Spring is bustin’ out all over and so are its inhabitants – humans, animals, and plants. This morning am preparing for an alfresco birthday lunch for a friend and the Strait is as still as a lake – a green lake banked on one side by the verdant hills of the East Bay Regional Park. A dove lands in my patio, it’s mate not far behind. I hope they’ll decide to nest here. It’s a miracle to watch the eggs become fledglings and take their first flight. A pair of geese silently graze the grasses, their honking temporarily silenced by the abundance of food. Without my glasses they look like miniature Brachiosaurus. Those are the one’s with the long, long neck, tiny head, and huge body. There is a lone sailboat drifting ever so slowly that looks like a sampan from this angle. Better find my glasses
The calm evaporates as I approach First Street. What’s going on? It’s only Wednesday and it looks like South Beach at Easter Break — without the nudity. Sidewalks are packed, cars are barely moving. Hard to believe we’re still in the middle of a pandemic but most revelers are wearing masks. For convenience sake, I drove the few blocks to pick up our birthday lunch at Bella Sienna but couldn’t find a parking space. I nervously double-parked in front and ran in. “You’re going to get a ticket,” I heard a male voice say behind me. Rushing back to the car sans food, I pondered my predicament when the kind man told me to take my time and he’d watch my car. I recognized him as the friendly fellow — Moe Khosravi — who owns Timeless Memories, the elegant antique shop in the Tannery Building. Thanks, Moe!
The following afternoon I walked up East D Street on my way to the mailbox and crossed paths with a woman who complimented me on my hat. We stopped to chat. Rita Mahaney is owner of RM Credit & Mortgage and a long-time Benicia resident who filled me in on some Benicia history. Back in the 1970s, she bought an old postal truck and converted it into an ice cream business called “King’s Kones,” which was successful for ten years. She was a favorite with kids as she made the rounds to the local schools. Did you know that Clint Eastwood lived in a condo on East B Street in the 1970s when he played Dirty Harry, the San Francisco homicide detective? Wonder if he hung out at Mabel’s or maybe the old Past Time bar?
Did a double take walking by Kay’s Sala Thai restaurant. I thought I saw an elegant woman through the glass door. She looked like an artist’s model from an early California Impressionist painting, dressed in a deep blue kimono and wearing a stylish straw hat. Oh, a mannequin! The restaurant, which served gourmet Thai food, has been closed for awhile, and now is a succulent gardener’s enclave with handmade containers of all shapes and sizes housing jade, echeveria, and other large varieties of plants. Exotic Asian sculptures and artifacts can be viewed through the front windows.
As I walked past the storied Camellia Tea Room, I was sad to see that the last vestiges of their furnishings and china will be sold — lovely flowered teapots, teacups and other treasures. I still long for the butter lettuce salad with shrimp and vinaigrette. A final farewell to another First Street favorite where many special occasions were celebrated. Change, it seems, is the only thing that remains constant.
Stopped to check out the food stand at St. Pauls — only a few russet potatoes remained. Flash to the Irish Potato Famine. In the mid-19th Century, the Native American Choctaw people sent $170 to Ireland to help feed the starving nation. One year ago, the Irish returned the favor by sending donations totaling $1,000,000 to the Navajo and Hopi tribes suffering through the Covid pandemic. Paying it forward, indeed!
I never tire of studying the colorful tiles embedded on the sidewalks up and down First Street, each one designating a landmark in Benicia’s early history. The one on on First and West H Street is my fave — a lively bar scene with “ladies of the night” and barflies socializing back in the wild west. The artist, Guillermo Wagner Granizo, from Guatemala, made Benicia his final home, producing ceramic murals that adorn civic buildings throughout Northern California. Five years ago, the Benicia Historic Museum held a major retrospective of his work and published a small book on the First Street tiles, which they still carry. Tile lovers must check out the newish site — granizoart.com — which shows much of his work. Some are even for sale!!
My kind of town, Benicia is. My kind of town. Benicia is. My kind of people, too. People who smile at you …..with apologies to Sammy Kahn.
Sarah Beserra is an artist, collector, Dharma practitioner and former lobbyist.
Letters From Benicia 