The Burlingame Voice

Jazzman passes: A terrible loss for B'game

This is a very difficult post for me to write but acknowledging the passing of one of the coolest guys in B'game is necessary.  I first met Andrew Speight eighteen months ago and wrote about him here.  His vision for local jazz of the highest order continued to blossom as I noted here.  He was the band leader for the regular mid-week gigs at the Broadway Grill and I last saw him there on Wednesday--the day before he died.  You can get more of a sense of the man from this NBC Bay Area report.  Andrew was a mainstay of the opening weekend at the new Keys Jazz Bistro in North Beach, as noted by his friend Simon Rowe in the NBC piece, and I told him so between sets that night.

My relationship with Andrew evolved from new acquaintance to being good buddies over the last eighteen months.  I was a regular at his House of Bop club on Capuchino Ave. and he was a regular at my place for drinks, music and planning about bringing more jazz to B'game.  Regardless of how obscure of a jazz record that was playing when he walked in, he would pick out the artists by name and expound on their playing and their personalities.  After he did that with a particularly unusual album I was playing, I expressed amazement at the skill and he said, "it's not hard when you have played with the guy yourself".  I often felt like I was sitting in his SF State class instead of my side yard.

The loss is hard to grasp when you understand what we had planned for B'game.  His first album since the 1980's was recorded at his house last year.  It's mixed, mastered and in the queue to be pressed with the working title "Live in Burlingame".  The LP would help promote a Burlingame Jazz Festival that he hoped to arrange the weekend before or after the Monterey Jazz Festival when a number of his artist friends would be passing through the Bay Area and would be available for gigs.  The plan was to have two or three venues to allow for the local kids to get some stage time.  Andrew was an educator to the end.  We lost a gem of Burlingame and all that could have been.  Here he is at Keys Jazz Bistro on November 12.  RIP.

Update:  The local jazz community sent Andrew Speight off in style yesterday (Dec. 18) with a three-hour jam session at Broadway Grill.  About 40 musicians sat in with the closing number featuring a 5 horn front line.

Lions' Citizen of the Year: Historian Extraordinaire

The B'game Lions' Club makes an annual award of Citizen of the Year to someone in our little town who has made a lasting impact.  Past recipients have varied resumes like this and this and my lovely wife.  This year the Lions reached back into the history of B'game to choose our lead historian, Joanne Garrison, for the honor.  Joanne is the author of the seminal history of Bgame book.  If you don't own the book, you should because it is a stunning bit of work by her and photog Mark Hundley.  In addition, Joanne leads or co-leads the historical walking tours around town and the surrounding sites.  All in all, a great choice.  Here she is with Lion president Bunny and former chief Jack Van Etten receiving her plaque.

By the way, a side benefit of attending the ceremony is hearing about the great work the Lions' Club does around town.  As sponsors of what is now the longest running high school basketball tournament on the Peninsula at BHS, they are gearing up for the contest starting on Dec. 6 and finishing on the 8th and 9th.   They are hosting a Toys for Tots Bingo dinner that starts right after the tree-lighting ceremony on Dec. 2nd--doors at 6pm.  You can RSVP at Burlingamelionsclub@gmail.com.   The annual student public speaking contest is in the works as is a blood-drive at the Club Hall in Washington Park.  It seems like blood drives may have been a casualty of Covid so it's good to see one return.  Alas, I asked about the annual car show, also held in Washington Park but that event is still idling in neutral.

B'game better than "Climate best by government test"

If you grew up with oppressive summer heat and humidity like I did, you really appreciate how nice the weather is in B'game.  Yesterday was a perfect example.  It was on the verge of being uncomfortably hot and a bit humid here.  High temperature was 88.  But down in Redwood City, with its motto "Climate best by government test", their temperature topped out at 100 degrees.  Yuck.

And the Chronicle noted "Livermore recorded 102 degrees Tuesday afternoon, according the National Weather Service. Fairfield reached 105 degrees, and Vacaville hit 102 degrees."  Double yuck.  I haven't seen any reports of brownouts yesterday, but we aren't done yet.  When the "Burlingame For All" people reappear, remember why people pay extra to live here and why it's worth it.

It is also time for the annual summer check-up on my ancient pear tree.  The yield goes back and forth year-to-year like last year.   The year before was a low yield too, but we had good harvests the two prior years.  This year I count eight, but they are already big and beautiful, so now we try to outwit the squirrels by letting them ripen, but not too much.

Hey 19: The Voice turns nineteen

Another year has flown by since the Voice became legal.  While things in Burlingame are constantly changing, especially over the last three or four years, things here at Ye Olde Voice stay the same.  Same format sans advertising unlike the hodgepodge of unreadability that characterizes one of the neighboring blogs.  Same categories on the right-hand frame that help you find something from the past.  I think that feature and the backlinks in new posts mark the Voice as different and more useful than other sites.  It's like writing a history book a week at a time.  Commenters have the freedom to use their names or a pen name as old Ben Franklin approved of doing--or just read, which many do.  And there is the same low monthly subscriber fee :-)

If I had to point to any change, it would be the extension of the content a bit further afield than "all B'game all the time".  Much of that extension stems from the impact forces outside town have on us.  It's not just the County, CalTrans, CHSRA, SFO or the state jamming unwelcome laws, rules and regulations down cities' throats including ours.  Our direct neighbors, Millbrae and San Mateo and to a lesser extent Hillsborough, take actions (or fail to take actions) that impact the quality of life in B'game.  But the main focus is and will be right here--from Trousdale Dr. to Peninsula Ave.  We talk about events and impacts in town and out with a strong preference for data, facts, and a healthy respect for the Law of Unintended Consequences.

A regular reader told me about pointing one of his neighbors to the Voice based on their conversation; thinking he would enjoy it.  A few weeks later my friend said his neighbor told him he read "the whole thing for hours and this guy must be living in my head".  I hope to stay welcome in there, neighbor. 

Where have all the good stuff (and people) gone?

It all started with a column by John Horgan that pulled at my heart strings

Steve Squires is preparing to leave town. He has to make a clean break by the end of the month on orders from his landlord. The San Mateo rental property he utilizes east of the Caltrain rail line is scheduled for redevelopment.  Squires, a very sharp and spry 84, has been a quiet commercial fixture at the same location on South Claremont Street in San Mateo since 1977 when Jimmy Carter moved into the White House.

Squires’ chosen profession: Repairing, restoring, rebuilding, trading and selling antique slot machines. It’s a unique specialty.  A visit to his cluttered, cramped, 3,000-square-foot shop last week was instructional. The Squires & Corrie establishment is literally filled floor to ceiling with slot machines, hundreds of thousands of parts and an impressive array of tools and machines. 

That tribute was followed the next week by an SF Chronicle article about the impending demise of Great America now that the property has been sold.  I knew the journalist, Peter Hartlaub, had grown up in B'game and he verified it in the article.   But what really caught my attention was his Dead Pool list of other attractions

My first trips to Great America as a Burlingame resident were in elementary school, not long after it opened in 1976. The trifecta of roller coasters — Willard’s Whizzer, Tidal Wave and Turn of the Century — worked as sort of a progression ladder for conquering my young fears.  Soon, Great America will be just another memory from a very distant time. When you grow up in the place that started a technology revolution, there’s not a lot of square footage left for fun.

Will I be sad to see it go? Sure. Did I expect to take my grandchildren there? Definitely not.

Those of us who grew up on the Peninsula and in the South Bay are used to the disappointment. We lost Marine World Africa U.S.A., Frontier Village, Castle Golf & Games, the Circle Star Theatre and almost every local roller rink and cool old movie theater in the area. How the Winchester Mystery House is still operating is anyone’s guess.

I wasn't alone as a letter writer to the DJ noted

With the announcement that Great America has been sold, and eventually bulldozed, another one bites the dust. Heck Santa’s Village, Frontier Village, and of course Marine World are just memories (albeit fond) for many of us. Malibu Grand Prix, pee-wee golf. The list goes on. Lets not mention the drive in in Burlingame, or South San Francisco or ... The “Block 21” project in San Mateo is moving forward. The 11 current parcels and their tenants have to look elsewhere and relocate. I know Steve from Squires Slot machine is moving to Stockton. I believe he, as well as Las Palomas, Wing Fat, The head shop and Jaybirds, have been local for 40 plus years. So Long.

In today's paper we see all of the residents in Oyster Cove Marina are either already out, or are scrambling to find an affordable place to move. I worry about my grandkids and what sort of fond memories and activities they will have.  And please do not mention our water shortage or inability to increase our cities infrastructures i.e. more police and fire. Perhaps I’m just gloom and doom but maybe someone will build a bowling alley.

Peter C. Carey

San Bruno

In a truly crazy twist of fate, my decade-long search for a vintage slot machine yielded results last Saturday right here in B'game!  It is a 100 year old machine and it needed repair, so I knew I needed to get to Steve Squires ASAP.  Hauling the gorgeous hunk of machinery out to Stockton and then going back to pick it up months later wasn't appealing.  I stopped in, got a 10 minute tutorial on what might be the issue, viewed a half-dozen YouTube videos as an aid to Steve's description, but couldn't be sure.  Another visit brought Steve's offer to "just bring it in, I can show you in a couple minutes".  This from the guy who has to pack up 45 years of stuff and move in a couple weeks!  I was back in a flash and indeed he fixed it in short order after closing time.  The best part of all was I got to watch him do it.  We chatted about the lack of opportunity for kids to learn useful manual skills, the difficulty in finding staff with said skills, and the carving out of small businesses--especially in San Mateo where condos and offices are treated like saviors.

I started thinking of all the other things that are either gone or going.  Remember when there were three antique stores in B'game and several big ones in San Mateo.  Some old timers probably remember more.  Remember when you had choices on where you could get furniture stripped or an appliance repaired?  Independent gas stations and repair shops?  Markets not named Safeway?

Like Mr. Carey I worry about how sterile life with nothing but condos, offices and restaurants will be like here.  How many trips to Stockton will we be making to find real skills (with the tools and parts) like Steve Squires has?  What a gem---he gets an honorary Best of Burlingame designation.

Rudy Benton, RIP

During the locked down, distracted days of the pandemic, the passing of Rudy Benton slipped by--not unnoticed, but not celebrated either.  That time has come and his daughter, Kathryn, notes this on Facebook

For those of you who knew Rudy Benton aka Mr. Benton, aka Mr. B, my dad, we are having a Celebration of Life for him on June 5th in San Pedro Valley Park, Pacifica.  He taught physical education McKinley, Lincoln, Washington, Roosevelt, Hoover, Franklin and many more schools as well. And of course he had his local Burlingame TV show "Moving with Rudy Benton".

The full SF Chronicle obituary is here and notes

"Mr B" has moved on to the big multi-purpose room in heaven from which he will continue to inspire all, no matter their abilities, to keep moving, to never smoke or do drugs, and always put everything back neater than you found it!  (Ed: and the admonition to "go to college")

For 46 years Rudy taught his own unique version of Physical Education. First, for ten years in Brisbane, CA, and then for 36 years in Burlingame where the emphasis would be on non-competitive sports and no activity where a student would have to wait their turn.  Rudy would spend many an evening planning activities for his classes. He was particularly famous for designing obstacle courses themed around movies, geography, holidays, Olympics etc.

RIP Rudy -  March 22,1937 - July 30,2021

B'game History of Auto Row

Burlingame has been synonymous with car dealerships for as long as anyone can remember.  The marques that have been and continue to be sold here are legendary and the sales taxes the city collects are important contributors to our town's finances.  The total runs about $1.2 million per quarter--the highest of any category.  Even more interesting is the history of how we became known for our Auto Row which you can learn about from an expert this coming Sunday, Feb. 13th at 2pm.  At the Lion's Club hall in Washington Park, the Burlingame Historical Society is presenting its first live meeting in two years.

Society member, classic car enthusiast and long-time Burlingame Auto Row salesman Richard Griffith will present Tales from Auto Row. Using many historic images from the Society’s collection, Richard will discuss why one of the first auto rows in California was in Burlingame and how Auto Row has evolved over the last century. With many decades of experience, Richard has tales to tell! This is a presentation car lovers will not want to miss!

Richard's knowledge of all things car-related stems from his involvement with classic Hudsons, BMWs, Porsches and Audis--the later two marques he sold at Rector for, well, we'll let him tell you how long.  He's a trusted advisor on makes, models, values, and trouble-shooting as well as the go-to historical repository of our important local businesses.  I'm expecting some insights into cars that live in The Candy Store, the local Concours d'Elegance, and all of the cool brands that have come and gone here.

The presentation is free to the general public and, of course, the Society realizes there is a football game starting at 3:30 so they promise to finish by 3pm.  Bring your mask.

Farewell to Sixto's

One of my favorite B'game restaurants is closing to be replaced by another local stalwart moving to bigger space.  I like to commemorate places that created memories so years from now we can easily remember.  Like La Pinata, Chicken Chicken! and Yanni's, Sixto's is one of those places--in fact, it is the second one at the same location; residing in the old Bit of England space.  After "The Bit", it went through changes as the Tavern Grill (with awesome music) and Paragon before it became Sixto's.  I spoke to Teresa Lindhartsen who is one of the Sixto's and Alana's co-owners along with Francesca about Sixto's closing sometime this month.  While they are tiptoeing towards retirement, Alana's will continue as it has for 29 years.  That's a heckuva run.

Stella Alpina Osteria will be moving over from Chapin Ave. after a remodel so the tradition will continue.  As I was taking the photo below, a friend walked by who had not heard the news.  He had his first date with his lady friend at Sixto's and they have been regulars for the margaritas ever since.  Those are the memories I'm talking about.  Personally, I will miss the shrimp fajitas the most.  The good news is that with the current staffing shortages, the Sixto's staff should have no problem finding work.  To everyone involved, I say gracias.  Fare thee well.

Feb. 19 update:  Yesterday was the last day for Sixto's.  I went on Thursday night and it was packed--lots of sentimental thoughts all around.  Here are the much beloved  shrimp fajitas!

 

BSD: 50 Years of Music Instruction

Doing anything successfully for 50 years merits notice, and the SF Chronicle has provided a nice write-up on Carol Prater's long career teaching music to B'game students.  You can read the whole piece here but a couple of my favorite bits are:

On a mid-November day in 2021, Prater smiled at her band and cued the first notes of “Jingle Bells,” complete with the squawks and squeaks that have peppered her entire professional life.  These fourth- and fifth-graders are likely among the last of an estimated 25,000 students Prater will have taught music to during her 50-year career in the Peninsula city’s public schools. She’s leaning toward retiring — but isn’t firm about it.  (I added the bold :-)

“I just don’t know about 51 ...,” Prater said with a laugh after a group of Roosevelt Elementary kindergartners had filed out of her music room after singing and dancing with her. Her husband, Doy Prater, who was also a music teacher in the district, retired years ago.

And a good testimonial is worth its weight in gold...

Phil Grenadier was one of her first students to hear them when he was in the fourth grade in 1972. He is now a professional jazz trumpet player in New York, touring and recording, and remembers how “Mrs. Prater” saw something in him.  “She struck me as a young lady back then,” he said, realizing 50 years has passed for both of them.  She taught him to read music, helping him understand the difference between 16th, eighth and quarter notes with her mantra: “Mississippi, candy, Coke.”

Gotta love that little timing trick.  If you click through be sure to note that BCE apparently has a new name, and we also have a new school (Jefferson) that I am not familiar with.  Congrats on 50, Carol, don't rush into any decision on next school year!

Planting Trees: Official and Guerilla-style

The SF Comicle actually provided some value yesterday with a lengthy piece about a guerilla-style oak tree advocate in Oakland.  Here are a couple of good excerpts

Not long after a storm, Tim Vendlinski can be found in parks or small patches of grass around Oakland with a shovel and a few dozen acorns or oak seedlings in hand. He grabs his gardening tools from the trunk of his car, and with the swiftness of someone who has planted thousands of oaks in his life, he gets to work.  “How can you have a city named Oakland that doesn’t have any freaking oaks in it?” Vendlinski said.  His efforts represent a vigilante approach to urban forestry — a form of guerrilla gardening that is often at odds with the policies and standards of the city of Oakland’s tree supervisors. Both recognize the value of oaks, but they don’t always agree on where the oaks should go or how they should be maintained.

Oak trees are particularly important features of both urban and rural landscapes for several reasons, said Angela Moskow, an information network manager with California Oaks, a California Wildlife Foundation project focused on preserving the state’s oak trees.  Oaks foster enormous biodiversity — perhaps more than any other tree variety in California, sustaining more than 100 species of mammals, 170 species of birds and 4,000 species of insects, according to California Oaks.  Oaks are particularly good at sequestering carbon, both from the air and the ground.

I know the coastal live oak in my front yard has grown from 4' tall to 40' in the last 30 years and feeds a LOT of squirrels.

Oakland’s master street tree list, the list of trees approved to be planted on city sidewalks and medians, includes 59 tree species. Of those, eight are oaks. Only four of the trees on the list are native to Oakland, Vendlinski said, calling the list “horrific.”

Which leads me to back to B'game.  The city newsletter noted that

The Parks Division is in the process of planting 162 City trees throughout Burlingame in planter strip areas, tree lawns, and parks. The species of trees being planted will include red maples, eucalyptus Citriodoras, Chinese flame trees, crepe myrtles (Tuscarora), magnolia (Little Gem and Samuel Sommers), elms (Pioneer and Accolade), sycamores, Chinese pistaches, and Trident maples. This is the last of three plantings that will happen this year.

We got four of the 162 newbies on my street this week and I love them.  If you are interested in the "politics of trees" click through and read the whole article about what should go where, how it should or should not be watered, etc.  We live in a designated City of Trees regardless of whether SF wants to strangle our water supply or not.