How on earth can it be March tomorrow? The Christmas decorations are still on a chair in the den and my box of Valentine candy is more than half full. We are rocketing toward an active outdoor season — egg hunts, Open Studios, vintage car show, farmers market, fireworks and parade, Waterfront Festival, Opening Day on the Strait, Benicia Theater Group play, and Peddlers Fair, to start.
Am sitting on my patio watching the geese splash around in a vernal pool as a freight train snakes along the Strait framed by velvety emerald green hills. This promises to be an auspicious year as predicted by the recent daily show of rainbows. Plus, it’s a leap year with an extra day to enjoy life in Benicia.
One of the most picturesque and photographed blocks on First St. is the Sandovals building and it’s neighbor Bookshop Benicia on E. G St. with a door in-between leading up a steep stairway to PS Hair Salon and Sally Babson seamstress. The iconic Victorian facade of Bookshop Benicia is all gingerbread and bay windows anchored by the big clock outside installed by the original tenant – Frank Strumm of Strumm’s Jewelry. The clock was eventually stolen and replaced in 2006 by BHS and Western Dominicans. Frank had been an organ maker back in Germany. Prior to his move to Benicia he worked for a watch manufacturer in NY and traveled to Mexico on business where he was caught in the Mexican Revolution. Trying to escape, he was attacked by bandits near Acapulco who stabbed him in the head. Ouch! He survived to see his son Frank, Jr. take over the business becoming a successful fine postcard photographer of Benicia and Bay Area scenes. You can see many of these at the Museum of History Benicia. Thanks to MOHB, Benicia Herald, and Benicia Magazine for this background.
Speaking of Sally Babson, was up in her atelier yesterday to have her install shoulder pads into a new trench coat. She is a skilled seamstress and dressmaker and does custom designs but will happily adjust your shoulder pads if you don’t like that slope-shouldered look which makes you look like PeeWee Herman. Sally has been part of the art and dance history of Benicia since the 1970s, when Smyers Glass, Robert Arneson, Manuel Neri, Judy Chicago, and others created an art colony here. She assisted Chicago in the early 1980s on The Birth Project, a five-year endeavor consisting of needlework and painting created by 150 seamstresses which was shown in 100 art museums and other venues across the county.
More on rainbows. Have lost count of how many rainbows I’ve seen over Benicia lately, but know it’s as least five, one a double, and all of them were in the same place spanning the Marina and ending up in the City Cemetery. Auspicious. Propitious. Capricious. If one is good what about five! Did you know that if you see a rainbow from above, say from a plane, it appears as a circle and not an arch or bow? If we didn’t have a horizon to break up the sky, we would see rain circles without the pot of gold.
Walking past the Benicia Art Glass Gallery, I peered into the Sweetness and Light garden patio and it was bare. What happened to Wendy Phillips’s magical space filled with pots and plants and garden sculpture that was so fun to explore? I called her. “Where are you? What happened to your shop? I asked. “We are continuing as a florist, designing flower arrangements with deliveries but now are on-line only. I have a small studio in my home. The foot traffic on First isn’t what it needs to be to support a small business like mine. People aren’t shopping downtown post Covid. Most of the businesses are struggling.” “Is there an answer? I asked. “Absolutely. We need to incentivize tourism like Healdsburg and Sonoma have done. They have the wine industry, we have the Strait. Our waterfront is a largely untapped resource.”
Wendy referenced the 2023 Strategic Tourism Marketing Plan released by Benicia Office of Economic Development in 2023 with recommendations on ways to increase tourism. She was part of the working group. I called Colette Schow, Manager of ED for the City, who said they took the first steps in implementing the Report’s recommendations in January. “We’ve hired a marketing firm (MC2) to help us with many plans in the works. Marketing takes funding and we’re utilizing the limited dollars we’ve been allocated very well,” she said. “What about new events or initiatives?” I asked. “Any new programs will depend on what the budget looks like going forward and after the elections.” A two-day Art Weekend with live performers on First St. is in the works for May in partnership with Open Studios.
Grab your sunblock and get your hat.
Leave your worry on the doorstep.
Just direct your feet
To the sunny side of First St.
Letters From Benicia 