Saratoga News

Saratoga Sampler

Mary Ann Cook

Traveling with seniors proves to be a rocky road

ANOTHER PET ROCK story: This is a Simon Says saga, and it all started on a barge, a barge trip to Paris that the Pollocks--Felicia and Michael--took with Elderhostel. When Michael Pollock found a fanny pack in a drawer in their stateroom on the barge, he took it to the purser. Where else would you take a purse?

"Those people from California must have left it," said the official. Where in California? asked the Pollocks and heard, "Bear Creek Road." Since that was their neck of the woods, they offered to return it to those Californians, Marjorie and Lloyd Ward. On receipt of the fanny pack, the Wards treated the Pollocks to lunch at Old Town to thank them for its return. At lunch Lloyd asked if they used the rock he had found and positioned. "We sure did," said the Pollocks. The bathroom door in the stateroom wouldn't stay closed without the aid of that saving-grace rock.

Weeks later, the Pollocks went to Yosemite on a Saratoga Senior Center jaunt. As they were checking out of their cabin, the attendant handed them a package in an elegant Nordstrom box.

Inside was a crayon drawing of the falls--and a pear-shaped, pear-size rock. The Wards had been there just days before. "We must have mentioned our Yosemite trip over lunch," said a baffled Felicia. The Pollocks say they'll check with the Wards about where they're headed next. But they may wonder where that third rock (from the sun) will light next.

Fascinating coincidences also at the Saratoga History Museum. Museum archivist Lyn Johnston was thrilled to get two bequests in one week, especially since one fit so well with the other. One packet was from Olivia de Havilland, she of Paris and the silver screen, and was photos and negatives (later developed by the museum) that pictured the famous actress in her teen-age days in Saratoga, portraying Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream and Alice in Alice in Wonderland. Saratoga's unofficial historian, Willys Peck, was in the Alice act, too.

He played the duck. In that same week in the mail came the last of the packets from the Florence Cunningham estate, she whose collections were the basis for Saratoga's Historical Museum. In this one was a program from the Alice in Wonderland production, the only one known to exist. At least the museum didn't have one--until now. Talk about dovetailing.

New director of the Adult Day Care Center Mary Richards, recently of the Sunnyvale Retirement Inn, started her duties June 23, replacing Rita Pennington, who retired after starting the center and serving for 10 years. Pennington is a hard act to follow, say insiders, but we trust the frail elderly are in continued capable hands. And may we assume the new director is no relation to that Mary Tyler Moore character of the '70s?

The Adult Day Care Center is one of the beneficiaries of the Echo Shop, operated by the women of Saint Andrew's Church and other volunteers, some 100 in number.

The Echo Shop earns thousands yearly by selling used clothes. Foster children are clothed free from the shop's selection. Twelve other agencies are aided by the shop's proceeds, those serving battered women and children or the homeless, for example.

Sixteen Foothill School students went to France just after school let out for the summer, as part of the French-Saratoga Exchange Program. They lived with French families in Boulange-Billincourt, a suburb of Paris, and spent two weeks going to school and sightseeing.

"I'm envious," says parent Sara Douglas. The students, age 10-12, prepared for the adventure by learning about French language and culture in a weekly program that started in October. On their return they were spouting even more French phrases: "Viva la exchange programs" probably being one.

Fred Engel is the featured reader at Blue Rock Shoot's poetry night July 8 from 8 to 10 p.m. Open mic readings follow, which means anyone with a poem and courage enough to read it can get into the act.

Readers usually have to limit themselves to one poem because of the number of poets participating. Incidentally, Blue Rock Shoot is an entirely different animal from the Saratoga Book Market, although the two are housed together, with the bookstore downstairs.

Blue Rock Shoot is named for a skeet competition popular in the 19th century, wherein blue rocks were used as targets. Don't know what that has to do with lattes, bagels or muffins. But it's easy to remember, and perhaps that's the whole idea.

Didja know that the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association meets on the last Thursday of the month at Immanuel Lutheran Church? It's at 14103 Saratoga Ave., and Cynthia Porter is the contact: 578-5848.

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