MorganHillTimes.com | Thanks for recent Silicon Valley Reads program support

OPINION > YOUTH VIEWS
Thanks for recent Silicon Valley Reads program support

Mar 4, 2008

Dear Editor,

I hope you were among the nearly 100 people who turned out to hear Bo Caldwell, author of the bestselling The Distant Land of My Father, speak at the Morgan Hill Library last week. Her appearance was part of the Silicon Valley Reads program.

If you were, you heard Caldwell's fascinating tales of the relatives who inspired the characters in the book, learned details about her writing process, and had the chance to ask questions, have her sign a copy of the book, or purchase a discounted copy from BookSmart.

If you missed it, make plans to participate in next year's Silicon Valley Reads program, which encourages literacy by selecting a book for all Silicon Valley residents to read and discuss each year.

Thanks to everyone who made this wonderful evening possible, including BookSmart, AAUW, Morgan Hill Times, the City of Morgan Hill, the Morgan Hill Library, the Friends of the Morgan Hill Library, and, of course, Bo Caldwell.

Lisa Pampuch

President, Friends of the Morgan Hill Library

Morgan Hill

Republican economic policy will bankrupt our grandchildren

Dear Editor,

Continuing the Clinton economic policy would have paid off the national debt in 2006 according to Greenspan. Instead we adopted the magical Bush Republican economic policy, heartily embraced by McCain, which has driven the national debt to $9.33 trillion with a $3,000 increase every two minutes. Instead of paying off the debt in 2006, we paid $406 billion interest with money borrowed from China and Japan. The foundation of this Republican program is to cut taxes on big corporations and the wealthy. The good part is, we can continue to borrow money to pay the interest and allow our great grandchildren to pay off the debt. This is sensible, since they will be far more intelligent and much stronger than we are.

Frank Crosby, Morgan Hill

Good morning Morgan Hill, now stop complaining about the wonderful mushroom smell

Dear Editor,

In a few weeks, spring will be upon us. And those pungent smells will return.

I love it here in Morgan Hill and I especially love greeting a new day when I step outside first thing in the morning.

I enjoy the fragrant aromas of our surrounding agriculture. They remind me of what used to be here in California. From the south I enjoy the smell of the Gilroy garlic. And from the north I savor the pungent aroma of the mushroom compost from the nearby mushroom farm facility as it warms in the morning sun.

Growing up in Pasadena we were surrounded by plenty of agriculture. In those days when neighborhoods were neighborhoods and not housing developments, everyone had citrus in their yards as well as vegetable gardens. The many varieties of the flowers and shrubs growing in the gardens were the pride of the homeowners. Most everyone had a chicken coop in their backyard as well. In those days chicken was the meal of the day and everyone enjoyed fresh eggs.

Properties in our neighborhood were very large, not at all like today's roof top to roof top tract homes. We had quality of life in our neighborhoods. Parents were parents and kids were kids. The dad was the breadwinner and the mom was always at home.

In the 1930s and 1940s, after the Depression and before the war, neighbors stood together and shared or traded what was needed for their families.

I also remember the great days when my family of six children lived in Redlands in the midst of those huge Washington Naval Orange Groves. The use of smudge pots for the warming of the trees on frosty nights had been banned by that time. Not so, when I was growing up on Pasadena, however. On those wintry mornings we would awaken to a dark cloud caused by the oil from the smudge pots. When our family lived in Redlands, instead of smudge pots huge propellers were situated among the groves. When the temperature was such that a frost was imminent, the propellers would come on. Because in Redlands, we lived so close to the grove, many nights were sleepless due to the noise of the propellers.

I could write more about my memories of growing up with our California agriculture. That would include the adults' ears glued to the radio for the very important nightly frost report coming from Radio Station KFI in Los Angeles. To this day KFI reaches as far as Bakersfield, as in those good old days. I can still recall the frost reports for Piru, Lemon Cove, Santa Paula, Riverside, and other areas up and down our wonderful State of California.

One of the saddest situations occurred was when our friends who lived in the City of Orange left town when the last orange tree was dug up for housing development. Why stay in a city called Orange when there are not any Orange trees? What an atrocity. I know of other similar situations.

So, our neighbors here in Morgan Hill who are complaining about an odor not to their liking, and an odor that does not occur on a daily basis at that, should perhaps move back to the sidewalks of the city.

Joanne L. Anderson, Morgan Hill