Dixie Fix

It's 1950 All Over Again in Cascade Shores

As someone who was a housewife (!) in the 60s and 70s, I can appreciate how the world was then. We could all afford to stay home with our kids while our husbands worked, and we got together for "coffee" often -- talking about our lives as our children played together. It was idyllic, really, in those days in Seal Beach! We were all different, probably wouldn't know one another except our close neighbors, but our children brought us together. We had a babysitting co-op, a nursery school co-op, and a crime-free, walking-friendly community to play in.

When I see "The View," and those women talking about themselves and world events, it reminds me of my housewife days, except The View is like a virtual coffee klatch.

Where I live now -- Cascade Shores -- it is very similar to those days of long ago. We have an old-fashioned "Women's Club" that gets together for socials, games, outings and parties for the neighborhood children.

The other day we had a potluck Soup Lunch and Bingo with White Elephant event at our Firehouse -- the de facto Women's Club clubhouse. There were about 22 of us, ranging in age from young mom to great grandma. We had four types of delicious soup, homemade bread and corn bread, to-die-for-fudge and other decadent desserts. We talked about life, love, the world and our families, ate great food and played Bingo while winners opened white elephants.

As I looked around the table at one point, I thought, "This is a true 1950 Americana moment."

When I was working (has it been almost a year? yikes!) I would see notices for the Women's Club and wish I could attend. Same with the Monday, Wednesday, Friday walking group. And now I'm a part of that. It's almost as if I have come full circle in life.

Great Local Entertainment, for Free!

Last week I attended the Board of Supervisor's meeting because the agenda included an item about Sammies Friends running our local animal shelter. There were about 60 people in the audience; most were there for a particular item that interested them -- kind of why I was there. As I sat in the audience looking around, I wondered, "Where are all the gadflys"?

BTW, a gadfly is someone who regularly attends government meetings. Some are quiet; others quite vocal; but all gadflys know they're going to see a fun show and they get hooked.

Steve Enos would be an example of a gadfly when it comes to the Grass Valley City Council. And while I'm sure he's a thorn in their sides, he often brings up good, well-researched points about items on -- and off -- the City Council agenda.

Because the Board of Supervisors wield such enormous power, it would be helpful for citizens to attend their meetings. The only media there day in and day out would be Pascale of YubaNet. She also faithfully attends both city council meetings, in Grass Valley and Nevada City.

Citizen participation in government is a pet issue of mine. I think an informed citizenry makes for a better community. If you have some time, get out there and see how the process works. After all, it's your government!

Just Think, This Could Be Your Family!!

Copied from the Web site awkwardfamily photos

The Thanksgiving Letter (back by popular demand)

From: Marney

As you all know a fabulous Thanksgiving Dinner does not make itself. I need to ask each of you to help by bringing something to complete the meal. I truly appreciate your offers to assist with the meal preparation.

Now, while I do have quite a sense of humor and joke around all the time, I COULD NOT BE MORE SERIOUS when I am providing you with your Thanksgiving instructions and orders. I am very particular, so please perform your task EXACTLY as I have requested and read your portion very carefully. If I ask you to bring your offering in a container that has a lid, bring your offering in a container WITH A LID, NOT ALUMINUM FOIL! If I ask you to bring a serving spoon for your dish, BRING A SERVING SPOON, NOT A SOUP SPOON! And please do not forget anything.

All food that is to be cooked should already be prepared, bring it hot and ready to serve, warm or room temp. These are your ONLY THREE options. Anything meant to be served cold should, of course, already be cold.

HJB—Dinner wine

The Mike Byron Family

1. Turnips in a casserole with a lid and a serving spoon. Please do not fill the casserole all the way up to the top, it gets too messy. I know this may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but most of us hate turnips so don’t feel like you a have to feed an army.

2. Two half gallons of ice cream, one must be VANILLA, I don’t care what the other one is. No store brands please. I did see an ad this morning for Hagan Daz Peppermint Bark Ice Cream, yum!! (no pressure here, though).

3. Toppings for the ice cream.

4. A case of bottled water, NOT gallons, any brand is ok.

The Bob Byron Family

1. Green beans or asparagus (not both) in a casserole with a lid and a serving spoon. If you are making the green beans, please prepare FOUR pounds, if you are making asparagus please prepare FIVE pounds. It is up to you how you wish to prepare them, no soupy sauces, no cheese (you know how Mike is), a light sprinkling of toasted nuts, or pancetta, or some EVOO would be a nice way to jazz them up.

2. A case of beer of your choice (I have Coors Light and Corona) or a bottle of clos du bois chardonnay (you will have to let me know which you will bring prior to 11/22).

The Lisa Byron Chesterford Family

1. Lisa as a married woman you are now required to contribute at the adult level. You can bring an hors d’ouvres. A few helpful hints/suggestions. Keep it very light, and non-filling, NO COCKTAIL SAUCE, no beans of any kind. I think your best bet would be a platter of fresh veggies and dip. Not a huge platter mind you (i.e., not the plastic platter from the supermarket).

The Michelle Bobble Family

1. Stuffing in a casserole with a serving spoon. Please make the stuffing sans meat.

2. 2.5-3 qts. of mashed squash in a casserole with a lid and serving spoon

3. Proscuitto pin wheel – please stick to the recipe, no need to bring a plate.

4. A pie knife

The June Davis Family

1. 15 LBS of mashed potatoes in a casserole with a serving spoon. Please do not use the over-size blue serving dish you used last year. Because you are making such a large batch you can do one of two things: put half the mash in a regulation size casserole with lid and put the other half in a plastic container and we can just replenish with that or use two regulation size casserole dishes with lids. Only one serving spoon is needed.

2. A bottle of clos du bois chardonnay

The Amy Misto Family (why do I even bother she will never read this)

1. A pumpkin pie in a pie dish (please use my silver palate recipe) no knife needed.

2. An apple pie in a pie dish, you can use your own recipe, no knife needed.

Looking forward to the 28th!!

Marney

The Calanan Park Problem

Has there ever been anything discussed in our community for as long as the problems at Calanan Park? Seriously, this has been going on forever!

The problem seems to be that the park is the Gateway, so to speak, of Nevada City. If the first thing you see is a place for people to smoke pot and hang with their pitbulls, that might not be an inviting picture for a visiting tourist. I'm just sayin'.

But let me play Devil's Advocate for a second. What are some things you LOVE about Nevada County? What makes this a different and enriching place to live? I think it's the fact that we all tolerate each other. The Goths, the lifelong hippies, the rednecks, the farmers -- we acknowledge each other's existence, but agree to disagree.

To me, part of the charm of our community is our differences. If everyone in Nevada County was a Birkenstock - wearing liberal with a Free Tibet sticker on their car, it would be a boring place to be. If we all listened to NPR and KVMR who would we disagree with? I celebrate those with different opinions because I'm never going to learn anything by only talking to people who agree with me.

Having said that, I still understand the desire to "clean up" that tiny Nevada City park. But how, without trampling on people's right to gather?

When Heroin Knocks at Your Family's Door

You know all those things that happen to somebody else? Well, as I get (ahem!) older, I'm finding a lot of them are happening in my life. It's no longer distant; as the years mount up I've had many astounding things happen in my circle of family and friends. Some are wonderful, but many are horrible. This is a story of one of the horrid ones.

The young man is my relative by marriage. The marriage dissolved in the 70s but he and his family are close to my children and grandkids. Let's call him Dallas.

Dallas has grown up in Huntington Beach. If you haven't been there in awhile it is decidedly more upscale. Small houses have been razed and in their place are McMansions, gated communities and security guards. Dallas lives in one of those homes, probably worth $2 million easily -- a band member from the group Korn is his neighbor.

He excelled in sports in high school and was never a problem academically, either. Dallas was a Good Kid.

He went to Long Beach State for a semester, but moved home with his mom and dad and little sister because he flunked out. Fairly common, couldn't handle the freedom and made some bad choices. Got a part time job selling ice cream and enrolled in community college.

He was never a chatty Cathy, but Dallas became more withdrawn and quiet. Everyone noticed at Christmas that he wasn't eating any food, nor was he socializing. Come to find out that's because he had become addicted to heroin and Oxycontin. His parents immediately put him in a 30 day rehab. He's there now.

How does it happen that an athlete from the suburbs of Orange County finds heroin and becomes addicted? How long has it gone on and what kind of help is he going to need? The whole family is stunned and baffled and in a state of shock. How did this happen? His parents have never used drugs and don't even drink.

Is it a sign of these dark times or just a fluke? Did he have too much growing up that he had to go looking for some thrills?

Put him in your prayers because I suspect he has a long, hard road ahead.

Has it Come to This? 'Weisure Time'

Weisure is the new word to describe work and leisure, when people blend them together in their hours off the clock.

Having just returned from work-and-money-obsessed Orange County, I saw Weisure up close and personal. The Blackberry at the dinner table; the story due soon that must be finished at home; the constant fear that if you have a job, you may not have one in the near future so you better be ready to work 24/7 because if you don't, guess whose name might pop up on the layoff list?

It's a dreadful trend because it precludes relaxing, letting go on the weekend. And it's the perfect scenario for the mean boss, who can just hint that he's thinking about the job all the time and you should, too.

Certainly this is not very evident in Nevada County, where "quality of life" seems to be a mantra and even the employable like to make enough money to NOT have to work for awhile, perhaps to travel, or have time to dream. When I first moved here I considered that half-hearted work ethic odd, but today I think Nevada Countians are on to something.

How much money is enough? And doesn't a lot of money just mean you can buy a lot of stuff? And when you get too much stuff, you have to rent a storage locker to hold your excess stuff and keep it safe. What's the point of stuff if it's sitting in self-storage? And you spend money after buying the stuff to keep it in storage, making the stuff cost twice as much!

Don't buy into Weisure Tme...it's a trap. Remember that old mantra from the 60s: Be Here Now.

How Changing Business Models Change Our Everyday Life

There's probably no argument that the business model of a newspaper is outdated. Look around at the 20-somethings, 30-somethings and others who get their news on their mobile phones. They're not interested in reading today's news tomorrow; they're much more immediate than that.

Newspapers get most of their money from advertising. But advertisers are thinking of other, creative ways to get their message across -- leaving newspapers scrambling for dollars that used to just roll in by the truckful. Top of the food chain in ad rep land was the National Account. Those reps had their own fax machine and Macy's and Ford and all the big boys just faxed the ads from New York and the rep did the paperwork. No pounding the pavement for them.

But listen to what Kentucky Fried Chicken is doing to promote its new line of hot wings. Instead of taking out newspaper ads, they're going to City Councils across the country offering up their advertising budgets to paint the city's fire hydrants with their message. Fire, hot wings. get it? The city's hydrants get a fresh coat of paint (albiet with a "message") and the city -- drowning in debt and layoffs -- gets a chunk of money that was totally unexpected.

Think Qualcom Stadium, just taken to a smaller level. Totally doable, and probably fresh enough to create a buzz, which is really what advertising is all about. So that money, once in the newspaper's pocket, now belongs to a municipality, which actually might use it for something that benefits its residents instead of lining the pockets of print executives.

Newspapers large and small are scrambling and it is evident in Southern California that big changes are on the horizon. Take the venerable Los Angeles Times. Its "Idea du Jour" is to save money by allowing the Wall Street Journal to be printed on its presses in the late evening for a pretty penny. Great idea, right? Except that's when the Los Angeles Times usually prints its own paper, in time for delivery people to get it to us early in the morning.

The only solution was to print The Times earlier in the evening. Beginning sometime next month, all deadlines will change and The Times will "go to bed" at 6 p.m. A fourth-grader can see that is really stupid, since stories are reported in the day and edited in the night. Not to mention sports scores for night games. In a 24/7 news cycle, that sounds like information suicide.

The Bean Counters and executives know this, but it's not just about making/saving money. Now it's about Keeping the Doors Open. Are we doing something dumb? Yes, they answer. But we are keeping the paper open a few more months by doing it. Not only does the WSJ give the LAT money, the LAT can now layoff all those night editors, page designers and proofreaders because only the pressmen will work at night.

And what if a significant world event occurs at night? Well, they've come up with the LATE Wrap, a one page wrap-around that will carry the breaking news -- if it is deemed "significant enough."

So, if a paper like the LAT is that desperate, what will happen to the rest of the papers? And if newspapers go away, how will TV news survive? About 75% of television news is gleaned from morning papers...no time for "reporting," you know.

I just know the world is changing -- faster than I can keep up with!

Pants on the Ground, Pants on the Ground!

I was in Southern Cal when that American Idol audition went viral...from Neil Young parodies to Brett Farve in the Locker Room. It is infectious; go to YouTube if you haven't seen it. Even on TV, the news in SoCal is filled with celebrity gossip and things like "Pants on the Ground." Harvey Levin has his TMZ as a television show in addition to the Web site. Let's just say I feel up-to-date on all my celebrity gossip.

Saw "The Lovely Bones" and "Precious." Both seemed like award winners. TLB is almost as good as the book, and much better than the critics painted it. "Precious" was hard to watch at times, but fascinating and an example of what just a bit of encouragement can do to someone who has received virtually none. Monique deserves every accolade she receives for her role at Precious's mother...Wow! And Mariah Carrey is a shocker in straight, fine brown hair and no makeup. Believable as a tired but well-meaning social worker with zero pizzazz.

Rented "Jennifer's Body" (ugh) and "500 Days of Summer" which isn't about the season, but 500 days of one relationship and was actually quite entertaining.

Had the Flight from Hell going home last night. After the mini tornado touched down in Long Beach as we were driving to the Long Beach Airport, I got checked in 90 minutes before my flight and the power at the Airport went off. And guess what? The backup generator failed. All the JetBlue personnel were hiding somewhere and we sat in the dark wondering if we'd ever see Northern California again. I tried to explain the delay to a woman who spoke only Greek by pointing to my watch and making hysterical hand gestures and finally led her, confused and frightened, on to the plane hours later. (The only passengers more miserable were stuck OUTSIDE in a security line for hours, not allowed to move into the building because...nothing works without electricity.) When the generator kicked in about 7 p.m. they got into the building and ran -- en masse -- to the airport bar where everyone was buying each other drinks and swapping horror stories. Made it to Nevada City after 11 p.m.

The snow is falling outside my window (it's about 12:30 p.m.) and sticking to the driveway so I'm hunkering down to ride out this end of the storm. More tomorrow, when I probably still won't be caught up on my sleep but will be a little more coherent. Don't go out if you don't have to!

You Can Be a Teenager Again!

And it's not through time travel. It's "doing it the third time around" with grandchildren! 

My real teenage years were fun! But not for my parents, because I was a real hellion. I wasn't into drugs or sexually active, but I did run away from home for a long time and probably hastened my parents' deaths in many ways. It was 1965, you see, and Haight Ashbury was just beginning, so OF COURSE I needed to climb out my window and go immediately. The narcissism of teenager-hood prevented me from feeling or understanding how awful this would be to the people who were desperately trying to raise me!

Having my first child at 20 -- after marrying at 18 -- also seemed like a good idea at the time! But it was a child raising children, and God knows, I made more than my share of mistakes. But being a young, hip mom, I thought MY teens would not go through the teenage rebellion stage because I was so cool. What a joke! They rebelled in all sorts of fun ways, ensuring that my hair would turn gray from worry. It was hard and stressful, but today they are wonderful, mature, great adults who have been terrific parents to their own children!

Which bring me to the delicious icing on the cake: Grandchildren! It is all the love and not as much worry! Because each and every one of them (we have 9 now) are perfect, beautiful, brilliant, talented...I could go on and on. They are the delight of my life. And Paisley Nicole Scott, the third oldest, turns 18 on Sunday! And I'm leaving early Wednesday morning to fly down to SoCal to help her celebrate.

It seems like yesterday when she was born. I remember her father and I trying to wrangle the brand-new car seat into the car to bring her home from the hospital. I also remember those colicky first months when her parents were pulling their hair out and she would only fall asleep on someone's chest. Her colic was legendary, as were her tantrums when she got into the 2's.

You might expect she would have blossomed into a boisterous child, but no. To this day she is quite shy and reserved, and doesn't even have a driver's license. She's growing up in a world far different than I did, and I have no doubt that she will become a wonderful, responsible adult! We'll do some shopping, and probably make a special dinner together.

When I was going through my cancer treatment -- when Paisley was 2 -- my doctor asked me what I had to look forward to in the distant future. He said to think of something a couple decades away to focus on as I fought, literally, for my life. I told him, and I remember this as though it were yesterday, too, that I wanted to dance at Paisley's wedding. That seemed so far off when she was a toddler, but now, as she thinks about college, it is no longer the distant future.

Now that I'm in my 60s and about to collect Social Security (yikes!) I find I reflect on the time passed, and I'm aware that more of my life is behind me than ahead of me. I think about the generations, and how times have changed, but people have remained constant. My family is still there, although I am now the matriarch; the oldest of the living.

Because no matter what we do -- or don't do -- time marches on. Dixiefix will be on hiatus for a week, unless I snag a computer while I'm down south. See you back here around January 20th.

A Quiet Nevada City Spot to Have Coffee, Meet Friends

It's The Spot, where the old Kirby's used to be, by the creek. Forget the Oxygen Bar, there are two nice rooms with tables and chairs to have coffee, a smoothie or a healthy lunch. It's quiet, so talking is pleasant, and if you're the laptop type, the tables make it easy to set up and work.

There seem to be a couple components to the Oxygen Bar, complete with "experiences" you can order and large chairs to relax in. Could be virtual reality, I'm not sure. Or, you can belly up to the bar for oxygen.

When you drive by it always looks like nobody's in there, but you can't see the other rooms from the street.

I just had regular coffee (it was excellent!) but they have an espresso machine and all that. Check it out! I thought it was a terrific place to relax!