Smith: The seats were hot, the TV guys cool

Conrad Weil never before had such a crazy day at an inaugural 49ers game.

In Sunday’s column, I mentioned that Conrad, who’s 88 and lives in Santa Rosa, witnessed the Niners’ first home game ever at Kezar Stadium in 1946 and also the team’s initial game at Candlestick Park in ’71.

At the new Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, he was happy, first off, not to die of heatstroke.

“The seating in the sun is brutal,” said Conrad, who went to the historic game with daughter Debra Jefferson and pal Phil Trowbridge. He’s glad the temperatures should drop considerably as the season heats up.

Despite the sunlamp treatment Sunday, some cool things happened to him. His daughter living on the Mendocino Coast, Stacey Weil-Dye, contacted KPIX-TV to tip sports guys Dennis O’Donnell and Jeremy Newberry that a veteran of the Kezar and Candlestick openers 68 and 43 years ago was there in the stands.

O’Donnell found her dad, and interviewed him post-game. Too much fun.

Conrad left Levi’s Stadium a bit redder than when he’d arrived, but feeling that his third 49ers housewarming could have been better only had his beloved team scored even a point.

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GLADYS WING DAY was Monday at the especially nice thrift store that the women of the Welfare League operate in Railroad Square.

Well, in a way, every Monday at the shop is Gladys Wing Day. Each Monday, Gladys rolls in with her walker to fastidiously price and mark merchandise such as scarves and cards.

She is the oldest and the longest-serving member of the Welfare League, which contributes heroically to families in Sonoma County. She joined in 1960 and for four decades directed the program that assembles layettes for presentation to new mothers at local hospitals.

Gladys used to work more at the store, but Monday is pretty much her day now. That’s why the ladies chose yesterday to festoon the store with Happy Birthday ornaments and make a suitably big deal over her.

Gladys lit up as she opened the gift of a Baskin-Robbins certificate. She finds there’s still plenty good about life at age 104, for sure ice cream.

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THE ROLLER COASTER in Santa Cruz and Jeanette Vaughn of Santa Rosa are practically twins.

Jeanette turned 90 on Sunday. And when she was born in 1924, the wooden Big Dipper on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk was brand new.

As a young woman in the 1940s, Jeanette worked at the boardwalk and leaped at every chance to ride that roller coaster. She just received a nice card and photo book from Charles Canfield, president of the firm that owns the boardwalk.

Jeanette rode the roller coaster on her 80th birthday. Today she rides the memories.

“I have a close connection to that roller coaster,” she said.

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