Sunday E-dition: How we measure time
By Dave Stoneberg
On Monday, the Napa Valley held three solemn ceremonies commemorating the 22nd anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and in a Pennsylvania field. Marking that grim occasion were the three places where 9/11 memorials were created from the ruins of New York’s twin towers — Napa, Yountville and American Canyon.
Thank you, John Dunbar, former mayor and council member of Yountville, for telling the story of how those memorials came to be.
How do we mark the passage of time? Sometimes we remember special birthdays or other happy occasions, but as adults, who remembers when they turned 28 or 38, for example? My birthday was on Wednesday; I spent the day building a wooden garden gate, but in six months will I remember it as a special day? Maybe not.
More often than not, we mark the passage of time remembering tragedy. As a fourth grader attending Naper Elementary School in Naperville, Illinois, I remember being on the playground when I first heard about President Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963. I went home in the middle of the day and spent the next few days with my parents and brothers in front of our black-and-white television set, watching the grim news.
My wife, Joni, remembers being in Arizona on that fateful day. The sky was partly cloudy and when she heard the news, the clouds covered the sun.
In 1968, I was a bit older and we still lived in Naperville. My dad drove to work each day, working for an advertising agency. He tells stories of being in Chicago at the time of the Democratic National Convention, held in the summer, when demonstrators and the police faced off in Grant Park and on the streets downtown. Instead of being in his office, he escaped to a nearby hotel, which was safer. An older friend of ours, Kirby Cosyns, went to the demonstrations and was beaten up in Chicago. Another older friend, Vic Wells, was facing being drafted into the military and instead he went to Canada, where he has made his life ever since.
On Jan. 28, 1986, I remember exactly where I was when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, killing all aboard, only 73 seconds after lift-off. I was working in the Middletown Times Star newspaper office when I heard about it. I raced down the street to the Western Auto store to watch the news develop on their television sets.
More recently, of course, we mark time by remembering the dates of the wildfires that have swept through our neighborhoods. Sept. 12, 2015 was the date of the start of the Valley Fire. It was a Saturday and Joni and I took our dog, Zoe, to the coast. My brother Bill and his wife, Dee, were visiting and they enjoyed seeing Zoe run on the beach at Goat Rock. Boy, she was so fast when she was younger! Afterward, we went to my uncle’s house in Sonoma and remarked how windy it was that day. We went for a walk and the wind knocked his hat off his head, down a canyon, never to be found.
When Joni, Zoe and I returned to the Napa Valley, we were stopped at Tubbs Lane and Highway 29 by emergency personnel. That was the first time we heard of the Valley Fire, that ultimately killed four people, burned 76,000-plus acres and destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings and homes, including 12 out of 18 in our neighborhood. Two of the homes burned were just across the street from us on Donkey Hill Road in Hidden Valley Lake. We were not allowed home for several days and spent the time with our dear friend, Barbara Brown, who lived on Tubbs Lane.
I’m sure you remember the wildfires that have swept through your neighborhoods, including the Atlas Fire in 2017, those in 2018 and the Glass Fire that started at the end of September in 2020. Coming up on Saturday on Napa Valley Features will be Tim Carl’s magnificent photos and memories of the Glass Fire.
Reviewing last week, Sasha Paulsen had happier news, with the blessing of harvested grapes at Grgich Hills Estate Winery and a review of Lucky Penny’s current production of the Addams Family.
Rosemarie Kempton wrote about a Napa Valley art tradition, Open Studios Napa Valley 2023, which continues today and again next Saturday and Sunday throughout the Napa Valley.
I wrote about an event, CCAT’s Cat Bingo, that sold out all of its 50 tickets on Friday, with the aim of raising funds to help feral cats.
A journalist who has written about and reviewed Napa and Sonoma wines for more than a decade, Virginie Boone, attended and covered the Bocuse d’Or held in Napa. The event was to determine who would advance to the next round of the Olympic-style cooking event. In January 2025, one team will represent the United States in a competition in France.
Tim Carl wrote two stories this past week: one about a new event, Sabor + Ritmo Fest, celebrating Latin culture in the Napa Valley; and another addressing the increasing number of mergers and acquisitions of independent, family-owned Napa Valley wineries.
This week, from today through Saturday, John Dunbar writes about being behind the scenes or under the tent at Napa’s Town & Country Fair;
Carl covered the Sunrise Horse Rescue event, held for the first time since 2019 in Calistoga;
Boone uncovers a family making a new chardonnay, Firetree, on property in Los Carneros; and I will write about a historian, Jay Greene, who has retired from giving talks at the St. Helena Public Library.
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Dave Stoneberg is an editor and journalist, who has worked for newspapers in both Lake and Napa counties.