrong.
Props malfunction, costumes don’t fit, lighting and sound cues are missed, and the playwright continually changes the script. It may sound like the worst in community theater — but that’s the point and that is where the humor lies.
“I think it’s hilarious seeinga show about a production done bya community theater gone disastrously wrong,” says Sergio Garza, who plays Henry Benish, an actor in “Murder Most Foul.” “Anyone who’s done community theater can tell you stories of things going wrong during a play. It does give usa little leeway in case there are things that really go wrong — the audience will think it’s supposed to be that way. This play gives you a little bit of the inner workings ofa theater and it is presented in sucha funny way.” Part of the fun of the show may come from trying to figure out which mishaps
which, if any, are genuine. Garza says although it may sound like total pandemonium, audiences will be clued in early that the theatrical chaos on stage is supposed to be occurring.
“Within the first act, it is fully explained that everything is going wrong — and why it’s going wrong,” he says.
Director Emery has had the show in rehearsal since February to ensure that his actors are at their best at playing harried and inept. And not unlike the character of the director in the play, Emery has found directing to be a much larger undertaking— with set design, costumes, props, advertising and more to consider — than he originally thought. “It’s so much work as a director,” he says. “It’s 20 times more work than acting.” Yet everything is ready for tonight’s opening of this hilarious romp. “It’s silly,” says Randi Saul-Olson, who plays Geraldine “Gerry” Dunbar, the director of “Murder Most Foul.” “It’s light-hearted with lots of giggles. The character of Gerry is frantic and pedantic — just like me. It’s perfect.”
“My character [actor Benish] is playinga character in the play-withinthe-play who is English,” Garza, who is of Hispanic descent, says. “I think it’s hilarious that I am playing English.”
The zany, madcap production begins its run at 7:30 p.m. tonight with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
The performance dates are April 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 30, and May 1 and 2. Admission costs $12 for adults and $6 for students.
{ Eat well }
restaurant and food news
Uncorked & relaxed
Lush offers modern comfort by the glass in vintage Hanford
By Shawn Gadberry
{Talk Staff Writer
It was about a year or so ago that Helen Wells first noticed Lush Fine Wines & Specialty Beers in Hanford. “It looked like a quaint little spot,” she remembers, sipping her beer— a tall Great White from Lost Coast Brewery. “I took my mom — she’s 94 — and said ‘do you want to stop for some wine or some beer?’ ” Her mother, Toni Rivera, opted for the wine, and the two have been coming back ever since. “It’s quaint and quiet,” Rivera says. “The people here are very nice.” Opening its doors in June 2007, Lush was a dream realized by Hanford native Lindsey Oliveira, a former wine distributor in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas.
“I was born and raised here,” she says. “I’d come back to visit and there was nevera place to come and hang out with friends. I think every town needs a place to havea glass of wine,a nice beer and relax.”
Unlike most bars, Lush only serves wine and beer. The wines are a mix of nicer California wines and the beers are microbrews. You won’t find Coors or Budweiser or boxed wines there.
“It’s unique and somewhat different,” Wells says of the wine and beer menu. “That also gives this establishment its own pizzazz and differences that Hanford needs.”
Wells and her mother are not the only regulars. Come 5 p.m., the place starts to fill up. The stools around the bar and the comfortable couches and chairs in the seating area are host to all sorts of people who enjoy the cozy, friendly atmosphere of the bar area.
The back portion of Lush isa retail area, where guests can purchasea bottle or two of the wines they’ve sampled to take home with them. Oliveira says that was the plan all along.
“It was mainly about retail,” she says. “The bar was just a bonus.”
Whether it’s wine by the glass, wine-tasting flites (featuring five 2-ounce pours of different wines), or one of the not-so-common beers on tap, Lush has become a popular and friendly meeting place for those who prefer an alternative to the traditional bar scene.
“This is the place in Hanford,” says customer Tyler Bennett. “It’s got the best wine selection in town. It’s got great atmosphere with huge windows looking over Courthouse Square. It’s just a great venue.”
As the 94-year-old Rivera sips her class of wine, she adds “We’ll come every day.”
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