Bakersfield Magazine • 26-1 • Dream Homes

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Dream Homes VOL. 26 NO. 1

Recipes From the Kids (oh my)

Could You Work With Your Spouse?

BAKERSFIELD’S ONLY CITY & REGIONAL MAGAZINE

Great Getaways Close to Home

SPRING 2009

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Our First Ever

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Dream Homes How Bakersfield

GOES GREEN

Bakersfield Magazine

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, DDS

Bakersfield Magazine

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009

BakersfieldMagazine ❖

For You...

For Your Home...

S Wall Art S Home or Office Decor S Botanicals S European Style Furnishings

®

SPRING 2009

Contents

f e at u r e s ™ They’re underage and under our radar!

Some tykes are no stranger to the spotlight

Top Kidz............................73

and so much more...

Buena Vista: where has the water gone?

36

Lost LAKE

Couples that say “I do” to working together

Married and Marvelous.........41

dream

dhhomes

Your messy kitchen never looked so cute

KIDZ IN THE KITCHEN

77

When teen trifles become parent troubles

Kidz & the Law....................81 Big help comes from the smallest hands

K i d z W h o H e l p. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4

Come discover something wonderful

The

French Quarter It’s dream living for historic homeowners

Now Open Sundays 12:30pm-4:30pm

9339 Rosedale Hwy 661-588-0669 TheFrenchQuarterBakersfield.com Bakersfield Magazine

VINTAGE DREAM HOMES

45

Making your home lean, mean, and green

How Bakersfield Goes Green...51

Find free spots for family fun in the sun

Free FUN

87

Grab your walking shoes for local babies

No Small Feat.....................95

Take it outside! Patio living at its finest

The patriotic tribute is back for 2009

Summer Sanctuaries..............55

Keep Old Glory Flying..........99

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009

BakersfieldMagazine ❖

®

SPRING 2009

Contents

EDMUND FISHER M.D., F.A.C.S.

D E P ART M E N TS Ear, Nose & Throat Specialist Certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology

Over 10 Years Experience

SINUSES CAN BE OPENED WITH BALLOON

New editor asks, are you ready to rock?

Letter from the Editor............13 County quips: small stories with big bite

Kern Facts..........................17 Who says vintage will never go out of style?

The Bakersfield Look.............31 This local author makes his own forecast

Citizen Kern......................33

• Safe & Effective • Minimally Invasive • Reduced Bleeding • Fast Recovery Time • Does Not Limit Treatment Options

What can you do if acne is striking you?

LOOKIng Good Feelin’ good

Human Resources............110

(Treated in Office)

COSMETIC FACIAL SURGERY

• Eyelid & Endoscopic Brow Lift • Chin & Cheek Implants • Face, Neck & Lip Lift • BOTOX® • Rhinoplasty Expert • Injectable Fillers

107

Cutting costs? Don’t skimp on training

New Procedures For Snoring Stuffy Nose • Sleep Apnea Voice & Ear Problems

Find a Clear Skin Solution

Entrepreneurs that know how to pick ‘em

KERN RISKTAKERS

39

However you slice ‘em, tomatoes are king

Gardening with Mrs. P.........59 Turn drab into fab with color and light

Home & Garden................67 A rich and gooey treat made just for you

Quick Bites

Performed by M.D.

112

Wondering how you can party on a dime?

Entertaining the Bakersfield Way..113 A mother-son team is serving up gourmet

What’s Cookin’...............115 Why does this vintner like talkin’ dir ty?

Life is a Cabernet...............117

5301 Truxtun Ave. Ste. 200

661.323.6200 661.323.6223 fax www.facebyfisher.com www.bakersfieldsinus.com Bakersfield Magazine

Food, fun, philanthropy. Where’d we dine?

Revel in romance in historic Riverside

GREAT GETAWAYS

89

Luxury and high performance aren’t exclusive

Auto Review........................103

The Lunch Bunch.................119 The camera never lies! Who was where?

P a r t y C h a t t e r. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 3 What about that guy behind the plate?

Bakersfield’s Sound.........138

OUTDOOR & BACKYARD PRODUCTS OUTLET CUSTOM BBQ ISLANDS

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5801 State Road • Bakersfield • California Right off of 99 / Olive Drive www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTIONS SPRING 2009

Builders Showcase BUILDERS PROFILES

Builders Profiles....................64

home & Garden resources

Home & Garden.....................67

Partners

Community

Community Partners..............93

Looking Good, Feelin’ Good....108

The Dining Guide The Dining Guide.....................122

Shoppers Bazaar..................127

Kern Health Resource Guide...129

MEDICAL PROFILES Medical Profiles.....................130

Religious Schools & Worship Services Directory Worship Directory................131

everafters...

Weddings............................132

&MEN Pets

Ju Com ne in 20 g 09

Plus...

MEDICAL SPECIALTIES

10 Bakersfield Magazine

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 11

BakersfieldMagazine ❖

®

INCORPORATED

BAKERSFIELD’S ONLY CITY AND REGIONAL MAGAZINE Vol. 26 No. 1 Spring 2009

Publishers Les & Donna Corum Executive Editor Mike Corum Assistant Editor Anika Henrikson Garden Editor Lynn Pitts

Historical Editor George Gilbert Lynch

Wine & Food Editor Mike Stepanovich

East Kern Editor Donna McCrohan Rosenthal

Located in the luxurious

Creative Director Chuck Barnes Graphic Artist Laura Turner

801 Truxtun Avenue

661-323-1900

bakersfieldmarriott.com

Systems/Production Ryan Turner

Sales & Marketing Brigit Ayers, Cheryl Rydia Douglas “Dale” Heflin

Contributing Writers Debra Blackmon, J.W. Burch, IV Holly Culhane, Charlie Durgin John Dickerson, Naomi Moss Tracie Grimes, Loron Hodge Miles Johnson Administrative Assistant Melissa Galvan

Photography/Editorial Assistant Isabel Alvarez Cover Photo Katya Monakhova

Bakersfield Magazine, Inc. 1601 New Stine Road, Suite 200 Bakersfield, CA 93309 Office (661) 834-4126 Fax (661) 834-5495 Email: marketing@bakersfieldmagazine.net website: bakersfieldmagazine.net Bakersfield Magazine is published bi-monthly by Bakersfield Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. ©Copyright 2009 by Bakersfield Magazine, Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part of any text, photograph or illustration without written permission from the publishers of Bakersfield Magazine is strictly prohibited. Bakersfield Magazine, Inc. is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, artwork or photographs, even if accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. The opinions expressed in Bakersfield Magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of Bakersfield Magazine management or owners. Bakersfield Magazine, Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability for claims made by advertisers. Subscription rate is $24.95 for 12 issues.

Subscribe now at bakersfieldmagazine.net 12 Bakersfield Magazine

Letter from the Editor

Hello Bakersfield! (cricket, cricket)

I can’t help but notice that this isn’t a rock concert. What gives?

Where are all the pyrotechnics? The familiar smell of hairspray and cheap beer?

Discarded broken drum sticks littering the stage? The bass player?

I only ask because I could have sworn I was going to be a famous rock star when I grew up.

There’s not a pick in my hand anymore, but there’s a pen. It’s a red ballpoint. Red’s a pretty vicious rock ‘n’ roll color, right?

Making the change from stage to page hasn’t been that hard; I had some awesome teachers (thanks Mom and Dad). I often realize that all the instruments are still in my life—all the components of a welloiled music-making machine—it’s just in a different venue. The end result is just as creatively driven, just as well-rehearsed, and done with just as much passion. And the highs are equal to a platinum selling record.

But with so many kids downloading albums, how do you even keep tabs on that? I digress...

However, that brings up a good topic: kids. Mainly because our first-ever Kids Issue is in your hands right now.

The idea to have an issue dedicated to the paste-eaters in our lives came to Donna a long time ago and I’m stoked to be the one who gets to introduce it. We went all-out finding stories that would be amusing but also informative. So we peppered in tips for parents in each of the fun features. And they are fun. Because, really, how can you write about kids without having fun? They wear little shoes and laugh at nonsensical jokes. The humor is innate.

You’ll find that humor in stories like Kids in the Kitchen (Page 77). This piece really doesn’t need much explaining, does it? I will say this—in addition to a great story about the importance of involving your kids in cooking, we’re printing some of the recipes these mini-Gordon Ramseys provided. Warning: the magazine is not responsible for any misfortune that should befall you if you feel the need to ingest their creative takes on said dishes. I’m still feeling queasy.

We’ve got a story for parents who have found themselves in hot water over something a “beloved” teenager has done

Zak

and one that features some soon-to-be famous tots in our community currently in the spotlight.

This issue is also our DreamHomes issue (a little earlier than usual). We know you want to get your dream home looking its best this spring, so we’ve got the info you need. Miles Johnson not only gives you entertaining tips, but this issue marks his first Home & Garden feature. He’ll be bringing you new tips for turning “drab into fab” and how to redesign or redecorate on a budget.

Additionally, our DreamHomes section features quirky stories about what some homeowners are doing to save a little green while keeping Bakersfield green, a story about locals who love calling an old house a home, and a quick feature on the importance of turning your backyard into your favorite room of the house.

And it just wouldn’t be Bakersfield Magazine without our regular features like the Bakersfield Look, Citizen Kern, and Kern Facts—which is where you’ll find a great Skilled Hands feature on a local artist who, incidentally, is a pretty good caricaturist, too (thanks, Zak).

So even though the strings on my Gibson Les Paul are a little cold, I think I’m going to like shredding editorial just as much... so let’s rock this joint!

My inbox is always open,

Mike Corum

comments@bakersfieldmagazine.net

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 13

14 Bakersfield Magazine

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 15

16 Bakersfield Magazine

Kern Facts

People • Places • Events

HIS

& Hers

He’s the mayor of the great city of Bakersfield,

but care to guess who’s in charge of ribbon-cutting at home?

What was the first thing you thought when you met your future spouse for the first time?

Mayor Hall: I was figuring out whether she was an employee or visitor to my company!

Lavonne: I wondered why he was so cranky and why he had an obsession about clean glass.

What is the funniest thing that happened while you two were dating?

Mayor Hall: While traveling to a NASCAR race in Darlington, N.C., we had to ride on an airplane which reminded us of the Wright Brothers’ airplane. And then the hotel accommodations required sleeping in a room with mice running all over the floor.

Lavonne: We were on a trip to see a NASCAR race and had a connecting flight out of Charlotte, N.C. We got to the plane and it looked like something the Wright Brothers’ owned—they had to jump start it (honestly!) and then said it was too heavy so they started taking luggage off and then passengers. At the time, I’m sure it was not funny, but now when we fly we think about it and laugh.

What’s your favorite local restaurant in town?

Mayor Hall: Mama Tosca’s! The food is terrific, the menu has variety, and the wait staff is exceptional—always friendly and accommodating. It is a popular place to meet friends and engage in conversations.

Lavonne: Mama Tosca’s. The food is always excellent and the staff treats us very well. Plus, we usually run into friends when we are there.

What is the craziest thing your spouse has ever done for you?

Mayor Hall: Lavonne planned a vacation trip to seven major baseball games in six days and three different cities. My wife dislikes baseball so this trip was a real hoot.

Lavonne: We were on Catalina Island for a weekend. It was my birthday and the local florist had gone out of business. Harvey

in step with:

Lavonne & Mayor Harvey Hall Do you prefer a vacation at the beach or in the mountains?

Mayor Hall: Any time I am able to find free time I spend it at the beach: Pismo or Cambria. I enjoy the colder weather, sunsets and

had roses flown in by sea plane and took me to watch it land and the pilot got off and handed me the roses.

What makes your spouse squeamish?

Mayor Hall: Any time she is requested for a media interview or public appearance.

Lavonne: Being in the emergency medical services, there is not much that makes either one of us squeamish.

Are you an early bird or a night owl?

Mayor Hall: I start each day at 5 a.m., seven days a week. Lavonne gets annoyed when I make noise and turn on the lights this early, interrupting her sleep time.

Lavonne: I am a night owl. In fact, I’m up late answering these questions and he’s sleeping.

sunrises, along with my favorite cinnamon roll shop and clam chowder restaurant.

Lavonne: I prefer a warm beach vacation.

I like the sun/ocean combination.

Who’s really the mayor at the Hall residence?

Mayor Hall: Our 7-year-old granddaughter, Skyler. Lavonne is the designated Vice Mayor.

Lavonne: I am, but I like to let him think he is. In honesty, it’s our animals (three dogs and two cats). They are the true bosses, we are just here to serve them.

What is your favorite book?

Mayor Hall: My favorite book is by local author Schuyler T. Wallace, called Tin Lizard Tales: Reflections From A Train. I enjoy trains and their importance to America. This book is a positive reflection of train travels across America.

Lavonne: Gone With The Wind.

What is the best thing about Bakersfield?

Mayor Hall: The warm, caring people who give so much to their community, and serving the less fortunate families.

Lavonne: The wonderful people who live here!

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 17

©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/PIXHOOK

Kern Facts

Farmer’s Friend

B

Y THE TURN OF THE 19TH CENTURY, AMERICA WAS BEGINNING to realize an industrial revolution that would forever change the way we lived. Steam was the primary force of energy that propelled the great train engines that changed the mode of transportation from stage coaches and wagon trains. This was a time of the inventors— and there were many endeavoring to make life a little easier. Oil was discovered in the west and soon gasoline and diesel would become the fuel that sped progress along. After Henry Ford’s invention of the automobile produced a new way to travel for the average citizen, soon other uses for the internal combustion engine would find their way to the farm.

For hundreds of years, farming was done by the strength of the farmer, his family, and the livestock he raised for this purpose. Horses and mules were the primary mode of power. Plowing a field for a new crop was a long, hard, and tedious job. A farmer was lucky

Tractors allowed farmers to plow hundreds of acres in a single day!

18 Bakersfield Magazine

if he could manage to farm 10 acres of land in that day and time. Along with providing for his family, a farmer had to provide for the animals working the fields. It was tough and sometimes all his labor would come to nothing if a drought, flood, or insect invasion occurred. However, all that was about to change. Inventors like Ford could imagine the huge possibilities for agricultural applications and soon the tractor was invented. At first they were heavy and cumbersome with iron wheels. Steam engines had been used to some extent but were not practical because of the weight and size.

The tractor, coming in many sizes, allowed the farmer to plow his fields even faster. Instead of covering only 10 acres, he now could farm hundreds.

Soon the farmer’s favorite horse was replaced by his favorite tractor.

In 1940, on the Edgar Combs Ranch (west of Arvin), you could still

By Loron Hodge

see the land being tilled with a three draft horse hook-up. Horses and mules were used in the vineyards by Joseph Di Diorgio and other grape-growers until tractors replaced them. The Tracy Ranch and the Miller and Lux farming and cattle operations had converted from the use of livestock to tractors making operations easier and increasing the areas to be cultivated. Cotton, potatoes, and alfalfa would become more plentiful as a result of farm machines, mainly tractors. W.B. Camp and his family would become wellknown for their cotton production and one of Kern’s major equipment companies would emerge: Kern Machinery Companies.

Around the country, every size engine was built, from two all the way to forty horsepower. Along with the tractors, other largescale farm equipment was invented. Better plowing techniques for tilling the soil and for cultivation were introduced. The farm tractor now became the necessary tool that the farmer needed in order to make his operation successful. The history of the farm tractor is well documented at the Heritage Museum in Tulare, on the site of the largest farm equipment show in the nation. Each year hundreds of vendors and manufacturers display the latest innovations in farm equipment.

Some say the farm tractor is the history of agriculture in California and in the whole USA. Along with the train, automobile, and power generation, the tractor completely changed the face of agriculture forever.

Lucky A-List Winner!

C

ongratulations are in order for Maureen Wells, our most recent A-List Wi nner! Maureen saw her name in the las t issue and was the first person to email us. Her speed was rewarded—she ear ned herself a $100 gift certificate to Uricchio’s Trattoria. She’ll be enjoying a tasty Italian feast on us, just for being a valued A-list member. You, too , can be dining out at great local restua rants with the help of Bakersfield Ma gazine. All you have to do is make sur e you’ve joined the A-List. It’s fast, eas y, and free, so log on to bakersfield magazine.net and sign up today!

A-List Contest W

HO’S HUNGRY? Who’s an A-List member? If you answered “I am” to both of those questions, then keep reading. Your name could be listed below—and if it is, you’ve got a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to Valentien!

Just be the first one to email us at alist@bakersfieldmagazine.net and you win! A romantic dinner at one of Bakersfield’s best restaurants is awaiting, so get looking!

Alicia Caraveo Larry Black Cheryl Ohanneson Dave Reviea Carlos Morales Robert Ellery Janet Diamond Caroline Thompson Debbie Guill Shawna Preston *contest eligibility for A-List members only who have not won a prize in the past three months.

Did You Know?

On Sunday, April 28, 1929, the first “talkie” was shown in Bakersfield.

The Ghost Talks debuted at The Hippodrome Theatre.

source: Historic Chronology of Kern

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 19

Kern Facts

Do - ya

DOODLE? A scribble here. A sketch there.

All those squiggle lines on notebooks?

Yep, they’re ones, too.

With National Doodle Day you see Jerry from accounting approaching (May 7), important scribble a skull and cross bones on his legal pad during the marketing questions have surfaced.

What is a doodle? Why do meeting...stay away from Jerry.* “That’s an interesting idea,” people doodle anyway?

Those are questions even the mused Dr. Steve Bacon, Chair talented researchers in the psy- of the Department of Psychology chology department at Cal State at CSUB. Bacon explained that the Bakersfield haven’t answered yet. psychological reasoning behind Probably because no one knows the types of doodles are unknown quite where to categorize a doodle. (in the scientific community). But We know one thing: a doodle can that just like any other multi-taskbe an unfocused sketch made while ing Joe in your office, once focus a person’s attention is unfocused. needs to be brought to a specific ‘The Doodle Community’ recog- task, the doodler will stop. “Just nizes all types: flowers, suns, hearts, like chatter between a driver and a arrows, boxes. There are some who passenger would stop if they drove into heavy fog,” believe too much “It’s about he said. “It’s about attention to the doodle itself disquali- divided attention.” divided attention.” fies it. “A conscious We know what —Dr. Steve Bacon stops doodling, effort toward the finishing of a doodle, with close at- but the bigger question still retention to the design and pen stroke mains: How do we determine immediately designate the alleged the cause of these doodles? doodle as a drawing,” said doodle After our interview with Dr. Baexpert and Bakersfield Magazine con, we hope the scientific comExecutive Editor, Mike Corum. munity will rise to the challenge.

If the subconscious pens hearts *Bakersfield Magazine not responand arrows, it’s safe to say the sible for what Jerry does to you. doodler is in love. That said, if ACHING INKING FROM GEOC FTER SOME QUICK-TH our travel of one A, LIN RO UTH CA FRIEND LYNN IN SO n writes: Lyn p! sto after an unanticipated pit ng the alo bugs is back on the road l trai a ing hik muggle son was the On .

“A few weeks ago, our SC bia, anks Zoo here in Colum the s wa Saluda River near Riverb It e. tap mo perware covered in Ca took He riverbank he found a Tup ter. wa of l ful s wa re!” cache and GC1796D “No Trolls He your Travel e menagerie, the log, and trad the out dry to it home swept the had er riv the ly back in August, in Irmo Bug Dog Tag. Apparent k Par als Sho uda Sal nriver from cache many miles dow Zoo.” and it beached near our rnretu s wa Lynn told us she and ner ow its to he ing the cac n be our travel bug would soo on its way again! all Thanks to Lynn and o wh re the those geocachers out s bug our ve mo continue to s on ate upd us e giv and und aro their whereabouts!

A

found!

20 Bakersfield Magazine

Muddin’

By J. W. Burch, IV

for Good Reasons

E

pilepsy is a VERY unpredictable disorder, most regularly characterized by seizures. Although not all cases are permanent, many are. That is why the Epilepsy Society of Kern County, established in 1954, has been helping and supporting those with this disorder for 55 years.

“We’re not only focused on assisting those with epilepsy,” Doug Valdez, a vice president of the board at the Epilepsy Society of Kern County, said, “we also do preventative work as much as possible.”

Valdez has been involved with the Epilepsy Society for roughly 34 years; since he was a child. Valdez was diagnosed with epilepsy 39 years ago, after enduring a very

Doug Valdez

high fever when he was four. Eventually, Valdez started going to the support groups offered by the Epilepsy Society with his parents and has been involved ever since.

“I thought, ‘I’d like to be on the board one day,’ ” Valdez said. “After growing up and going to the support groups and seeing what people had, as well as seeing my parents being involved.”

The Epilepsy Society offers one on one counseling, as well as other specific assistance to those living with this unpredictable disorder. Currently, our epilepsy soci-

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Epilepsy Society of Kern County ety has over 300 support group members.

As is the case with any nonprofit organization, fund-raising and support from the community are crucial in helping “run the programs and keep them going.” The Epilepsy Society of Kern County does their fund-raising in numerous ways. Among those is the Surf and Turf, consisting of two days of spirited volleyball games, one day in the mud and the other on grass. Now, in its 17th year, the Surf and Turf is the biggest and most anticipated event put on by the Epilepsy Society. Last year’s Surf and Turf hosted 94 people for the mud event alone.

“I’m already getting calls from people wanting to send in their registration money,” Valdez said. “And the event isn’t until June.

The teams grow each year because there are more and more people signing up.”

The Epilepsy Society also holds an annual dinner, where dancing and silent auctions are held. Each year, the Society also holds what is called “Daddy’s Date Night” around Valentine’s Day, although there was not one held this year.

“With all that has been going on around here I just wasn’t able to make it happen this year,” Valdez explained. “But we’re going to try to make it happen next year.”

Of the preventative actions that the Epilepsy Society offers, one is named “Safe Hugs.” This program offers car seats to those without them or who cannot afford them. When a child’s car seat is not installed correctly, it puts them at risk of head injury in the event of an accident and epilepsy can be a result of that head injury. The Society also includes a stuffed animal with each car seat.

“The kids not only get a car seat, but something that they can play with,” Valdez added.

Anyone interested in finding out more information on the Epilepsy Society of Kern County can contact (661) 634-9810 or visit epilepsysocietykc.org. The 17th annual Surf and Turf will be held on June 20 and 21.

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8200 Stockdale Highway Ste. F3 Bakersfield, CA 661-834-7467 www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 21

Kern Facts

Protect your biggest investment.

A-List Winners

It’s not just a house.

It’s the place you and your family call home.

Allied Insurance. Feel independent.

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Awards season may be over, but we at Bakersfield Magazine aren’t ready to stop giving out prizes. Forget Oscar Swag Bags (and the long speeches that come)—we’ve got the real awards!

In our partnerships with local nonprofits and organizations, we were given tickets to some highly anticipated events, which we handed out to lucky A-List Members. Who wants a $2,500 designer watch anyway?

But before the band starts playing the cue to wrap up our speech, we wanted to get in a few thank-yous!

Aaron Salazar WON Symphony Tickets

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A

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Kelly Yoshikawa WON si a C no Night Tickets Go Red Luncheon WINNERS Paula Miller Annie Puskrich Symphony WINNERS Patrick Frase Karen Roberts Rick Gildez Jennifer Sessler Donna Hawkins Gleaners USO Foodie Basket Winner Rhonda Olson CSUB Casino Night WINNERS Rosemarie Delano Laurie Manny–Basket Winner CSUB Basketball WINNERS Suzanne Durazo CASA Ticket WINNERS Diane Simon Suzanne Carter

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What’s Hot! What’s Not? I

t’s time to leave those black sunglasses and bright red lipsticks behind. With the help of Bakersfield Magazine you can be in the “know” and keep up with the latest fashion trends and coolest new gadgets currently making their way around town.

We have done our homework and compiled a fun list of some of the must-haves for this spring season. go with attitude.

Crude

Black sunglasses

Refined

Accessorize your outfit with bright colored sunglasses!

Square neck line shirts or dresses

An off-the-shoulder or one-shoulder top can show a tanned and toned neck line

Traveling with more than one book

Access your favorite books with the Amazon Kindle wireless reading device

Closed-toed flats or heels

Show off that pedicure. Think strappy!

The brown and bright-red lip Make the switch to a more subtle look is a trend we have luckily left behind and neutral lip balm

POP

QUIZ! C

alling all the Bakersfield know-it-alls. You might think you know our city backwards and forwards but we’ve got a challenge for you.

Starting with this issue, we’ll be giving you all a bit of a pop quiz.

We might show you a picture and ask you to identify it, or we might ask you a question about Bakersfield we think you should know! But be on the lookout for these Pop Quizzes.

The winner will take home some sensational prizes.

If you are the first one to correctly identify where this picture was taken YOU WIN! Email your guess to Bakersfield Magazine at comments@bakersfieldmagazine.net and if you’re right you’ll win $30 in Russo’s Books gift certificates. Maybe you can use them to pick up a book on Bakersfield’s history! www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 23

©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/KARIMHESHAM

Kern Facts

Say what?

Nile in Our Backyard T

he fabulous fertility of the delta of the Nile has been set forth in both Biblical and profane history for thousands of years.

That fertility, due to the regenerative and recuperative power of the waters with which the land is periodically flooded, has for ages been regarded as the highest type of its kind the world has ever seen. Search well each valley and note the salient features; study the soil, the climate, the streams, the products, and when that search shall have been completed, what section will be found to most nearly resemble the famed valley of the Nile?

Without fear of contradic-

Remarkable similarities in the Nile and Kern rivers exist in climate, natural conditions, and abundant harvests. tion, the answer undoubtedly must be [...] the natural conditions found in the 5,000,000 acres within the boundaries of the county of Kern.

The valley of the Nile is practically rainless. Rainstorms come so infrequently that the natural precipitation cuts no figure at all in the calculations of the tillers of the soil. So with the Kern delta: the rainfall is less than in any other part of the State—a fact which, while to some might appear a drawback, nevertheless, as will be shown, has overwhelming compensations and advantages. Nature deals ever in compensations, and

as in Egypt she has provided the vast volume of the Nile to offset the lack of rainfall, so here in the Kern river and other streams are sources provided ample for the irrigation of the entire vast area.

In product, too, the resemblance between the Nile delta and that of the Kern is remarkable. In the one, cotton, sugar cane, wheat, corn, rice, melons, figs, apricots, pomegranates, grapes, peaches, oranges, sweet potatoes—all the long list of subtropical fruits and vegetables—thrive in profusion. In the other, exactly the same wide range of product and luxuriance of growth can be seen.

The semitropical profusion and rapidity of growth of delicate trees, shrubs, and flowers seen in the gardens of the Kern delta rival in every detail those features of the Nile Valley which have been made historical in song and prose, and which are today one of the chief delights of travelers in that region. From year’s end the soil of the Kern delta stands ready to yield crop after crop. No season of idleness is needed; no rest is demanded. The imprisoned fertility of ages stands ready day and night, without intermission, to give itself up to the use and profit of man, the touchstone which calls it forth being ever one thing: irrigation. Marvelous as are the accounts of the rapidity and extent of growth of grain, vegetable and fruit in the delta of the Nile they can all be duplicated in this California copy of the garden of the East.

There is no exception.

Source: Memorial and Biographical History of the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern, California - Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892

24 Bakersfield Magazine

People • Places • Events

Ensemble Barynya April 22

Ea s t K e r n

Date Book

June

May

April

February

January

By Donna McCrohan Rosenthal East Kern has its sights set high for the coming months and beyond. At the February 12 IWV Economic Outlook Conference and Business Expo in Ridgecrest, Ridgecrest Director of Public Services Jim McRae predicted a demand for grocery and other retail space between 2009 and 2012. Acting Commander Capt. Mark Storch, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, noted the need to fill 670 positions on the base and plans to break ground for 11 different construction projects in the near future – among them a new computer electronics laboratory.

Despite unsettling financial indicators on the horizon, the speakers identified hopeful signs that Ridgecrest may emerge as an economic oasis. Citing statistics for oil, food, wind, solar energy, and film production, Kern County 1st District Supervisor Jon McQuiston asserted that we should get ready for a challenge, but “there are great opportunities here, and the greatness of our county will prevail.”

The Ridgecrest Area Convention and Visitors Bureau represented the desert region in Ventura at the January 14-16 California Cultural and Heritage Tourism Council 5th Annual Symposium and, in partnership with Kern County and the California Deserts Visitors Association, in Los Angeles at the February 14-15 LA Times Travel and Adventure Show. The RACVB will continue to highlight local attractions at the April 16-18 AFCI (Association of Film Commissioners International) Locations Show in Santa Monica and the May 16-20 International Pow Wow, the travel industry’s premier international marketplace, in Miami, Florida.

The Indian Wells Valley Concert Association brings the Russian folk music and dance group Barynya to the Parker Performing Arts Center, Burroughs High School, Ridgecrest, on Wednesday, April 22 (iwvca.tripod.com; 760-375-5600). The Sierra Art Guild celebrates 32 years of showcasing artisans’ creative work with the Sierra Art Guild Show, Friday-Sunday, May 1-3, at the Carriage Inn, Ridgecrest (760-446-2060).

Kernville offers the 29th annual Sirretta Street Swap Meet on Saturday, May 2 (760-376-2629) and re-creates the past over the May 15-17 weekend, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., with History Days at the Kern River Valley Historical Museum: demonstrations of butter and bread made the old-fashioned way, square dancing, and other activities (760-376-6683). On Saturday, May 23, downtown Havilah, nine miles south of Lake Isabella, retraces its roots during Havilah Days: arts, crafts, food, live music, the museum, and a replica of the town’s original schoolhouse.

Saturday, June 13, the Kern River Preserve will host the 8th Annual California Amphibian & Reptile Celebration co-sponsored by Herp-Ecology, Reptile Rescue, and C.A.R.E.S., Audubon California’s Kern River Preserve and Kern River Valley Revitalization (kern.Audubon.org/herpdays.htm; 760-378-2531). The 22nd Annual Whitewater Wednesday Rafting Jamboree promises water fights, soggy sneakers, and action-packed rapids on the wild and scenic Kern River on June 17 (kernvalley.com; 760-376-2629).

Twilight time: The Chamber of Commerce has announced its 2009 Wine Walk schedule. Boutiques, antique shops, Red Rock Books, and other stores stay open late for the popular event that combines leisurely strolling through Olde Towne with wine tastings—on April 18, May 23, June 27, August 29, and September 26 (ridgecrestchamber.com; 760-375-8331).

Scintillating story of the month: The long-awaited third volume of China Lake’s history is at last on the shelves at the Maturango Museum and the U.S. Museum of Armament and Technology on the China Lake base. Published in hardcover and paperback, Elizabeth Babcock’s Magnificent Mavericks chronicles the years 1948-58 in a particularly fascinating saga and is selling well! Please read the full story on page 27.

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Kern Facts

? ?

W E L C O M E

F abulous BAKERSFIELD TEXAS TO

B

In celebration of our upcoming Pet Issue, and in an act some in the office are deeming masochistic, we’re planning on looking at some truly hideous beasts. But all in the pursuit of a good story...and the pleasure of crowning Bakersfield’s ugliest pet.

Okay, so there are varying degrees of ugly.

That’s why this contest is multi-faceted with cleverly created categories.

Is your pet Uh-ga-lee? Fugly (that’s freakin’ ugly)? Or So Ugly, It’s Almost Cute?

Super awesome prizes will be given out to the winner of each category—including the distinct honor of being featured in the next issue of Bakersfield Magazine and an opportunity to appear on T.V.* To enter, submit a photo of the pet in question along with your name and age, a short description of your pet (including its age), an address, daytime phone number, and any “fun facts” about your pet via email, before May 5, 2009 to:

eing the smart guy he was, Colonel Baker had to have known there would be others. In a time when towns were popping up all over the country, people naturally found themselves running out of names to dub their burgeoning homesteads.

(How many Springfields does a country really need?) So folks turned to the town’s creator, or sometimes just a prominent local figure, for rural nomenclature. Other “Bakers” were setting up camp elsewhere; we just happen to live in the best one.* With a grand population of 277 (as of 2007), one wonders how Bakersfield, Missouri was overlooked in the bid for Missouri’s state capital. They’ve got a bank; what other requirements does a town have to meet? But unless you want to deposit your money at Century Bank of the Ozarks or risk getting blown away in a tornado (this Bakersfield is 63 percent more likely to be hit by a tornado than any other), steer clear. Jefferson City must have won out for a reason.

Yum. The land of maple syrup also boasts a Bakersfield in addition to that stickysweet waffle topping (no accounting for you pancake lovers). It’s definitely the oldest

Colleen’s

comments@bakersfieldmagazine.net

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B

ak

BakersfieldMagazine

®

26 Bakersfield Magazine

Colleen McGauley & Ubu

FAVES

five most favorite things!

1

The feeling when I’ve got a fish on the line and I reel it in. I try my hardest not to scream in excitement!

2

To sit with family members or friends and laugh until we’re almost crying. How serious our lives are during these times…it’s one of the best stress relievers—the dual gifts of laughter and love!

3

The feeling when I’m at VBF church and I’ve just heard a powerful message, or watched a video clip that challenges me to be a better Christ follower.

4

ersfield M

*Complete details and rules: BakersfieldMagazine.net

5

The director of CASA of Kern County shares her

Be sure to enter “Ugly Pet” in the subject line.

Or, you can enter via regular mail by sending the above information to: Bakersfield Magazine 1601 New Stine Rd. #200, Bakersfield, CA 93309.

Bakersfield—chartered in 1791—but those age spots prove nothing: the population is a dismal 1,393. The town was renamed after a fellow named Joseph Baker (shocker) bought it from Luke Knowlton, AKA Knoulton. That aforementioned history tidbit is the most interesting thing we found about this “town” in Vermont.

When we think of Bakersfield, we don’t tend to think of tea and crumpets. But our British counterparts sure dig ‘em. It’s technically a suburb of Nottingham (think Sheriff of), in the county of Nottinghamshire (how clever), but this England-based Bakersfield actually has a few things in common with our city.

It’s roughly the same size (around 290,000) and there is an abundance of streets and/or neighborhoods ending with the suffix “-dale.”

There’s a Bakersfield in Texas, too, and 30 people call it home. That’s probably the most PR the town (we resisted referring to it as Podunk...oops) had since the oil boom of ‘29.

So if you’re adamant about living in a Bakersfield—make sure it’s in California. *Editor’s Note: While there’s just no accounting for taste, this is, unequivocally, a true statement.

5

To watch my dog run like the wind toward me at the dog park (“Good dog Ubu”)!

To hear about a wonderful success story from a CASA volunteer. It never fails to amaze me what a caring volunteer can mean to a child or youth.

People • Places • Events

Victoria’s

By Donna McCrohan Rosenthal

Magnificent Mavericks D

Time to jump start your wardrobe Capris, Bermudas, Tops, Skirts, & Dresses

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Victoria’s 665-8300

photo courtesy Elizabeth Babcock

uring the Korean War, China Lake conceived, made, tested, and shipped the first 6.5-Inch Antitank Aircraft Rocket (ATAR) to the battlefield in less than a month. It took considerably longer for the completed History of the Navy at China Lake California, Volume III, to reach the stands. Highly acclaimed author and editor Elizabeth Babcock had conducted extensive interviews and research, and finished the manuscript. Then came the red tape.

Magnificent Mavericks: Transition of the Naval Ordnance Test Station From Rocket Station to Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation Center, 1948-58, finally appeared in January 2009.

Babcock begins her saga with a facility opening in the desert, where hordes of caterpillars and butterflies occasionally interfered with equipment.

At first, President Eisenhower’s administration had a penny-wise approach to scientific study and an aversion to military participation in space exploration. But with the growing Communist threat and deepening Cold War, and under the leadership of technical director Dr. William B. McLean and deputy technical director Haskell G. Wilson starting in 1954, China Lake entered its golden age. As Dr. Pierre Saint-Amand recalls, “Hack saw to it that things got done, and Bill saw to it that there were lots of things to do.”

For instance, McLean had a concept for a “heat homing rocket.” It Elizabeth became the Sidewinder missile. One Babcock colorful legend holds that McLean built it in his garage. Another, more verifiable one, says his work so absorbed him that one evening he went home, ate dinner, puttered in the garage, then returned to his wife LaV to ask, “When are we going to eat?”

Magnificent Mavericks examines the amazing complexity of every aspect of the N.O.T.S. universe including the Pasadena Annex—professionally, politically, and socially; not only testing and creating weapons but also the delivery systems, the launchers, and the investigations into how to launch from underwater. And not only the R&D realm in fascinating detail with meticulous diagrams, but also relationships with other branches of the armed forces and the federal government. In so doing, it awakens profound nostalgia for a bygone world where innovation, imagination, solutions, and science had carte blanche—and no equal.

Magnificent Mavericks, published by the China Lake Museum Foundation, is available from the Maturango Museum (maturango.org; 760-375-6900) and China Lake Museum Store (chinalakemuseum.org; 760-939-3530) in hardcover and paperback.

Spring is Here!

(top) WWII Corsair fighter fires its devastating load of ATAR rockets over an Okinawan battlefield. www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 27

Kern Facts

35,000 Mart yr 2 6 The number of Grammy’s Bakersfield-based, nu-metal band Korn has won

PHOTO BY YA’AKOV

PHOTO BY BLAHEDO

Tons of recycled material Bakersfield has each year

The number of letters in the word that won the 2008 Kern County Spelling Bee

75

Average high temperature for Bakersfield in the spring

For inquiries or consultation appointment call or e-mail us at:

661.377.4357

info@axxisgroup.com w w w. a x x i s g r o u p . c o m

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Golf courses in Bakersfield

Sources: City of Bakersfield, Kern County Superintendent of Schools, Convention and Visitors’ Bureau

Did You Know?

In 1865, Mead and Clark Company began a stage service between Havilah and Visalia. source: Historic chronology of Kern County

28 Bakersfield Magazine

PHOTO BY FENNERS

12

The number of stories in Bakersfield’s tallest building(Stockdale Towers)

SkilledHands Hands Skilled

E

8minuteaWE

ight minutes goes by fast and that’s all the time he has. Any longer than that and the next person in line would start to get antsy. But that’s what gives Tom Zackery the biggest thrill; the few short minutes he has to study a person’s face, select the feature, and complete a caricature go by quick. So, Zackery—or Zak as he’s known in the art world—works fast.

The longtime local artist, recognized for his mural work, began his career in caricature by accident. Roughly 10 years ago, Zackery took his brother and his children to Magic Mountain and when they happened upon a booth of artists drawing the comical portraits, Zackery inquired about a position.

“I brought back examples the next week. The manager took one look, asked me if I’d ever done this before, and when I said I hadn’t, he asked, ‘When can you start?’ ” Within a few weeks, he was being requested by guests of the park. “I was doing more than the other four kids in the booth,” Zackery mused. “It was great but it was a lot of work. Caricatures tend to be really stretched, but I want to make mine really look like the person I’m drawing.”

For this 62-year-old illustrator, that could sometimes be a scary philosophy. “I had an elderly lady once sit down to have hers done.

She had more wrinkles than I’ve ever seen, but I didn’t draw half of them. Still, when she took a look at what I’d drawn she asked

why I had put so many wrinkles on her,” he explained, laughing.

“I consider what I do cartoon portraits but I think there is a difference between a cartoonist and an illustrator. And as a caricaturist, you have to learn to figure out what a person really looks like in seconds and you learn to adapt your style.”

His style has evolved throughout his career in art. Zackery was an illustrator in the Air Force during Vietnam, an art director for local news stations, a creative director at an advertising agency, and an industrial painting contractor for 15 years. All the while, drawing and art have been constants. “I was always drawing as a kid. But I had the desire to continue doing it.”

While the work he did at Magic Mountain was fun and profitable, it was not optimal for someone who lives in Bakersfield. “I was leaving the park at 11 p.m. to drive home. Sometimes I’d pull into my driveway and not remember driving home.”

After Magic Mountain, and a brief stint at Universal Studios, Zackery brought his talents to Bakersfield folks in dire need for a caricature of themselves at the Kern County Fair. In addition, he was hired for private parties, including birthdays, and was the “resident” caricaturist at Young Wooldridge office parties.

“The best part about doing this job is the communication that I get to have with people from all over the world,” he said, another story already brewing in his mind. This one involves drawing someone who Zackery described as already looking like a caricature of himself.

“An old cowboy sat down but wouldn’t smile. I casually joked that if he didn’t smile I’d only draw one tooth in his mouth. Well, this cowboy smiles. It turns out he only had three teeth anyways.

“There is the fear that the drawing won’t come out looking like the person, but seeing the response when someone loves theirs, and the laughter they have after seeing themselves in a comical way will keep me doing this as long as I can.”

Tom Zackery aka “ZAK”

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 29

30 Bakersfield Magazine

Nick Cherney, 34 Commercial Loan Officer Are you a Bakersfield Native?

No. I was born and raised in L.A. When I was about 12, I moved to Ridgecrest but I have been here in Bakersfield since ‘99.

Is there a beauty product that you absolutely can’t live without?

I’m not much of a product guy, but I do have to have my Fiji water. Not only is it for a good cause but it keeps me well hydrated, which in turn, helps my skin so I’ll have no need for products.

Do you think Bakersfield has a style?

I live in the downtown area, so there is a certain style I notice here. Men here follow that “T-shirt, tats, and hats” look. Not me, but, hey it seems to work for them!

Describe your personal style.

Eclectic! I’m all about vintage L.A, drawing on a conservative look. I love wearing solid colors but accent them with scarfs, vests, etc.

How long does it usually take you to get ready in the morning?

I’m pretty quick; doesn’t take me long at all. But I do love my long showers. So if we are going to include the shower, then I would have to say about 30 to 40 minutes.

Is there a celebrity you get your style from?

Maybe not someone in particular. But I like the style that the characters had in the movie Fight Club.

What are you wearing?

Black T-shirt from Calvin Klein; jeans are Lucky Brand. The jacket is Red Vintage Leather by Hill & Archer and the red scarf is GAP. The biker boots are by Bacco Bucci.

Does your style change when you are not at work?

Most definitely. At work I have to wear a suit and constricting tie— which is not me at all. If I’m doing the casual look, I stick with jeans and a T-shirt but with a vintage flare.

How do you personalize your business look?

It’s about the tie. The tie sets the whole momentum of the suit.

Fashion Tip: try the comfortable “ vintage look” What are your favorite places to shop in Bakersfield?

Any cool, vintage store in town.

What is your favorite item of clothing?

I love my jeans. But if there was one piece of clothing I had to pick from my closet, it would have to be my red leather jacket.

Just because it is so unique and irreplaceable.

What is the biggest fashion mistake you have made?

Wearing loud, bright shirts. And dressing like Robert Smith from The Cure in high school.

Are you a bargain hound?

Oh yes. It’s a good day when you walk in to a thrift shop and you find a good deal for a great, unique item.

What mistakes do you think women make when they dress?

It’s a fashion mistake when girls can’t just be casual. Especially when the occasion calls for it. It’s sad when you see a beautiful girl at a park or a BBQ wearing a prom dress and heels. www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 31

32 Bakersfield Magazine

!

CITIZEN KERN

logo courtesy KERO23

Personal Stats Name: Rusty Shoop Age: 61 Marital Status: Married to wife Diane for 32 years Birthplace: Dallas, Texas Title: KERO 23 Weatherman

How he got started: In the early ‘80s, Shoop jumped at the chance to work in weather at a local TV station in Eureka, Cal. where he says he physically “had to go to the National Weather Service to get the weather in order to report it.”

Shoop loved the outdoors and reporting the weather seemed the perfect job.

In 1984, he sent in an audition tape to be KERO 23’s weatherman, got it, and moved to Bakersfield.

meet

My favorite part of weather forecasting as a career is that it’s ever-changing.

His heroes: Locally, Shoop worked with KERO anchor Burleigh Smith, who he says taught him to be himself. “We had a great relationship, like father and son. He had a natural way about him that I tried to emulate.” Of course, Shoop also credits Dr. George Fischbeck, the well-known Los Angeles weatherman for KABC in the ‘70s and ‘80s, for inspiration. photo courtesy KERO23

photo courtesy Rusty Shoop

Career highlights: Working in the television studio has presented Rusty the opportunity to meet various local and national celebrities—like threetime World Heavyweight Champion, Muhammad Ali, who stopped by the studio to do an interview. Shoop took advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime photo op with “the Greatest.”

‘‘

Rusty Shoop

‘‘

His favorite part of the industry: “It’s ever-changing,” Shoop says, excitedly, of the weather and his career.

“And you’re trying to predict it; figuring out what comes next.” He loves getting to know Bakersfield—befriending folks like Buck Owens, and interacting with locals on a daily basis.

This local best-selling author isn’t afraid of a little rain.

What he’d still like to accomplish: His bestselling novel, Blood Harvest, was published to great reception—no small feat for an independent author. Still, after his well-publicized aneurysm two years ago, Shoop says there are still things to do. “God saved my life for a reason. It’s up to me to figure out what that reason is,” he chuckles.

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 33

Kern County, Meet 34 Bakersfield Magazine

your reporters! www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 35

T PAINTING BY ALBERT BIERSTADT

Henry Miller

Early Yokuts camp

Lake reeds were used to make clothing, baskets, and rope

36 Bakersfield Magazine

he first European to leave a written description of the San Joaquin Valley was Don Pedro Fages, commander of the Presidio at Monterrey. In 1772, during a search for deserters from the Spanish Missions who had fled into the interior of California, Fages entered the Valley from the south through the Cajon Pass. He traveled west on his way to San Luis Obispo and once in the Valley he spied Buena Vista Lake. He later visited a Yokuts village named Buena Vista (a “good sight”), located on the shore of Tulare Lake. The Buena Vista Lake derived its name from his written records.

Before construction of the Isabella Dam, the Kern River had, for thousands of years, been in the process of wearing away the hard granite mantle of the Sierra Mountains and depositing the resulting sediment into the southern portion of the San Joaquin Valley. This annual flow of soil eventually formed a broad natural dam across the southern end of the Valley. This natural dam is the northern boundary of the Buena Vista Basin. Its lowest elevation was roughly 268 feet above sea level. During excessively wet years, the Kern River runoff would fill Buena Vista and adjacent Kern Lake to a maximum of about 292 feet above sea level. The water level would be high enough to begin flowing northward into Buena Vista Slough and continue flowing 40 miles north finally discharging into the great Tulare Lake. At its maximum, the lake then covered up to 150 square miles in surface area.

The high water mark of about 300 feet above sea level was the natural shore line for many thousands of years and was the area in which early Native Americans built their villages.

The Yokuts occupied a large village named Tulamni located on the northwest shore. It was situated on what is today part

of the Coles Levee Ecosystem Preserve on Highway 119, about a mile from the Buena Vista Golf Course. Extensive archaeological excavation of this village over the years has revealed many burial grounds and cultural remains. During the Great Depression of the ‘30s, the

The Late, Great, Civil Works Administration organized a large excavation of this area which was supervised by the Smithsonian Institution and lasted about three months. The last large scale studies done at this site were in 1964 and ‘65, when test trenches were dug before the construction of the California Aqueduct could begin.

According to radiocarbon dating of fresh water clam shells found amid recovered resources from the 4-meter test units dug during the 1965 excavations, this lake shore was inhabited as far back as 8,000 years ago. Evidence shows the inhabitants of Buena Vista Lake found everything they needed for a good life on the shores. Their ancestors continued living there until the appearance of the Spanish explorers, after which the tribes gradually disappeared.

This shallow, dry lake, the size of which varied from 60 to 150 square miles, once teemed with fish, shellfish, turtles, and many species of waterfowl.

Herds of pronghorn antelope, elk, and deer were drawn to its shores. Buena Vista Lake held the key to life of the Tulamni Indians who lived on its banks.

The shoreline constantly changed as the Kern River fed the lake according to the amount of spring runoff from the high Sierra Mountains. This shoreline was covered by endless miles of tule reeds.

These slender bulrushes were of great value to the Yokut way of life. They were used in making clothing, baskets, rope,

and the weaving of sleeping mattresses and mats for awnings. The versatile plant was used in covering their spherical dwellings and dried tules fed their cooking fires. Their tule rafts were used for transportation, fishing, and hunting on the lake. The plant’s white roots, rich

three states and had their HH brand on over 1 million head of cattle.

In 1868, a pioneer of Bakersfield, James C. Crocker, convinced Miller to buy all the swamp land between Tulare and Buena Vista lakes to raise cattle on.

Eventually Miller and Lux, in partnership with Crocker, owned 80,000 acres of the tule-covered bog with a brilliant plan to reclaim it into some of the richest farm land in the state.

The slough meandered through 40 miles of tule forests which made it impassable in wet or dry years, but a solution of drying up the swamp was only a matter of money and engineering; Miller and Lux

Buena Vista Lake

The original Buena Vista Lake surface was about 150 square miles in size! had plenty of both. The plan was to dig a very large, 40-mile-long canal which connected Buena Vista and Tulare lakes.

This canal would carry all the excess Kern River runoff up into Tulare Lake.

This waterway would skirt the marsh land by being built along the foothills on the

A mural depicting the Yokuts’ relationship to Buena Vista.

PAINTING BY BEN NAFUS

in starch, were a nourishing addition to the lake dweller’s food supply.

As the Spanish came to inhabit western America, establishing missions along the Pacific coast, the lack of immunity to foreign diseases and excessive land acquisition from the new inhabitants, diminished the Yokuts tribes and they left their homes along the western Buena Vista shores; relinquishing their guardianship of Lake Buena Vista.

Early pioneers Elisha Stevens (in 1844) and Tommy Fitzgerald (in 1850) entered Buena Vista Lake from Tulare Lake and trapped beaver and muskrat. Around 1859, Solomon Fried and Bill Dougherty raised hogs on the tule-lined shores of Kern and Buena Vista. The hogs ran wild in the tule forests, fattening up on the starch-rich tule roots. The ranchers, on horseback, used hound dogs to round up their hogs at slaughter time.

In 1858, Henry Miller and Charles Lux became partners in the butchering business in San Francisco, where they realized there was more money in beef than in digging for gold. They were also smart enough to cut out the middle man by raising their own cattle. They reinvested everything into buying more land to raise more cattle. Henry Miller’s golden rule was simply, “buy land and never sell it.”

This credo made Miller and Lux the Cattle Kings of America. Eventually they owned or leased more than 15 million acres in

westward side. The swamp land would dry up enabling crews to clear and level the old tule beds into fertile farm land.

The partners envisioned the canal not only as a means to reclaim the 40 miles of Buena Vista slough but they planned to make the waterway large enough to accommodate cargo ships and in time, connect this canal into waterways all the way to the port of Stockton. This was 10 years before a railroad came to the area and the transport of local crops, livestock, minerals, and merchandise to the Stockton Port was expensive by wagon freight.

After the Southern Pacific Railroad finished their line over the Tehachapi Pass in 1876, the many men who had built it were without a job. Henry Miller hired 250 of these laborers at $30 a month, also carpenters, blacksmiths, and foremen at $45 to $60 an hour, good wages considering Miller and Lux furnished their food and lodging. Immediately, this labor force began constructing The Kern Valley Water Company Canal. This waterway was 25 miles long, 250 feet wide, and 15 feet deep. Specially built, 1-ton Fresno Scrapers were pulled by 50-horse teams during the construction. This lake and canal system was designed to irrigate the entire 250,000 acres of Miller and Lux alfalfa and grain crops throughout their >>

Part I

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 37

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reclaimed swamp land; the lake acting as a reservoir to store the excess water for use during times of drought. The crops raised were used as feed for the thousands of cattle, hogs, and sheep owned by the Miller and Lux Corporation, with the excess being sold to other ranchers.

The canal was finished in 1877, which proved to be the worst drought year of that century. No water flowed down the Kern River to fill Buena Vista Lake or the new Kern Valley Water Companies’ massive canal project. What little water came out of Kern Canyon was detoured into the Kern Land Company’s system of canals before it could ever reach the Buena Vista Lake. This led directly to the landmark legal battle over water rights of Miller and Lux versus Haggin and Tevis which lasted for eight years.

After the long legal battle over water rights, the land barons settled their dispute between themselves personally by sharing the Kern River water equally. In 1887, the court battle ended and Charles Lux passed away. Henry Miller then bought out the Lux heirs and became owner of the largest land and cattle enterprise, in history, to have a sole owner.

Haggin and Tevis of the Kern Land Company and Henry Miller then entered into a legal agreement to equally share the costs of building the entire Buena Vista Lake Reservoir System, which Miller had been building for years. The complex to be built would increase the capacity of Buena Vista Lake for irrigation storage and dry up Kern Lake to reclaim 18 square miles of fertile lake bed.

The construction would follow the engineering plans drafted in October, 1885, by Walter James and F.P. McCray which included: a six-mile-long levee on the east side, separating Kern Lake from Buena Vista Lake; about six miles of levees on the north lake side to direct the river’s flow into the lake; and canals; head-gates; flow gaging stations; weirs; levees; bridges; and dredging necessary to complete the reservoir-irrigation complex. The costs of these improvements were shared equally between the two land giants by legal contract and this pact stipulated these improvements would be completed within a specified time limit.

The following years were filled with active construction by the old lake’s new custodians.

Be on the lookout for Part II of this great story in the next issue. v

R I S K T A K E R S

Despite a baby on the way and an uncertain paycheck, it was their time to “go for it.”

leap of

Faith

By Tracie Grimes

Toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe; there may be different

ways to say the name of this juicy vegetable, but there’s only one way to recognize a perfect piece of produce. And Randy Spoelstra knows the secret.

“Nobody can pick out perfect produce like Randy,” smiles his wife, Michelle, patting Randy’s knee lovingly.

It was Randy’s instinct for knowing how to choose top-of-theline produce, a skill honed through his background in farming, coupled with Michelle’s business sense that lead the pair into a world not many people would even have considered. And for the past ten years the Spoelstras have been reaping rewards from the seeds they took a chance on sowing.

Alpha Wholesale Produce began operations in July 1999, providing central valley restaurants, schools, prisons, etc., with high-quality produce, dairy, and dessert products.

“I’m kinda like a ‘personal shopper’ for our clients,” Randy explains. “I find out what they need, look for it, make sure I get the best out there, and deliver it right away.”

A niche most personal shoppers wouldn’t even think about, but considering that sales grew by more than 100 percent in just the first year, one that needed to be filled. And all thanks to an “ah-ha” moment that established the roots for Alpha Wholesale Produce.

“You know, it’s a really great story how we got into this business,” says Michelle excitedly. “We were in Santa Barbara visiting one of our dear friends, Julian Nafal, who’s very eccentric, by the way, and talking about what we were going to do with our life. We knew whatever business we were going to go into would have

Randy and Michelle Spoelstra, Alpha Wholesale Produce Owners

to be in Bakersfield because Randy’s oldest daughter was in high school and we didn’t want to move her; we just weren’t sure what direction we were going to go. All of the sudden Julian jumps up, points at me, and says ‘business!’ then points at Randy and says ‘farmer!’ claps his hands and says ‘produce sales!’

“Randy and I looked at each other and thought ‘Julian just might have something here.’ We started praying about it. I mean I did have the contacts through my days in radio advertising and Randy did have a strong background in farming—and could pick out a great head of lettuce like nobody’s business. So we decided to just go for it.” But “going for it” meant taking a pretty big risk.

“Starting the wholesale produce business meant that neither one of us would have a ‘steady’ job with income we knew would be there to pay the bills,” Randy points out.

“Plus, I was pregnant with our oldest daughter, Grace [now eight],” Michelle continues. “So yes, it was a big leap of faith, but we decided >>

Selecting only cream of the crop produce and delivering it on time proved to be the winning formula

PHOTO BY RANDALL PHOTOGRAPHY

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 39

Risktakers­

“Shelf-life is what it’s all about in our business.

I’ve got to get it as soon as it comes out of the fields and get it right to the client.” —Randy Spoelstra excited and turned us down saying that we had to be in business for at least two years before they could loan us money,” Michelle recalls.

“We ended up having to finance ourselves by maxing out our credit cards,” Randy says.

“Talk about taking a risk!” Michelle chuckles.

“Having kids [their second child, Gabrielle, was born in 2003] made Randy and me want to have more, to be able to offer more; give more to our children. We want Grace and Gabby to have a place. I mean, if it were just Randy and me we could be happy living in a hut in Hawaii.

But our life is here; our life is our family, our business, and it’s ours.

Nothing is more satisfying than creating something that’s yours. You have to think, what is my goal in life? What do I want to do? Fear of failure shouldn’t stop you. If you fail, oh well—at least you tried. And you can always pick yourself up and try something else.”

And though building Alpha Wholesale was something they were committed to and wanted to do, Randy still has moments of anxiety.

“The worst part is the fact that you have all the responsibility for everyone else’s lives. We have to be successful because I don’t want our employees to lose their jobs.”

Michelle nods emphatically. “That’s what I like best about this place—everybody really cares. And Randy and I feel so blessed that

40 Bakersfield Magazine

Grace & Gabby Spoelstra drive all over town in their melon-mobile.

PHOTO BY RANDALL PHOTOGRAPHY

that we’d rely on faith and follow this vision. We both had a core feeling that this would work.”

The Spoelstra home was shortly turned into “command central,” complete with a large Gibbs truck parked in front (“We had some very understanding neighbors,” Michelle adds), and Michelle working to build the Alpha Wholesale clientèle.

“I have to admit that I didn’t hesitate to use my condition to make a sale,” Michelle laughs. “I had no reservations in saying things like ‘if you don’t buy from us, we’re not going to be able to feed this baby.’ ” And while Michelle (and Grace) was out pounding the pavement to build a customer base, Randy was busy laying the groundwork for the operations of the fledgling business.

“Randy would get up around 10 p.m., eat, get dressed, then drive down to L.A. so he could be there as soon as the trucks rolled into the market,” Michelle begins.

“I wanted to get there first thing so I could get the best produce,” Randy interjects.

“Then he’d drive back, get into town around 6 a.m., make the deliveries, then come home around 1 p.m. and help me do the pricing and invoices. He got maybe four hours of sleep a night and we hardly ever saw each other. That’s another big risk we took to start this business,” Michelle says.

After two years of this grueling schedule, Alpha Wholesale Produce had grown enough so Randy didn’t have to make the daily trek to L.A. And what started out as a two-person business out of a living room quickly sprouted into a thriving 21-employee company with offices in the former Dole warehouse off of Snow Road.

Looking back at what it was like during that start-up period, Michelle and Randy agree that God was definitely on their side.

Money wasn’t exactly rolling in and funding the company in the beginning was a bit tricky.

“When we first talked to a local banker about a small business loan, she was really excited. But the ‘powers that be’ weren’t quite as

we have wonderful employees that take ownership in our company so when we grow, we want everyone to benefit.”

“It’s important that they’re [Alpha Wholesale employees] happy because relationships are what make a company successful,” Randy adds.

“It’s crucial that we have good relationships with the farming vendors,” Randy explains, “because our strong relationship means they know the kind of quality I’m looking for. I’m not going to give our customers sub-standard product.

“We are very service-oriented. As our client’s ‘personal shopper,’ I’ve learned what they need, and I get it to them quickly.”

And because Alpha Wholesale will sell no tomato after its time, the clock is always ticking.

“Our products are perishable so shelf-life is what it’s all about in our business. I’ve got to get it as soon as it comes out of the fields and then get it right to the client,” Randy says.

But customer service doesn’t end when a delivery is made, Michelle is quick to point out.

“We train our clients, educating them on how important rotation is,” she says.

“We’ll even do the rotation ourselves,” Randy notes. “Our drivers will pull food off the rack as they are putting the fresh food on the shelf.”

It’s this dedication to customer service Michelle feels gives Alpha Wholesale a real edge in this challenging economy.

“I think we’re here to celebrate our tenth year in business this July— and our best year ever, by the way—because we’ve learned so much along the way; how to take care of our customers, and our employees.

And we’re not afraid to ask for help when we feel like we’re in unknown territory.”

“We recognize that we’re not good at everything,” Randy continues, “and we’re not afraid to ask for ideas from friends so we can take it to the next level.”

And though taking it to the next level may seem a Herculean task in this day and age, the Spoelstras aren’t backing down.“It’s been so exciting and our life has been so great!” Michelle says, eyes glowing with exhilaration. “And women will appreciate this, if I can nurse a baby with one hand while making phone calls with the other, and build a company while my baby sleeps in my desk drawer, what’s a little downturn in the economy?” v

W

Married & Marvelous

W

A cozy couch, a “welcome home” hug from your spouse, and restful evening await when the clock chimes five. No more phone calls, meetings, or putting up with co-workers, but...

Story inspired by Megan Raymond

hat if a co-worker followed you home, insisted you cook dinner that night, made a face when you mentioned your mother coming to visit, or told you to fix the leaky drain?

You might say that’s a pretty strange situation—something you feel like you’ve seen on a cheesy ‘90s sketch comedy show—but believe it or not, it happens. Only it’s not Bob from accounting sitting next to you on the drive home, it’s your wife or husband.

“It’s not for everyone,” said Megan Raymond, laughing. She’s speaking, of course, of working with a spouse, not marriage in general (though we’ve all felt that way from time to time).

Megan has been working with husband Randy Raymond, Jr. at Raymond’s Trophies for over 10 years.

“We met as freshman in high school,” Megan explained.

“She was after me,” Randy added, laughing.

Megan rolled her eyes and smiled. “Sure I was.”

Megan and Randy Raymond, Jr. celebrate living and working together for over 10 years!

However the couple soon found they couldn’t spend any time apart and married shortly after high school.

In 1994, Randy, Jr. began working for his parents, Randy, Sr. and Sheri Raymond, who had just purchased a trophy shop from a longtime neighbor ready to retire. That’s what makes the Raymond’s story so different. Under one roof, they’ve got two married couples running the show.

“I was a homicide detective for the Sheriff’s Department,” Randy Raymond, Sr. explained. “My job was always separate from my family. I worked with dead bodies and bad guys. I would come home, dinner would be ready, and I could see my kids. It was awesome.”

But after he tired of getting shot at, Randy, Sr. was ready to have a less dangerous career (Editor’s Note: Working with your wife can sometimes be more dangerous).

“I love working together.

Having her with me [at work] is cool because we created a happy business. We live, eat, sleep, ride to work, work, and ride home from work together.

You have to have a strong relationship to do that,” Randy, Sr. added. “But you also have to separate work and home.”

“He’s better at it than I am,” Sheri said, laughing. “My whole life was taking care of the kids and home, cooking, and paying bills. When we started working together, he started paying bills and making some of the day to day decisions I was used to making alone. That was the biggest adjustment for me.”

But both Sheri and Randy, Sr. agree that it was easier for them to adjust because they already had an established relationship. >> ring photo ©istockphoto.com/michaelsvoboda

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 41

Married & Marvelous “I would think it would be harder if you were just married. I don’t think you know each other as well after 2 years as you would after 35 years of marriage,” Randy, Sr. mused. Incidentally, Sheri and Randy, Sr. are in year 36.

“It’s challenging sometimes. I think with my heart and he thinks with his head. But that makes a great combo. We can bounce ideas off each other,” Sheri mentioned.

But what’s the best part for them?

“You get to see each other every day. If you love somebody enough to stay married to them and want to be with them, you want to see them all the time, so why not work with them?” Randy, Sr. said.

That’s definitely how Megan feels.

She began working with hubby Randy, Jr. and family full time in ‘97, but had worked during busy times years prior.

Randy, Sr., Sheri, Megan, and Randy, Jr. agree that fun definitely belongs in a relationship.

There’s really no ‘cool down’ period after an argument or fight. You see each other all the time. You can’t escape to work for a few hours and realize you were being silly,” Randy, Jr. said. “You have to be the type of person that doesn’t carry grudges.”

“You need to be able to tell them everything—the good and the bad—and they need to be able to take it,” Megan added, chuckling. “That’s true of marriage and a business partnership. A lot of people might

“We don’t get to come home from work and ask, ‘What did you do today?’ We already know.”

—Randy Raymond, Jr.

Randy, Sr. and Sheri worry about different things at the office—but it works.

For Randy, Jr. there is one downside to working with each other: “We don’t get to come home from work and ask, ‘What did you do today?’ and hear about our spouse’s day to connect. We already know.”

On more than one occasion, Megan has heard incredulous responses when she says she works with her husband.

“They always say ‘Oh, I could never work with my spouse.’ But I think people underestimate themselves. You just have to think different.”

That’s not to say that their situation isn’t unique and that both Randy, Jr. and Megan think it takes a special kind of person to be able to successfully work with their wife or husband.

“You have to have a unique relationship.

42 Bakersfield Magazine

not have a strong enough relationship— based in friendship—to work together.”

“We might not do as much as the magazine’s Sizzlin’ Singles do,” Randy, Jr. joked, “but we love to spend time together and we’ll do stuff separate from each other, too.”

But what makes it work for one couple

might not be the same for another.

For 36 years, Bill and Crilline Riel have worked together at Knight’s Jewelers.

Though the store opened in 1948, Crilline was tending to the home and family for the years following the couple’s marriage 56 years ago.

“When Bill needed help, I came in a couple mornings a week for the first three months. Then it was six days a week for 36 years,” Crilline said, laughing.

“It was really easy,” Bill said of working with his wife at the beginning. “The only hard part was initially figuring out how to keep work and home separate. We decided on a signal. We would hold our hands up in a “T” shape to signal if we started talking about work.”

So it works for them. But how?

“Well it was gradual. We didn’t jump into it. We were friends and partners before we started working together,” Bill explained.

“You need to know what’s going on in the other one’s day,” Crilline added. “What type of day they’re having.”

“Especially because you’re with each other 48 hours a day,” Bill said. “I know

Bill and Crilline Riel have been married for 56 years and have worked together (peacefully) for 36!

“ I think it’s important for both parties to still have a passion for what they’re doing.”

Don and Suzie Noble stress the importance of keeping work life and home life separate (and... make sure they leave the hammers at the store).

that’s not possible. But it’s a special thing to be able to work together.”

“Nine people out of ten will say ‘I could never work with my husband,’ but we don’t even think about it anymore,” Crilline smiled.

“It’s just the way we live.”

“I guess it must be something in the genes,” explained Don Noble, chuckling.

Noble sits with his wife, Suzie, in the offices of Stewart Electric—the company they own together. But Suzie isn’t just in for a visit; her office is across the hall from Don’s.

“We both grew up in Michigan,” Suzie

In every type of relationship, you sometimes have to swallow your pride.

began, “in the same neighborhood. Don was friends with my brother. We always went out together, but with different people.”

The couple wed in 1971. “When we first came to California, Don said we’d stay here for 3 years. That was 37 years ago,” Suzie admitted, laughing.

Don and Suzie had been married for 18 years before they bought Stewart Electric from the former owners. Don knew the trade since he worked for Kern Electric for 13 years, prior to the purchase. But Suzie didn’t know much about the field.

“That was the biggest challenge early on,” Don added. “Suzie was learning the company and we were still raising kids.”

Still, the couple prevailed and seem to have a good idea why their marriage has continued to thrive while working together in a challenging business.

“We had been married for a long time before we started working together. We were more mature. You have to like and love the person and know what they’re thinking just by looking at them,” Don continued.

“But for me the most important thing that’s helped us make it is that I can see what he goes through,” Suzie added.

“Running a business is not just Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. I appreciate what he goes through. Jobs are like another marriage. It’s important to see that in each other.”

But Suzie didn’t see that early on.

“We were about to head out to lunch one day and a customer came in. Well, of course, Don goes over and begins helping them. I stood there upset. I thought, ‘He’s dumping me for a customer!’ and then I knew I had to swallow my pride and understand what he’s going through.”

Both agree that another big key is to re-

—Donna Corum Bakersfield Magazine Publisher

alize that business doesn’t belong at home.

“We leave it at the office,” Don said.

“Or we address a problem before we head home.”

Finally, Don looked over at Suzie and smiled. “If you can do it, it’s great. You only have so many years—you might as well spend them together.”

Even Bakersfield Magazine can attest to that! Publishers Les and Donna Corum have been working together for 38 years!

A decade into their marriage, and living in Washington, D.C., 27-year-old Donna opened an advertising agency and Les

Working together for 38 years has only made the Corum’s marriage stronger.

began working with her part-time. Soon, as the agency grew, Les was needed fulltime. The Corum’s passion for their work is what keeps their marriage above the clouds and what kept it going strong, even after they moved back to Bakersfield and started the city magazine in 1983.

“I think it’s important for both parties to still have a passion for what they’re doing,” Donna added. “If you don’t have that passion, it will get very boring, very quickly. Because if you do have that passion, it will continue at night, after work, where you can help each other recharge.”

In other words, Bakersfield Magazine couldn’t agree more with the outlook these fun couples—who work together and play together—have about life. v

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 43

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Vintage Dream Homes

Not just this old house...

n

it’s romantic

Jaymie Brauer and Brian Hemphill suffered a case of the “not its” before discovering their vintage dream home.

ot everyone digs new. There are a good many people who grab their checkbooks when they hear the word “vintage.” We’re not talking about the so-called vintage jeans you pay extra for; it could be furniture or a car. But if it’s a home, that’s where it truly pays to find an original. Believe it or not, there are still places in Bakersfield where the classic look is alive, well, and treasured; trust us, these aren’t reproductions.

In the quaint and historic Oleander area, homes are modest but gorgeous and homeowners seem to share a common trait: they’re romantics.

“There is such a unique quality to this house,” Jaymie Brauer began, standing happily in the kitchen of the two-story Federal-style home she shares with husband Brian Hemphill. “We both appreciate good craftsmanship.”

But this couple came to own their vintage dream home through a series of what Brian explained as the “not its.”

“We looked at a lot of different places. And Jaymie would just say

This gorgeous two-story Federal-style home is just one of the charming abodes in the Oleander area.

‘No, no, that’s not it.’”

“Finally we drove by this house and I said, ‘That’s it! I want it!’”

Jaymie added. “It looks like a home you’d find in New England. There’s something substantial to it. I knew in my gut that this was the house.”

“I said we at least had to see the inside first,” Brian added, chuckling.

But he was pleasantly surprised to find that the house resonated for him, too.

“This house had a connection to more than just a staple gun.”

It had a history; it had a past. The home, built between 1938 and 1941, withstood a tumultuous time in our nation and barely even budged during the 1952 Bakersfield earthquake that brought other buildings to the ground.

“You have to know when you’re buying older, you’re buying into a greater amount of maintenance, but it’s worth it,” Brian mused. “[They’re] a limited good,” he >>

dream

dhhomes

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 45

Vintage Dream Homes

California Adobe-style homes give character to older neighborhoods.

It’s all about

DETAILS

46 Bakersfield Magazine

says of the homes in the older Bakersfield neighborhoods.

“You’re not picking one of a handful of designs. Every house is different.

They’re almost humble,” Jaymie added.

“We realize some people don’t want to do the work that older homes require.”

It’s true, taking care of a home that’s older than your grandmother is often a labor of love for owners, but who wouldn’t love knowing you’re living in a house that was originally built by noted architect (and later, designer of U.S. Embassies abroad) Ernest J. Cump for Dr. Joseph Smith, the founder of San Joaquin Community Hospital. Brian and Jaymie love it.

Of course, the couple discovered a number of treasures; features built into the home that haven’t devalued, even in their antiquated and, let’s face it, kind of romantic design. One of these features was found under the carpet in the dining room: a buzzer that was used to call the maid quarters during formal dinners with the simple touch of a thick-heeled Mary Jane.

“All the formal rooms are downstairs and the bedrooms upstairs, so it’s like the White House,” Brian noted, though that’s not the only special thing about this house: it’s built in a neighborhood that appreciates character.

“There’s such a connection to your neighbors. You have that similar appreciation,” Jaymie said.

And with that appreciation comes work. As with any house built before 1940, some features will stand the test of time and some will need to be updated or repaired. But Concetta Argentino worked hard to make sure she didn’t compromise the integrity of her 1935built, California adobe home. Not only

Art Lindsay and Concetta Argentino love their historic home.

What better way to decorate a vintage home than with antiques?

The warm and cozy atmosphere makes it easy to relax.

Built sideways on the lot, this Monterey Colonial has southern style!

Jackie and Dan Flesher in their dream home.

Renovations can enhance the style of a classic home.

The Flesher’s home boasts a cozy double-porch!

did she choose wallpaper and colors that would complement the structure of the home, when the roof had to be redone in 2001, she chose old, handmade Spanish tiles that mirrored the ones being removed. It was important for this school teacher and Pumpkin Center native.

However, amidst the earthy quality of the home and the ‘30s-inspired décor, one feature sticks out more than others—and it sticks out in a big way. The outside walls in this home are 18 inches thick while the inside walls come in at 12.

“I guess you can say it’s environmentally friendly,” Concetta explained, a smile on her face. Before the days of going green, the thick adobe walls were notorious for keeping this house cool in the summer and warm in the winter without high energy bills.

But this place is unique for a number of reasons, right down to the floor.

“The flooring is all random wood,” Concetta explained, indicating the different sizes in hardwood the living room floor boasts. And another thing: workmanship is displayed in the wooden pegs holding the floor together. Now that’s something you won’t find in other houses.

What’s abundantly clear on first glance is the amount of storage space this home has. This house was built to be somebody’s functional dream home.

Simply put, “There’s a grounded quality to the house,” said Art Lindsay, Concetta’s husband. “There is something about the house that you can’t find. The construction style—you just can’t buy it anymore.”

For instance, inside a small cubby in the utility room is a boot-polishing stand.

These are the types of features that remind us all of a simpler era. “It represents a suspension in time,” Lindsay concluded.

That suspension is just what Jackie Flesher loves about her Monterey Colonial dream home, originally built in 1938 for local pioneer Albert S. Goode and his family.

Goode was the owner of the Peacock Dairy. He was, at one time, listed as the owner of the world’s largest milk run since he supplied the milk that was served by the Sante Fe Railroad between San Francisco and Chicago.

“In the 71 years the house has stood, we’re only the fourth owners,” Jackie said of she and husband Dan. One instantly notices the double porch—a very southern architectural

Ornate staircases are common in older homes.

feature. And five years ago, when Jackie and Dan were looking for their home, they stumbled upon this colonial. They were looking for something more specific than new builders could offer, something with more character. And if there’s anything we know about the Oleander area, it’s that the homes have character.

“The house looks like it came right out of New Orleans,” Jackie explained. And while it isn’t as dated as the antebellum mansions of the south, this home has history of it’s own.

“It’s amazing to think that this house was standing during the depression,” Jackie continued. “I always wonder where [the Goode’s] were sitting when they listened to reports about World War II on the radio.”

But there was some work to put into the house; Jackie knew that going in. >>

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 47

Vintage Dream Homes “There’s 3,300 square feet. But the bones of the home are so strong—so I tried to keep in mind the era of the house when we remodeled.”

That meant keeping the architecture untouched and reveling in the finished basement, a front parlor, formal dining room, and a butler’s pantry.

For Jackie, the wow factor was the charm of the home. The lazy hanging trees surrounding the home are over 150 feet high

Jackie chose to decorate with antiques from the time period her home was built.

48 Bakersfield Magazine

and instantly remind one of drinking iced tea on a sun porch, which Jackie says she does a lot.

“We own a custom home that no one else has, with history and charm, and didn’t have to spend a million dollars.”

These types of homes can be found tucked in the older, quaint neighborhoods of Bakersfield.

The external architecture is easily admired on the corner of B and 20th streets, where the Jameson House sits. Though not currently registered as a historical landmark, the home has a very strong tie to the heart of Bakersfield: it was built for Colonel Thomas Baker’s daughter, Charlotte, in 1910. She married John M. (Jack) Jameson, who owned the New Southern Hotel, on October 15, 1891. The upstairs design was a sign of the times; built with separate master and mistress bedrooms, a nanny’s room, a summer bedroom, and a sitting room. Though internal features have since been changed as the home switched owners, the home remains a link to our past; the original hitching posts were never removed from the property.

Bakersfield can get another wiff of that “suspension in time” without having to go around knocking on the doors of private home owners. The Barlow House, built in 1909 and the current home to the Guild House, is a registered historical landmark.

Charles Barlow was a prominent geologist and this two-story American Craftsman-style home located at 1905 18th Street, which he resided in with his family has been kept in pristine condition. Only the finest refurbishments have taken place throughout the years—but all with the goal of maintaining the original magnificence the house offers. The polished mahogany mantelpieces are worth a peek alone. The dining room even boasts a signed Tiffany carnival glass chandelier and wall sconces. This 100-year-old home is a treasure.

There are countless other historical homes in Bakersfield with stories as rich as the soil they’re built on. Thankfully, we’re a city that loves history; a city that puts value in vintage.

dh

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50 Bakersfield Magazine

Green

How Bakersfield Goes

By Charlie Durgin

Solar panels can help save the earth while saving you some green.

Ways to go green while keeping all of yours...

it’s Smarter

Caetano and Sherri Montano appreciate the low energy bills at their new home.

alk about your “no-brainer.”

Bakersfield and energy are synonymous. Whether you are having lunch at the Bistro and catch a glimpse of a pumping unit producing oil on California Avenue, or driving along the Bluffs taking in a view of one of the most prolific oil fields in the country, you are never far from the business of cuttingedge energy recovery and creation.

How close are we to the business of energy conservation, though?

With its abundance of sunlight and favorable weather, and its respect and knowledge of the hard work and effort that goes into pulling energy from the earth, Bakersfield is fertile ground for folks who wish to conserve it.

The following citizens are doing their part, in different ways, to reduce and reuse. And it isn’t as hard as you think. Being green, conserving, and reducing waste are more than buzzwords. They are components of a lifestyle that saves money and is considerate of the finite nature of our energy resources.

Oh yeah.

They also save a lot of money.

Your money.

Take a look at the following stories

and learn how easy it is to make the green lifestyle work in Bakersfield.

Caetano and Sherri Montano of Bakersfield were comfortable in their 1,100-square foot home. The tidy, well-maintained East Bakersfield home was well on its way to being paid off when Mrs. Montano decided that she had to have more square footage for their son and younger cousin who lived with them.

She found an attractive new home nestled in the foothills, and its spacious floor plan tipped the scales at nearly double her old home. It was love at first walk-through.

Mr. Montano balked at the prospect of doubling his cooling and heating bills by doubling the square footage.

While he conceded that the need for more space was there, he worried the family’s finances would be stretched thin by the upkeep in addition to the larger mortgage.

But Mrs. Montano had a secret weapon in the argument. She was going to save his green by buying green. A different kind of green. >>

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dhhomes

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 51

How Bakersfield Goes Green

©istockphoto.com/mathieukor

The home she’d fallen in love with was built in 2007 and the builders paid great attention to available green design methods.

The most prominent being the solar panels affixed to one side of the roof. The solar panels generate electricity. So much that the electrical bill is around $4 a month.

In 2007, the Montano Family paid PG & E bills of $250, $237, and $247, for the months of June, July, and August respectively.

The bill in their new house for the same peak Summer months? $44, $25, and $23. That’s for gas and electricity.

While the solar panels actually generate a lot of electricity,

PG & E recommends using fluorescent, not incandescent, bulbs.

52 Bakersfield Magazine

many of the house’s other green features reduce the need for it.

All of the windows are double pane, with a special coating that reflects heat away from the interior of the house. Mrs. Montano later installed solar screens that prevent UV rays from even reaching the windows. It keeps fabric curtains and furniture from fading and oxidizing in the intense summer sun. These factors combine to reduce the amount of time the Montanos run their air conditioning in the summer.

All of the house’s light fixtures are fluorescent, which according to PG & E’s website, consume much less energy and last longer than incandescent bulbs.

If you didn’t buy a house in the last couple of years that was outfitted with the latest in green technology, don’t worry! There are still ways to reduce your power bill without breaking the bank or doing a complete solar retrofit and replacing all of the windows.

Remember when your dad would say “Close the doors, I’m not paying to heat the backyard!”? Turns out he was right.

Many of the energy saving tips on PG & E’s website have to do with making sure you aren’t living in a leaky house. For about $3 a roll at any home improvement store, you can buy foam weatherstripping tape. Applying this to leaky windows and door frames will keep your pennies, nickels, and dimes from slipping out into the great outdoors. It also makes sense to make sure your ducts are not leaking hot or cold air into your attic or crawlspace. Using mastic to seal leaks, and wrapping ducts in insulation will prevent your air conditioning unit and central heating unit from working too hard and sucking down more energy than is necessary.

One single leaky hot water faucet can waste 212 gallons of water

When you want information about the local Real Estate market, you can turn to the source that is backed by more than 80 years of success in Kern County: Local residents happily utilize the recycling program offered through BARC.

a month. And since the water was heated in your water heater, you are also wasting the energy that it took to heat it. Plumbers tape or a twist of the wrench is often all it takes to put an end to the dripping.

While you are saving water by tightening or replacing worn fixtures, why not put a low flow shower head in the bathroom? At the showerheadstore.com, you’ll find new shower heads that don’t exceed the maximum rate of 2.5 gallons per minute. You can find shower heads that run lower, and that come equipped with a $35 thermostat that causes the shower head to pause when the appropriate bathing temperature is reached, and keeping you from running hot water down the drain while waiting for it to warm up.

Again, this saves water and gas or electricity because it reduces the amount of heated water used.

Going green isn’t just about reducing the volume of energy that runs your home, it’s also about decreasing the volume of waste that leaves your house.

Refuse. Trash. Garbage. Americans produce a lot of it, and Bakersfield resident Mark Mensch became self-conscious about it one day when he was driving to work.

“I noticed that my trash can, and the trash cans of many of my neighbors, were absolutely overflowing,” Mensch said, “the lids were barely closed and refuse was spilling out of them.”

Motivated by the stark image of out of control waste, Mensch investigated ways to reduce the amount of junk he sends to the curb and then to the landfill.

“I discovered that BARC was willing to take a lot of my stuff,” Mensch said of Bakersfield’s Association For Retarded Citizen’s recycling center.

“We now have separate receptacles for mixed paper, glass, plastic, mixed metals-like soup cans, tin foil, and wire, and then the regular garbage and green waste containers from the county,” he added.

The result has been amazing to Mensch. He now puts the garbage can down at the curb twice a month. While it’s not a scientific measurement, he estimates that he’s more than halved the amount of waste he sends to the landfill every year.

And he’s not only saving time wheeling the can out to the street. He’s become a pickier shopper who avoids flashy and excessive packaging in favor of dressed down generics, and bulk-warehouse style purchases of staples.

“You really start to realize what you consume and in what volume when you are separating your trash,” he said, “I’ve cut >>

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down quite a bit on pizza and certain bottled refreshments, because the truth is right there in the open on recycling day! You really come to realize how much you consume.”

Jon Hartford’s gardening hobby gave him a reason to cut down even further on the amount of refuse he was sending to county operated landfills. Already an avid recycler, Hartford was introduced to composting his household food scraps by a fellow gardener.

Composting is the sometimes delicate art of turning food scraps into a fertilizing soil amendment. Food gives off heat as it decomposes and breaks down into its basic parts.

“At first I was concerned about attracting pests and roaches, but I purchased a prefabricated composting tower with a locking lid and haven’t come across any critters yet,” he said, expressing a common concern of other first-time composters.

“You can keep the smell down by not putting meat and dairy products into your compost; I also add soil to the top layer from time to time to keep flies away in the summer. You also need to keep it damp in the Bakersfield heat, and turn it occasionally with a pitch fork. Do that, and come spring, you’ll have a rich and organic fertilizer that will rival the stuff you can buy at the garden supply,” he said.

Going green is a lifestyle that will pay dividends other than financial. You’ll become a more conscious citizen and neighbor.

Conservation will become an ethos that bleeds into other arenas of your life. You may find that you become less wasteful with intangible things like time and your own energy. Why not conserve and focus that as well?

Solar Panels, composting, insulation, recycling, oh my! Instead

©istockphoto.com/cotesebastien

How Bakersfield Goes Green

Composting is an easy way to turn organic wastes into a valuable fertilizer for your garden.

of trying to do it all at once, try picking one of the examples and following their lead. In a short time, you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes. Compare bills from month to month after you’ve made the changes and put aside the savings in a special fund. You may find that it’s more entertaining to take the savings to Las Vegas after a year than watch it slide down the drain and out the window cracks.

Between the savings on your power bill and the proceeds from your recycling, you might even be able to upgrade to a suite!

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Relax & enjoy

Backyard retreats

w

Options abound for folks looking to create the perfect backyard oasis.

Summer Sanctuaries

hen the days are longer and the air is warm, we instinctively flock outdoors. The shorts come on and the flip flops are unearthed from the back of the closet. It’s time to celebrate summer’s impending arrival.

That often coincides with patio parties, backyard BBQs, and a general desire to spend as much time in the sun as possible. And when your grass is green and your flowers are blooming, the backyard can be an oasis. But when you can read in a gazebo, dance under a covered patio without burning your bare feet, and savor brunch in an enclosed outdoor room without the summer sun in your eyes, your backyard is more than an oasis— it’s paradise.

“It’s about creating a vacation in your own backyard,” said Sue England of LS England Designs, which she co-owns with husband

Why travel when you can create a wonderful vacation environment in your own backyard?

Lance. “And providing an additional living space.” Whether it be a sunroom, a lattice pergola, or an intricate patio cover, these types of readily available additions add immense comfort to one’s home.

And value. By putting considerable effort into your outside décor, you’ll be setting your home apart from others in your area as well as creating an environment others will see as unique—something that can give your home the edge. But, as Gary Crabtree, president of Affiliated Appraisers explained, it’s important to remember that value is relative.

“With these types of additions, cost is not fully recaptured in the market,” Crabtree said. “[We] really consider them an emotional amenity, to garner value in the >>

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www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 55

Summer Sanctuaries Real Estate “It is our people that make the difference” As broker, I am committed to continue providing excellent service in a positive and well-run environment for our customers and sales associates.

The real estate business has changed in many ways, but the desire for excellent customer service is still very much in demand. Let our sales professionals go to work for you and see the difference for yourself.

We continue to be local ownership with world class service.

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future. With outdoor kitchens [and other amenities] it’s hard to quantify a value for them because they can range from $5,000 all the way up to over $15,000.

The more money you spend on it, the more contributory value it adds. Outdoor kitchens are an en vogue feature right now and can add that value.”

Though they are difficult to measure in dollars and cents, these amenities give peace of mind to the owners while they’re living in the home and provide curb appeal and a leg up if the home is sold later. Some of these additions, depending on the type and cost, can add a percentage to the total value of the home, Crabtree explained. Pools, for instance, can add up to 7 percent back to the value of your home on selling.

That’s good incentive to begin creating your dream backyard. And there are plenty of ways to get started and a multitude of options for how you want your outdoor oasis to look. But before you get building, it’s a good idea to work from the ground up—the soil.

You can’t grow the luscious green grass and the colorful plants to complement your new gazebo if your soil is in bad shape. Rita White, co-owner of White Forest Nursery said the best way to do this is to rejuvenate your soil (she recommends soil conditioners). “[Conditioner] will open up even the hardest clay soil and allow water to

Valuable amenities can add incentive to create the perfect backyard paradise. penetrate, rather than run off or pool up.” In effect, your lawn will be healthier and more prepared for planting. In addition, you’ll be saving on your water bill since a well-conditioned lawn utilizes water better and requires less watering!

One of the biggest draws of outdoor home additions right now is the ability to vacation in your own backyard.

Or, as many local people refer to them, “staycations.”

Jim Jones, owner of Sunshine Sunrooms & Patio Co., said “Because of the way the economy is right now, many people are

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Jerry and Shirley Briggs are pleased with the quality construction of their outdoor living space and are ready to enjoy their backyard.

choosing to stay home and travel less; they’re wanting to spend that home time in the best environment possible.”

And here in Bakersfield, we have the luxury of being able to entertain in that environment almost any night of the year. Our spring evenings stay warm—so the party doesn’t have to stop because it gets too chilly. “Evening sweater weather” is a concept that may be well-known in places likes Santa Barbara, but here, it’s not uncommon for fiestas and family BBQs to last well into the night, with spring and early summer evening temperatures making it possible for everyone to stay outside until the wee hours of the morning.

That means the island BBQs, outdoor fireplaces, televisions, fountains, and tons of seating will not go unused!

“Some people are choosing to go very elaborate,” Jones said. “They’re redirecting the money they would have spent on a vacation back into their home. They’re definitely improving their living space and increasing the value of their home.”

Lots of folks can see what these outdoor sanctuaries create. Jones added, “It affords people the ability to entertain in a way that’s functional but that’s bringing the comfort of the indoors outside.”

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Or, in the case of Jerry and Shirley Briggs, an outdoor glass reading room.

The Briggs, who have only been in Bakersfield for three years, extended the living space in their house by building an enclosed 10 by 20 foot patio that is so well made, you’d think it was part of the original home.

“We built it off the existing sliding glass door in the back,” Shirley explained. “It creates such an open space in the back and feels like an extension of the house.”

In addition to their outdoor reading room, they chose to also include a patio cover which further creates comfortable living space in their backyard.

“It was mainly to get the sun off the south-facing windows, but it’s creating such a usable space,” Jerry added.

“It’s a little oasis,” Shirley said. “I can come into this room and shut the rest of the world out. I’m outdoors but I’m insulated.” >>

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Not yet at the decorating stage, Shirley is contemplating a wicker look for the room.

The Briggs are thrilled with the results. But they did their research.

That’s a trend many of the companies in town are seeing. Folks looking to add outdoor living space are much more knowledgeable when it comes to the types of designs offered and the type of work that goes into them. With this type of economy and with this type of addition, people are looking to be smart with their investments.

And depending on the types of entertaining you’ll be doing and what you’re wants are for your backyard paradise, there are a variety of options available.

“It is important that people see it as an investment and an addition and not an expense,” Jones mused. “But they’re limited only by their imagination,” he chuckled.

Who doesn’t like hearing that when they’re looking to create the perfect summer sanctuary in the comfort of their own backyard?

dh

58 Bakersfield Magazine

©istockphoto.com/capturenuance

Summer Sanctuaries

Spring and summer get-togethers are just around the corner!

Give your backyard the look it deserves.

GARDENING WITH MRS. P

A

Have ye made plans to cultivate the reigning veggie of yore?

By Lynn Pitts

pril showers bring May flowers. Hey, we’ve been enjoying spring blooms since January in balmy Bakersfield! Enough of the daffodils, ranunculus, and pansies already; this is the time to plant veggies!

And what’s a garden without the most favorite vegetable of all—tomatoes.

Sure, beans, corn, cukes, and peppers are nice, but tomatoes are the king of the crop. Tomatoes provide more produce for your work per square yard than any other vegetable. We won’t get into the whole subject of tomatoes really being a fruit.

Tomatoes were discovered in South America by the Spanish in the 1500s and were viewed with suspicion because of the plant’s membership in the deadly nightshade family. Aside from a few enterprising American colonial gardeners, like Thomas Jefferson, tomatoes weren’t grown for eating until the mid-nineteenth century.

Europeans originally grew tomatoes as ornamentals.

If you’ve never grown tomatoes or have had less than sparkling experiences growing them, come into Mrs. P’s garden lair.

I’ll share what I know and try to encourage you to grow these “love apples.”

Before we begin, it’s helpful to learn some basic terminology: determinate, indeterminate, and the initials V, F, N, T, and A. You will see these terms used on seed packs and plant tags. Don’t let your eyes glaze over and ignore them. Once you understand what these words and letters mean, the rest will be Cream of Tomato soup. Determinate tomatoes are usually bush,

compact, and require little or no staking. Sounds good, no?

Nearly. Once the “fruit” is set, a determinate plant stops growing and all the tomatoes develop at the same time.

Whoa! That could mean a whole lotta tomatoes at once. Indeterminate tomato vines keep producing new shoots and blossoms even after the first tomatoes are picked. Thus, your harvest from just one plant can extend for months. The down side is that indeterminate tomatoes must be consistently staked or trellised. Otherwise, the vines will flow over every inch of your garden; trust me on this!

The initials V, F, N, T, and A, when found next to the tomato’s name on the plant tag or seed pack signifies that this particular variety is resistant or tolerant to certain problems.

These are: Verticillium wilt (V), Fusarium wilt (F), Nematodes (N), Tobacco mosaic virus (T), and Alternaria (A). No one wants these bad hombres, least of all tomatoes.

Are these V, F, N,T, and A initialed hybrid varieties the best tomatoes you can plant? Yes and no. I have grown hybrids and old market/old fashioned/heirloom varieties. They all >>

©istockphoto.com/ranplett/rontech2000/jgroup

Tomatoes provide more produce for your work per square yard than any other vegetable.

Yon “ Love Apple”

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 59

60 Bakersfield Magazine

Gardening with Mrs. P have something to offer. Whether it’s size, taste, quantity, or color, each variety has been cultivated or developed for a specific purpose. There are early-season, midseason, and late-season tomatoes. We’ll skip this lesson, because our Bakersfield climate guarantees a good warm soil for all of the above. The names of these seasonal plants offer clues as to why and where they were developed: “Mountain Delight,” “San Francisco Fog,” “Polar Baby,” and “Oregon Spring.” There are also tomatoes for humid climates called “Creole,” “Hawaiian,” “Arkansas Traveler,” and “Florida Pink.” But we can grow any tomato variety in our Bakersfield Zone 8. For size and taste, popular standbys that have proved reliable for local gardeners are “Celebrity” (determinate, VFNTA) and “Big Boy” (indeterminate,

Don’t worry if your tomatoes don’t have that intense flavor at first. The flavor improves as the season progresses.

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VFNTA). Also good choices are “Tiny Tim” and “Patio F Hybrid” (both determinate) for small or cherry-size tomatoes.

Oh, this reminds me of an elegant cocktail party I attended a thousand summers ago in South Carolina at an antebellum house. Large, iced, sterling silver bowls were passed full of the hostess’ homegrown tiny cherry tomatoes dusted with coarse salt. A simple, yet perfect way to enjoy tomatoes. But I digress.

There are tomatoes for canning, “Campbell 1327” (determinate); for storage ability, “Long Keeper” (determinate); pest resistance, “Peron” (indeterminate); hot weather, “Sun Chaser VFA Hybrid” (determinate); and sheer size “Believe It or Not” (indeterminate). There are literally thousands of tomato varieties to fit everyone’s need.

The Russians love to grow tomatoes and have cultivated many varieties which are grown around the world. Their names evoke armchair travels: “Grushovka,” “Siberian,” and “Caspian Pink.” While driving through the outskirts of Moscow one chilly October, I saw hundreds of diminutive weekend dacha gardens still producing lush tomato vines. Quite honestly, next to the caviar, tomatoes were the only edible food to be had on that trip.

The Germans, Poles, and Yugoslavians grow great tomatoes, too. Many have found their way to the U.S. and have become beloved heirlooms. “German Giant,” “Polish,” and “Crnkovic Yugoslavian,” are all big meaty beefsteaks. The French market tomatoes “Marmand VF,” “Monte Carlos,” and “Coustralee,” have long harvests with good heat resistance.

That’s right—too much heat is just as bad as too little. For sheer taste, however, nothing beats the Italian pomodoro (tomato). Say this aloud: “Costoluto Fiorentino.” You’re magically transported to the Tuscany region where this tomato grows, producing loads of a classic, heavily ribbed orb of amore. Most of the plum or paste tomatoes were developed in Italy and brought to California by early immigrants. Today we see their offspring loaded on trucks driving north and south on Highway 99 on their way to processors, which is all the better for that Sicilian expert, pizza.

Being a naturally lazy gardener, I limit my indeterminate plants to just a few.

Their vines need to be supported on trellises, stakes, or wire cages and tied up as they grow. This constant attention gets old with me. Instead, I stagger plantings of determinates so I’ll have a steady supply through the summer. Determinates do well in pots and cherry tomatoes are wonderful in hanging baskets, if you can remember to water them every day. Always plant tomatoes deeper than they were growing in the containers you brought them home in.

This is super important! New, sturdy roots will grow along the buried stems.

Tomatoes need a minimum of eight hours of sun per day. They don’t care if its morning or afternoon sun, as long as there’s eight hours of it. Good, fluffy soil amended with lots of organic matter is supposed to be a must. Except I’ve grown tomatoes in less than perfect soil and they’ve thrived. The key is mulch.

Pile up a cone of mulch around each plant and this will help maintain the consistent soil-moisture required to avoid blossom end rot. A tomato ripens from its bottom or “blossom end” to its top or “shoulders” where it is attached to the stem.

Don’t worry if your first few tomatoes don’t have that intense tomato flavor. As the season progresses, flavor improves.

Most of us prefer our tomatoes to be “vine-ripened,” but I usually pick a >>

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Gardening with Mrs. P

ersfield M

See page ©istockphoto.com/ADISA

26

for details

alad Tomato S n Companio Idea!

Yogurt Cheese Balls Marinated in Herbs ~ FIT FOR A KING! ~

1 cup thick Greek Yogurt (available at Trader Joe’s)

2 ½ cups Extra Virgin Olive Oil 3 large sprigs Fresh Herbs such as Rosemary, Thyme, and Marjoram

1 Bay Leaf

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62 Bakersfield Magazine

few a day or two before they’re fully ripe.

Set on my potting bench or the kitchen counter, they ripen as well as on the vine.

But whatever you do, don’t store tomatoes in the refrigerator! All their juicy sweetness will be muted and there’s nothing worse than a flat-tasting tomato.

Tomatoes need lots of water and regular fertilizing. Water in the morning so that the sun will dry off the plants and avoid various mildew and virus problems. Fertilize often (every five days) with a halfstrength liquid solution.

A tomato’s worst enemy is the Great Horned Tomato Worm. Yuck! You can hand-pick or spray with “BT,” which is an environmentally safe insecticide. If all else fails, dust with Rotenone or Diatomaceus Earth, also non-toxic. Keeping my fingers crossed, I think my tomatoes generally stay worm-free because I provide water for the birds around my garden. As a quid pro quo, they gobble up bad creatures.

Stir yogurt until smooth, and place in center of a piece of cheesecloth. Tie into a bundle and secure with a string. Place the bundle in a deep saucepan (it must not touch the bottom), position a wooden spoon across the top, and tie the bundle to it. Drain overnight at room temperature.

Unwrap the drained yogurt cheese and shape into 16 walnut-sized balls with your fingers. Pour the olive oil into a glass jar and drop the cheese balls into the oil, one by one. Tuck the herbs down the sides of the jar, cover and leave for two days before eating. Simply divine.

Plants that naturally companion with tomatoes are basil, chives, dill, and parsley. Lemon thyme, fennel, and summer savory, rosemary, and marjoram are additionally good soul mates. A delicious accompaniment to a salad of sliced tomatoes are Yogurt Cheese Balls Marinated in Herbs (see recipe above). These walnut-sized balls of thick yogurt look very pretty in their jar of golden olive oil.

Drizzle the herbed oil over a tomato salad and spread the cheese balls over a fresh French baguette.

I don’t know about you, but I simply cannot wait for that first juicy ripe tomato and to say, “I grew that!” v Lynn Pitts, better known as Mrs. P., is a native Californian, master gardener in four counties including Kern, a garden writer, and professional botanical artist. She has been featured on “The Art of Gardening,” on PBS, and has conducted flower workshops throughout California for botanical gardens and arboretums.

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Specializing in all areas of real estate, including bankowned properties and short sales, we will ensure that your transaction is successful.

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 63

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With tile flooring throughout and some beautiful selections, this model home will impress. Featuring three bedrooms, an office and a great open floor plan, this model is decorated beautifully.

We are happy to celebrate building in Bakersfield for 20 years! Since 1989, John Balfanz Homes has built over 750 custom homes in Bakersfield, quickly rising to the top of the industry. We have successfully helped our clients make building their dream home a reality.

Here at John Balfanz Homes, Inc. our customers are our top priority. As one of Bakersfield’s premier homebuilders, we take tremendous pride in operating a business that is receptive to homebuyers, their needs and concerns. At John Balfanz Homes, the customer is the top priority. We have demonstrated this by developing a unique, customized online scheduling system designed to track the progress of your home. All buyers are given access to this system so that they can track schedules, view selections and most importantly stay in contact with any member of the Balfanz team. This open communication is key to having a stress-free building process. John Balfanz is quoted as saying, “We have

been doing this for so long that we have perfected the building process and we offer a great experience to our buyers.”

When building with the Balfanz family, you will enjoy not only exceptional service and a high-quality custom home, but also the honesty and integrity of neighbors who live and work within your community. We hope that you find value in working with a local builder with roots in the Bakersfield community. Most recently our market has seen builders come and go, so imagine the confidence level in knowing that your home

“Here at Balfanz, we have perfected the building process and we offer a great experience to our buyers.” is being built by a builder that is vested in the community and here to stand behind their work.

Your new home is a huge investment, which is why John Balfanz Homes works tirelessly to ensure every client receives

a high quality finished product that has been customized to include everything on your list of wants and needs. We know that every client has different needs in a floor plan which is why we allow you to customize and make changes to suit your family’s lifestyle. We offer plans with functionality that have been proven winners in the resale market and allow the client to add their own special touch.

John Balfanz Homes is proud to offer a beautiful amenities package that is featured in our model home in The Estates at Northwood Ranch. This allows you to tour through our model home and get a “what you see is what you get” mentality. Architecturally correct Spanish, Tuscan, Traditional and Old World elevations give these homes timeless curb appeal. John Balfanz Homes is currently building in The Estates at Northwood Ranch, Monterey Ranch, West Palm Estates, Brighton Estates and Seven Oaks. Come visit us today to see how we can turn your dream home into reality!

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64 Bakersfield Magazine

dream

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Castle & Cooke has built a nationwide landscape architects and the homeownWalk to the clubhouse for a romantic diners themselves. This “Quality by Design” reputation for developing fully integrated, ner in the Oak Dining Room or get in a master planned, lifestyle-oriented comlittle practice on the putting green before approach, personally supervised at every munities. In fact, Castle & Cooke introwork. The Villas is resort living right at step, matches your home to your home duced Bakersfield to the twin concepts of your doorstep. site, your neighborhood and above all, Intended as Bakersfield’s most sought your lifestyle. To learn more about Gaskill master planned communities and FriendCustom Homes, visit ly Neighborhood DeGaskillHomes.com. sign™. Together they result in home designs, Dave Packer Cusrecreational amenities, tom Builder has built parks, streetscapes his reputation on the and common area principles of providlandscaping that haring excellence in monize to create a design, outstandcomplete, cohesive ing craftsmanship, community. And nomutual trust and where is their success respect and continumore evident than in ing service to every three premier commuone of his customnities: Windermere at ers. His quality Seven Oaks, The Vilhomes have earned las at Seven Oaks and Dave Packer the tiSeven Oaks at Grand tle of “Builder of the Island.

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The enduring appeal County Building of Windermere at Seven Oaks stems from after address, Seven Oaks at Grand IsAssociation. To learn more about Dave Packer Custom Builder, visit its evocation of the feeling of small-town land set standards previously unheard Americana. Here, front porches embrace of. So how does one make a legendary DavePackerHomes.com.

Each of these outstanding builders tree-lined streets and neighbors are on community even better? Castle & Cooke a first-name basis. Narrower streets are did it by inviting legendary local builders shares a passion for the art of living well.

Gaskill Custom Homes and Dave Packer more pedestrian friendly and each home For home buyers with a similar passion, The Legends at Grand Island embraces is no more than a five-minute walk to Each of these outstanding builders all the best of the New West Side in the Windermere’s beautiful central park or ultimate residential address. The Legjust steps from a greenbelt. Yards have shares a passion for the art of living ends is luxury. The Legends is sophistiplenty of room for gatherings and trees well. The Legends at Grand Island provide cooling shade. It all evokes memcation. The Legends is a lust for life exembraces all the best of the ories of a different time and place...more pressed in exquisite homes. nostalgic and rooted in traditional values.

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home & Garden

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Drab vs.Dramatic

design with purpose

It’s more than the chochkes.

More than the plants or pillows.

Color & light can play the most crucial roles in our interiors.

AFTER

As if by divine intervention, my new next-door neighbor (we’ll call her Ms. M) and her daughter (Lil’ Miss M) expressed an interest in having a pair of fresh eyes scope out their home. This is always a good idea, so

Before BEFORE

long as those eyes don’t have a vested interest in how their opinions may be internalized by the audience.

Getting my first peek into their newly-acquired home I knew immediately where my attention would be focused: an oft-forgotten wall; a transitional area between entry, dining, and living areas. Not big enough to really do anything with, but not so small that it should be ignored. And every house has at least one.

Before moving in, Ms. M made some bold choices with wall color >>

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 67

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(I applaud her brazen use of warm, rich neutrals). Bringing with her an eclectic mix of purchased, borrowed, and new furnishings, this nook became a catch-all: a spare dresser, a borrowed lamp, and an old mirror. Also home to Lil’ Miss M’s fish, Spotty, this small area needed the most important accessory of all—a purpose.

Designers’ Tip The old days of filling every nook and cranny with pointless debris are over! Retailers would have you believe that an open space is neglected space. Wrong! Any artist worth their weight in salt will tell you that the negative space is as functionary, as important as the positive space. Don’t be afraid to let your interiors breathe.

The first thing I addressed was the mirror. A fresh coat of deep red paint along with a black antiquing glaze to highlight the carved details brought new life to the frame. This also tied in other red accents from other parts of the living area. I already had the paint and glaze left over from other projects so the cost for this treatment was minimal; perhaps $1.

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The second thing to be addressed was bringing in added texture and color through the use of fabrics. Covering the lamp shade with a complementary fabric made it pair well with the mirror without seeming too “matchymatchy.” I purchased a brass candle pedestal for Spotty, gave it a quick spray of black paint and softened the effect with another swatch of fabric pulling all the colors together. Total cost for fabric and pedestal: $5.

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Create “the look.” Giving the dresser a rub-down of nourishing wood oil, stealing an interesting plant from the backyard, and other textural items from the garage or closets helped to create a vignette with a soft, inviting look. Of course, a couple votive candles go an awful long way to adding warmth.

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 69

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Do you consider yourself a connoisseur of cuisine?

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We’re prepping for our second Foodie Tour and want to invite you—yes you—to join in the fun. If you want to hit up 5 fabulous eateries in 5 hours, send us an email (with “Foodie Tour” in the subject line) to comments@bakersfieldmagazine.net and tell us why you deserve to come along for the ride. The entrant with the best answer will win.* —Good luck! *Winner will be notified by email. Entries must be received by May 1, 2009. Visit foodietour.net for complete rules and details.

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70 Bakersfield Magazine

Sure...we’re good with oil and cotton, but Bakersfield knows how to raise some pretty good kids, too.

But just what is it about these youngsters that make them B-Kidz?

Well, they’re volunteering their time to the community, setting national records, and making beautiful music for starters. They’re great in the kitchen and never too old to learn a lesson. These kids have got big futures ahead of them and we have the privilege of being able to say “ we knew them when.”

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www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 71

A DVERTORIAL

A Different Kind of Care San Joaquin Community Hospital has one Mission: to share God’s love with the community by providing physical, mental, and spiritual healing.

Way back in 1921, a Chicago magazine editor noticed a disturbing public paranoia: Across the nation, people were skeptical about the nature of the work being done in hospitals. Hoping to elicit change, the writer crafted an editorial urging local hospitals to open their doors so the public could see firsthand the important services provided.

The idea caught on nationally, and today has blossomed into National Hospital Week—the nation’s largest health care celebration. National Hospital Week 2009 takes place May 10-16.

What does it mean to be a community hospital, you ask?

It means creating the first Nationally Certified stroke center between Los Angeles and San Francisco—elevating the quality of stroke care for the entire area.

It means partnering with Grossman Burn Centers to bring Kern County its first full-treatment burn facility—a world class center complete with an endowment for children affected by burn injuries.

It means supporting local organizations—like the Bakersfield

Bakersfield College nursing student Sarah Spears and CEO Bob Beehler enjoy a well-deserved break.

Since opening in 1910, San Joaquin Community Hospital (SJCH) has continued to transform. But just as the name indicates, there’s one thing at SJCH that hasn’t changed: dedicated commitment to be a true community hospital.

72 Bakersfield Magazine

Jam—and sponsoring charitable events—like the March of Dimes Signature Chef’s Auction.

In all, it means working together with one Mission: to share God’s love with our community by providing physical, mental, and spiritual healing.

Nurses, like Michelle Langstaff, work to comfort patients—big and small.

As we celebrate our successes, while continuing to build for the future, there’s one group of devoted caregivers at the core of our organization. As everyone knows, a hospital is only as good as its nurses.

Applauding our Nurses In 1953, Dorothy Sutherland of the U.S. Department of Health sent a proposal to President Eisenhower urging him to create a special recognition for nurses. In 1974, President Nixon proclaimed a “National Nurse Week.” Annually, National Nurses Week begins on May 6 and ends on Florence Nightingale’s birthday, May 12.

At SJCH, we don’t need an excuse to thank our nurses.

Regularly—particularly after especially hectic weeks—the Executive Team fills a cart with hundreds of freshly-baked cookies and spends a morning visiting nursing stations. For

those counting calories, mandarin oranges or other fresh fruit is provided.

It’s just our way of saying “thank you” to one of our most valuable resources.

So what does it really mean to be a community hospital?

Well, in 2008, for us it meant: 35,960 ER visits; 13,955 outpatient procedures; 2,620 baby deliveries; and 8,774 hours spent in surgery.

Amidst all the activity our dedicated caregivers never missed a beat.

Though hospitals and doctors’ offices aren’t fun places to visit, it’s a reality we’ll all invariably face. During National Nurses Week and National Hospital Week, take the time to thank your dedicated physicians, nurses, and health care professionals.

At SJCH, we’ll be here when you need us—and our doors are always open.

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By Tracie Grimes

Report cards that make parents swell with pride;

shelves overflowing with several big trophies... heck, these kids probably even clean their rooms!

A

day in the life of some of Bakersfield’s “top kids” would leave most adults breathless, what with punching in a full day of school, then practice, homework, chores, more practice...filling in any downtime with typical “tween” activities, like slumber parties and texting their BFFs to share the 411.

But these kids skip through their days without missing a beat. They have dreams to chase, mountains to climb, contests to win. And they may be pint-sized, but with their talent, stick-to-it-ive-ness and a whole lota moxie, these little dynamos may even become bigger than “Brangelina”...

Jessica Druey You wouldn’t believe how many voices 11-year-old Jessica Druey hears in her head. And not only does she hear them, she brings them to life.

It was the Leo B. Hart Elementary sixth-grader’s talent for giving voice to characters that got her to the top, winning first place in Humorous Solo for the second year in a row at the Kern County Oral Language Festival.

Gorgonzola: A Very Stinkysaurus was Jessica’s chosen piece; picked because the opportunity to give silly voices to the “stinky” dinosaur and his feathered-friend/side-kick stirred Jessica’s creative juices.

“Doing the voices really cinches it for her,” says Jessica’s mom, Laura.

“It’s just so much fun!” says Jessica, adding that doing the voices wasn’t always a part of the plan. “I’d usually just say the piece, but then one day I was saying the piece in the car for the umpteenth time and I just started playing around, doing different voices for the different characters.”

She had such a good time acting out different voices, Jessica decided to try out her “gift of gab” on stage. >>

Jessica Druey

These outstanding kids, including Jessica Druey, are giving us all a run for our money!

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 73

Alison Taylor “I decided to just ‘go for it’ and try out for a part in the Bakersfield Musical Theater’s Show Biz Kid’s production of The Jungle Book last summer. I got the part of Ka (the snake), and doing his voice was really fun!”

And while performing plays a big role in Jessica’s life, this active 11-year-old isn’t limiting herself. Diving, gymnastics, slumber parties, movies, reading Nancy Drew books...they’ve all been a part of Jessica’s routine. She’s even made a splash in science: last year she walked away with first place at the county-level science fair competition for her experiment in the flow of electricity.

“We’re very proud of Jessica,” says Laura, patting Jessica’s hand. “She’s developed talents we never knew she had.”

Alison Taylor Alison doesn’t mind playing second fiddle. In fact, she’s pretty proud of it.

“I get to sit with the tall people,” smiles the petite Old River Elementary sixth-grader, proud of her newly-won position as seventh chair, second violin in the Kern County Honor Orchestra (a position usually reserved for junior high-aged students).

“I started playing the violin when I was in second grade,” Alison says, “but I really started to love it when I got into fourth grade.”

Fourth grade was a kind of turning point, Alison’s mom, Sandye, continues, because that’s when she started playing with the Strolling Strings, Panama Union School District’s string group.

“The musicians in Strolling Strings are usually in fifth and sixth grade, but Alison made it in fourth grade,” Sandye says proudly.

74 Bakersfield Magazine

But it was Alison’s chance to play on stage at Rabobank with jazz violinist Doug Cameron that made her dad’s eyes shine.

“We get to be a part of some pretty amazing things; it’s great seeing your child hanging out with ‘top’ people,” Steve says, smiling fondly at his young daughter.

Haylyn Reynolds “Mommy, how come I’m not on TV?” asked fiveyear-old Haylyn Reynolds while she and her mom, Kimberly, snuggled in front of the Disney Channel.

That was last year. Nowadays whenever Haylyn and Kimberly switch on the television, odds are Haylyn’s face will be on the screen. Commercials for Macy’s and Hasbro, Osh Kosh B’Gosh print campaigns, spots for Six Flagg’s; these are just a few national campaigns Haylyn has added to her resume in the past year.

“It’s not something we expected at all,” begins

Haylyn Reynolds Kimberly, recalling how she heard a radio ad for an open call at Extraordinaire Models & Talent here in Bakersfield. “I just thought, well, okay, let’s just go in and see what happens.”

And the rest, as they say, is history. After wowing agents and winning the “best commercial” contest before she even knew how to read, Haylyn hit the ground running.

“We went to New York for the nine day IMTA (International Model and Talent Association) competitions, and Haylyn won first place in the monologue and theatrical shots divisions for six and under,” Kimberly says.

It was her outgoing personality and willingness to listen that captured the hearts of agents, putting Haylyn high on the audition list.

“We probably average about three auditions a month,” Kimberly estimates, adding that so far, getting Haylyn down to L.A. on a day’s notice

Jorie Caneta

Ethan Chua

hasn’t caused too much upheaval. “Auditions are usually late in the afternoon and filming is usually on the weekends, so either Kyle (Haylyn’s dad) or I have been able to get her to L.A. We made the decision to commit to this and follow through, and as long as she’s having fun, we’ll find a way to make it work!”

stroke (Jorie’s least favorite) came naturally to the young swimmer, but it was through her polished breaststroke that Jorie found her groove in the water. And what started out being just “okay” became her passion.

“I like the breaststroke because it’s one of the most technical strokes,” Jorie says of the stroke

PHOTO COURTESY CANETA FAMILY

Jorie Caneta The first time Jorie Caneta dipped her toes in the water at age six, she thought it was “okay.”

“I kinda liked it, the feel of the water between my toes,” says the 12-year-old seventh-grader at Fruitvale Junior High School.

It didn’t take long for the “like” to turn into “love” as Jorie learned more about swimming; a perfect dive at the start of a race, flip turns, touching the wall.

Freestyle, butterfly, even the dreaded back-

that takes more strength and energy than others.

Her natural ability and drive to perfect one of the most difficult strokes in swimming make her a sleek standout in the pool; she’s the number one breaststroke swimmer in the nation for 11- and 12-year-olds in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, holding the number two All Time 100 Best list record of 1:19.90 in the 100 meter breaststroke for 10 and under.

But natural ability doesn’t automatically make you the first to touch the wall.

“Maintaining my times is really hard work,”

says Jorie, thinking of the five to seven hours of practice she logs in throughout the week, capped off by four or five hours spent at swim meets on the weekends.

“Time management is probably one of the biggest challenges for Jorie,” says her mom Shelly, “but she’s really great about doing her homework before practice. And there’s a lot of down time at meets while you’re waiting for your event, so she can get some things done during a meet, too.”

With a report card that reads all A’s and B’s and enough room in her schedule to log in a little time on the soccer field (“Just to mix it up,” laughs Shelly), swimming is definitely at the top of Jorie’s list.

“I get to meet so many people my age who have the same interests I do; it’s a lot of fun!”

And not only does Jorie get to meet swimmers her own age, she’s had the opportunity to share the water with some pretty big fish. Last June Jorie swam in the Janet Evans (four time Olympic gold medal winner) Invitational at USC with Rebecca Soni (one of Jorie’s favorites), Larson Jensen, and a host of others who were in the process of qualifying for the Beijing Olympics.

“Now that was cool!” says the young swimmer, remembering her brush with the Olympians.

The next stop for Jorie will be the big Western Zones meet this August in Hawaii. And if things go as Jorie plans, someday in the not too distant future she’ll not only share the water with Olympians, she’ll stand on deck as one of them.

Ethan Chua Jorie’s not the only Kern kid with Olympic dreams. Ethan Chua dreams of the gold, >>

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 75

PHOTO BY GREG CHUA

and he may be just a smash and a couple of shorts away from an Olympic competition.

Table tennis is 10-year-old Ethan’s game, and one this talented Patriot Elementary fifth-grader has been playing since he first started picking up the balls for his older sister at age five.

“My daughter [Marielle] was taking lessons down in El Monte and Ethan would come along,” begins Ethan’s dad, Gerry, himself an avid table tennis player who hosts a local table tennis club every Tuesday and Thursday night in his deluxe barn/multi-court table tennis facility.

“One day Ethan asked the coach if he could play, and the coach told him ‘First you have to pick up the balls.’”

Having put in his time as chief ball picker-upper, Ethan was finally allowed to grip the paddle. Now, Ethan holds the top spot as the nation’s number one ranked table tennis player in the 10 and under age group.

Known for his “aggressive attacker” playing style, Ethan received his first accolades from the table tennis world when he went to the

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semi-finals in the 2005 U.S. Open for ages eight and under. He also caught the attention of Joola, an athletic equipment/clothing company, who was looking for seven young U.S. table tennis players to sponsor. Ethan’s record and style impressed Joola so much, they’ve signed on as his sponsor for the next eight years.

Although table tennis seems to be second nature to Ethan, it takes a lot of effort to make it to the top.

“Training is hard!” points out young Ethan, noting that in addition to keeping his grades up (which hasn’t been a problem for this math whiz), his daily routine includes strength training, aerobics, and, of course, table tennis. His weekends revolve around his sport: from Friday after school until Sunday evening, he’s in El Monte working on his serves, sidespins, and lobs during lessons and matches.

It’s the excitement of the matches that keeps Ethan working through the burn of his grueling schedule.

“There was one match where I had about 500 people watching and screaming for me to win—that was awesome!” exclaims Ethan.

“I had tears in my eyes when all the kids jumped in the court to ‘high five’ Ethan after he won that match,” adds Gerry.

So, with the courts, pools, and stages around town as their springboards, Kern kids are on their way up. Beware Beyonce, Kern’s “top kids” are in the house!

By Naomi Moss

Saturday morning pancakes, fresh off the griddle.

Ahhh, nothing sounds quite as inviting — unless you are unaware of who’s making them.

S

uch was the case when my husband and I awoke to a familiar aroma of hotcakes wafting through our house. We naturally jumped out of bed and sprinted for the stove. Once in the doorway, we saw the culprit. There, in front of the stove, was our 7year-old son, spatula in hand, a pile of pancakes to his left. He felt like eating pancakes, so he had pulled the ready-made mix out of the cupboard, read the directions, and voilà!

He had pancakes.

That was our first inclination that he would be a chef. From that moment on, his desire was to work at IHOP and make pancakes all day. Eventually, he grew out of that dream, but we still watch Hell’s Kitchen together!

Doesn’t everyone know a child, either their own or not, who enjoys cooking? It must be a magic place where simple jars and boxes and frozen red meat turns into a meal fit for a king.

Well, at least a meal fit for a 6-year-old. After talking with a few parents and their children, I found that there are many budding chefs in our town who are more than willing to share the kitchen and their favorite recipes.

But why should parents encourage their children to cook? Sometimes, it’s just easier to do it yourself.

Most kitchens get crowded. But what do you do when you have children who want to help at the same time?

Emily Payne, mother of four, says, “We definitely have a schedule.” For an entire week, one child will help Emily with the preparation, cooking, setting and cleaning of the table, and filling the dishwasher after. It sounds like a lot of work but, “It’s Fun!” claims Graham Payne. The 9-year-old’s favorite kitchen assignments are “mixing, putting dishes on the table, and swallowing.”

Is there more to cooking in the kitchen than appears? Avtar Nijjer-Sidhu, Ph.D., works with the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program (CCROP) as a nutrition-

ist. She comments, “Cooking with children instills healthy habits at a young age. It’s the whole concept of family time and habits. Not only is it family time and bonding, parents are introducing healthy behaviors. If children see their parents eating and cooking, they are learning the idea of healthy eating. It doesn’t come from fast food or even a restaurant that can have high sodium.”

Not every Payne family kitchen experience is centered around fun, although most experiences are. Emily explains, “Beyond the practical benefits of having help and getting things done, I want my children to know how to take care of themselves when they leave.

They need to know how to prepare meals for their families.” In addition to the hands-on help, when Emily plans her weekly menu, the children are all around the table. “The kids get to input suggestions and ideas for the week.” >>

5-year-old Dylan Lynch (above) loves helping out in the kitchen while 2-year-old Canaan Payne (left) loves making trouble. www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 77

Caris, Malachi, and Graham Payne make the perfect pizza.

The whole family, including her husband, Alif, is in the process from start to finish. Now at age 10, Malachi is capable of preparing entire meals on his own and Graham can do so with instruction. Caris, at the young age of 5, already knows how to wield a knife in the kitchen, with mom’s supervision of course, and her favorite part of cooking is “putting things in a very, very, hot pot.”

Kara Combs also has a rotating kitchen schedule with her 10-year-old twins, Christian and Kaylyn, and 8-year-old Kendall. “It’s too overwhelming to have all three in the kitchen!

But I do have more one-on-one bonding with them if they take turns.” While knives are mom’s job, Kara does allow measuring, pouring, stirring, and flipping. Even with small jobs, the kids are gaining confidence. “The older they get, the more I’m supervising and not stirring.”

And being a family that loves food (what family doesn’t?), the Combs will scour magazines for recipes. If one makes the cut, it goes into the family recipe book. “I have a photo book I use for recipes. If we don’t like it, we take it out, but we add to it all the time.” The kids love to go through it and see what they can make.

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78 Bakersfield Magazine

Kendall Combs gets hands-on while baking her cookies.

What else motivates moms to include children in the cooking? Cyndi Gover, mother of four, shares, “They ask!” Simple as that.

“I can’t say no. They are so eager to help. I am more prone to say yes when it’s something I make often.” Who would say no when your child wants to spend time with you? Even her 2-year-old jumps in to help. “Felicia will look at the recipe, watch me, copy me, and wait for instructions. She can’t do what the boys do, but she already helps me layer lasagna. She’ll wait for instructions, but Brandon, my 6-year-old, will jump in before I’m ready.” Often times, there’s so many eager hands, there’s not enough room for mom. But that’s just fine, too. Attention spans don’t last the entire preparation time.

Even if Cyndi says no to help in the kitchen, she will prepare meals that the children can assemble themselves. And they love it! Taco salads and baked potatoes are a regular at the Gover house. “Everyone can do it.” And the best part? Everyone eats their dinner with no complaining because it’s exactly how they want it!

Even when kids are not directly involved in the kitchen preparation, they can still be an important part of the process.

“It’s just plain fun to have them in the kitchen.

It makes them feel a part of it especially when they get to choose what to make.”

When Dylan Lynch, five, is in the kitchen, you can count on pancakes. His favorite part of making his favorite breakfast? “I like to crack eggs.”

Obviously, there might be a little mess, but who cares when pancakes are on the line? Just don’t ask him to “turn stuff over.” That would be his least favorite thing to do in the kitchen. Nicole notes that he is a big helper to his little sister Taylor, too. “If she is stirring, Dylan will take over. But if we are making milkshakes, he lets Taylor choose the ice cream because he knows he’ll get to scoop it.”

Makes perfect sense to let one child choose the flavor and the other scoop it out.

Cooking with kids can be a bit of a hassle when schedules are cramped. Kara says, “Kids are doing homework when I’m cooking dinner.

Mostly they help with breakfast and lunch.” But the important thing is they still help. Nijjer-Sidhu points out, “Parents are teaching a skill that is slowly being lost. Food has become a convenience. Where Grandma made a pie from scratch, we can now go take one out of the box.” However, teaching children to enjoy dif-

Kendall Combs, 8

Chocolate Chip cookies

Eggs • Chocolate Chips Flour • Salt Put it in oven. My mom knows how long.

Brandon Gover, 6

Split Pea Soup & Grilled Cheese

Get peas and take off shell and chop it up Potatoes • Water Stir it Cooks at 7 degrees, or 6 (That’s the heat setting on the stove) For the grilled cheese You need bread, cheese, and ham.

Then you grill it on the grill.

Harrison Gover, 8

Pizza

Go to Green Frog and buy pizza dough.

Use a lot of cheese.

A lot of pepperoni to cover the pizza.

A whole can of olives Mushrooms • Pizza sauce • Sausage Put in oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

Then you get three oranges for three people and a juicer and cut oranges in half and put on juicer and it twirls around and makes juice in a cup. Then get berries, bananas, and yogurt and mix with juice.

You can have it with pizza.

Caris Payne, 5

Cookies

You need 2 eggs, sugar, water, milk, and put it in oven.

Brandon Gover (left) and big brother Harrison.

The kitchen is definitely a place to get messy.

Sometimes, you have to go with the flow.

Children see themselves as miniature adults.

Naturally, they like to be included in adult tasks such as cooking on the stove and making a family meal. But the joy parents see in the kitchen when a child gains confidence to read the next line, try the next step without help, or stir a concoction on the stove without injury, is worth every dropped spoon, floured face, and gooey finger.

Messes are a part of childhood and Nicole Lynch accepts it with fervor. “There’s always a mess in my kitchen. When my husband comes home and sees the mess, he knows I had help,” she says with a smile. Small children do not deter Nicole from including them in simple tasks.

“They are always fetching for measuring cups or anything they can get. They’re great helpers. They get ingredients and anything out of the fridge.” Working with a 2- and 5-year-old in the kitchen can be tricky. Safety is a main concern, but with a watchful eye anyone can cook.

ferent types of food enhances their palate. “Parents have an opportunity to introduce a variety of foods. If they don’t like broccoli, you can try it again a different way.”

There are more options when cooking at home. Kara comments, “They are more willing to try new things if they make it.”

There is no magic age at which to allow children in the kitchen. Nijjer-Sidhu allows her 16-month-old son to help her stir and use a ladle. The American Academy of Pediatrics has guidelines for introducing foods to babies, but once they start eating from the same kettle you are, the floodgates of flavor open for even the youngest of taste buds. Try a new recipe tonight and include your children in the preparation and cooking. They will clean their plate and be begging for more. Who knows, they might just kick you out of the kitchen one day. Our little pancake maker has grown into a teenager who will say, “Don’t worry mom, I’ve got this one.” Oh, the joy of cooking with kids!

Banana Bread

Take bananas, milk, eggs, and cook them, and that’s it.

Graham Payne, 9

Hot Links with Lemon Sauce

Get a pan and put it on the stove.

Cut up hot links.

Put it in the pan on the stove.

Stir them and let them sit awhile.

When they are half done, put on lemon sauce.When they are black, they’re done, but they don’t have to be all the way black.

Dylan Lynch, 5

Pancakes

You put syrup on them.

Flip them over ‘til the brown gets on them.

It has to melt the butter.

Chicken Nuggets

Put them in the microwave.

When the timer beeps, they’re done.

Macaroni and Cheese

Put cheese on them...umm...I forgot. Next time I make it, I’ll call you and tell you how.

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 79

A D V E RTO R I A L

Music Lessons Make You Smarter... & Happier!

A A

new body of research suggests that music training at an early age can develop the neural connections that are necessary for understanding complex mathematical and scientific concepts. This research shows an important link between musical training and other cognitive abilities, particularly spatial logic skills. Three-year-old children were given music instruction on the piano. Their spatial abilities were tested before they started lessons (pre-testing). Their scores were compared to children who received lessons on the computer, children who participated in casual group singing sessions, but who did not receive formal music instruction, and children who received no special training.

Although the four groups of children’s pre-test scores did not differ, the post-testing revealed that the children who had received the piano instruction scored 34% higher on spatial-temporal reasoning.

The others showed NO improvement.

Scientists believe that music encourages the formation of neural connections essential for scientific endeavors. Many parents and

“Music is a wonderful thing and it not only makes you smarter it also brings joy to all who participate.” educators have held this view for years, but it is only within the last decade or so that the scientific research in this area has come into its own. Although research has shown that even listening to music affects human intelligence, the strongest effects of music are to be found from active participation in music making. Plato once said that music “is a more potent instrument than any other for education.” We now know why.

Dr. Justine Sergent of the Montreal Neurological Institute, when talking about reading and playing a musical score, stated that “it is hard to think of any other human activity that calls for the implementation of so many processes for their immediate realization.”

A child working on a mathematical problem can sit back and ponder it for as long as necessary before committing pencil to paper.

In music a child is called upon to make four or five decisions per second and to act on them continuously for long stretches of time.

Scientists now believe that children who have taken piano lessons may be able to learn more easily and store information better than children who are not given the opportunity to participate in music making.

Of all the benefits of music education, and there are many, possibly the most important, and oftentimes the most overlooked benefit, is the profound effect that music education at an early age can have on brain development, potentially affecting a myriad of things throughout one’s life. We’ve known for a long time music makes you happier, but indeed we now know it makes you smarter as well.

California Keyboards has been giving lessons to children and adults for over 30 years now on piano, guitar, voice, violin, flute and brass instruments, just to name a few.

Ed Tomlinson, the owner of California Keyboards at 100 Oak Street in Bakersfield, expanded the lesson programs 8 years ago and has seen thousands of students, over the last decade or so, come through the lesson programs at the store. “Our music students are consistently winning awards at their schools and competitions.

Recently, in the 2009 “Search For Talent” competition here in Bakersfield, Vivian Do, a student of Kathy Stokes at California Keyboards music school, won in her division.” California Keyboards Music Center is not just a piano store any more.

California Keyboards now carries the full line of Yamaha pianos and band and stringed instruments and most other major brands. They have a fully staffed repair facility which repairs most of the instruments for schools and institutions here in town. Ed Tomlinson is a highly skilled piano tuner and restoration expert. He recently restored the 9-foot Steinway concert grand at Bakersfield College when it was damaged years ago.

Music is a wonderful thing and it not only makes you smarter it also brings joy to all who participate.

80 Bakersfield Magazine

California Keyboards • 100 Oak Street, Bakersfield, CA 661-327-KEYS (5397) • www.CaliforniaKeyboards.com

By Charlie Durgin

K

ids can be a lot of fun. Ask any parent! Especially when they take your hardearned trust and toss it in the garbage in one fell moment. Or, they simply submit to the unchecked yearnings of youth.

Let’s take a look at a few situations that pop up more than you would think, according to an informal poll of Bakersfield residents, who have children that are by all accounts charming, accomplished, and motivated.

But at the end of the day, they are kids.

Say, for instance, that you have two beautiful boys. We’ll call them Robbie and Ryan.

Robbie is 17 and Ryan is 15. They are good boys with many friends, and they are active in school life. You don’t give it a second thought when your friends ask you to share a cabin in Big Bear for the weekend. Robbie is old enough to look after Ryan after all, and what trouble could they really get into?

Plenty it turns out.

Robbie and Ryan invite “just a few friends” over to enjoy the comforts of your nearly paid-off 2,400-square-foot home. Just to swim in the pool for a few hours and watch a movie, right? One of the boys brings a bottle of his father’s scotch, girls are text messaged about the parentfree zone and libations, and the next thing you know, 25 adolescents in a completely unsupervised house—your completely unsupervised house—are having a party.

Unfortunately, that Bose surround sound system you had installed in the den is currently >> ©istockphoto.com/ranplett

Kids do the darnedest things... that can be awfully expensive for you!

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 81

pumping the latest Lil’ Wayne track at 11.

The windows are vibrating, teenaged girls are frolicking in various states of swimwear, emitting scotch soaked giggles, and the old man two houses down wasn’t feeling well anyway and has called the police to complain about the noise.

They arrive to find two of the boys’ friends thoroughly invested in a wrestling match turned fist fight, and one has a small cut under his eye. A half-smoked marijuana cigarette resting on top of an empty beer can on the table next to your hammock finishes the picture and the police are not amused.

The so-called “Cool Parent” ordinance will have you in enough hot water in a criminal sense as it is.

On May 23, 2006 Supervisor Michael Rubio announced that the Kern County Board of Supervisors passed a “Cool Parent” Ordinance that imposes a fine of up to $1,000 dollars for parents who host an underage drinking party. But that isn’t even the half of it.

“To leave your child without adult supervision is to invite liability,” said Elizabeth Gong, Division Director for Juvenile

Don’t invite liability, says Elizabeth Gong with Kern County Juvenile Probation.

82 Bakersfield Magazine

Services at Kern County Juvenile Probation.

Local lawyer Greg Muir of the firm Young Wooldridge agrees, especially if you know your kids.

“When I, as parent, head up to Tahoe, the question is whether I have some reason to believe, based on prior experience, something said, or other information, to give me cause to believe that it’s going to be wild party time in my absence. If so, I need to take reasonable steps to prevent that from happening.”

In summary, it pays to spend time with your kid and really get to know them. Today’s game of catch and meaningful talk could be the difference between spending the week in Mammoth and spending the week in court when they hit their teenage years.

“In the real world, the child’s negligence is going to fall under the parent’s homeowner’s coverage, if there is any available. But, understand, the liability flows from the child’s negligence, not the adult’s. If the parent stayed home and was at the party, then it comes back to parent, directly, as negligent parental supervision.”

Your homeowner’s insurance should cover most of it, but what about damaged relationships, or the financial knocks you’ll take when you have to hire legal counsel to represent you or the premiums on your insurance go up?

In the ‘80s movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a mischievous Ferris coerces his weak-willed friend Cameron into taking out his father’s very rare 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California on a trip into downtown Chicago. Cameron warns Ferris that his father knows the mileage and “doesn’t drive it. Just wipes it with a diaper.”

Ferris’ will wins out, and the car is taken into Chicago with the ragtop down and left in the hands of a sketchy parking lot attendant who drove the hell out of it while the kids traipsed around the city having moments of clarity about themselves.

When Cameron discovers the damages and additional mileage, he cracks and they resort to desperate measures to undo the mileage from the odometer resulting in the car being damaged beyond repair. The film ends with us not knowing the outcome. Until now.

“The interesting argument here is whether Ferris is actually “operating” the car. No one is in it, but he started the engine, and accelerated the vehicle in place. That’s for another day, though. In this situation, Ferris doesn’t actually steal the car, but uses a little peer pressure and just talks his friend into taking the car, and we have the negligent minor situation. If he doesn’t have actual authority to use to the car, he might

be guilty of ‘conversion’ of the car to his use, and you could argue the willful act theory.”

In other words, Cameron’s father’s lawyer would have to prove that Ferris knew there was a good chance rigging the car in such a fashion would result in disaster. That Ferris should’ve known better than to prop an ultravaluable car on blocks and running in reverse at a high RPM. Gong feels that there’s something to Ferris’ overall world view.

“Ferris feels this sense of entitlement like many of today’s youth do. Which is, ‘I won’t get caught, it won’t happen to me.’ ” If you aren’t willing to speak softly and carry a big stick, it might be wise to let law enforcement drive the point home for you.

Bakersfield resident Danny White* has always been close to his children, a 10year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter.

He participates in their after-school sports

What about damaged relationships, or the financial issues when you have to hire legal counsel? programs and even plays video games with them when homework is done.

When one of his daughter’s friends starting experimenting with drugs, he didn’t chase him away. He thought it would be better if he had a safe place to go where drugs weren’t a factor. All was well until the boy came to the house one day and stole a video game system and an iPod. *Name has been changed.

“It took me by surprise because there was a trust there,” White said. “I didn’t think he was going to take advantage of knowing our work schedules to steal that stuff.”

White continued to show great patience by calling the boy’s father instead of the police. The boy’s father promised to pay for the XBOX and iPod Nano at the end of the week. He also said that he worked close to law enforcement and would pursue the missing goods with those connections.

Undaunted by the lack of parental action, the boy came back the next day and stole the rest of the video games and more electronics, pushing his two day haul to over $1,000.

“When I called the boy’s father a second time, he felt like I was trying to scam him, or get the rest of my Christmas list filled out.”

White now finds himself in a position of being reticent to call authorities since his own efforts failed, and not getting his kids’ stuff back.

“He went out on a limb and was taken advantage of. He needs to file a report with law enforcement,” Gong said. “It’s better to do it as soon as possible so the officers can gather enough fresh information to make a case. It’s not too late to call the police after a gentleman’s agreement falls through.”

It will also support any efforts you have to recover your possessions, or receive compensation for them.

“The theft of the electronic equipment is cer-

tainly a willful act, and the parent will be responsible for up to $25,000. Hopefully, it won’t be that expensive, and you can have your son pay you back when he gets out of juvenile hall, or make him mow your lawn for the rest of your life,” Muir said.

Even past the stigma of being a snitch, or not handling internal problems internally, it’s important for the wayward youth to realize that it can cost parents dearly.

“We got into a situation where kids were starting to do horrendous damage to abandoned houses,” Gong explains. “Tearing up plumbing fixtures, removing toilets, and leaving the water on. Very quickly this ‘prank’ can turn into $200,000 in damages. Now it’s written in the law, the parent is responsible for financial damages. The parent’s name is right next to the minor’s name on the paperwork. Anything against the minor is an enforceable civil judgment against the parent.”

Modern day problems often merit old-timey solutions. Especially in the business of child rearing. If you let the iPod and XBOX raise your children, you shouldn’t be surprised when they grow up with a values system that lines up more closely with the doctrines of T-Pain or Kid Rock than your own. You also shouldn’t be surprised when they treat everything like a consequencefree game, since they spend more time playing them than shooting hoops with you.

And you thought college was expensive?

Lawyer Greg Muir recommends getting to know your kids before leaving them with too much responsibility.

It might be cheaper to teach them this rule that my dad taught me right before he plucked a fresh switch off the hickory tree: “Charlie if you have any doubts, then there is no doubt.

Don’t do it.” And then he would dispense some old fashioned wisdom that didn’t involve lawyers and made me sit lightly as I thought about jumping off the roof into my cousin’s pool. There was no doubt. It was stupid.

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 83

Young people in Kern County are making big differences

W

hether they’re not washing the dishes or not taking the garbage out —most parents can agree that teenagers live in a world of their own.

Friends come first. Cell phones next. Then maybe video games. And while it may not be the last thing on their minds (we’re pretty sure that honor belongs to school), low on the list of pubescent priorities is helping the community. Usually.

While most teens would rather listen to their iPod on full blast and snarf down a Hot Pocket after school than lend a hand to their fellow man, these kids are a sight for sore eyes. They recognized early on a desire in themselves to volunteer; to help others.

And they haven’t let school work, family commitments, or a social life get in their way of doing just that. Despite not getting a paycheck, serving others has put smiles on these teen faces all the same.

Between July and December of 2008 alone, 16-year-old Brittney Schils clocked in over 300 hours volunteering with M.A.R.E., the therapeutic horse-riding center that provides programs to children and adults with physical, cognitive, or emotional challenges.

The opportunity to volunteer at M.A.R.E. was a dream come true for this animal lover.

“It’s a blast,” she says.

Brittney, who along with her siblings is home schooled in an independent study

They haven’t let school work, family commitments, or a social life get in their way of helping others. program (ISP) through Sunland Christian School, was anxious to start volunteering.

Though community service hours are often required through high school and ISP, Brittney has gone above and beyond the required number of hours.

For the first few months, Brittney was at M.A.R.E. every day except Sunday, so it didn’t take her long to get the hang of her role as a volunteer.

“I do a lot of horse leading and side-walking,” she explains, the latter being the act of holding a child or student on the horse as it walks.

84 Bakersfield Magazine

Additionally, Brittney takes care of the many horses at the facility by grooming them and feeding them.

“Out of everything, leading is my favorite,” she says. “I like it because of the responsibility one has to have. You’re in charge.”

Even though during the school year she only volunteers three or four days a week, she hasn’t let that stop her having fun while she’s at the center and making the most of her time there.

“I also give barn lessons. I love explaining how [the facility] works.”

But after putting in over 300 hours, does she ever feel burnt out?

“I still love it. The more I do it, the more I love it. It’s a great place to volunteer.

“I believe I’m getting the most experience here,” she muses. “I’m learning things from the kids. I’m learning by watching them interact with the horses.

“Kids need to get themselves involved in

other people’s lives and put themselves out there to learn about life. It’s important to do nice things for other people that come from within.”

Those are big words coming from someone who can’t vote yet and who wants to become a registered nurse when she grows up.

But what about a nurse for animals?

“I’ve never thought about combining the two,” Brittney smiles. “That’s something to think about.”

Another youngster doing some serious thinking about the future is Andrew Banuclos. The Ridgeview High junior spends many an afternoon (after a long day of school, that is) at San Joaquin Community Hospital volunteering his time helping patients and nurses in the emergency room.

“The entire time I’ve been in high school, I’ve known I wanted to go into the medical field. So this is a way to get experience and help people at the same time,” Andrew says,

Andrew Banuclos This 16-year-old Ridgeview High junior spends his afternoons helping nurses and patients at San Joaquin Community Hospital.

Brittney Schils Brittney Schils, 16, has clocked in over 300 volunteer hours with M.A.R.E. and doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon. now in his second year volunteering with the hospital.

“Volunteering is so important because it benefits the community in so many ways. I feel like I’m of a lot of use to the nurses in the E.R. and that helps them take care of the patients better.

Volunteering at a hospital can make a lot of people feel better.”

Some of Andrew’s duties include stocking items in the rooms

It takes something very significant to get some 16-year-olds to give up their video game time. and moving patients to different departments.

But isn’t the emergency room a bit fast-paced for a high schooler?

Andrew laughs, “Once you get used to it, it’s pretty smooth.” Talk about a collected attitude.

Well, you’d have to be if you have big plans to continue volunteering with San Joaquin until graduation, only to transition right into a premed program at UC Merced, which is where Andrew plans to go.

The calm exterior of Andrew now is different than it was two years ago when he first started, according to the volunteer coordinator for San Joaquin. The then 15-year-old was quiet and shy.

“It’s given me more confidence, definitely,” he adds. “It’s an important thing to see the world differently than you do now and volunteering can help you do that. It’s a good way to learn more about the community you live in.”

And that passion has inspired Andrew to encourage his friends to volunteer. In fact, the week this interview took place, one of Andrew’s buddies was in his first week volunteering at San Joaquin and another was scheduled to start soon. As most of you know, it takes something significant to get a 16-year-old boy to give up an afternoon of video games and lounging >>

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 85

Crystal Ramos 13-year-old Crystal Ramos loves helping staff and students at the Boys and Girls Club.

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86 Bakersfield Magazine

in a big bean bag chair, so that’s really something.

“I really feel good when I’m doing it,” he says. So much so that mom, Anna, says he almost enjoys being at the hospital more than he wants to be at home.

“If you have an idea that you want to [volunteer], you should. It’s really important to see what experiences are out there.”

That’s certainly advice 13-year-old Crystal Ramos has taken to heart.

While she won’t be able to get a driver’s license for three more years, you won’t hear her complaining. Not one bit. She’s got bigger things to ponder...like how she can help out the Boys and Girls Club and how she can reach her career goals. This 7th grader at Our Lady Of Guadalupe School has her eyes on one thing. And no it’s not a character from the popular tween series Twilight. It’s optometry.

“I love science, math, and helping people,” she says, and optometry offers the perfect combination.

For now, she’s content with helping staff and younger kids during after school programs at the Boys and Girls Club.

“I’m here almost every day,” she says. And this modest teen even gives up her Saturdays to help. In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year, Crystal went out with fellow volunteers and painted over graffiti lining the walls on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

“It felt really good. And the community benefited from it. We all want the streets to be safe and clean.”

What 13-year-old is thinking about street safety? This one is. It’s clear that the outlet the Boys and Girls Club gives to this

already generous youngster is working.

Not satisfied with putting her heart into just one project, Crystal participated in a program to make scarves for those living in convalescent homes this winter. And soon, she’ll be one of the older mentors helping young students at the club with homework and other projects; even helping kids younger than her learn to read.

But she doesn’t bat an eyelash when someone mentions the amazing things she’s doing for someone her age.

The modest teenager (though just barely having become one) just shrugs and says, “I love playing with the kids and talking with everyone here. It’s exciting.”

Some of that excitement spawns from the art projects Crystal happily works on throughout the year that will be donated to the Boys and Girls Club’s annual Artfest auction.

Any money raised goes right back into the local club’s programs, which will enable Crystal and others like her to continue helping our community.

“I’ll keep volunteering as long as I can.”

She’s right. Why stop now?

If you’d like to see your child get involved with the community by volunteering, start by talking to them to get an understanding of what they’re interested in. The sky is the limit—there are numerous organizations that need volunteers whether they be serving the elderly, children, or animals. Not only are there opportunities through your child’s school, but the Volunteer Center of Kern County can help you find the quickest way to get your kids helping the community today. Visit volunteercenter.info today or call (661) 395-9787.

Ahh...music to your pocketbook

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photo courtesy bakersfield fire department

Divine Comedy. Don’t be afraid to bring even the youngest babies; you’ll see fellow stroller pushers introducing fine art to their toddlers!

Visit www.bmoa.org or call (661) 323-7219.

For tiny scientists, Buena Vista Museum offers free admission on the third Thursday of the month. However, if your gaggle is all under the age of 5, they’re always free! Explore

The libraries offer tons of educational programs for kiddos.

Kids can find hands-on fun at Bakersfield Fire Stations.

ahead of time. If you have any questions, please contact the city’s Public Education Division at (661) 326-3941.

The Bakersfield Museum of Art offers free admission every third Friday of the month and kids of all ages are welcome so you can expose them to local art for less than the cost of a box of crayons. Starting in May, you can see Visual Arts Small Works Juried Exhibition: Roots, the art of David Hallaway, and Salvador Dali’s The

our local geological, archaeological, and paleontological history with fossils, rocks, and artifacts. Learn about Sharktooth Hill and check out all the displays! The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through May and starting in June, the hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For a trip back in time, visit sharktookhill.com, or call (661) 324-6350.

Every last Saturday of the month, kids get in free at CALM! From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. you can bring the kiddos out to visit all the animals for no charge. A trip to CALM ( located at 10500 Alfred Harrell Hwy) will give your youngin’s the

Soak up the fun at one of the city’s many Water Spray Parks! They’re open everyday for wet and wild fun! chance to meet the newest resident, Bam-Bam the porcupine, in person. To find out more, visit calmzoo.org or call (661) 872-2256.

Over at FACT (Facility for Animal Care and Treatment) on the CSUB campus, kids can get a glimpse of our local birds of prey, including the Red-tailed Hawk and Golden Eagle, as well as, songbirds, dragonflies, butterflies, lizards, and more at FACT’s monthly open house. On May 2 from 1-4 p.m., families can learn about FACT’s animal rescue and bird foster parent program. You can even get in on the action by studying owl pellets and discover what owls eat! Not only is admission free for everyone, but parking is free, too.

For more information, visit FACT’s website at csub.edu/FACT or call (661) 654-3167. >>

photo courtesy kern county museum

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ith the sunshine beckoning them outside, we know you’re bunkering down for all those upcoming “kidinfused” weekends. But how do you entertain them without breaking the bank?

We uncovered a few totally free (and totally fun) activities you can do to put smiles on the faces of your favorite Elmo-lovers during the sunny season.

Think you’ve got a little firefighter on your hands? What better way to expose the family, and Junior, to the inner workings of a fire station than by taking them on a tour of a Bakersfield Fire Department Station. However, this free activity requires a bit of advanced planning. Tours happen on Mondays at 10 a.m., and usually last about an hour, so you’ll need to submit your request a few weeks

Clifford entertained at Kern County Museum’s Book Blast. www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 87

Est. 1863

Iger Studios

31,000 Acre Cattle and Guest Ranch in the Tehachapi Mountains

ONLY ONE HOUR FROM BAKERSFIELD A Great Family Vacation!

2009 Season: April 3rd - October 4th

Lodging, Home Cooked Meals, Horseback Riding, Children’s Programs, Evening Activities, Hay Wagon Rides Barbecues, Petting Farm, Swimming, Trout Fishing, Hiking, Bicycling, And Much More

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88 Bakersfield Magazine

Kern County Libraries are always a great place to take little ones for an inexpensive day of fun! And by inexpensive, we mean free! All of the programs offered at our local libraries are for families and kids alike.

Each branch has weekly story time sessions as well as extra events throughout the week, varying from puppet shows to poetry readings. For more information and to see an updated calendar of events for each branch, log on to kerncountylibrary.org or call (661) 868-0700.

On Saturday, July 11 the Kern County Museum is hosting the annual Book Blast. While the event is scheduled between 10 a.m. and 1p.m., admission is free until 12 p.m. so get there early. The event, sponsored by the Kern Reading Association, is a place to celebrate literacy among children! Book Blast features costumed readers and characters, arts and crafts, and plenty of fun. For more information visit kcmuseum.org or call (661) 852-5000.

And seven days a week, from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., you can treat your kids to a day of fun in the sun...and the water! No matter where you live, there’s a Water Spray Park near you.

These aren’t just sprinklers— each park features a variety of water-themed games and gadgets including the “Bucket Learn about creepy crawlers at Buena Vista Museum!

Trio” that will have kids guessing which bucket will dump water on them and “Spray Cannons” that will soak anybody within a 30’ radius.

To find a water park, visit bakersfieldswim.us or call (661) 326-FUNN! For those looking for more adventure, there are a few other places throughout Kern County where you can stop off for some free fun.

Edwards Air Force Base offers free tours of the base on the first and third Fridays of the month starting at 8:30 a.m. and lasting until 2:30 p.m.

You’ll visit the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum, get a walking tour of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, and a windshield tour of the Edwards flightline. Reservations are required in advance. Visit their website at edwards.af.mil to fill out a “Request A Tour” form. For more information call (661) 277-3517.

The Kern Valley Museum in Kernville offers many different museum exhibits on gold mining, Native American history, lumbering, and old time western movies. Not to mention an art gallery. They’re also the proud hosts of Kern’s History Days, this year taking place on May 15, 16, and 17. Admission is free for everyone and the museum is open Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (760) 376-6683 or visit kernvalleymuseum.org.

In Boron, you can visit the Twenty Mule Team Museum with the whole family (for free, though donations are welcomed) and discover the history of borax mining in Death Valley. One exhibit contains household items used by the early settlers of Boron while living in the small two man cabins at the Pacific Coast Borax Facilities. The museum is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visit 20muleteammuseum.org or call (760) 762-5810 for more information.

Looking for artifacts that tell the rich history of oil in California and west Kern County? Visit the West Kern Oil Museum in Taft and you won’t be let down. A multitude of exhibits will take you through our local oil heritage and give the kids something exciting to look at. While admission is free, donations are welcomed. The museum is open Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Visit westkern-oilmuseum.org or call (661) 765-6664 for more information. photo courtesy buena vista museum

Rankin Ranch

Romantic Riverside

GREAT

GETAWAYS

By Donna McCrohan Rosenthal

Heritage Built on Sunshine

Riverside Metropolitan Museum is beautiful inside and out.

Dining at the Riverside Art Museum is a memory-maker.

The Spanish Patio at Mission Inn is one of the many reasons it’s the crown jewel of Riverside.

PHOTos courtesy mission inn

PHOTo courtesy riverside art museum

PHOTo courtesy Riverside metropolitan museum

It started with a pair of orange trees.

Not that the former Spanish rancho lacked a history prior to the pivotal event. John North and fellow Easterners established the city in 1870 envisioning a colony of refinement and learning.

But the 1873 arrival of two Brazilian navel orange trees from the U.S. Department of Agriculture introduced a spectacularly flavorful fruit that promptly launched an industry. Hopeful future citrus barons flocked to the area. Packing houses and refrigerated rail cars shipped produce with colorful labels depicting a sunny paradise. Prosperity reigned. By 1882, California boasted at least a half million citrus trees and Riverside grew almost half of them.

In 1895, the Bradstreet Index recognized the city as the wealthiest per capita in the nation.

In the scientific sphere, the University of California Citrus Experiment Station (core of UC, Riverside) earned a reputation for agricultural innovation and pioneering research.

Though Riverside has expanded since then, echoes of its gilded “second Gold Rush” era linger. The California Citrus State Historic Park at 9400 Dufferin Avenue on the corner of Van Buren preserves the look of a turn-of-the-century park, and tells its story with an activity center, exhibits, and demonstration groves. Magnolia Avenue’s Queen Anne-style Heritage House, open to the public, reflects the affluence of Riverside’s high society in the mid-1880s. The Heritage House Gardens bloom with heirloom plants popular at the time. Victoria Avenue’s 10-mile boulevard of imposing homes traces back to European investors who settled there. It, as well as the Sherman Indian Museum (an offshoot of the Perris Indian School) have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In all, the City Council has designated over 100 City Landmarks, 20 National Register Sites, and two National Landmarks. >>

Mission Inn’s 4th floor courtyard is a romantic favorite. www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 89

Great Getaways Meanwhile, the city flourishes with a strong sense of community heritage, culture, and art.

Cornucopia of Culture

The Fox Theater, built in 1929, stands like a stately sentinel in the heart of downtown. A palace for silent motion pictures and classics of American cinema, it premiered a sneak preview of Gone with the Wind in 1939. Renovation and restoration currently underway will revitalize it as a regional performing arts facility.

The Riverside Art Museum, the largest visual arts museum in the Inland Empire, resides in a structure designed by Hearst Castle architect Julia Morgan. The “RAM” emphasizes American, Californian, and prominent Inland Empire artists and has 850 objects in its permanent collection—complimented by a youth gallery, arts library, atrium restaurant, and rooftop courtyard.

The Riverside Metropolitan Museum focuses on anthropology, cultural and natural history of the vicinity.

The annual Tour and Taste fund-raiser benefits the museum, coupling a stroll through the exhibits with a sampling of food and beverages from Riverside’s finest restaurants and caterers.

It’s Always Something

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Entertainment thrives nightly at the Coffee Depot near the Metrolink/ Amtrak plaza—from jazz and blues to live improv comedy; to swing dancing to a music open mic. The restored railroad station (“Riverside Historic Landmark #9”) serves sandwiches, salads, desserts, pastries, teas, and obviously, coffee...with a full espresso bar. Almost 7,200 square feet of floor space make it the biggest coffee house in America. The Coffee Depot provides free wi-fi for customers, in a setting of armchairs and period architecture that lends a cozy intimacy.

The March Field Museum, with aircraft and some 2,000 related artifacts, regularly schedules program and speakers.

The Downtown Farmers Market on the Main Street Pedestrian Mall features fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers, cheeses, baked breads, and specialty items on Saturdays between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. Once a month from 6-9 p.m., free Thursday evening ArtWalks take in 22 sites of museums, galleries, open studios, and street art, all within a few blocks (951-682-6737).

PHOTO COURTESY coffee depot

The restored railroad station is now a popular Coffee Depot.

scare themselves silly on Ghostwalk Riverside. The Riverside County Philharmonic performs in October, November, January, March, and April.

On the day after Thanksgiving, Mission Inn owners Duane and Kelly Roberts kick off the Festival of Lights and Skating Rink, a Riverside tradition since 1992. The “Switch-On Ceremony” adds the Mission Inn’s more than 3 million twinkling lights to the Yuletide illumination that decorates Mission Inn Avenue and city buildings, and lasts through the first of the New Year.

The year culminates with the Riverside Art Museum’s Ring-in-the-Raincross Midnight Countdown— a joyous celebration with music, warm cider, coffee, and an Auld Lang Syne sing-along at midnight.

PHOTO COURTESY MARCHFIELD AIR MUSEUM

The Riverside Community Players began in 1925, survived the Great Depression and World War II, and moved into its in-the-round Playhouse in 1953. This season’s schedule has already brought On Golden Pond and Anna in the Tropics and concludes with Agatha Christie’s The Hollow (May 15-31) and Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate (July 10-26).

In January, the Old Riverside Foundation holds Victorian Twelfth Night and progressive dinner. In February, Charles Dickens characters parade down two blocks of Mission Inn Avenue for the Riverside Dickens Festival, transforming their environs to 1840s London with Pickwick’s Pub Night, productions of Oliver Twist, and Mr. Fezziwig’s Ball.

In June and July, California Citrus State Historic Park hosts a summer concert series. In October, folks eat hearty at the Festa Italiana and

Vultee BT-13A Valiant on display at Marchfield Air Museum.

Opulence Rediscovered

Downtown Main Street means antique shops, boutiques, and an independent bookstore, Downtowne Books at 3582 Main Street, packed and stacked floor to ceiling with titles old and new. The 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday, lunchonly, Phood on Main (on the lower level of the immense Mission Galleria antique store) has acquired a legion of devoted fans for its apple pecan salad with blue cheese and dried cranberries, roasted pear fig jam and goat cheese on cinnamon raisin toast, honey orange crispy duck sandwich, and Kobe Philly sandwich. Prices go mix-and-match by the number of items ordered—solo, duo, and trio.

Across the street in its unrivaled magnificence sits the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, arguably if not indisputably Riverside’s jewel in the crown.

Civil engineer Captain Christopher Columbus Miller came to survey Riverside for a canal in 1874. Soon he had boarders and the Glenwood Tavern. Then he handed the reins to son Frank Augustus Miller, who expanded and embellished the modest property into a favorite hotel among film legends, heads of state, and presidents. Teddy Roosevelt planted a tree there. Ronald and Nancy Reagan honeymooned there. Super-sized U.S. President Howard Taft sat in a specially commissioned chair there, one constructed just for him, which remains in the Mission Inn lobby. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Rudy Giuliani, and Robert Redford have posed for photos in it.

A marvel of Mission Revival architecture, Mission Inn has a music room that could pass for the main hall from a Harry Potter movie: a stained-glass triptych; a Steinway piano from the 1876 Centennial Exposition; fine paintings and frosted glass doors; a Court of the Orient with

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ur roving paparazzis are everywhere, bringing our readers exclusive coverage of who was where at local parties and fund-raising events.

Look for these parties in the pages of Bakersfield Magazine, or on our website at: www.BakersfieldMagazine.net

BC Sterling Silver Black & White Ball Go Red 100 Year Celebration Kids at Heart Dinner CASA Field of Dreams Hardt Field Dedication Warmline Luau

Continued on page 106 >>

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 91

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Partners Community

Bakersfield has stood by their city magazine since our very beginning, and Bakersfield Magazine certainly appreciates the acceptance we’re continuing to have from our always growing readership. We love being your magazine, and the opportunities we have had in partnering with so many charitable endeavors.

It is in appreciation of our great city, that we have donated the following section to highlight a partial list of fund-raising events we are so proud to be a part of.

Call 834-4126 For More Information on our Community Partnerships www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 93

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Proud Sponsors of:

No Small Feat

Many things can bring a community together—like disasters, emergencies, even babies! ing the largest peacetime mobilization of volunteers in history.

That’s no small feat.

On April 12, 1955, Salk’s vaccine was declared “safe, effective, and potent.” Mission accomplished. So the question was asked; what next?

“The focus was still on helping children,” said Renee Nuanes, director of fund-raising for the Central Valley Division of the March of Dimes. The shift was natural.

“The mission became to improve the health of babies by preventing prematurity, infant mortality, and birth defects. We are the champion for all mothers and all babies—those born healthy

“Not only did we meet our original mission, but we continue to see successes.”

—Renee Nuanes, Director of Fund-raising, Central Valley Division

and those who need help to survive,” added Cristen Apodaca, development coordinator for the Central Valley Division.

One of the ways the March of Dimes does this is by hosting the March for Babies. This year will mark the fourth walk for Bakersfield, but nationally, walks have been happening since 1970. While we’re relatively new on the walk circuit, we’re no newbies. Last year, teams from Bakersfield and the surrounding areas raised $125,000.

“Our goal for Bakersfield is $150,000,” explained Apodaca This year’s walk is on Saturday, April 25 at Liberty Park. Both Apodaca and Nuanes are confident that the goal will be easily met. “The support we’re receiving in the community is increasing.

A lot of that comes from recognition,” Nuanes emphasized. >>

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Regardless of whether or not we ever have a baby, we all know someone who will. That’s what makes the philosophy behind the March of Dimes so universally recognized.

Besides being an important conduit for communities and national research on the prevention of premature births and birth defects, the March of Dimes is the first nonprofit organization in history to successfully complete their mission and move on.

Created in 1938 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the organization served a different purpose. Once called the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, its mission was to eradicate polio. Eddie Cantor, a well-known actor at the time, urged Americans (via a radio campaign) to mail their dimes to FDR to help fight polio—a campaign referred to as “the March of Dimes.” And wouldn’t you know, the catchy phrase stuck and soon became a part of the organization’s name.

The March of Dimes worked tirelessly for 15 years, and in 1953, Dr. Jonas Salk—who was recruited by the March of Dimes in 1949 to develop a cure—confirmed the feasibility of a killed-virus vaccine for polio. In 1954, the March of Dimes began running field trials of Salk’s vaccine.

Over 1.8 million schoolchildren participated and the event holds the distinction of be-

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March of Dimes March For Babies is Saturday, April 25, 2009 Bakersfield Liberty Park marchofdimes.com (661)369-1181

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“We’re an organization that has been successful in the past. Not only did we meet our original mission, but we continue to see successes, like the regionalization of neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). People can see tangible results of the efforts of the March of Dimes.”

Additionally, the March of Dimes has funded NICU Family Support Teams.

“We’re happy to say that by the end of 2008, we launched one in every state.

California is currently working on its second. The idea here is to regionalize family support,” Apodoca said. “Parents are going to ask questions in the NICU. They don’t understand what’s happening to their baby.”

In premature birth, “the medical team doesn’t have time to explain everything right away—precious seconds are ticking by,” Nuanes continued. “The doctors have to focus on that baby, so the Family Support Team is there to help bring the warm and fuzzy part back to parents.”

Parents who are undoubtedly blaming themselves.

“But it’s important that parents who are in these situations understand it’s not their fault. One out of every eight births in Kern County is premature. And 50 percent of those preterm births happen from unknown reasons. You can do everything right and still go into labor prematurely,” Apodoca explained. With roughly 14,000 births occurring in Kern County every year, preterm birth is something on everyone’s mind.

A number of causes for preterm birth are known, however. These include maternal age, race, multiples, and poor health care. Plus, risk factors including obesity; tobacco, alcohol, and drug use; infections; and a lack of health insurance, among others, can complicate pregnancy increasing the chance for a premature baby.

“From a health perspective, the cost for the family [of a premature infant] and the community is high,” said John Nilon.

Nilon is not only the director for the Department of Public Health Services for Kern County, he is also the Chair for this year’s March for Babies. “It [the march] is a wonderful approach to help,” he added, mentioning how thrilled he was to get involved. “It was a natural link. This is a public health cause. The pain and suffering that comes from seeing a helpless

child—if there is anyone that can help [put an end to that] they should.”

The funds raised from March for Babies walks are applied toward the March of Dimes mission in four ways: research, advocacy, community service, and education. “We’re about passing laws, funding research, and making sure the community is educated [about prema-

John Nilon, 2009 March for Babies Chair

ture birth risks],” Nuanes explained. Recently, March of Dimes researchers have identified the gene for cleft palate.

“Now we’re deciding what to do next.

How do we isolate the gene? Should we?” Apodoca added. “It’s important to realize that while [all the] money might not stay local, if a cure for a genetic defect is found in Florida, all babies will benefit.”

Many wonder if they have the means to donate during tough economic times.

“These babies have no ability to control how they’re developing. They are innocent victims,” Nilon explained.

“Just because we’re in a difficult economic situation, it doesn’t mean the problem goes away. In 1938, we were in a depression. It started with sending in dimes—and people closed down the White House office mail room for a week, just because they were asked to donate. People raised millions in a depression,” Nuanes said. “Whether it’s $5 or $500,000, it can make a difference.

“The fight will never be over, but we’d like it to be. We could be the organization that completes two missions.” v

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ncerned Americans Co roudly Presents P ) P A C (A m s About Patrioti

g n i y l F y r o l G d l O Keep

rs Jean Fuller embly membe ss A a ni or if al ouncilwoman arthy, C vey Hall, and C . Kevin McC ar H or ay M e, community active duty mor and Danny Gil to over 250 e on ti th di at ad g is a very patriotic in in ok an, n lo ed forces and Bakersfield Jacquie Sulliv parent than whe es of the arm ap ch e e th an or , br m ng e yi en fiv Fl be l onnel from al eep Old Glory Never has that ern County.

So how pers of last year’s K s c. es In , cc ns su ing will once e tio et uc from all over K pl od ns Pr ra com P te A ve C is year ’s even A th , ut by ow bo ed A sh uc ’s ed od rn 08 pr 20 Conce alists competannual event And just like for Americans mance from fin ? ds or ar rf an ye st pe is g ch th in hi te us lu (w a ro all over Kern her sa could ACAP again include and put on anot ocalists from d V er . ar nn rw ow di fo sh e ic nt ov ot le m ri s ta se their sing“pat Patriotism) not ing in ACAP’ unity to showca r 7, 2009, the rt be ht po ig em op ra ov e st N th th r n fif fo ve gi rformer in this for the Scheduled County will be ind up as a pe ill once again, w y, w tr to ow un ce sh co an t r ch en ou e onsor of this rans, for th and entertainm official print sp rces, our vete e e ing talents fo th th t, ed as m ec ar nd sp r A re . d ou on e an e word out. year, honor year ’s producti symbol of prid proud to get th r al is e be on ti in em az na m r ag ou ng M , di d el last year and foun and, of course event, Bakersfi to be involved d Joel Nord, a ed ne ll ai ri pl th ex as ,” w ag e st what ACAP American Fl “The magazin r of the event. excited to see ju s ce ly it du ib . d ro ed se -p cr ca in co a ow is aff P sh Donna Corum of ACAP and everyone on st s prior, ACA hers Les and ar is k ye bl uc B > h pu > s it w id ou sa as am ch ,” -f ar ld Last year, attention to su ndary and wor will do this ye to bring more lute at the lege 600 guests. e sa ly eg ay ar il D ne iv s pr of an r d er ou et V t’s a crow gressman “I Palace, before included Con Owens’ Crystal ts es gu d re d hono Participants an

County Wide

Talent Search for vocalists to showcase their abilities at Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace for a Veterans Day Tribute November 7th, 2009

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Old Glory

Rick Monday and Joel Nord pose with the flag Mr. Monday saved.

at all rehearsals for their treasured performances.

“ACAP takes great pride in having this production unanimously recognized as the premier event celebrating Veterans Day in our city, year in and year out, and we continually strive to maintain the highest level of entertainment for all guests and honorees,” said Rick Pierucci, co-producer of

You are invited to CASA of Kern County’s 11th Annual

the event and a founding member of ACAP. This year, in honor of this extraordinary anniversary, ACAP is expanding the show and bringing together new sponsorships for the gala evening.

“We have secured the Fox Theater to have a simulcast production of the show aired on the big screen,” Nord elaborated. “Thanks to the generosity of

Light of Hope BAKE

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Join the entire community at CASA’s Annual Light of Hope event. April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Come stand with us as we highlight and honor all Child Advocates and the many resources in our community that help to ensure that our children are safe.

Ticket Info: 661-631-CASA KernCASA.org 100 Bakersfield Magazine

An Evening in

CASAblanca

Casablanca: easy to enter, but much harder to leave— especially if you’re wanted! An evening full of adventure, drama, and fun awaits as CASA celebrates 15 years of service to children of Ker n County.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

6:00 p.m.

The Petroleum Club of Bakersfield $150 per person

(Early Bird Special: $125 before Apr

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quality, and use of state-of-theart sound systems.”

Nord, and everyone at ACAP, looks forward to bringing a quality show to guests and veterans this year. So ACAP is proud to announce that, in concert with Jesus Shack, Ms. Evelyn Coyle will once again contribute her enormous skills and abilities to work with, coach, and prepare the contest winners

Emcee Robin Mangarin will once again help lead this year’s tribute.

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a great event and to try and recruit contestants for the county wide talent search.”

And because KGET-TV 17, another proud sponsor of the event, is once again broadcasting the show live, contestants will have the opportunity to perform their songs for homeviewing audiences. KGET-TV 17 has blocked out a 2 ½ hour slot for the show to air and the event will again be emceed by Robin Mangarin and Jim Scott.

This is always a large undertaking and ACAP is getting some help this year. “In this regard, we are extremely privileged to have the talent search produced and coordinated with Jesus Shack,” Nord continued.

“Serving this community since 1997, Jesus Shack has been consistently recognized as the premier producer of community concerts and live performances and is known statewide for its innovation, superb production

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ebration by making our venue available to those who have so valiantly served our country when called upon in time of need. In appreciation for all of our current active duty forces and our esteemed veterans, we are delighted to host and support this Veterans Day salute,” reflected Theater Services Manager, Marcus Johnson.

While the venues may be expanding, some crowd favorites are scheduled to return to the stage. The show in November 2008 featured Rick Monday, the heroic gentleman who saved the flag from being burned by protesters during a baseball game at Dodger Stadium in 1976. Mr. Monday was honored by ACAP and applauded by guests when he appeared on stage with the flag he had saved.

“And Mr. Monday has agreed to return to our show and once again host a live auction for

You are cordially invited to attend an

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Last year, the Crystal Palace was packed with patriotic locals celebrating our veterans.

baseball and Bakersfield oneof-a-kind items,” said Pierucci.

“These include trip opportunities, objects d’art, and precious memorabilia. Last year, through ticket sales and auction proceeds, we were able to donate to the Fisher House Foundation, an organization that provides shelter, clothing, and food for the families of injured service men and women during all of the treatment and rehabilitation they receive, an amount in excess of $17,000.”

“As a result of all of this planning, original new segments and videos, new partnerships, and innovative features, we are once again preparing to make history in Kern County with our annual production and we intend to produce the finest Veterans Day community-based tribute anyone has ever experienced,” Nord concluded. “And, as in the past years, we have some surprises for both the in-theater and athome viewing audiences. We love this country and cherish the freedoms and liberties we enjoy, which are made possible only through the sacrifices that have been made by those we will honor this upcoming Veterans Day. We hope this night expresses our thanks and admiration to all of them.”

Currently,ACAPProductions is in the initial stages of planning this year’s event.

Though the production won’t be taking place until November of this year, the community is encouraged to get involved now! Early support will help ensure that this production is the best yet and that guests and honorees are truly celebrated.

Sponsorship opportunities are available for those who wish to donate to this tribute.

Please see ACAP’s ad in this issue of Bakersfield Magazine or call (661) 663-9765 for more information on this fantastic night. v

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the Fox, we will have room for 1,500 more guests, honorees, and their family members to watch this spectacular tribute as part of a live audience and will have segments emanating from this location during the show as well. The Fox epitomizes an era of elegance, romance, and big screen entertainment with its majestic blend of Spanish Colonial and Art Deco.”

“We are proud to be able to join in this fantastic annual cel-

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Saturday May 16, 2009 • McBurnie Estate, 5730 Georgia Drive Fun-filled evening featuring thrilling Horse Races, Auctions & Wagering 7:00pm Martini Reception • 8:00pm Dinner & Derby Races Garden Party Attire • Silent Auction held throughout the evening A Benefit for :

Call (661) 589-1877 for ticket information www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 101

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2009 Ford Mustang Bullitt Resurrects the Ghost of Muscle Cars Past.

Most Ponies for Your Pennies, Period

By John Dickerson Like many boys from Detroit, my first car was a Ford Mustang—albeit a 12year-old one. At age 16, my hard-earned pennies bought me a very used V-8 Mustang with a manual transmission, plenty of ponies still kicking under the hood, and quick-to-slip rear end.

In those days, the Ford versus Chevy rival ruled most drag races (just like the ones out at Famoso!). Now, decades later, the rivalry is resurrecting. The more sophisticated Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet’s forthcoming Camaro make Ford’s retro-styled Mustang (introduced in 2005) seem a bit dusty around the corners.

The good news is that the 2009 Mustang, just like the 1965 Mustang introduced 45 years ago, offers the most bang for the buck. It may not be quite as sophisticated as the Dodge Challenger or the upcoming Camaro, but it’s significantly cheaper than either.

In the five years since Ford unveiled this retro-styled Mustang, the coupe and convertible versions have both improved in fit, finish, and reliability. True

to its roots, the new Mustang offers a bulletproof drive train with the most horsepower and personality available per dollar. The Mustang GT, with its V-8, outstrips more expensive import compacts from 0-60 mph, while retaining the best traits of a classic muscle car.

The rumble of the V-8 and the metallic shift knob combine with the rear wheeldrive to make the Mustang a true muscle car experience. The special edition Bullitt offers all the performance of the Mustang GT with additional Ford Racing parts and the understated styling of the 1968 Mustang Bullitt driven by Steve McQueen on the big screen.

After a week behind the wheel of the new Mustang Bullitt, I was happy to learn this is not only the best looking Mustang in recent years, it’s also one of the best built.

Ford managed to rekindle the better traits of classic Mustangs, while leaving behind some of the cheaper, less noble characteristics that plagued the car’s off years.

Inside, the new Mustang’s cozy interior provides a fighter jet-like experience that

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enthusiasts are bound to enjoy and others might find a bit claustrophobic. I found the manual shifter on the base V-6 model a bit frigid. The interior was also authentic retro. Interior highlights on the Bullitt model include a 1,000-watt Shaker stereo that can play iPods and MP3s.

True to its history, the 2009 Mustang is available with 6 or 8 cylinder power plants. The V-6 Mustang, with a base price of about $19,500, was recently named Motor Trend’s best sports car under $20,000, and for good reason.

The loaded V-8 Mustang Bullitt doesn’t inflate the price much past $30,000 and can easily hold its ground with sports cars twice as expensive. The end result is that either V-6 or V-8 Mustang buyers get some serious bang for their buck.

Suspension tuning is where you’ll note the difference between the 6 and 8 cylinder Mustangs. The V-6 is undeniably sprung for daily drivers and urban commutes, while the V-8 Bullitt’s soul and soles both scream to tear through corners and embarrass import street racers. >>

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www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 103

2009 Ford Mustang Bullitt Personality: An all-American quarterback dressed in GQ duds Best Gizmo: Retro styling Most Annoying Feature: Cabin is a bit noisy MPG (as tested): 16 City, 23 Hwy Performance: It handles like sports cars that cost twice as much Cars we smoked: A BMW 330 and a Mazda RX-8 0-60: 5.1 seconds in the V-8 GT, 6.5 seconds in the V-6 model How Fast Is That? The most speed you can buy for the money— faster than a Nissan 350Z or a Mitsubishi Eclipse How Much? Only $31k for a loaded special edition Bullitt. $19k for V-6 model

2009 Lincoln MKX

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Personality: A trendy urbanite with classic taste and camping capabilities Best Gizmo: Hot sound system and panoramic sunroof How Safe Is It? Extremely safe with airbags all around and great crash ratings MPG (as tested): 20 City, 27 Hwy Cars Smoked Off the Line: A few large, old pickup trucks 0-60: 7.9 seconds How Fast Is That? Surprisingly slow given the 263-horsepower How Much? Starts at $30k.

Options can climb to $46k Serious Contenders?

Lexus EX 350, Acura RDX, Cadillac SRX Each month John Dickerson tests a worthy car.

From smoking teenagers at stoplights to cramming groceries and small appliances into the trunk, Dickerson examines the features you actually care about, like how well a spilled mocha cleans off the upholstery. Dickerson was raised on deer venison and American steel in Detroit, Michigan. His co-workers often find him in a trance, slumped over his keyboard, uttering words like “torque steer, horsepower-to-displacement ratio” and “nav system.” ©2008 John Dickerson, Horsepower Auto Reviews

Lincoln enters the luxury SUV-crossover fray with the elegant MKX.

Real American, Real Good

Lincoln has entered the fray of mid-size, luxury-urban SUV crossovers. And its all-new MKX is taking names and impressing onlookers. While this luxury five-seater has its quirks, it also had me surprised. This Lincoln has none of the top-heavy, swaying truck traits of its relatives, the Lincoln Navigator and Ford Explorer.

Of course, the MKX isn’t aiming to steal buyers from the huge Navigator or the middle-class Explorer. Lincoln has set its sights on the likes of yuppie professionals and parents. The kind of buyers now driving the Lexus RX 350 and the Acura RDX—refined vehicles that have sold enough units to push their automakers profits through the roof.

Lincoln’s newcomer is a bit late to the party. But the MKX is handsomely styled, civilized on the road and nearly silent inside.

It’s a well-rounded luxury vehicle with an impressive interior and driving feel that indicate Lincoln is headed in the right direction.

A 263-horsepower V-6 motivates the scale-tipping MKX, and a six-speed automatic transmission secures reasonable gas mileage for a vehicle of its ballast.

Inside, the Lincoln’s wood trim, high-quality stereo and luxury accoutrements assure you this is no Ford. Engineers have strategically placed the driver’s seat at that golden height—where other vehicles seem lower, but where you don’t have to launch yourself up into the vehicle.

I was also surprised to find the MKX’s backseat has more legroom and shoulder room than the Lexus EX 350.

Lincoln’s sound proofing gives the interior that delightful Lexus silence—all the better to listen to the 14-speaker THX II-Certified stereo with as you cruise down Coffee Road after a long day at work. This stereo alone makes the MKX worthy of a test-drive. An audio jack for iPods and MP3 players proves Lincolns ain’t just for rich old folks anymore. They’re for rich young folks too.

I was particularly impressed with the MKX’s near-library silence even when the monster-sized panoramic sunroof was open.

Lincoln nailed the interior and (in many folks’ opinions) the styling of the all-new MKX. But the luxury brand could have done better with the greasier parts. The Ford V-6 is plenty powerful, but this truck-car is heavy. It feels such under braking, acceleration, and some steering.

All in all, Lincoln has introduced a competent and in some ways superior luxury vehicle into a competitive market. The MKX delivers a great five-passenger ride with an SUV-like stance. It saves space in the garage and dollars at the gas pump. Those searching for a combination of luxury and practicality would do well to give this new Lincoln a look. v www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 105

Great Getaways

Continued from page 91

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PHOTO COURTESY riverside art museum

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artwork and even a kitchen chimney disguised as a pagoda; the famous Anton Clock with five rotating figures at its base, portraying explorer Juan Bautista de Anza, Fr. Junipero Serra, a Native American, a California bear, and St. Francis; the oldest dated bell in Christendom (A.D. 1247); and a chapel dedicated to aviators, with Louis Comfort Tiffany windows and the ornate, enormous, gold-leaf-over-Mexican-cedar Rayas Altar. Plaques on the doors of Authors Row record the writers who stayed there. On the Famous Fliers Wall, 151 pairs of copper wings represent individuals and groups; barbed wire encircles the wings of MIAs and POWs. Outside, the upbeat Mexican menu in Las Campanas includes “surf and turf”—a filet mignon taco and a lobster enchilada.

The al fresco Mission Inn Restaurant and Spanish Patio whisks patrons back a Riverside Community Players Arena entertains in the round. hundred years.

Adobe, wrought iron, and flowerdraped balconies surround an evocative dining experience, often under ocean-blue skies as bells chime the hour. The chef prepares such delights as pork tenderloin in a caramelized apple and crème brulée—and that’s only an appetizer. Riverside Art Museum has over 850 objects to amaze you.

The Miller family sold the hotel in 1956. Ultimately it faced demolition.

Duane Roberts bought it, saving it from the wrecking ball and recapturing its fabled elegance. The Mission Inn Foundation promotes the cultural heritage of the Mission Inn, and the Mission Inn Museum within the hotel conducts walking tours and maintains the Inn’s epic collection of Miller’s treasures gathered from around the world.

The double-barred “Raincross” symbol combines the mass bell of Fr. Junipero Serra—the Franciscan priest who founded California’s missions—with the cross to which the Navajo and Central American Indians prayed for rain. It somewhat resembles a dragonfly. The idea of dragonflies suggests water. Christopher Columbus Miller’s canal project helped irrigate Riverside. The Raincross originated with the Mission Inn; Frank Miller gave it to the city. Today you can see it all over Riverside, a faithful reminder of the Miller legacy—and the romance of peaceful, glorious, sunny, southern California that he helped create. v

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What Do You Really Know About ACNE ?

A Guide to Health & Beauty There are a lot of folks who find that adulthood hasn’t cleared up their acne like it was supposed to. We were told as teens that our mild to moderate acne would all but disappear by the time we hit our 20s. And we believed it. Some of us continue to find the occasional blemish popping up from time to time, and some of us find that that moderate acne hasn’t diminished at all, even into our 20s, 30s, and 40s. But what causes these unsightly photo-op destroyers?

There are a lot of misconceptions about acne out there. Since healthy skin is important to all of us, and a clear complexion is a big part of that, make sure you aren’t buying into some of these more common antiquated acne assumptions.

Washing your face more often will clear up acne Many of us think that the more we wash our face, the cleaner it will be. That might be the case, but there is no guarantee that your acne will clear up as a result. On the contrary, repeated washings in a short period of time may actually do more damage to your skin. According to Acne.org, blemishes are not caused by dirt on the surface of your skin. “Rather, the walls of a pore stick together deep within the skin, starting acne formation.” Scrubbing your face with a washcloth repeatedly will only cause skin irritation. A gentle cleansing with warm water no more than twice a day is sufficient.

Acne is caused by poor hygiene There is a misconception that acne is caused by a lack of personal cleanliness. While this is false, we would never recommend someone go long periods of time without washing their face, even if they know it won’t hy cause acne. You have to know it won’t help it, either. grap Sun exposure will clear up acne How many of us have noticed that after being outside for a day of fun in the sun, our acne appeared to clear up? >>

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The sun provides us with our Vitamin D requirements, but as it dries up the pores on our face, it’s also burning skin, simply disguising blemishes. Sun exposure can even make acne worse because it causes skin irritation; some people will even have breakouts as their skin heals from sun damage.

Acne is caused by some foods we eat What about our diets? Is eating chocolate or greasy food the cause of our acne? There has been a lot of dermatological research done on this subject and it’s one that still has no solid conclusion. There are no concrete links between eating certain foods and having acne. Yet there does seem to be a correlation between certain groups of people with different diets and the prevalence of acne which has sparked this myth. If you notice a pattern in the types of food you eat before a breakout, bring it to the attention of your dermatologist. The truth is, dermatologists do know some causes for acne.

Hormones are one cause. That’s why acne most commonly develops during puberty, when hormones are at an all-time high.

However, hormone fluctuations happen throughout our lives, during pregnancy for example. But hormones also play a factor in stress, which is why there is link between stress and breakouts.

Excess oil, commonly referred to as sebum, in the pores is another.

The American Academy of Dermatology says, “When the sebaceous gland is stimulated by androgens [a hormone], it produces extra sebum. In its journey up the follicle toward the surface, the sebum mixes with common skin bacteria and dead skin cells that have been shed from the lining of the follicle. While this process is normal, the presence of extra sebum in the follicle increases the chances of clogging—and can cause acne.”

Bacteria. All of us have bacteria in and around our bodies, and it helps to regulate our skin’s natural sebum maintenance system, but if a pore gets clogged, bacteria multiplies rapidly and causes skin to become inflamed.

But what can you do about it?

There are a lot of treatments available to adults with acne, both over-the-counter and prescription. You’ll find topical treatments at the drugstore while a physician will prescribe anything from an oral antibiotic that can help with the bacteria to a topical cream depending on the severity and the type of acne you have.

You can discover multitudes of home treatments by searching online or asking a skin care professional. These include lavender oil, sea salt, lemon juice, egg white masks, green tea, and apple cyder vinegar!

If you’re still wanting to do something about those breakouts, read up on acne treatments and find the one that works for you.

Once your skin is lookin’ good, you’ll be feeling good, too. v Source: Acne.org; The American Academy of Dermatology

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 109

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www.welcometobakersfield.org email: martinez@bak.rr.com 110 Bakersfield Magazine

We’ve all heard that worn-out viding a meal, save money by old adage, “Nothing worthwhile making it a “brown-bag” lunch; comes easily; work, continuous however, be sure to inform emwork, and hard work, is the only ployees well in advance. And, way to accomplish results that remember, required lunch time last.” Well, it may be old and meetings obligate an employer corny, but it’s just as true as can to pay an employee for the time be; if you want things to turn in the meeting, and in some inout well, you have to constantly stances, premium pay may apply. work hard and be vigilant to enFurthermore, eliminate all, or sure everything remains on track. at least some, of the expected So if your business is running “goodies” such as tote-bags, smoothly and all the employees pens, notepads, etc. While and managers seem to know how these items are useful, they to handle every situation, great! By Holly Culhane, SPHR are not absolutely essential to But in this tough economy with the learning process. Again, scarce resources, how do you continue the trend workers need to know ahead of time so they if you no longer have money for training? can provide their own paper and writing instruUnfortunately, when businesses start cutting, ments from their workstations, or possibly plan training is often one of the first items on the to take notes in their planners. chopping block. This is especially true when If your company has employees attending things have been going well and it appears that multiple-day workshops out of town, consider everyone is knowledgeable about not only their using a local trainer and move everything injob responsibilities, but also the latest legisla- house. If the trainer comes to you, you may be tion on harassment policies, discrimination, able to train more personnel with less cost. Also, etc. However, we all know that every company if you are bringing in an outside trainer, consider experiences turnover and new employees may contacting other organizations to see if a joint not be as well-informed as current workers. training session is advisable. If several employAlso, human resources policies, especially those ers participate, training costs can be shared by influenced by legislation, are constantly chang- all involved. Also, take advantage of technology ing and forever in flux. and utilize video-conferencing, telephone-based Bob Alberstadt, Senior Vice President of training, learning management systems, or virtual Aera Energy, LLC, asserts, “Training and classrooms. Even if your company doesn’t own development of employees is an ongoing, long- such a system, you may be able to arrange to term investment designed to produce improved use one at a local educational institution or other business results. While short-term adjustments communications vendor. to the pace of this investment may be necessary Additionally, be sure to keep the lines of in difficult economic times, the quality and communication open with frequent e-mailing, commitment to employee development should newsletters, and regular memorandums. Make remain constant.” sure all employees are notified of new policies First and foremost, if your company is con- and are updated on an on-going basis. Utilize templating training cuts, remember that some peer teaching and match new workers with training may be required by law—such as safety, seasoned ones to ensure they learn company sexual harassment, or risk-management training. procedures. Figure out what your most critiAdditionally, according to the article “Training cal training needs are—whether it be product on a Shoestring,” from a January 2009 issue of knowledge, policies and procedures, or experiHR Magazine, “poor economic times translate ence with new technology, and then offer the into more discrimination claims.” information as efficiently as possible.

Therefore, it is imperative that you not only Also keep in mind, if your business has slowed keep employees up-to-date on the latest legis- somewhat, this could be the perfect time to adlation concerning harassment, wage and hour dress training issues that have been relegated issues, ethics, various types of discrimination, to the “back burner” during boom times. So, etc., but just as importantly, that you be able to brush off those materials on problem solving prove employees were trained in these policies and decision making and give employees a reand procedures. When lawsuits are filed, an fresher course in areas that haven’t been tackled organization must have a concrete paper trail for awhile. It’s an excellent use of company for submission in court. time and can empower workers who may be So, just how do you lower training costs and struggling as they adjust to changes. still keep your bases covered? For one thing, get Remember, the economy—like everything creative! Make sure you eliminate elements that else—is cyclical. What is down now, will defiare unnecessary. For example, forgo the snacks, nitely be up again. Just hang in there and know beverages, lunches, etc. Schedule workshops that better times await. and sessions for times other than mealtimes. If you must have a lunch time training because Contact Holly Culhane of PAS Associates for it is the only time available, rather than pro- your human resource needs, (661) 631-2165.

food

Switch on the burner, grease up the skillet, or spark up the coals, it’s time to get eating. It’s not hard to eat a meal fit for a king—we’ve done the research for you. Whether you’re searching for juicy new recipes to thrill dinner guests with or looking for a new, exciting place to dine out with family, our Food Section has all the spice and flavor you’ll need.

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We’ve got reviews, recipes, entertaining tips, and more! This is the place to explore local eateries that have good food and good service, find out which ones cater to your budget and your taste buds, and get culinary inspiration to bring back to your own kitchen. Sumptuous, mouth-watering meals await you whatever your mood— grab your apron and peruse these pages for your favorite recipe.

Bon Appétit.

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www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 111

QUICK BITES WITH LOCAL FLAVOR

sweet delights Celebrate the spring season with this delicious dessert from Rosemary’s Family Creamery. Prepared just for you by sisters Katie Tate and Roseanne Brandon, this mouth-watering bread pudding will have you wishing you skipped dinner, just so you could have more dessert.

Not only is this dish quick to prepare and sure to remind you of home, but the main ingredients come from home, too...Bakersfield that is! Using everyone’s favorite locally-baked Pyrenees bread, let this tasty bread pudding recipe be the perfect finish to a great family meal or simply a sweet treat to end a busy work day. Enjoy it warm with caramel glazed on top or serve chilled with whipped cream or a scoop of fresh ice cream.

(Editor’s Note: We know where you can get some!)

Taste Sensation!

Rosemary’s Family Bread Pudding featuring Pyrenees French Bread

Ingredients

Quick & Easy

2 cups Granulated Sugar 5 large Eggs, beaten • 2 cup s Milk 2 tbsp. pure Vanilla Extrac t 3 cups Pyrenees French Bre ad (cut into cubes and let sit over night) 1 cup packed Light Brown Sugar ¼ cup Butter, softened 1 cup chopped Pecans

Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is heating, grease a 13x9x2-inch pan.

• Nex t, mix together the gra nulated

Katie Tate shows off this specially-made dessert.

sugar, eggs, and milk in a bow l; add vanilla. This mix ture sho poured over the cubed bread uld be and allowed to sit for roughly 10 minutes.

• While the bread is soaking, mix and crumble together bro wn sugar, butter, and pecans in • Pour bread mix ture into gre another bowl. ased pan and even out. Sprinkle bro wn sug ar mix ture over the top and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until set . Remove from oven carefully and allow to cool.

It doesn’t get much easier than that! And talk about sweet! To make this treat even better, top with Rosemary’s Family Creamery homemade caramel sauce or their homemade whipped cream, which you can pick up in-store. Makes 8-10 servings. n

112 Bakersfield Magazine

Cuisine: more napkins please

ENTERTAINING THE BAKERSFIELD WAY

Partying

on a Shoestring Story and photos by Miles Johnson

We are all thinking about it. Wealthy people are worried about it; the middle class wince as another rash of pink slips gets passed around; poor people groan under the added stress. Work furloughs, lay-offs, and bankruptcies. Oh my!

The uncertain economy has everyone second-guessing; wracking their brains to find new and inventive ways to make their dollar go farther. Some may go without that $5 latte in the morning. Others may forgo that snappy pant-suit until next year. Whatever your choices are, make sure you don’t stop treating yourself, your friends, and family to a fabulous evening of fun and food. And during these stressful times, I think an island get-away is the perfect respite from the day-to-day concerns of state-side living.

“An island get-away? Are you serious?”

My friends, I have already anticipated your concerns. And what I propose is a swank and sophisticated, fun and frivolic (I know it’s not a word—I just invented it) theme party; a temporary escape from the mundane. I am going to show you how I decorated, entertained, served, and fed myself and five of my dear friends, all for $50. That’s right! For a Grant, I can show you how to make the escape to islands around the world without leaving Bakersfield.

All you, my dear reader, need to do is keep a very open mind.

Come. Let’s take this trip together, shall we?

First things first: inspiration for a theme party comes in all shapes and sizes. I chose an island theme but yours could just as well be a winter wonderland or a beach theme. Whatever you choose, your inspiration will help guide your décor and food choices.

A centerpiece is the quintessential way of setting the theme and drawing people into your fantasy. Building your own is not only a cost-saver, but a fun way to express your keen eye for party design. For my inspiration I gathered some large bamboo, raffia, battery-operated lights, and an unused terra cotta pot from the garden. Weighing the pot down with rocks gathered from outside, I wedged the bamboo together, already wrapped in lights and raffia. A quick touch of a hot glue gun helped secure everything together. Voilà! Centerpiece extraordinaire: minimal effort, maximum results.

TIP: Battery-operated lights are a quick-if-not-the-cheapest way of adding sparkle and drama without running cords to and fro. Paper lanterns can be hung almost anywhere to add color and light.

When serving your guests you may already have the perfect set of dishes, silverware, and service pieces suitable for your theme. If not, I can assure you that all can be had for pennies, yet still look as if you spent a small ransom. Inspired by the colors of the islands, I picked service ware and décor in all manner of greens, blues, and golds. Don’t stop to think about how “this green” is a perfect match for “this blue.” Let yourself be surprised by how everything comes together. >>

Cuisine: maximum fun for less

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 113

Cuisine: maximum fun for less For yum-yums, I did a lot of poking around in the fridge and pantry before heading off to the market. Much of what I eventually served was found already waiting to be prepared—saving me a lot of time and coin. In the end, I opted for a freshly prepared salsa and chips, a crisp-yetsimple Oriental-inspired salad (China is an island, you know), chicken-stuffed pitas, and a refreshing fruit-infused cake. Okay. I might’ve taken a few liberties with my theme where the menu was concerned. But I promised to stick to my budget. “Theme” is more of a guideline than a fast rule.

Miles’ Island Mango Salsa You will need: 6 Roma Tomatoes, diced ½ cup Red Onion, finely diced 2 Jalapeños, seeded and super-finely diced 1 Mango, diced and divided into two portions ½ cup finely chopped Cilantro (Chinese parsley) ½ tsp. Ground Cumin 1 tsp. Chili Powder ¼ cup Extra-Virgin Olive Oil 2 tbsp. Apple Vinegar (rice wine or white vinegar in a pinch) ¼ cup freshly-squeezed Key Lime juice ½ tbsp. Tabasco or other pepper sauce Salt and Pepper to taste Basically, you will chop, dice, and measure everything into a glass mixing bowl (a metal mixing bowl can sometimes add a “tinny” flavor to highly acidic foods).

Save one portion of the diced mango for the dessert. Stir all ingredients, cover, and chill at least one hour before serving. For best results chill over night.

Sweet and Spicy Oriental Dressing You will need: 1 cup Peanut Oil 2 tbsp. crushed Red Pepper 1 cup Rice Wine Vinegar 2 tbsp. Sugar Place the peanut oil in a large skillet, add the red pepper flakes, and turn the heat to medium-high. In short order, the oil will begin to heat up and, in the process, draw out the spicy oils of the red pepper flakes. Just as the pepper 114 Bakersfield Magazine

flakes begin to pop remove the skillet from heat and set aside. Allow to cool to room temperature. Do not allow the oil to over heat as the flavor will be compromised. When the oil has reached room temperature, strain out red pepper flakes through a coffee filter. Funnel spiced-up peanut oil into cruet. Dissolve sugar in vinegar and funnel into another cruet. Pair this tasty dressing with a selection of crisp greens and your salad is ready to go.

The chicken stuffed pitas were prepared by following the directions on the back of a package of fajita seasoning.

How easy is that? Arranging them on a small bamboo serving platter allows your guests to serve themselves. I like to garnish with fresh green onions and cilantro. Feel free to simplify or get creative with your own culinary ideas.

For a refreshing dessert, I kept things super-simple.

A box-mix of lemon cake, half of a diced mango, a half-pint of heavy whipping cream, and a few other household ingredients is all it took to complement my island theme without breaking the bank. The key is in the simple presentation, not complex ingredients.

Lemon-Mango Cake You will need: 1 box Lemon Cake Mix prepared according to box directions ½ Mango, diced 1 can drained Peaches (reserve the liquid), diced ½ pint Heavy Whipping Cream 1 tsp. Vanilla 2-3 tbsp. Sugar After the cake rounds have cooled, I like to drizzle with some sort of liquid. For this dessert, the reserved peach juice will work nicely. To kick things up a bit, add a shot of dark rum to the peach juice before moistening the cake. In a mixer (or even food processor) combine the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla. Whip until stiff peaks form. To build your cake, simply spread peaches and mango over each layer of cake and top with whipped cream. How easy is that?

Creating the ambiance of an island retreat can, if left unchecked, become quite costly. A trip to your local party store can result in numerous options with a hefty bill to match. But where’s the challenge in that?

Isn’t the hunt half the fun? These tough economic times

have dawned a new age of frugality. Less cash doesn’t mean less indulgence; just smarter indulgence.

Don’t think I’d dangle these recipes and amazing photographs in front of you without revealing my sources. I saved this part for last and for good reason.

Are you sitting down? Good.

Everything purchased (except for some food items) for this article came from either Goodwill, The $.99 Store, or were pilfered from the yard, friends, or family.

Surprised? You should be!

Here’s a quick breakdown: All the service pieces: plates, bowls, glassware, buckets, napkins...even the centerpiece elements and sunglasses came from The $.99 Store. Total cost: $24.

Cruet and seasoning set, and bamboo trays from Goodwill. Total cost: $4.

Fresh produce, heavy cream, and pitas also came from The $.99 Store. That’s right! Many of the bargain shops offer food stuffs. I was amazed at the quality as much as the price when I shopped around for this article. For instance: I picked up an 8-pack (roughly 1 lb., 12 oz.) of plump, Roma tomatoes for $.99. At my local grocer a similar product would have cost $3.36!

Almost 350 percent more! Total cost for food: $22 with the most expensive item being chicken breasts.

Other items, such as garden stones, terra cotta pots, even the remnant piece of astro-turf (creatively used as a table cloth) came from rooting around the house or yard. Additionally, I borrowed the paper lanterns from a neighbor.

The bargains you can find are innumerable. Resources abound to help you create the perfect theme party for much less than you ever expected. For those too concerned about being recognized while shopping at “those places,” may I suggest a wide-brimmed hat and dark Jackie-O glasses? People will still recognize you but at least you’ll have the fun of dressing up!

Sweet Culinary Dreams, Miles n

WHAT’S COOKIN’

Attention to detail is found in every inch of an Hourglass entrée.

dining deliciously

By Mike Stepanovich

If Bakersfield were a Monopoly board, I’d tell you to take a “Chance” and proceed immediately to Hourglass Kitchen & Bar at the corner of Calloway Drive and Brimhall Road. Do not pass Go, and you don’t need 200 bucks to dine there either.

It is a great addition to the Bakersfield restaurant scene and you should make every effort to get there. Getting there, however, is a bit tricky. Despite its great visibility—on the southeast corner of the intersection—it’s not so easy to get into the parking lot. The first time we went there, I was headed east on Brimhall Road; I went through the intersection, figuring there must be a turn-in just past the restaurant. There was, but it came up very suddenly; I braked hard, and as soon as I turned in I was greeted by a large sign that said, “DO NOT ENTER.” (Oops!)

The Southwest Salad was a spicy sensation.

A classic salad with zing!

What do I do now? I found that I was at the rear of the new shopping center. I continued on past the employee parking and back doors until I came to a turn-in that took me to the front of the stores. I then turned north and finally arrived at the front of the restaurant.

Whew! How do you get to this place legally? I wondered.

The next time we went, I was determined to find the proper entrance to the parking lot, which is off Calloway south of the intersection. There’s a left-turn lane there, which puts you at the south end of the center; you then must weave your way north through a parking maze before you get to Hourglass. I suspect that Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride may have inspired this.

Once you enter, though, you know the effort was worth it. The restaurant is open and airy with a tall ceiling. On the right is a glass-enclosed wine cellar with racks of bottles clearly visible to patrons. The dining area wraps L-shaped around the bar area. In addition to seats at the bar, cocktail tables with tall stools are also available.

A smiling hostess greets you warmly and escorts you to the table. It’s here that the ambiance really embraces you. The table is beautiful, covered with a black tablecloth; a folded napkin has silverware tucked into it. On each table is a fresh red rose, beautiful against the black.

Wow! we thought, what a place. It only got better. Our server, Matt, provided us with

Topped with one of four offered sauces, this New York steak was perfect.

a wine list, and a basket of fresh-out-of-the-oven sourdough bread. The bread reminded me of the great sourdough you find in San Francisco restaurants—same texture and crust—and wonderfully warm and flavorful.

Matt informed us that Hourglass undergoes a transformation about 10 p.m. It turns into a nightclub and a younger crowd moves in, along with the volume and folderol that normally accompanies such a scene. He assured us he was not trying to rush us, but just wanted us to be aware that the atmosphere would change drastically in a couple hours.

We thanked him for letting us know, but figured we’d be gone before then (we were).

The wine list is good and reasonably priced, with a fair number of wines by the glass.

I opted for a glass of Lockwood syrah from Monterey County ($7), which I anticipated would go very well with a steak.

>>

Cuisine: simply scrumptious

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 115

Cuisine: simply scrumptious We decided to indulge in an appetizer. The sliders called our

roasted hot and sweet pepper relish. A Southwestern food

I tried the Southwest Salad ($8), and added grilled chicken

name. Hourglass’s sliders are an upscale version of White Castle

devotee, I chose the ancho chili and mushroom, while Carol

for another $4. It was beautifully presented: a tall bed of corn,

burgers, which are known, according to the company website,

tried the crab and garlic with asparagus.

black beans, and red peppers surrounded by romaine, crisp tor-

as “Slyders.” White Castle is famous for its tiny hamburger with

Our steaks were excellent, perfectly done, and the sauces

tilla strips, and chicken with a Southwestern dressing drizzled on

grilled onion and a dill pickle slice served in a dinner roll. People

were great additions. The ancho mushroom sauce comple-

top. If you like spicy, you’ll love this salad. It had a great combina-

in the Midwest, where the hamburger chain is located, buy them

mented my steak perfectly, while the crab and asparagus was

tion of flavors and a spicy zing. I loved it.

by the sackful (a modest order is seven). In California you can

like a dish unto itself. Matt, our server, convinced us to try the

only get them in the frozen-food section of supermarkets. Pre-

wasabi potatoes, and a terrific suggestion it was.

sumably they got their name because they slide down easily.

The restaurant opened in May 2008, a dream of owners Paula

Carol enjoyed her pastrami sandwich ($12), but really liked the Yukon Gold fries. I had to sample them, and it was difficult to keep my hands off her plate they were so good!

The Hourglass sliders are far more substantial than White Castle

Hurd and her son Paul. Paula said she’s frequently asked about

John decided to build his own burger ($12). Inside the menu

Slyders. For one thing they come on a better bun. For another

the name—the kitchen-and-bar part anyway—because

is a sheet for this project with a wide variety of ingredients from

Hourglass “sliders” come two delicious ways: with bacon, thousand-island dressing, caramelized onions, tomato and lettuce; or bleu cheese and caramelized onions. Don’t miss these beauties!

they’re incredibly flavorful. You have your choice of two styles:

people think it’s an appliance and décor store. “My son wanted to

which to choose, including five different cheeses, three differ-

with bacon, thousand-island dressing, caramelized onions, tomato

be different,” she said. “We didn’t want to be like everyone else,

ent lettuces, avocado, and at least eight different condiments.

and lettuce; or bleu cheese and onions. For $8 you get three on a

so that’s where the name came from.”

Circle your choices and hand it to your server, it’s all included

rectangular-shaped plate, beautifully presented. The burgers had

They like the hourglass image, and getting an hourglass for

in the price. You also have your choice of the Yukon Gold fries,

fresh mixed greens with sliced plum tomatoes, grilled chopped

the bar to time their specials, she said. “We’ll flip it over, and

sweet potato fries, or a house salad. This half-pound marvel

onions on a fresh, toasted bun. The beef patty appeared hand-

when it runs out the special is over.”

thoroughly satisfied John.

made. They were delicious, and an indication of what was to come.

They wanted a place where people could afford to dine out

Terry tried the Brisket Dip ($11), with Swiss cheese on

Our salads were also works of art. Presented on a square

regularly. “We want to keep everything on our menu under $30,”

a French roll and au jus. The au jus was thick with mush-

plate, they were deconstructed with an element at each corner

she said. “We think that’s important, especially in this economy.”

rooms, caramelized onions, green onions, and carrots, and

of the plate: diced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, chopped red on-

Her son Paul has restaurant experience, she said, “and has a

ions, and croutons. I enjoyed the tangy house dressing, a sherry

passion for food. He really likes to be in the kitchen all the time.”

Subsequent visits found us trying the braised beef short

vinaigrette. My wife, Carol, loves a good bleu-cheese dressing,

“I was in sales—kitchen and bath—so this is a little bit of a

ribs ($21) and the Cajun pork chop ($19). Both were excel-

culture shock for me. But it’s a lot of fun. We strive to make this a

lent. One night Hourglass featured a jazz saxophonist who

great dining experience from start to finish.”

was so mellow and relaxing, we didn’t want to leave. It was

and enjoyed it as much as I liked the house dressing.

For our entrées, Carol chose the eight-ounce filet mignon

Terry enjoyed it greatly.

($29), while I opted for the 12-ounce New York steak ($28).

Impressed with their effort at dinner, we decided to try

These are the two most expensive items on the menu, which is

Hourglass for lunch. Carol’s brother and sister-in-law, John

Hourglass Kitchen & Bar is at 1120 Calloway Drive, Suite

illuminating, but more on that in a minute.

and Terry Christensen, were visiting one weekend, so we took

100. It’s open for lunch and dinner Monday through Wednes-

With the steaks you have your choice of four sauces: an-

them to Hourglass. The same attention to table detail as at

day 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday through Saturday 11 a.m.

cho chili sauce with mushrooms, crab and garlic cream sauce

dinner raised our expectations; the staff, particularly our

to 10 p.m. Last call is 1:30 a.m. For reservations, please call

with asparagus, heirloom tomato relish with goat cheese, or

server Nicole, easily met them.

(661) 679-1977. Major credit cards accepted.

116 Bakersfield Magazine

just a great experience.

n

LIFE IS A CABERNET

dirty secret

By Mike Stepanovich

George Bursick loves to talk dirty. The winemaker at J Vineyards & Winery in Sonoma County is a student of the many soil types in the Russian River Valley. The dirt in which his vines grow provides both diversity and complexity in his wines.

Not surprisingly, Bursick, who has been making wine for 30 years, is as complex as his wines, and as full of life.

I’ve known George for years, and a more cheerful person would be hard to find. He loves life—his wife, his kids, the challenge of making world-class wines, music, laughter—and can’t wait to start each day.

His enthusiasm makes him one of the best winemakers around, and that drives him to thoroughly explore /mari

us

all facets of his profession. One of those facets is the chance to make world-class pinot noir, arguably the most

hoto

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difficult grape to deal with due to its finicky nature. That’s what prompted him 2 1/2 years ago to accept the ©istockp

winemaker’s position at J Vineyards & Winery, which specializes in pinot noir, chardonnay, and sparkling wine.

And one of those facets is soil. “Within the Russian River Valley there are more soil types than all of France,” he said during his seminar at the recent Yosemite Vintners’ Holidays. “We have 25 different soil types. A three-acre vineyard can be very different from another guy just a half mile down the road.”

How did that happen?~ The “big bang” of the Russian River Valley happened a couple million years ago, he said, when two major volcanic incidents occurred: Mount St. Helena in Napa County and Mount Konocti in Lake County spewed forth, and “west of U.S. 101 was not where you wanted to be.”

Over 25 soil types produce a unique variety of wines

As a result, the Russian River had a much more difficult time finding its way to the coast. “The river fought its way there” in a very circuitous way, slicing through a variety of volcanic leftovers. Part of the river’s old bed was left high and dry. The result is that Bursick has vineyards along the river, all with different soils. The winery also has different clones of pinot noir to take advantage of the different qualities the soils provide.

That diversity, he said, is key to the appellation, and why so many good wines are produced >>

PHOTO courtesy J vineyards & winery

in the Russian River Valley, which was established as an American Viticultural Area, or AVA, in

Winemaker George Bursick knows a thing or two about Russian River Valley soil!

wine: from the ground up www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 117

PHOTO courtesy J vineyards & winery

wine: from the ground up 1983. The soils of the Russian River Valley are well drained, as a result of the high percentage of degraded sandstone and shale in the soil. Drainage encourages extensive root development and less vigorous vine growth, which gently stresses the vines to concentrate flavor in the grapes.

Bursick makes four pinot noirs at J, three vineyard-designated wines, and a Russian River Valley-appellation one.

Soils and vineyards that produce grapes for the four wines are:

J Vineyards is a world-class producer of Russian River Valley pinot noir and chardonnay.

n Arbuckle soil. “This is rocky, river-run soil, with small

He began his winemaking career at McDowell Valley Vine-

Bursick didn’t anticipate that he would sign on with Jordan

pebbles, like the bottom of a river—which at one point it

yards in Mendocino County, which specializes in Rhone vari-

other than in a consulting capacity. “At first, my motivation

was—before it was pushed up.”

etals. After nine years there, he joined Don and Rhonda Carano

to work with J was friendship,” he said. “Judy and I have been

n Alluvial soils. An example is the Robert Thomas Vine-

as founding winemaker of their new venture, Ferrari-Carano.

close friends for more than two decades, and the timing for

yard. “This is an ancient site,” Bursick said. “This alluvial soil was brought from somewhere else and deposited here. This

While there he made a cornucopia of wines, including cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel, chardonnay, and pinot noir.

me was right. J has always made consistently good wines, but when I discovered Judy’s desire to position J as a world-class

vineyard is the farthest west of our vineyards, and is one of

His work took him to Italy and New Zealand, among other

producer of Russian River Valley pinot noir and chardonnay, I

the last to ripen. Because it’s closer to the coast it’s influenced

places. “I also continued with Ferrari-Carano as a consultant,

realized I had the chance to be a part of something special.”

more by coastal fog and cooler temperatures. We must bal-

and J also became a client.”

ance the crop load on this vineyard or it won’t ripen.”

Since joining J, Bursick has moved towards Jordan’s vision

J was founded in 1986 by Judy Jordan, whose father, Tom

for J by cutting back on yields, increasing the number of lots

n Yolo loam. A heavier, richer soil, Yolo loam is not as

Jordan, founded Jordan Vineyard & Winery in the Alexander

used to blend J’s Russian River Valley pinot noir seven-fold in

desirable a soil for growing grapes.

Valley. J began as a sparkling wine producer.

the first year, and he’s even acquired six rare yeast strains from

n Goldridge and Sebastopol soils. “These are the best

One of my memories of J occurred during a wine competi-

Burgundy “that have not been used since the 1930s!” They

soils for pinot noir,” he said. “They’re shallow, decomposed

tion where I was a judge in 1990, the American Wine Competi-

also have several different clones planted in their vineyards,

limestone and sandstone. Goldridge is a white, powdery

tion in Chicago. A know-it-all judge from New York was annoy-

ranging from old clones propagated by UC Davis, to the latest

soil, and is going for up to $120,000 an unplanted acre. Yolo

ing the rest of us with her carrying on about the sweepstakes

trendy clones from the Dijon research station in France.

makes leaves; Goldridge makes fruit.”

winning sparkling wine. She proclaimed herself an expert on

While wine is a passion for Bursick as well as a pro-

The wines that come from these varied soils are the J Rus-

Champagne, and how the sweepstakes wine was a superb

fession, his secret love is playing drums in a band called

sian River Valley pinot noir, Robert Thomas Vineyard pinot,

example of French Champagne. Then competition organizers

Private Reserve. Started in 1992, Private Reserve is a blend

Nonny’s Vineyard pinot, and Nicole’s Vineyard pinot. J also

unveiled the winners; the sparkling wine winner was J.

of wine colleagues that includes Mike Martini of Martini

produces chardonnay, pinot gris, pinotage, a vin gris, a rosé, and of course sparkling wines.

Producing a variety of wines is nothing new for Bursick. He’s made many varietals during his 30-year career, particularly during the 22 years he spent at Ferrari-Carano Vineyards & Winery in neighboring Dry Creek Valley.

In 1996 Jordan purchased the old Piper Sonoma win-

Winery in Napa Valley, Ed Sbragia, formerly winemaker at

ery near Healdsburg, which had produced sparkling wine.

Beringer and now with his own label, Jess Knubis, Steve

Some 300 acres of pinot noir and chardonnay came with it.

Buehl, and John Hawkins. “We usually play gigs mostly

In 1999 she opened the winery’s tasting room.

at wine and winery-related events. But it’s really just an

But about the time Bursick began consulting with her, “she became disillusioned with bubbly,” he said. “Judy

A native of Santa Rosa, Bursick didn’t go into winemak-

decided to change directions and focus on pinot noir. The

ing right away. He went first to the University of California,

winery still makes sparkling wine—about 20,000 cases a

Santa Barbara, but when he returned home, his father

year. But now it has a different focus.”

informed him that he had better “get a job.” So he put to-

That Jordan wanted her winery to focus on pinot noir

gether Christmas gift packs at Beringer over in Napa Valley.

didn’t faze Bursick. “My 30th harvest [was in 2008], and

He moved from the tasting room to the cellar and began

I’ve made a bunch of different wines in my career. Now

learning the wine business. He then returned to school

I make pinot noir and chardonnay. I made pinot noir at

at UC Davis where he completed his bachelor’s in plant

Ferrari-Carano for 15 years, but eventually it wound up in

physiology, and then earned his master’s in enology.

Sienna (the winery’s proprietary blend).”

118 Bakersfield Magazine

excuse to get together every few weeks, eat a burrito, drink some wine, and rock ‘n’ roll.”

n

Mike Stepanovich is an award-winning journalist who has been writing his Life is a Cabernet wine column since 1985, and reviewing restaurants for Bakersfield Magazine since 1997. Stepanovich has taught wine and food pairing classes for many years, and teaches a wine appreciation and history class for California State University, Bakersfield. He began judging wines in 1987, and now judges at major international wine competitions throughout the United States. A home winemaker, Stepanovich resides with his wife, Carol, in Bakersfield.

THE LUNCH BUNCH

dining for charity It was a day of celebrations for our recent Lunch Bunch gathering; a day to honor birthdays, friendships, giving, and life.

Cancer was our main topic as we chatted in between bites at The her friends raised $3,800, which they split three ways to go to the Garden Nines, a sophisticated eatery in the Marriott. Not the sad, gut-wrench- Pathways, Links for Life, and Rescue Mission. She also hosted a Pretty ing, hopeless discussion of a ravaging disease, but the uplifting, hope- Pink Pedi Party in October that raised almost $1,000 for Links for Life. giving, supportive talk of how giving our Kern County community is “There are so many things you can do that you think may not be that big of a deal, but every effort is a contribution,” Janis points out. “And I when it comes to fighting cancer.

Our Guests love to do things like this—they’re from my heart.”

Our guests were Janis Varner and Cherie Shoemake, whose birthdays “We just couldn’t ask for bigger community/ACS supporters than Janis fell on February 2 and February 5 respectively. It just so happened the and her husband Vernon,” Cherie interjects. day of our luncheon was February 5—so we had to celebrate these The Lunch Bunch was thrilled to meet these women, and had wontwo remarkable women. derful things to say when the lunch was over.

Cherie is the director of community services for the American Cancer “The guests and this Lunch Bunch gathering was the best yet for Society (ACS) and a breast cancer survivor, while Janis, a long-time sup- me,” exclaims Ann. “Guests who give back to Bakersfield are my favorite! Our guests added so much joy and pizazz to our porter of many nonprofits in Bakersfield, won the Lunch dFEATURED RESTAURANTd lunch and their enthusiasm was contagious.”

Bunch bid in October at the ACS’s annual Baron’s Ball.

Marriott And when she’s not bidding on things, Janis has Additionally, Jillian points out, “as Janice and Cherie Hotel’s some pretty ingenious ways of raising funds for the shared their work and dedication, we learned how percauses near and dear to her heart. For her birthday, sonal their fight against cancer is and it became obviJanis hosted the Birthday Babe Bunko party. She and R E S TAU R A N T ous that we all have strong relationship ties to >>

The Nines

The modern décor and the gourmet menu contribute to the fantastic ambiance at The Nines.

CUISINE : time to celebrate www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 119

CUISINE: time to celebrate our town. I also learned of the broad spectrum of services the ACS provides that benefit people across the country. When Cherie described the 24-hour hotline people can call for support and medical resources, I realized how vast the ACS network is. The money raised locally has an extensive reach nationally.”

The Restaurant Our thanks to Eric Roiko, Marriott’s general manager, and Scott Tessandori, restaurant manager, for such a warm, informative welcome and for providing our group with a complimentary sampling of the new 5-10-20 menu. The complimentary dessert they sent to help celebrate our February birthdays topped off their royal treatment, making us feel like “queens for a day.”

“Eric Roiko was such a gracious host,” Robin remarks.

The upbeat, newly remodeled dining room added a definite touch of class to our special lunch.

“The atmosphere was warm, yet sophisticated,” says Sue, who had the crab cakes.

Robin, who also had the crab cakes, agreed whole-heartedly. “They were delicious, lots of crab and very little filling. And I loved the setting; the furniture

The tasty crab cakes, served with fresh French fries, were a hit with many of the Lunch Bunch.

was modern and the table configuration was perfect for allowing open communication.”

“I felt as if I were in a European restaurant,” says Ann. “The service was great; the lighting perfect; the seating arrangement, unusual and comfortable, and the extra special treat they gave to us before lunch...perfect and scrumptious! I also enjoyed my anti-pasta salad, which was very tasty. I would have loved a good Italian salami instead of the pepperoni...however, I still ate the entire salad.”

“The ambiance was very classy and relaxing,” observes Patricia, adding that her filet was “the best I have ever eaten, actually.”

Updates on our special charities Ann: “We’re always looking for new volunteers for Kids on the Block and people find performing for the fourth graders so rewarding.

We started our interviews for the Jim Burke Ford Dimension and Dream Builders programs in March and met a lot of wonderful 11th grade applicants from our high schools. This is always a special time to meet such amazing students.

It is always so exciting for me.”

120 Bakersfield Magazine

Robin: “We just wrapped up a great fund-raiser, “Taste of the Town,” and I am looking forward to the Relay for Life in Bakersfield and Taft.”

Sue: “Memorial continues to move forward with plans to open the only Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in the southern San Joaquin Valley later this year. The PICU will enable seriously ill children to receive the best care right here in Bakersfield, rather than having to travel to hospitals in Madera or Los Angeles.” Please contact Sue at 327-4647, ext. 1829, for information about The Miracle Society, which will support children’s services at Memorial Hospital.

Jillian: “The BAM after school program being piloted at Discovery Elementary, Caesar Chavez School, and other schools in town, provides an exciting outlet for children and families. Children especially enjoy the opportunity to meet CSUB Chemistry Professors Dr. Andreas Gabeaur and Dr. David Saiki. Upcoming monthly themes include rocketry, robotics, and electricity with professors and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) professionals partnering for presentations and demonstrations. Pavletich Electric’s Roy Allard will also be sharing his love of teaching >> and circuitry with the young people, and PG&E’s Brent Rush, assisted by his son, Cameron, will be providing electrical demonstrations. Those interested in learning more about hosting a BAM after school program may contact 327-KIDS.” Judi: “I’m wearing two hats now, both as the Founding Organizer for the Women’s & Girls’ Fund of Kern County and as Board Chairman for the Kern Community Foundation (which is a part of the Women’s & Girls’ Fund). Currently, the Women’s & Girls’ Fund is evaluating proposals for its second-ever grant-making cycle. Those grant awards will be announced at the Annual Celebration Luncheon scheduled for April 29, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Seven Oaks Country Club. Cost is $35 per person with reserved tables of 8 available for $300. At the same event, the Women’s & Girls’ Fund will announce its ‘Women Defining Philanthropy’ awards. Anyone wanting reservations or more information may call 325-5346.”

The American Cancer Society “Even though the cure for cancer won’t be found in Kern County because we don’t do research here, we want to find a cure period and the funding our community provides for that research will help make that happen,” explains Cherie.

And it’s not just about dollars, she adds; there are all kinds of ways people can contribute.

“We need volunteers to help in the office, work in the Discovery Shop, and help transport patients to and from treatments,” adding that the Road to Recovery patient transport program is a really fulfilling way to help out.

“People make such great connections and end up keeping in touch even after treatment ends.”

It’s volunteers that make the difference in the fight against cancer, and Cherie points out that any time given is valuable.

“Even if you can volunteer once a week, every other day, or just two hours a month, your time means so much to the fight against cancer.” Call 324-3421 for more information on volunteering.

Would you and a friend like to “do lunch” with The Lunch Bunch and dine for charity? Win this opportunity at nonprofit events around town and you’ll be helping our philanthropic community, get to play restaurant critic, have your photograph in the magazine, and network with some pretty dynamic Bakersfield ladies compliments of Bakersfield Magazine! Where else can you get the inside dish (along with lunch) with some of our city’s V.I.W.’s (Very Important Women)? n

meet The Lunch Bunch Dining for Charity is an ensemble of local ladies who lunch at a different area restaurant six times a year. The group welcomes special guests to the table each luncheon! These guests are people who placed winning bids at silent auctions during local charity events to win “Lunch For 2 With the Lunch Bunch.” Proceeds from the bids go toward local charities.

(left to right) Ann Hansen, Sue Benham, Patricia Loyd, Robin Mangarin, Tracie Grimes, Janis Varner, Cherie Shoemake, and Jillian Fritch-Stump.

G.H. SLACK

&

SON

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Our reputation is based on excellence in service and products and our employees are our #1 asset.

Let G.H. Slack & Son give vision to your window and door ideas.

2741 Landco Drive • Bakersfield, CA • www.ghslack.com • 661-325-5878 www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 121

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Sorella Ristorante Italiano

Voted best Italian restaurant in 2005, come in and see why. Our beef ravioli, meatballs and lasagna are created with the freshest of ingredients. For something different we have grilled 18 oz. New York or Porterhouse steaks, seafood and chicken. Nancy and her family continue the tradition of making everything homemade daily. All items are available for take out. Hours: Mon-Thu 11am9pm, Friday 11am-10pm, Saturday 4-10pm, Sunday 4-9pm. Reservations recommended. 7800 McNair Ln. (661)396-8603

Prime Cut Meats & Eats

Quality doesn’t always cost a lot. Prices have dropped and we are passing the savings on to you. We are locally owned and operated and enjoy serving our customers. We pride ourselves on our signature dishes prepared fresh daily. We specialize in Steaks, Cajun Dishes, Burgers, Sandwiches, etc. Inside our restaurant we have one of Bakersfield’s oldest Old Fashioned butcher shops featuring USDA Choice and higher meats, poultry and pork. We also create a variety of hand made sausages, salads and heat and eat items. We are looking forward to earning your business. Hours: Open daily at 11:00am. 9500 Brimhall Rd. #100. All major credit cards accepted. (661)831-1413

Benji’s French Basque

Benji’s offers something a little different from Bakersfield’s Basque fare. In addition to traditional Basque entrées of lamb, chicken, veal and beef, Benji’s has pan-fried frog legs with garlic lemon sauce, lobster tail, roasted duck, escargots and calf liver.

And the beef isn’t just tri-tip; Benji’s serves a scrumptious filet mignon and New York steak with pepper cognac sauce. All dinners are served with the customary Basque family style set-up. Don’t forget Benji’s specialty soufflés flavored with Grand Marnier, raspberry, chocolate or lemon. Basque family owned and operated for 20 years.

Banquet facilities available. Conveniently located 2 blocks west of Highway 99 at 4001 Rosedale Hwy. Open daily 11:30am-2pm and 5:30-9:30pm except Tuesdays.

Lounge opens 11am. (661)328-0400

122 Bakersfield Magazine

Bill Lee’s Bamboo Chopsticks

Anxious to taste traditional Chinese cuisine? If you haven’t been to Bill Lee’s Bamboo Chopsticks yet, what are you waiting for? Since 1938, Bill Lee’s has been cooking up flavorful dishes inspired by the culinary styles of the Far East. They also boast a full service bar and several fine banquet rooms which feature antique carvings and original artifacts from the Orient: terra cotta figures from the Xian Museum, including General Li, an archer, and a full size horse. You taste only the freshest ingredients in all their dishes. Open for lunch and dinner Sun through Thu, 11am-9:30pm and Friday and Saturday, 11am-10pm, or eat at home with their fast home delivery and take out service. 1203 18th Street. billlees.com. (661)324-9441

Sandrini’s

Looking for a restaurant with quality food and service with a bar that has a Cheers-like atmosphere in downtown Bakersfield? Walk down our stairs and that’s what you’ll find.

Come for lunch or dinner and choose from an assortment of delectable Italian and Basque dishes, all prepared in house with the freshest ingredients. Come for drinks and find an excellent wine list with an exceptional selection of more than 110 beers and 80 premium whiskeys to satisfy your palate. Join us after 9:30 pm Wednesdays through Saturdays for live local talent. Hours: Lunch Mon-Fri 11am-2pm, Dinner Mon-Sat 5-9pm, Bar Mon-Fri 11am-close, Sat 5pm-close. Reservations Accepted.

All major credit cards accepted. 1918 Eye St. (661)322-8900

The Orchid

If you’re looking for the perfect blend of traditional Thai flavors and modern twists, The Orchid is the place to try. With mouthwatering specialty dishes like Red Curry Rib-Eye Steak and our Lamb Chop with Spicy Mango Sauce, we dare you to find a restaurant offering more pow for your buck. We offer take-out and catering services, but our elegant dining room is perfect for a lunch meeting or an intimate night out—and you should get there early to find a seat by the soothing waterfall!

Daily lunch specials include many classic Thai entrées like Panang Curry and Crunchy Cashew stir fry, a sweet and spicy dish made with onions, bell peppers, water chestnuts, and roasted cashews. Join us Mon-Thu from 11am-10pm or Fri & Sat from 11am-11pm. 9500 Brimhall Road. (661)587-8900

Wood’ys Grill & Bar

“We’re having a great time at Wood’ys!” For almost 25 years, Wood’ys has been delighting Bakersfield families with a menu of California favorites, a lively bar featuring exotic cocktails, icy Mondo beers and multiple screens for that special sports event.

Enjoy a mini-vacation in a casual atmosphere while enjoying a wide variety of delicious appetizers, garden fresh salads, sandwiches, fish tacos, gourmet burgers, baby back ribs, juicy steaks and delectable desserts! Catch the wave into Wood’ys. Open daily at 11am for lunch, dinner, and late night dining. Happy Hour 4-7pm; 9pm-close.

5555 Truxtun Ave. www.woodysgrill.com (661)324-7400

Hungry Hunter

Yes, we have the best prime rib in town, but we’re so much more than a great steakhouse. Come in for lunch and enjoy our fresh ground 1/2lb. Angus Burgers or a homemade infused salmon burger. We’ve got soups and salads as well to complement our many entrées. Our dinner menu is just as varied with Australian lobster tails and fettuccine alfredo. Our delicious steaks are hand cut to ensure the freshest steak possible, so wrap your mouth around our black & bleu ribeye, or a tender filet mignon. We offer a great wine list that is sure to pair with any meal.

Locally owned and operated. Happy hour: Mon-Fri, 2-6pm, Hours: Mon-Fri, Lunch 11:30am-3pm, Dinner 3-10pm, Saturdays 4:30-10pm, Sundays 12-9pm.

3580 Rosedale Hwy. (661)328-0580

Valentien Restaurant and Wine Bar

Valentien...French cuisine with California fusion. The atmosphere at Valentien is unique; both laid back and elegant. Every dining experience is different with our ever-changing menu. Valentien offers something for everyone’s palate, from seafood, poultry, beef and exotic game to vegetarian options. Showcasing seasonal fresh and local produce, we utilize the bountiful agriculture that Kern County farms are known for. As often as possible our chefs use organic ingredients. We are constantly seeking out the freshest products available. For example, we often will have our fish flown in from Hawaii. No matter the origin, we always strive for a less than 24 hour sea to plate turnaround. Valentien also serves only the highest grade beef and premium meats and poultry. We feature an extensive wine list primarily focusing on boutique and artisan wines. Call for more information about our frequent wine tastings and other upcoming events. Valentien…a dining experience like no other in Bakersfield. Hours: Lunch Tue-Fri 11:30am-2pm Dinner Tue-Sat 5-9:30pm. Wine bar open until midnight on Friday & Saturday. All major credit cards accepted. Reservations recommended but not required. 3310 Truxtun Ave., Suite 160 (661)864-0397

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 123

the dining guide

Red Pepper

A Bakersfield Institution – Newly Remodeled! For over 25 years, the Red Pepper has been doing the ordinary and the extraordinary in an exceptional fashion, from traditional Mexican favorites to gourmet Mexican cuisine. Owner Gilbert Sabedra has made some exciting additions to their critically acclaimed menu. Specialties include lobster, shrimp, crab and halibut dishes, or steak, pork, chicken, and lamb entrées, all with an extraordinary Mexican flair that the Red Pepper is famous for. Now offering Central California Coast wines, or enjoy one of the best margaritas you’ll ever have. Hours: Lunch daily from 11am, Dinner Mon–Thu until 9pm, Fri-Sat until 9:30pm, Sunday until 8:30pm, Sunday Brunch from 10am–2pm. Most credit cards accepted.

Located just off Freeway 178 at 2641 Oswell Street, Suite G. (661)871-5787

Hourglass Kitchen & Bar

Hourglass Kitchen & Bar offers a wide variety of choices to satisfy everyone’s tastebuds. Our popular appetizer, yellow tail tuna tartar served with avocado salsa, is just one of the many favorites. Indulge in gourmet sandwiches and salads, and seafood, pasta, and entrées straight off the grill. All steaks and hamburgers are made with Harris Ranch Beef. Located at the corner of Calloway & Brimhall. Open MonSat 11am-10pm for dining and open for late night cocktails. Also available for large parties & catering. Closed Sundays. (661)679-1977

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Grandview Asian Cuisine

Take a trip to the Far East in this amazing restaurant located on the corner of Ming and Ashe. Try Grandview’s for a delicious variety of Asian cuisine and a relaxing atmosphere. Dine on some of the best Dim Sum Bakersfield has to offer while listening to the gentle splash of a waterfall. Whether you have a craving for fine Asian dining, or desire a place to unwind after work, Grandview Asian Cuisine provides the perfect place to get away. Hours: 10am-9pm daily. Visa, MC, AE, DC. 2217 Ashe Road, Bakersfield. (661)832-2288

Mauricio’s Grill & Cantina

Enjoy all the flavors of Mexico at Mauricio’s Grill & Cantina. Select from our large selection of seafood and vegetarian specialties, or choose your favorite classic south-of-the-border dish. Whether you’re in the mood for fajitas, carnitas or just a couple of tacos, Mauricio’s Old World ambiance offers a relaxed atmosphere for lunch, dinner or Sunday brunch (Rosedale restaurant). Join us for Happy Hour in our full bar, 3-7pm, daily. We also offer outdoor patio dining and a banquet room for large groups. All major credit cards accepted. Hours: Mon-Thu 11am-9:30pm, Friday & Saturday 11am-10:30pm, Sundays 10am-9:30pm. Two locations to serve you: 10700 Rosedale Hwy. (661)589-5292 and 6401 White Lane (661)837-9570

Milt’s Coffee Shop

For 44 years, Milt’s has been a Bakersfield staple! Join us for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and you won’t be disappointed. Everything on our menu is made from scratch giving a meal at Milt’s that fresh, homemade taste you can’t find anywhere else. Plus, all our deli sandwiches are served with your choice of soup, salad, fries, potato salad, chips, fresh fruit, or cottage cheese, making the perfect lunch. And the variety doesn’t stop there. Try the Texas Chile Size—a burger loaded with chili and topped with cheese and onions. Dinner is a belt-busting affair with steaks, trout, pork loin, and honey stung fried chicken on the menu. We’ve also got fare for the calorie-conscious. “We are a happy place for hungry people.” Open seven days a week from 6am-10:30pm. 6112 Knudsen Dr. (661)399-4975

Jake’s Tex-Mex Cafe

Celebrating its 23rd anniversary, this fast casual restaurant sets the standard for Tex-Mex in Bakersfield. “Cowboy Grub” is the description for slow roasted pit beef, mesquite smoked tri-tip, garlic chicken, multiple salads including the most popular taco salad. Chocolate cake nobody leaves without. “This ain’t no refried bean kinda joint.” Hours Mon-Sat 11am to 8pm. Closed Sundays. 1710 Oak St. www.jakestexmex.com (661)322-6380

Frugatti’s Italian Wood-Fired Oven

Real Italian by Real Italians! Whether dining in or al fresco on our new patio, come in and enjoy our new menu that’s bursting with flavor for lunch, dinner or just dessert. You’ll love our steaks. We use only the highest quality Certified Angus Brand® Beef. You’ll also love our chicken, seafood and pizzas cooked in our imported Italian wood-burning oven. We also offer a wide selection of pasta dishes and other Italian favorites. For dessert try our homemade New York cheesecakes or Tiramisu. Come experience our friendly atmosphere. Hours: Mon-Thu 11am9:30pm, Friday 11am-10pm, Saturday 11:30am-10pm, Sunday 11:30am-9pm. All major credit cards accepted. 600 Coffee Rd., corner of Truxtun and Coffee. (661)836-2000

124 Bakersfield Magazine

The Bistro

With new manager Danny Williams at the helm and a new menu, The Bistro is the place to dine in Bakersfield. Recently remodeled with L.A. style décor to match their “California fresh” cuisine, The Bistro is supporting local growers by using Alpha Produce and is proud to serve Harris Ranch beef. Try the Harris Ranch filet mignon with a rich Veal Demi Glace or for a real sweet kick, taste the Wild Sweet Orange-crusted Ahi Tuna with Citris-ginger sauce. And you don’t want to miss the Herb Cream Cheese Artichoke Heart Tempura with Honey Dijon Glaze. Come by for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, or join us in the lounge for a romantic evening.

Open 8-10am for breakfast, 11am-2pm for lunch, and 5-10pm for dinner.

Lounge hours are 11am-11pm. 5105 California Ave. (661)323-3905

Uricchio’s Trattoria

Nestled in the heart of Downtown in the historical Haberfelde Building. Steaks, chops, seafood, and classic Italian dishes, complemented by an extensive wine list, have made Uricchio’s a mainstay for over a decade. Uricchio’s San Francisco style setting is family owned and operated, and the perfect spot for a business lunch, or a romantic dining experience. After your meal save room for the fabulous desserts from LaMousse of Beverly Hills. Hours: Lunch Mon-Fri 11am-2pm, Dinner Mon-Thu 5-9pm, Friday & Saturday 5-10pm. Reservations recommended, lunch reservations for large groups only. 1400 17th St. Downtown. (661)326-8870

Toro Fusion Sushi Bar and Grill

“Like no other sushi bar” we are a fusion of taste and elegance. Full menu for lunch or dinner, appetizers, sushi, and sashimi. Over 50 types of rolls from the traditional California Roll to our Toro Special Roll. Extensive menu offers everything from our Heart Attack and Monkey Brains to salads, entrées, barbecue beef ribs or Toro Fusion bowls. Experience the new Hot Rock, an exciting way to cook your own meal right at your table. Hours: Mon-Thu 11am-10pm, Friday 11am-11pm, Saturday 12-11pm, Sunday 3-9:30pm. 9000 Ming Ave. T-4. (661)663-7878

Asia Market -Teriyaki Bowl

Asia Market & Teriyaki Bowl carries a wide selection of all Asian foods, including Chinese and Japanese favorites! The best part about our store is that after you have chosen your favorite item, you can either take it home and prepare a meal for yourself, or you can come into our restaurant and have us prepare a delicious meal for you using your selection! We have a full-service store and restaurant, so you can come in for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Join us today for excellent food provided by a friendly staff in a great atmosphere! Hours: 9am-9pm daily. 7701 White Lane. (661)837-0982

www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Spring 2009 125

the dining guide

T-Bones Steakhouse

Bringing a little bit of Santa Maria-style BBQ to Bakersfield, we are the newest place to enjoy Certified Angus Beef. It’s a hot spot for great food, great drinks, great music, and great fun! Come in and savor a ribeye, New York, or sirloin alongside homemade chili beans, cornbread, Pyrenees French bread, and over-sized baked potatoes.

Also try our premium Alaskan halibut or a tender, juicy lamb sirloin. T-Bones’ kid’s menu is extensive, so don’t be afraid to bring the lil’ buckaroos. And for dessert, our homemade peach cobbler and brownies are served with ice cream. An Express Lunch Menu for those on the go is happily served Mon-Sat 11am-2pm. Dinner hours are Mon-Tue 4-9pm, Wed-Thu 4-10, Friday and Saturday 4-11pm, and Sunday 12-8pm. 8020 District Blvd. Tbones4Steaks.com (661)398-1300

Wool Growers Restaurant

Come to Wool Growers downtown in Old Kern for a dining experience you won’t forget! We serve delicious Basque cuisine and also have an excellent wine list.

Much more than a culinary experience, within the walls of this restaurant, you are our family and you’ll be served delicious & abundant food in a warm, inviting and relaxing atmosphere. Hours: Mon-Sat 11:30am-2pm, 6-9:30pm. Closed Sunday.

620 E. 19th Street. Reservations are accepted by fax, (661)327-4440, and phone, (661)327-9584

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El Portal West

We invite you to enjoy our newest Mexican Grill and Cantina, El Portal West. We offer a great selection of appetizers, soups & salads, seafood, and our specialties are chicken, steak and shrimp fajitas. Our full service bar features the best margaritas in town! Happy Hour Mon-Fri 3-7pm (bar only), Lunch specials everyday, 11am-2pm. Fabulous Sunday Brunch, 10am-3pm, reservations accepted.

1100 Calloway Drive. (661)829-2737

La Costa Mariscos

Serving the best of the best for over 15 years, La Costa Mariscos offers a wide variety of quality, freshly-prepared Mexican and seafood dishes in a cozy, unique atmosphere. We are a family-oriented restaurant with a fast and friendly attitude.

Come in and enjoy our many delicious entrées made from traditional recipes. Our enchiladas are savory and delicately seasoned and our salads are crisp and light.

Or, if you’re looking to entertain guests, we can bring the food to you; serve La Costa Mariscos from the comfort of your own home as we are available for catering.

We’re ready to satisfy your taste buds daily from 11am-9pm. 716 21st Street.

(661)322-2655

The Nines Restaurant at the Marriott

Located inside the Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center, The Nines is a chic, trendy place to dine serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week for all your culinary desires. We’ve got sweet breakfast favorites like French Toast with Caramelized Apples. Or try the tempting Shrimp and Jack Cheese Omelet made with fresh shrimp, artichokes, and jack cheese, topped with California avocados.

For lunch and dinner, we offer Marriott’s take on classic recipes from scrumptious hamburgers and Maryland crab cakes to savory rigatoni. Our list of salads is sure to impress with the BLT Salad, the classic cobb, and the antipasto chopped salad with fresh salami and mozzarella! Reservations recommended but not required. Hours are Mon-Sun 6:30am-2pm and from 5-10pm. 801 Truxtun Ave. (661)323-1900

Café Med

For a cozy, intimate setting and fine dining with a unique atmosphere, Café Med is the place to go. Choose a selection from our extensive menu and your taste buds will surely be satisfied. Start off with an appetizer-perhaps you might try our Grilled Shrimp Cocktail or Hummus with Lamb Meat-a house specialty. Then choose from a variety of entrées including Mediterranean salads, steaks or even pasta. An excellent dish to try is our Fisherman’s Pasta-a mix of shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams & the catch of the day sautéed in a tomato, basil and mushroom cream sauce. Come by Café Med today for a delicious variety and friendly service. Open 7 days a week 11am-close. Live music on Friday & Saturday nights. Reservations accepted.

Visa, MC, AE, DC. 4809 Stockdale Hwy. cafemedrestaurant.com. (661)834-4433

T.L. Maxwell’s Restaurant & Bar

Every city and town in America has a classic restaurant. A restaurant that combines ambiance, great food, tradition and history. T.L. Maxwell’s Restaurant & Bar is that restaurant for Bakersfield. It is part of the Haberfelde complex, located in the oldest building in downtown Bakersfield. T.L. Maxwell’s has an award-winning wine list that matches the traditional full menu and the creative specials that are offered for lunch and dinner. Owners Terry and Paula Maxwell are both locals. So go where the locals go (and lots of out-of-towners): T.L. Maxwell’s Restaurant & Bar. Banquet facility available. Most major credit cards accepted. Hours: Tue-Fri 11:30am-1:30pm and 5:30-8:30pm, Saturday 5:30-9:30pm. Closed Sun-Mon. 1421 17th Place (between 17th and 18th streets) on the east side of Chester. (661)323-6889

126 Bakersfield Magazine

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Dressed in their finest, supporters of the Bakersfield Symphony gathered to celebrate the majesty of our local classic music scene. The event, hosted by the Symphony Associates, was opulent. The fabulous five-course dinner was followed by thrilling silent and live auctions. And throughout the night, guests danced to the wonderful tunes of the Ronnie Kay Orchestra.

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Heart health was on everyone’s mind at the 5th annual Go Red for Women luncheon. Guests enjoyed fascinating presentations on women’s heart health from local physicians before being treated to a scrumptious lunch by our American Heart Association. In addition to an uplifting keynote speech and emotional testimonials, attendees were treated to a fun and flirty fashion show.

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Kern County’s Hall of Records building turned 100 years old! Locals, alongside staff, gathered for this centennial celebration. Special speakers graced the audience with history as well as personal stories and experiences in this historic building. Those who attended later got a tour of the building and enjoyed the historical photographs and artifacts that were displayed around the building.

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Guests were all smiles as they entered the Hayden Family indoor baseball field for CASA’s Field of Dreams event! With baseball memorabilia among the great items up for grabs in the live and silent auctions and delicious food catered by Café Med, everyone was having a ball... a baseball that is! Proceeds benefit CASA’s 2009 programs.

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In celebration of their many supporters, the Boys and Girls Club of Kern County hosted a wonderful thank-you dinner full of fun and fanfare. A yummy menu, provided by Champs BBQ, was served as awards were passed out to deserving community volunteers, sponsors, and partners.

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Hardt Field Dedication

Batter up! Cal State Bakersfield supporters and local sports fans eagerly gathered for the first pitch of the season at the dedication of CSUB’s new baseball field and training center. Guests were treated to ballgame snacks (including ice cream!) and enjoyed a lovely ribbon cutting ceremony while celebrating the new season at Hardt Field.

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Warmline Luau

More than 250 guests attended this 1st Annual Luau and Silent Auction.

Celebrating their 30 years of community service, Warmline volunteers and supporters, and even founder Margaret Gannon, partied the night away dining on scrumptious tropical fare. Live Island music and Hawaiian dance performances wowed attendees. Proceeds will benefit future Warmline programs.

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bakersfield’s sound

d

The first pitch is thrown out to start the opening game on April 24, 1942 at Sam Lynn Ballpark.

Photo courtesy Kern county museum

sam Lynn ballpark, 1942

he first pitch; a swing and a miss. Nothin’ worse than the sound of a whiff. Though baseball in Bakersfield has a bit of a motley history, it has never struck out with fans—even the ones in suits.

And that’s saying something as this charter member of the California League has changed monikers more in its 68 years than Elizabeth Taylor has changed husbands. Crowds rallied behind the Badgers, Indians, Boosters, Bears, Outlaws, Mariners, and Dodgers before they rooted for the Blaze.

However, the mystique has less to do with the team mascot and more with the man behind the west-facing plate.

Before Sam Lynn was immortalized with a ballpark, he was the owner of the local CocaCola bottling plant and consecutively sponsored the aptly named Bakersfield Coca-Cola’s, a semi-pro baseball team. Lynn’s passion and funding brought a resurgence of excitement back to the sport and soon, Lynn and San Francisco Seals President Charlie Graham had pieced together the backbone for what would be the California League. That was in 1938.

It took three years for the league to see its inaugural season and Lynn died before the first pitch.

Since then, the ball club has been home to some incredible players including Hall-ofFame pitcher Don Drysdale, been in jeopardy when their agreement with the Brooklyn Dogders ended after the 1955 season, and even broken some records (the largest single game attendance in a California League game with 8,175 fans on July 3, 1995).

Most importantly, Lynn’s spirit and love of the game has been kept alive and well with generations of fans packing the stands (which they’ll do again this year after the season starts on April 16) to watch those runs keep coming. No whiffs for us.

the story of bakersfield is all around us, you just have to look — and listen.

138 Bakersfield Magazine

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