Columns

Born in Kansas, Feb. 5, 1916, former Windsor resident Marietta Showalter recently celebrated 102 years of life at her home in Healdsburg. Marietta is a dynamic centenarian who remains active today: painting, reading, nurturing her plants and attending church each Sunday.

As I’ve written in years past, my father Mich and I have a long history of playing in the Northern California Family Golf Championship on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Golf Course. This challenging tree-lined par three course is tucked away in the western part of the park on 47th and Fulton. We won the beginner’s fifth flight when I was 10 years old and we won the championship flight twice 25 years ago, in 1993 and 1994. 

Potpourri: on the edge of cannabis cuisine

100 years ago – January 23, 1919

"As local residents who have an interest in our town’s development, we write in response to the newspaper articles recently informing us about your significant land acquisitions in our Downtown core..."

Healdsburg is facing a crisis unique to the economic engine that has brought us notoriety and acclaim. Most of the Transit Occupancy Tax (TOT) is the result of our success as a tourist destination, and, in the coming 12 to 18 months, a 67% shortfall of TOT is expected. In the midst of this calamity, our city manager has accepted a new position and will leave July 3. Finding a new city manager is job number one for our city council. What qualities should they be looking for?

The holiday season surrounding Christmas is full of our most enduring traditions. We confirm our beliefs and values with traditions like community tree lighting ceremonies and Santa Claus parades. We pass on customs from generation to generation such as holiday cookie recipes, outdoor house decorations and ugly sweaters. Christmas holiday traditions bring us comfort and sureness in a world that often offers the opposite..

Every year comes and goes, but also leaves behind important dates that get remembered, written in newspapers and history books, and are sometimes turned into annual commemorations. (Oct. 8 is such a date for Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park Tubbs Fire survivors.) As 2020 is now running out of dates and makes way for 2021, we can begin to chronicle which dates over the last 12 months we may remember over the years to come.