Smith: Bob St. Clair, the little boat?& the oysters

Dan Benedetti, who praises the day ex-49er Bob St. Clair became a salesman for his family’s Clover Stornetta Farms, could tell a million stories about the genial, mischievous giant.

In one, St. Clair climbed into a small, aluminum boat 10 or so years ago on the Canadian wilderness adventure of a group of Clover execs.

St. Clair, who died Monday at 84, was vastly larger than all the others. Even so, he took the spot right up in the bow.

Though he was seated as the crew headed out on an oyster expedition, Benedetti said, “honestly, he looked like George Washington crossing the Delaware.”

The guys gathered up oysters and later that night, before a hearty dinner, barbecued them. Benedetti and the other mortals present then watched the Hall of Famer eat 48 of them.

The evening closed with a couple of guys short-sheeting the bed that St. Clair couldn’t fit in to begin with. Everyone waited for the inevitable roar.

It came and everyone in the cabin howled with laughter, nobody louder than Bob St. Clair.

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LEDDY QUITS MONO: Two years after he became the No. 1 appointed official of Mono County, Jim Leddy aspires to return to his native Sonoma.

“As beautiful a place as it is, it isn’t quite home,” Leddy said from tiny, scenic Bridgeport.

Prior to taking the job as Mono County administrator, Leddy was Sonoma County’s deputy county administrator.

He and his wife, Kathy Hayes, have decided to make a move from Mono County before their twin sons start high school.

“We gave it a shot,” he said.

CA’ TH’ POLIS!: Healdsburg Police dispatcher Colleen Simmons took a call from a man who seemed to be reporting a fight at a school.

Simmons wasn’t certain because of the caller’s thick accent. She made out “throwing blows” and “academy.”

Simmons asked where the man was. “He would tell me, and I couldn’t understand him.”

“I said, ‘What school?’ and I couldn’t understand that, either.”

The caller told her he was in (unintelligible) Scotland. Simmons couldn’t identify the number displayed on caller ID.

She asked the man, “Do you know you’re calling California?” Click.

A DIFFERENT SONG: Karen Norman-Boudreau was gripped by the story of the autistic Sebastopol teen whose loud vocalizations brought a deputy sheriff to the front door.

Days ago, she said, someone dialed 911 as her son Dylan, who’s 29 and lives with autism, expressed himself verbally while visiting the bathroom of a park in Rohnert Park.

Though Dylan makes the sounds mostly when he’s happy, his mom is sure the caller thought he was in dire distress.

Like the dad of the teen in Sebastopol, she would like for folks to know that “not everyone sings the same way.”

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @CJSPD.