Columns

I’m submitting this terribly late in hopes it’s able to be seen before our final market, Saturday, Dec. 18. If so, you’ll know this will be a packed market: filled with plenty of produce despite many farms ending their season and all our delicious prepared and packaged food vendors you’ve come to know and love. We’ll also have close to 30 craft vendors, many who come throughout the season on a rotating schedule, but lots of new ones who’ve just come for our Fall/Holiday Craft Market. This will be the biggest week for this event.

Winter greetings and goodwill to all Healdsburgers. “IDlewood 3” was the town’s original telephone exchange and now “Hedda Healdsburg” wants to know all! Please send your newsy items to me in care of The Healdsburg Tribune.

Have you ever wanted a fresh start?

There’s no mistaking several recent incidents in the chambers of various local city halls and the county supervisors offices with the Jan. 6 violent insurrection at our U.S. Capitol. But all of these incidents exposed our democracy’s recent troubles with the peaceful and respectful passing of power from one party or officer to the next.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been cruel to all of us for many reasons. Of course there have been thousands of cases of illnesses in Sonoma County and now 414 deaths, almost all of them taking place unaccompanied by family or loved ones. Jobs and businesses have been lost and all our daily lives have been restricted by ongoing public health rules requiring us to wear masks, get vaccinated and tested and to limit our public interactions.

Our foggy COVID-19 brains can’t remember if Santa Claus visited us last year or not. Many of us feel as if he didn’t. But this year is different. We’ve already seen the jolly old fellow at several community gatherings around the county following the recent Thanksgiving holiday. He was waving to crowds from a lighted tractor float at the Geyserville Lighted Tractor Parade last week. This past Sunday he arrived at the Forestville Community Holiday Tree Lighting on a fire truck and the jolly old elf promises to be in downtown Sebastopol this Thursday (Dec. 2) for another tree lighting ceremony. He has a full calendar of appearances and you can follow him on our website at soconews.org.

This year is different. Historically low rainfall following a previously dry water year have tipped the balance of stored water within Lake Mendocino and water demand throughout the Russian River watershed. As water users in the upper Russian River continue to cut water usage, you may be wondering how we got here and how do we get out of this.

As part of our letters section this week, the Tribune is publishing letters from students at The Alexander Valley School about what they’re thankful for this year.

Remember when one of our biggest arguments was over “paper or plastic” when we went grocery shopping? Turns out, we were all wrong. Now it’s canvas or bring your own recyclable bag. New mothers used to be torn over whether to breastfeed their babies or use infant formula from purified cow’s milk, vegetable oil or soy. Many people once viewed breastfeeding as “unnatural.”

Delaying the dam