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Saratoga Sampler
Trade secrets are needed for rainy days
By Mary Ann Cook
CRAFTY GRANDPARENTS: Saratoga grandparents Polly and Bruce Baldridge do some creative work with their grandchildren James, 8, and Natalie Biehl, 6, and would like to hear from others looking to trade grandparenting ideas, especially for rainy days.
Polly Baldridge enjoys crafts, so she often involves the youngsters in crafts projects, such as working with beads, buttons and wood. For very little money, one can pick up bags of marbles, plastic beads, pieces of tile and colored glass or even sanded wood pieces in craft stores, she says.
After that, the imagination can take over. James built a castle by gluing wood pieces together. Natalie made headbands by sewing decorative buttons onto a piece of velvet. James decorated a sports visor with buttons.
There's a practical side to these activities, too. Both children pick up the skills of sewing, and James, with grandfather's help, learns to use a drill and a screwdriver. The youngsters pitch in with yard work , such as picking up apricots, finding blackberries and securing aluminum foil around tree trunks.
They have also been enlisted to repair small household items, applying glue or other fixatives. For outdoor action, Polly Baldridge sings the virtues of a double-seated wagon that has served them well through the years. The children are getting a smidge old for it now, but when younger, riding in the wagon to outings was something they both loved.
For indoor activities, some of the winners in the Baldridge household have been making tissue-paper collages, decorating paper-plate holders, heating plastic beads to make decorative hangings and decorating flowerpots.
Not surprisingly, Polly Baldridge taught fourth grade before starting her own family. James and Natalie's parents are Mark and Nancy Biehl, who live in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Mark grew up in Los Gatos; Nancy attended Lynbrook High. She's an artist and helps with some of the projects.
ADDENDUM: More tales about Safeway checker Gary Hagen are surfacing. Ed Porter notes that when his wife, Chick, was ill, Hagen kept friends and neighbors apprised of her condition. And when she died, Hagen insisted on taking Ed Porter to lunch, complete with an exotic coffee at Starbucks.
"He's such a good person, caring and fun," Ed adds. "At Christmas time he hangs colored balls from his waxed mustache."
SUCH A DEAL: Millie Bernstein has the right kind of clients. Bernstein is a real estate agent, and 10 years ago she sold a house for one of her clients who is of Greek origin, Mike Economy by name. He was so amazed at the price she quoted, he said that if she got that price for his house, he'd help finance a vacation for her in the Greek isles.
Well, she did, so Economy gave her the bonus. Bernstein, who worked full time then and couldn't leave, invested the money, and it grew and grew. Because she is recently back from an Elderhostel trip to Greece, it's apparent that the promises related above came to pass.
Incidentally, if you don't think you know Millie Bernstein, who works for Remax in Saratoga, you may know her as Miki or Nicki Nadler, another name she goes by just to keep her various hats straight. Bernstein is the name she uses for the office.
As for her activities outside the office, she is the volunteer transportation agent for the Los Gatos Library, delivering books and other library materials to shut-ins or those too infirm to get to the library.
AMAZING WOMEN: The cause of Lynette Manzanares has been enthusiastically taken up by Los Gatos beauty salon Le Chic and its owner Danica Finitz. Manzanares, a beautician at La Nouvelle in Saratoga, devoted a day to makeovers for women who live in shelters or transitional housing and are trying to get back into the work force.
She called the event she put into practice in August the Amazing Women Project, and she is hopeful it will become a nationwide effort, with beauticians in communities throughout the land rallying to contribute their time and talents to this cause.
"I'd like to see a one-day fair in each community several times a year," she says. Now Le Chic has taken up the cause, and a shop in Cupertino, the Andrew James Salon, is next up. The Los Gatos day was televised by several TV channels, so the word about the project that initiated with Manzanares is definitely getting out.
NEW PLAYGROUND: EMQ celebrated the completion of a new children's playground for its Los Gatos campus earlier this month. Some $66,000 was raised to build the colorful and durable new playground for troubled youngsters who live at the EMQ facility.
Among those contributing to the project were the EMQ Junior Auxiliary, which staffs the Butter Paddle in Saratoga and the Happy Dragon Thrift Shop in Los Gatos.
TAKE A HIKE: AAUW hikers meet the fourth Thursday of the month in front of Longs at the Argonaut Center at 9 a.m. The walks are at locations nearby, and the group is back by noon. Contact Kay Duffy at 408.867.0508 or Jane Bishop at 408.356.7796.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
