JACK PARSONS, who heads the Los Gatos Photographic Guild, has produced a video, The Big Ditch, relating the story of the building of the Panama Canal. To the photos he has exhibited before, including a slide show at the Los Gatos Museum, he has added shots of the canal he made on a trip there in November 1995, showing the canal in operation. Jack's father, Earl Russell Parsons, was one of the engineer builders of the canal, which opened to traffic Aug. 15, 1914.
On his most recent trip to Panama, Parsons was warmly received by the Canal Commission that oversees its operation. He was permitted to inspect the control towers and the complex machinery that operates the locks, lifting and lowering ships between the two oceans. "I turned a knob with two fingers, and one of the huge gates opened up," he said.
To photograph the Panama Canal as it is today, Parsons flew in a private plane on a flight intended to follow the length of the canal. "The pilot received a warning that a big storm was coming, and we had to turn back to the airport," he said.
Parsons' narration for his video includes the following facts: The canal has 46 pairs of gates; average fee paid by a ship is $33,000; smallest fee ever paid was by Richard Halliburton, a travel writer, who paid 36 cents for the privilege of swimming the canal's entire length.
Parsons thinks the Carter administration was mistaken to arrange for Panama to control the canal in the year 2000. With political instability, another country could get the canal, he said.
SCREEN star Dustin Hoffman has taken a fancy to our fair town. In San Jose to shoot the film Mad City, he has made several visits to Los Gatos; his 10-year-old daughter apparently is an avid antique collector. Hoffman and family had lunch at Cafe Marcella; and on Oct. 19, he dropped into the lingerie shop Romantiques, where he made lavish purchases of intimate apparel for his wife, family and friends. "They were supposed to be surprise gifts," said owner Susan Sedgley. Letitia Boulware, the clerk who was on duty when the star came by, found the actor "very nice" and "a lot of fun." He's also been in Antiquarium several times, where he accommodated Denise Harr and husband Ed by recreating for them their favorite Hoffman moment--a quick-draw routine called "snake eyes," from his film Little Big Man.
STILL in a coma last week in a Phoenix hospital, young Marine Erich Pichler had developed pneumonia, according to family friend Heidi Howe. His parents, Art and Josette Pichler of Redwood Estates, were at his bedside. "He looks fine, has no broken bones; he just doesn't wake up," Howe said. "His parents hope to move him to the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital." A 1995 graduate of Los Gatos High School, Erich was injured in a one-car accident near Yuma, Ariz.; another Marine was driving. Donations to aid the family may be given at Lexington School or mailed to: Friends of Erich Trust Fund, Great Western Bank, 449 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos 95030, attn.: Heidi Hoefler.
AMONG volunteers who don't always get recognition, consider Pat Dubois of Los Gatos who has put in 3,000 hours with Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, a national nonprofit organization that provides free textbooks for the print-disabled. Her husband, Jean Dubois, has toted up 2,000 hours at the same duty. The two were among 23 volunteers honored by the Northern California Unit of RBD.
A PANEL of six Los Gatos "old-timers" assembled on the stage of the History Club Oct. 16 for an informal recollection of the town's past. The program was one of a series of events the club is sponsoring in connection with its 100th anniversary next year. The club's Fran Alfson presided as Roberta Blake, Mardi Bennett, Betty McClendon, William Balch, John Baggerly and this writer brought up memories of a smaller, quieter community when, as Blake recalled, everyone seemed to know everyone else.
Balch, a retired banker, had a keen memory for where businesses were located. McClendon described the pre-World War II town pageants, held on the grounds behind the Civic Center, in which "almost everyone" took part, and the in-the-round plays presented in the Hotel Lyndon's dining room, where one night a man who had imbibed too much found himself on stage.
Bennett remembered the role the Opera House played in community life and Baggerly filled in with reminiscence of his youth and recalled that McClendon and Vivian Amet Johnson taught dancing in the History Club. I felt like a newcomer, not having seen Los Gatos until January 1955. But I remember Crider's on West Main, Crall's stationery and, of course, the Corner Drug; and I can boast of having stayed at the Lyndon, where "Tiny" Leonard was the proprietor.
Also paying $75 a month for an apartment. Those were the days!
SHE must be hitting the books. Dartmouth College junior Stephanie Adamson was cited for outstanding academic achievement. She's the daughter of Geoffrey and Rosemary Adamson of Los Gatos.
NEITHER political party is facing up to the growth of entitlements and a drop in the availability of funds to offset costs, Congressman Tom Campbell said in remarks to the Los Gatos Rotary Club. Funding for Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid need to be fixed, he said. He suggested increasing the eligible age from 65 to 70, putting a cap on growth of Medicare, and eliminating "welfare" to the wealthy by a means test. At Los Gatos Kiwanis Club, Campbell, who's also a Stanford law professor, said the legal system needs reforming.
CORNISH & Carey's Los Gatos office hosted a reception for its clients and community leaders Oct. 17, with champagne, hors d'oeuvres and music by guitarist Neil Hogan.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 30, 1996.
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