Glen Ellen Village Fair follow-up
Hip-hip hooray for our glorious Glen Ellen Village Fair.
As I predicted, elegant Anne Teller was riding aboard Neil Shepard’s wagon in last Sunday’s Glen Ellen Village Fair. However, Anne wasn’t on the seat next to Neil. Her excuse, when we talked the next day? “I just couldn’t quite climb over the seat back.” I agree. It’s not an easy step.
Yet, Anne was happily on the wagon waving to all of her friends and neighbors, customers and fans lining Arnold Drive as she led the 24th annual GEVF Parade.
Anne shared the wagon with a few of her special friends. Up front was Jim Shere, executive director of the Glen Ellen Historical Society, with his wife, Marie, and their sweet grandson, Marcus Jean Sommier, a kindergartener at Woodland Star. Many of you may remember Marcus’s mama, Jim and Marie’s daughter, Lila. The folks of Glen Ellen rallied around Lila when she was diagnosed with cancer while still a high school student. She is now well and happy, working in administration at El Dorado Kitchen in Sonoma. Lila’s sweetie and Marcus’s papa is Jeremy Sommier, employed at Ramekins. Young Marcus, a green-eyed angel (judging from the photo that Jim sent to me) is bilingual; his papa is from Paris. No doubt he loved riding in Neil’s wagon. Who doesn’t?
Also on board with Anne was her colleague from the Sonoma Land Trust, executive director Ralph Benson. Ralph is in the process of retiring. He will maintain his post until a new ED is found, but he’s ready to call it quits after a 17-year illustrious career as the leader of our Sonoma Land Trust. Small wonder: Ralph wants to spend more time with his grandchildren. Yay, to that I add.
Anne graciously shared her “marshal-ship” with a few good folks because she is impressed with the work they have done to help make our little end of Sonoma Valley the best it can be.
A good example of promoting our valley and the folks within occurred last weekend at an event held at Joan Cochran’s old Glen Oaks home, now owned by the Sonoma Land Trust, where Jim Shere spoke. He regaled us for several hours with stories about Charles Stuart, who built the Glen Oaks mansion. Jim’s research was incredibly thorough and he told Charles’ story in a fashion that kept us all captivated. At the California State Constitutional Convention, for example, the vote to exclude all Chinese from California life and commerce forever was almost unanimous. Almost. Stuart alone urged the convention to reconsider. See Jim for the rest of the story.
I was very sorry to miss last week’s Glen Ellen Historical Society meeting, where Jim serves as the executive director. Like Ralph, with whom he shared wagon space, Jim is looking to retire in the near future and the GE Historical Society is seeking his replacement. We have always been impressed by Jim’s scholarship and ability to share history and its people in a way that helps us understand them. We look forward to more talks and essays by Jim, but wonder, if like Ralph, Jim’s looking forward to more time for grandparenting.
Everyone works together
Other good news from the fair was given to me via telephone by Leslie Vaughn, president of the Glen Ellen Village Fair Association. Initially, we just gabbed about what a great day it was at the fair. Leslie shared, “I just loved the day – even though I was too hot and too tired. But I was somewhat revived by watching all of the good folks gather to celebrate.” Leslie fondly adds, “Glen Ellen is a great little town; everyone works together and the fair happens every year.”
Indeed it does. Highlights from this year’s fair: While Leslie walked home to take a cool shower and revive, Emmanuel “Man” Gonzales held court at the T-shirt table, taking orders. Not only was Leslie too hot, her machine suffered too. The T-shirt printing machine refused to work, so folks had to merely sign up and not walk away with their shirts in hand, or on back, as it were.
Man is a fine diplomat, calmly and gently telling folks that they couldn’t have a T-shirt today, but they could hand over their money and get one soon. Man graduated from Sonoma Valley High last year and has been working part time for Boden Plumbing, earning money for his next step in education. Leslie was grateful for his help.
Leslie said that the hot weather made for smaller crowds. She thinks that attendance was down at least one-third. Still, folks at the booths reported that they “did really well, and were happy with their sales.”
The firefighters noted that they “had better sales than ever,” at the beer booth, no wonder on a day with temperatures approaching 100. Many folks gathered to congratulate our new Fire Chief, Matt Atkinson.
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