Smith: Bring your buckets to Bodega Head, but not for the sand

Musician and shaman Francis Rico Hayhurst anticipates there may be a big crowd for the rain dance he’ll lead Saturday morning on Bodega Head.

He specifies that it’s a multi-cultural appeal for an end to the drought and not an attempt to copycat any Native American tradition, so no Indian dress or props.

Hayhurst is asking that participants dress in layers, show up by 9:45 a.m., leave the dog at home or in the car, prepare to dance bare-footed and bring along hand drums, shakers, rain sticks and a post-dance snack to share.

And, naturally, an umbrella.

FROM ENGLAND came the most delightful email. It shares the surprise that Graham Hemsley found inside the frame of an art print he’d bought at an antiques flea market an hour’s drive from his home in Bristol.

He wrote that the mart featured “the usual, the odd and sometimes the downright bizarre items for sale from just a few pence to over a thousand pounds.”

He and his wife, Julie, paid 15 pounds for two identically framed prints of French street scenes by Cecil Rochfort D’Oyly-John.

Hemsley wrote that the paintings probably were quite stylish half a century ago, “but nowadays could be considered a bit of kitsch.” Even so, he continued, “I have to say they look good on the wall of our spare bedroom.”

The glass was missing from one of the frames so Hemsley removed the print in preparation for having the glass replaced. And behind the print he found - what do you suppose?

A complete copy of the Tuesday, June 24, 1952, Press Democrat. The front page is committed almost entirely to news from the warring in Korea. The banner headline: “Allied Air Might Again Hits Red Power Plants.”

Reported Hemsley, “The whole paper makes interesting reading and although a bit tatty and frayed on the top-right hand corner it was a fascinating read and insight into what was happening at that time.”

He found, for instance, that the Analy Cinema in Sebastopol was showing “The Pride of St. Louis,” starring Dan Dailey and Joanne Dru.”

“I’ve never heard of either of them,” he added. He went on, “Also showing was ‘Tarzan and the Amazons’ starring Johnny Weissmuller. Now I have heard of him.”

He read also that a lifeguard was to be hired on Clear Lake, the Santa Rosa Elks baseball team was set to play Healdsburg’s undefeated Prune Packers at Doyle Park, and a Sunday picnic was coming to the Waugh Center in Petaluma.

And from the PD’s Vital Statistics section, Hemsley learned that a 7-pound, 6-ounce boy was born at Sonoma County Hospital on June 23 to Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Pinola of Sebastopol. Hemsley wrote parenthetically, “I wonder where he is now?”

I was able to find him. He’s Windsor resident Lester Pinola, 62 and a former tribal leader still deeply involved in sharing the culture and history of the Coastal Miwok and Kashia band of Pomos.

He likes that a copy of the newspaper announcing his birth was found in a picture frame in England. Hemsley will be happy to learn what became of the Pinola baby.

The Englishman also is enjoying looking at the ’52 PD ad for Gilbey’s Gin, $2.30 a pint. Those were the days.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.