Chris Smith: Did that Santa Rosa thrift-store bear skull set Celja Uebel on her way?

A memory bubbled up to Chris Uebel of greater Sebastopol as he read of the volunteers with a Railroad Square secondhand store who found among standard donated items a lovely gold-and-gems bracelet and, presuming that it was given away by mistake, put out word that the rightful owner is welcome to claim it.

The act of honesty reminded Uebel what a special place the Welfare League Thrift Shop is.

He recalled that his daughter, Celja, was 5 years old when she fixated on an unusual item in a case at the lower Fourth shop: a decades-old bear skull with an upper canine missing.

Celja wanted that skull. She and her dad discovered it was priced at $60, far more than the $20 Celja had in her savings account.

Chris recalls, “I told her if she wanted that skull, she needed to make a deal she could afford.”

Celja negotiated with a shop volunteer a price of $24. She arranged to pick up the skull some days later, after she’d have withdrawn her 20 bucks and earned another $4.

When she and her dad returned to make the purchase, they found a note tucked beneath the set-aside natural treasure. It read:

“A little 5 yr old girl is coming in Sat. to buy this skull. She has $24.00 in her piggy bank. That is what she will pay for the skull. She is so sweet. Katie H.”

That note is still with the bear skull, though much has transpired since the day of the sale 19 years ago. Faithful, longtime Welfare League volunteer Kathryn “Katie” Haggard passed away earlier this year at 94.

Celja went on to excel in 4-H and in biology at Ursuline/Cardinal Newman High, then at University of the Pacific. She’s now 24.

Says her Dad, “My little girl is visiting in July, taking a break from the USC Molecular and Computational Biology Ph.D program. She remains very curious and very thrifty.

“Who knows, maybe the skull started all that!”

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HORSE PEOPLE might like to know, if they don’t already, that the maker of an award-?winning documentary on unnecessary violence against equines will accompany the film June 28 to Summerfield Cinemas in Santa Rosa.

“The Freedom of the Heart: The Foal Story” was directed by Jolanda Ellenberger of Switzerland. She’ll answer questions following a 6 p.m. screening of her short film.

The special showing and Q&A will benefit Linda Aldrich’s nonprofit Pony Express, which connects kids and horses in need of a friend and for decades has operated the pony rides at Howarth Park.

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IN THE DIASPORA: Alice Waco, the retired Sonoma County teacher and tireless peace-justice activist, was driving in Indiana and needing a break. She popped into a Starbucks outside of Indianapolis.

Her ears perked to hear one barista tell another that in California some coffee-making task or other was performed differently. Alice asked him where in California he’d lived.

“Santa Rosa,” he replied. Of course, Alice told him that’s where she lives.

She asked if he lost his home to the fires. He told her he’d not been burned out, but after the disaster his rent went up so much he couldn’t afford to stay.

Alice got the sense the young man was sorry he’d had to leave Santa Rosa. In that, he is no doubt far from alone.

You can reach Staff Writer Chris Smith at 707 521-5211 or chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com