From this…

…to this:

Expect more parade photos in the coming days.

p.s. I chose the Albion-Little River Fire truck just for Suzy and Oliver (you may not comment, but I know you lurk)!

I just learned that Robert Roland, a volunteer with the Anderson Valley Fire Department, died yesterday morning of a heart attack sustained while fighting the fires. While I didn’t know Mr. Roland, I was sad to learn about his death; he had apparently only moved to the area recently, and he was a very gung-ho volunteer from the start, despite his age. His choice to get involved and active in his new community may have cost him his life, but it does not go unnoticed or unappreciated, and it’s a sobering reminder that fighting fires can be quite dangerous. My condolences to his wife and the Anderson Valley Fire Department.

Take a moment to do something nice for your local fire department; firefighters from 41 states along with the National Guard and California Conservation Corps are helping us here in California, but fire crews everywhere deserve your appreciation.

A friend of mine and I ventured to Mendocino last Friday since it was a nice, sunny day, and we wandered around Evergreen Cemetery, the smaller of Mendocino’s two cemeteries. Actually, Mendocino has a pretty large cemetery population, considering that the village isn’t actually that large; two cemeteries does seem a bit excessive. Lest you think that I’m some sort of cemetery fiend, we also ambled around the rest of Mendocino. And ate cookies.

At any rate, it was interesting to contrast Evergreen with Rose Memorial, since the two cemeteries have a very different look and feel. Evergreen feels more homey, in a way, with a sweeping view across the vilage, part of Big River, and the ocean, and a scattering of graves which almost feel like they were sprinkled, rather than methodically laid out. Rose Memorial is a mixture of old, more casual graves, and more stiff modern graves in neat little rows of brass plaques for easy mowing. I’m not sure I like one better than the other, they’re just different.

Evergreen has graves which are a bit older, and a lot of broken headstones, unfortunately. My companion told me that there was a rash of vandalism at Evergreen a few years ago, which probably accounts for the damaged headstones. Some of them are propped up against their bases, while others are just lying on the ground, which is kind of sad. As at Rose Memorial, there are a lot of names I recognize; the Lansings, for example, have a large plot at Evergreen.

There are also some interesting differences in the styles of the headstones at the two cemeteries. Evergreen has more quotes on its headstones, and the ever-present hands pointing upwards have their backs facing out at Evergreen, rather than the palms, as is the case at Rose Memorial. Evergreen also has a couple of clasped hands, which I rather like, thematically. There are also a lot of cool headstone decorations, like a welcoming open gate on the headstone for a deceased clergyman.

There are many more handmade headstones and grave markers at Evergreen. I think that this may be because Rose Memorial is a bit more strict about headstones and decorations, which is kind of a bummer. I loved some of the decorations on the graves at Evergreen, since they really captured the spirit of the people buried there. One grave was really excellent, with what amounted to a small garden planted on top; you could never get away with that kind of thing at Rose Memorial.

This cemetery also feels slightly more segregated. Not in a bad way, just that people are grouped together more, rather than scattered across the cemetery as they are at Rose Memorial. The Masons, for example, are all by themselves in fenced area, and there’s a little Irish section , and a cluster of Germans. Although the Swedish graves are scattered apparently at random; it would appear that Swedes don’t mind mingling.

One thing that’s interesting about Evergreen is that there are a lot of foreign graves, from people who obviously moved to California with the hopes of making their fortunes and then died young. The huge number of graves of men in their 20s really illustrates how brutal the logging industry was in the 1800s. This cemetery is also a reminder of the big Finnish and Swedish community we have up here.

Evergreen also has a separate Jewish cemetery within the cemetery, and it is totally beautiful and awesome. It embodies the Jewish attitude of simplicity when it comes to burial, and almost all of the graves have beautiful handmade markers. Some of my favorite headstones were in the Jewish section, like a pair of boulders incised with the names of a couple, and a grave with a granite bench at its foot for visitors to sit on. The Jewish section also has plantings of flowers and other foliage, and lots of little offerings on the graves, like works of art and jewelry.

The weather is pretty murky these days, so this may be my last entry in the cemetery tour for awhile. That and my lack of a car make trips further afield a bit challenging, but never fear, the cemeteries of Mendocino County will continue!

(RSS readers, there is a slideshow in this post of images from Evergreen if you want to see some of the features I’ve written about in this post.)

The moment you are all waiting for has arrived. The main delight of the Mendocino Fourth of July parade is, of course, the hippies. This is why we all go. It was so difficult for me to sort through all the images and just pick out a few, but here they are. Once again, I’ve put the bulk of the photographs behind the jump, so that people on slow connections will not be tormented when they load the main page. (Which reminds me, dear readers…do we like the hiding things behind the jump thing? Or do we disapprove? I would like to find a way of making the post expand, rather than shuttling you to another page, so if anyone knows how to do that with Movable Type, please let me know.)

Here’s the start of the peace brigade…I note that the Republicans were entirely absent this year. Curious. And tragic.

Here’s my buddy Abe, holding some balloons. I believe that he was marching with Students Against the War, which also had my favourite sign in the entire parade:

Because pirates need peace too. And so do…dinosaurs?

Click onward for daring aerial feats, clowns, and…more nudity!
[...]

Many local businesses submit entries in the parade, which have incredibly varied levels of creativity. This year, I was a huge fan of the MacCallum house, since their entry, well…just look at it:

Yes, you are seeing two ladies in bed, waving flags. But wait, there’s more:

After that, I’m not sure why any business even bothered. But there were some awesome entries. Here’s a charter boat company:

I don’t recall the name of the company, but I am…really impressed.

Click onward for more shots of business, including the spectacular Gallery Bookshop entry.
[...]

Like many communities across the United States, Mendocino celebrates Independence Day with a parade of epic proportions. It’s legendary, and people come in from all over the coast to watch the parade. The parade starts out fairly mundane, as parades do, with law enforcement, military, and, of course, fire trucks.

This fire truck has a neat twist, an American flag integrated into the grille. I wonder if it counts as desecration when the grille gets covered in insects?

This is the cow man. He always marches in the parade, dragging along some sort of livestock. This year, the duck totally stole the show.

More behind the jump, for the sake of those on slow connections.
[...]

I have just returned triumphant from the Mendocino parade. Baxt very kindly lent me a camera for the duration of the parade, so I took a phantasmagoria of pictures. Unfortunately, since it took some time to become accustomed to the camera, a lot of the pictures are of empty skies and horse poop. But I did get a few good ones, so here’s a preview of the parade pictures up ahead:

We had two parade streakers, but one of them was too fast for my slow shutter skills. The sock is a nice touch. I hope they wore sunscreen.

The military’s presence was brief and fairly unobtrusive. To the credit of the observers, these gentlemen were followed by a wave of standing applause. That rifle had better be unloaded!

There were, however, a lot of hippies in the parade. This man was holding one end of a tennis net up while a game of doubles tennis was played along the parade route.

Many more to come, never fear, dear readers!

A friend and I decided to go to Sweetwater last night, pretty much on a whim. The awesome thing about open public tubs is that you can do that, so we trundled on down the road to Mendocino in the evening to see what there was to be seen. He had never been to Sweetwater before, so it was an introductory visit. I’m pretty sure he’s hooked now.

Most locals know about Sweetwater. It’s been around for, well…ages. I don’t really know how long. But you go down this winding flower lined path and you enter a warm womb with a fireplace, and you give people money and they give you towels, and you slip through a door into the public dressing room and get naked. It’s a cozy place, not ritzy and super nice like some public tubs I have been in, but very clean and comfortable. I almost feel like I have been invited to someone’s house for the evening, honestly.

I’ve always had an affinity for public tubs. It’s not that I’m an exhibitionist or something, it’s just that I have spent a lot of time in cultures with public baths, and I like the idea. I like meeting people from my community, chilling out in the sauna and talking, or just zoning out. I never know who I’m going to meet there, or what we’re going to talk about. It might be martial arts, tamale recipes, or local politics. I miss the ornate hammams of Turkey, with tiles and cucumber slices and everything nice.

Unlike a lot of public baths, Sweetwater is not segregated. People of all ages and genders are always welcome, and everyone stays fairly mellow. Most of the people in the public tubs are locals, some of whom come on a regular basis. I’ve never seen anything untoward or objectionable there, or felt uncomfortable. This might be because I’m oblivious, or because most of the people at Sweetwater are there for the sauna, the tub, or both, but not booty.

We started out in the tub and then headed over to the sauna. It’s been awhile since I have been able to sauna, so I couldn’t stay in terribly long, but it felt fabulous. I love sitting on the top shelf, slowly drying and then becoming glossy with sweat. It sounds like a hippie thing, but I really can feel the toxins leaching out of my body. It’s awesome. Then I run and take a super cold shower to close my pores. Mmmtastic. After a cooling period, we hopped back into the tub to relax, idly conversing with someone whom I couldn’t identify without my glasses on, and then we drifted home, tub high and comfortable.

I always sleep so well after I sauna, it really makes me want to own a sauna so that I can do it every night. Alas, this house is far too small for any sort of logistical sauna placement, unless my landlord wants to let me take over the tool shed. Speaking of landlords, I also learned that my old landlady was recently in the hospital, and I hope that she is doing ok. She is very active in the community, and a generally awesome lady, so I was sad to hear that she was not feeling well. Those of you who are into praying and that sort of thing might want to think of her, since I defy anyone to meet her and not adore her. She is one of my favourite people in the entire world, personally, and I am really sad that I am no longer living above their kitchen, furtively skulking home in the middle of the night and hoping I don’t wake them as I stumble up the stairs.

As promised, here is a selection of the political entries from the Mendocino Fourth of July parade.

Much of the parade was related to the war, of course, and people from all walks of life stepped out against our continued presence in Iraq. One of the gentleman holding this flag is a well-respected local architect. (With a beautiful home, I might add.) Other marchers in the anti-war brigade included lawyers, doctors, innkeepers, mothers, children, and pretty much anyone else you can imagine (including, yes, former members of the military).

This sign bridgade was part of the Carol Wolman for Congress entry.

Another bright neon sign–I suspect there may have been a sign making party prior to the parade.

The old broads were, of course, out in force, following close on the heels of Code Pink. (There was a whole organized anti-war section of the parade, actually, although it consisted of about 50% of the total parade.) And the broads are right–peace is patriotic.

Lobbying for peace, to me, suggests that you have some hopes for this country, and that you believe it is worth preserving. Not only would peace benefit us in the short term, but long term peace means long term stability–peace now means there will still be an America later. I think we all know I’m a dirty hippie, but I firmly believe that every American should be waging peace actively, within their own communities as well as in the halls of Congress. Peace works.

That’s a sentiment I can get behind.

It seems especially poignant on the Fourth of July, a holiday celebrating the end of British occupation in the United States. It’s a great sadness that one of the first nations to gain independence and to throw off the colonial yoke has turned into an occupier. What would the founding fathers think about that?

For some reason I’m extremely fond of this image. This was right around the veterans for peace section of the parade.

Fourth of July here is an interesting holiday because in Mendocino the parade comes out more like a protest march. But wasn’t this the point of our freedom from Britain? We the people have something to say and by god, we’re saying it.

Sometimes it feels like no one is listening.

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Yesterday was the Fourth of July, which means only one thing here: the Mendocino parade. I am aware that in Britain it is Thanksgiving and I believe there is also a national American holiday associated with half naked girls walking down the street, political floats, and drinking beer at Friendship Park. But here, 4 July means it’s parade time.

The Mendocino parade is my all time number one favourite parade up here. I have so many great pictures I may have to split this up into two days, but here’s a start of the awesomeness that was on display yesterday. One of my coworkers moved here last year, after the parade had been held, and therefore had never seen it before, so we took a long lunch and dragged her to the parade. I argued that you can’t really understand life on the coast if you haven’t been to the parade.

I went to school with both of these individuals (which reminds me–guys, if for some reason you don’t want your fine bodies posted on the internet, please email me. Or call. Whatever. You know how to find me.) One of them was actually my next door neighbor from wee childhood up until I left for college. They were representing the Rascal Ranch in fine style.

There were a lot of gardening/local agriculture floats this year, but this was by far the most impressive, bedecked in flowers with lovely ladies in garlands. And, of course, this being Mendocino County, a “Say no to GMO” sign.

Sadly, I got to the parade too late to catch the Flynn Creek Circus float, which is usually awesome. This unicycle rider helped make up for some of the pain.

This float contained the crosses which used to sit at the base of Albion ridge before CalTrans removed them. The sides of the float had a list of American dead from the Iraq war. Usually loud cheering accompanies the political floats–a somber silence followed this one.

Another political entry.

This was a man with clear ideas about how a parade should be enjoyed. He moseyed along looking intensely at peace.

Of course, no local event would be complete without a truck of beer drinking gentlemen.

The Mendocino parade, I think you can agree, dear readers, would be difficult to rival in excellence.

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