CHANGING CLIMATE

from Climate RWC – June 2022

AROUND TOWN

San Mateo County History Museum Recruiting Volunteer Docents

Woodside Store docents left to right: Jim Kelly, Kathy Kliebe and Jim Wagner.

By Janet McGovern

For three Sundays every month, Carmen Blair doesn’t have to worry about who’s minding the Woodside Store. Three reliable volunteers show up to open the rustic museum site for their docent shifts and close up after the last visitors leave. But for that fourth Sunday? Blair, who is the San Mateo County Historical Association’s deputy director, doesn’t have another regular volunteer to plug into that vacant date, which means she has to deploy paid staff.

“I can do that,” she says, but the volunteers bring their own interest and knowledge of local history, enthusiasm— and even friends to visit. “So it’s just not the same. My staff is wonderful but it brings a new dimension to have the volunteers interpreting the site one day a week as well.”

The association operates the history museum in downtown Redwood City plus two sites—the Gold Rush-era Woodside Store at 3300 Tripp Road; and the Sanchez Adobe in Pacifica, the county’s second oldest building, dating from 1786. (An adobe on private property is older.) Association employees cover most of the hours on weekdays and weekends when the three locations are open. By volunteering, the docents and “gallery monitors” who take other weekend slots or help at big events expand the museum’s staffing capabilities. Coming off of two years of Covid and prolonged closures of all three locations, the association needs to rebuild the ranks of both docents and the gallery monitors (the monitors don’t lead tours but can help direct visitors between galleries or toward interactive exhibits).

Some of the docents at the history museum conduct adult tours, but others help with visits of school children, from grades 1 to 4. Pre-pandemic, Blair says, she could call on 12 to 14 gallery monitors on a big event day, plus five docents leading tours. “Currently, our gallery numbers are much smaller,” Blair says. She only has one volunteer docent for the museum tours.

Why A Shortage

Some volunteers are still uncomfortable being around crowds, even wearing masks. Some, says Blair, are now taking care of grandchildren. Some have moved from the area, and others are dealing with illness. Docents are often seniors or retirees, who are also two years older than when the pandemic arrived. Sanchez Adobe is open weekdays but uses volunteers both Saturdays and Sundays. The historic site has an interpretive center in addition to the two-story adobe, so twice as many people are needed, says Blair, who picked up some new volunteers after an orientation in October. More are needed, but the shortfall is especially acute at the Woodside Store, where three retirees are largely holding the fort. A couple of others fill in when they are able to or help at special events, according to Blair.

Jim Kelly of San Mateo and Jim Wagner of Foster City have been volunteering there for decades. Each takes one shift a month (noon to 4 p.m.), and when there’s a fifth Sunday, they split it. Kathy Klebe of Redwood City, who is also president of the Historic Union Cemetery Association, covers another Sunday. All three enjoy serving as docents—greeting visitors and

explaining about the store’s history—and wish more people would join them.

“When we first started here it was not uncommon for us to have maybe three docents on a weekend,” says Wagner, “ which was great because if one of them went on vacation, then you’d still have at least two. Then it got down to two docents per weekend. Now it’s down to one for a weekend.”

A solo volunteer can’t leave the general store unattended to open up the blacksmith shop, which gives visitors less to see, Kelly adds.

Reasons for Volunteering

Formerly a water department supervisor for the City of Burlingame, his entrée to volunteering came when his research about a San Francisco ancestor brought him to the history museum. “So here I am 30 odd years later,” Kelly says. He finds being a docent a pleasant way to volunteer. “People don’t come in here if they’re in a bad mood.”

Wagner wanted a change after a career at Lockheed Martin “staring at a computer screen all day” and was looking for something “where there was absolutely no tech involved.” (Though the Woodside Store has wi-fi, he abstains while on museum duty.)

The store dates from 1854 (the original, built in 1851, burned down) and sold everything from construction supplies to food. It also served at various times as a post office, bank, saloon and the dental office of one of its partners, R.O. “Doc” Tripp. All of that has been recreated within the redwood emporium, which includes a mercantile room where loggers and other settlers could buy lanterns, coffee pots, tobacco, a pound of beans for five cents, a dozen eggs for six cents or an axe handle for $5.

A third room displays sawmill blades, a yoke for a team of oxen and other equipment from the lumber trade. Another room is set up as a classroom for school visits, when kids may get a chance to learn how their ancestors made rope, dolls or lugged water to wash clothes.

During their training, would-be docents read about the history of the museum or site but also get pointers on how to interact with visitors. Some, like Garbo, just vant to be alone when they power through, and the volunteers are taught to pick up on body language and other cues as to who does or does not want to engage.

Kelly says international visitors often hang out longer than local people: With its rough, sawn siding and creaking wooden floor, the old store brings to life foreigners’ ideas about the Old West from the movies. Docents are also taught to be honest if they don’t know an answer. There’s a reference binder—and a lifeline to Blair if a question is a real stumper.

Living History

In addition to volunteering at the store, Klebe also leads tours at Redwood City’s Union Cemetery, where some of the pioneers who bought potatoes or whisky at the Woodside Store are buried. The more she’s learned about the cemetery, the more she realizes that their histories are entwined. “I get them at the cemetery at the end of their lives, and here they were— working people,” she says, leaning on a counter in the store.“… They were in this building. So to me it’s like living history.”

From about 10 to 30 visitors drop in on a typical Sunday, and the most common reaction, says Klebe, is “We’ve driven by this for years and have never been here.” Once, as she swept the wooden porch, she noticed three teen-aged boys on the street watching her and invited them in. Though reluctant at first, Klebe says, “They left 3½ hours later.”

Docents and gallery monitors alike are asked to commit to one shift a month, and as volunteering goes, it could be ideal for a couple, especially people who enjoy history. Or kids. Or both. “Former teachers are a good source,” Blair says. “We’ve had grandparents who are just very enthusiastic about conveying their own love of history.”

Help is needed for big special events like the Fourth of July and Victorian Days, on Aug. 21. Blair is targeting this month for the next orientation; trainees get “shadowed” by a veteran docent before they’re out on their own. For information, go to historysmc.org. C Writer Laurence Marks contributed to this story.

San Mateo County’s “Who’s Who” of Sports

Six names to be added to the ever-expanding Hall of Fame

Helen Lengfeld Photo courtesy Mike Jamieson Collection

By Dan Brown

One of the few drawbacks to San Mateo County’s preposterous pipeline of sports stars is that the backlog of local Hall of Fame candidates still stretches as far as the El Camino Real is long.

Even after celebrating more than 300 athletes, coaches and pioneers since the inception of what is now called the Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame in 1989, sportswriter and founder John Horgan and the rest of the selection committee keep unearthing lost diamonds. The six-member class scheduled to be inducted this June 23 includes the late Helen Lengfeld, who was born in 1898 and so altered the landscape of Northern California golf that Golf Digest once named her one of the five most influential women in the sport.

In 1926, Lengfeld helped found the Women’s Golf Association of Northern California and in 1927 she won its first championship. She died in 1986 at the age of 88, but this honor will introduce her to a new generation.

“When her nomination came through a year or so ago, we went, ‘Oh my goodness!’’’ Horgan said. “We were really surprised and thrilled that somebody had taken the time to let us know about her.”

Horgan and rest of the voters can be forgiven for needing extra time to get to accommodate all the San Mateo sports figures deserving of a plaque. Because as local celebrations go, it’s hard to match the haul of this Hall. This isn’t a Mt. Rushmore; it’s a mountain range.

Famous Names

Walk around the upper rotunda of the San Mateo History Museum, where the tributes to the honorees recently found a permanent home, and the star power can be blinding. Hey, there’s Tom Brady of Serra High, who grew up to win seven Super Bowls (and counting?). Over there is another Serra alum, Barry Bonds, the baseball star who, like Brady, can start – and usually end – an argument about the best to ever to play their sport.

Over there is the brilliant and bombastic John Madden, who left his imprint on the NFL in three indelible ways: winning a Super Bowl, transforming television broadcasting and spawning a video game empire. Madden did so only after attending Catholic parochial school at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Daly City. That’s where he met lifelong pal John Robinson, who also has a plaque here, after leaving a coaching legacy at USC and with the Los Angeles Rams. Madden forever joked about their unlikely success, quipping that they were “just two doofuses from Daly City.”

With due respect, neither of those is the best football coach in this Hall of

Fame: A former College of San Mateo quarterback named Bill Walsh went on to win three Super Bowls with the 49ers.

But fame is no prerequisite. This hall defines its parameters for induction as “athletes, coaches, administrators, media members and others who have local roots and have had a significant impact on their chosen sports-related pursuits.”

“It’s just special to be recognized by your hometown,’’ said Chris Dorst who will be inducted this month. He was a water polo player at Menlo-Atherton High School and Stanford and helped Team USA win a silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. “I was born at Sequoia Hospital. I remember reading the Redwood City Tribune and being named the ‘Athlete of the Week’ and thinking it would be the coolest thing to ever happen to me.”

The Bases Covered

Name a sport, any sport, and it’s likely someone from San Mateo County once dominated it on the world stage. There are several swimmers with Olympic medals (such as Anne Warner Cribbs, who learned to swim in Menlo Park and captured gold in Rome in 1960), a figure skater with World Championships (Debi Thomas), a yachtsman famed for his America’s Cup races (Paul Cayard), the best athlete in the Brady family (Maureen, a softball player), a Redwood City surfer who made Mavericks famous (Jeff Clark), and a jockey with the most race wins in North American horse-racing history (Russell Baze).

It’s the “Wide World of Sports” but mostly confined to the 650 area code.

“I’m honored to be part of the Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame,’’ Cribbs wrote in an email. “Such a great history and recognition of athletes, coaches and sports from The real key to this hall, though, is that it also salutes the athletes whose “thrill of victory” never made the airwaves but nevertheless earned a special place in Peninsula sports history. There are former high school standouts, life-changing coaches and dedicated community leaders.

San Mateo County – it is a wonderful place to live, grow up and compete!”

The real key to this hall, though, is that it also salutes the athletes whose “thrill of victory” never made the airwaves but nevertheless earned a special place in Peninsula sports history. There are former high school standouts, life-changing coaches and dedicated community leaders. This hall makes creative use of a “special category” that makes room for people like Alfred “Red” Morton, whose personal Super Bowl was guiding the Redwood City community recreation department for 34 years starting in 1937. Morton’s plaque at the Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame hails him as “the father of athletics in Redwood City.” “We wanted to be sure, right out of the box, that this thing was representative of the entire county in terms of men, women, individual sports, referees, administrators, black, white, Asian,’’ said Horgan, a Serra High grad. “We wanted to be sure that we could reflect the face of the county, and I think we have.” The Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame was a massive undertaking from the moment in 1988 that Horgan and a few other scribes started kicking around the idea in the offices of the bygone San Mateo Times. What began as a clever way to commemorate the centennial of The Times quickly blossomed into something that wound up lasting longer than the paper itself (it sold in 1996).

The First Ten

For what was originally called the San Mateo County Sports Hall of Fame, the inaugural induction class in 1989 welcomed a sizeable wave of 10 inductees. Bob Sarlatte, the big-voiced comedian best known around Bay Area sports for his 30 years as the public-address announcer at 49ers games, was the master of ceremonies for the event at a swanky hotel in Burlingame.

Attendance at the banquets over the years would soar as high as 450 guests and the stars weren’t limited to the audience. Horgan recalls the 2002 induction ceremony that included longtime Carlmont High cross-country/track coach Loren Lansberry. Horgan made a quick visit to the men’s room before the festivities and ran into one of Lansberry’s former runners.

“Who's in there? Dana Carvey!” Horgan said, referring to the “Saturday Night Live” star. Carvey had slipped into the event unnoticed, showing up quietly to honor his old coach. “I kind of looked at him and said, ‘Mr. Carvey,’ it's really nice that you came tonight. I understand that

you were one of Mr. Lansberry’s athletes. Please say no if you want to say no. But would you like to say a few words about Mr. Lansberry?’’’

Carvey leaped at the chance and later took the stage and did almost 15 minutes of killer high-school cross-country comedy.

Over the years, the hall itself lived something of a vagabond existence. Its homes have included a large sports bar at what is now the Bridgepoint Shopping Center near Foster City. From there, it wound up, improbably, in the dining area of the Hillsdale Shopping Center.

“Now, you might ask yourself, ‘Why would they do that? Why would they put it there?’’’ Horgan said, still laughing. “Well, it turned out they really wanted it because they thought it might draw customers into the old court. I don’t know if it did. But it didn't do that because the food court is pretty much gone.”

Finding a New Home

In 2019, the San Mateo County Historical Association took over the presentation of the induction event and, at last, gave the Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame a suitable home. This year, the museum aims to put the “class’” in induction class.

“We have plans for vastly improving the exhibit,’’ said Mitch Postel, the president of the San Mateo County Historical Association. “Currently, people have a little trouble finding the plaque they’re looking for. So we're going to computerize things so that you can be directed exactly where you need to go. And we’re going to fix up some of the exhibits that are part of the celebration. We’re going to add some newer historic photographs to kind of give it a well-deserved step up.”

The pandemic prompted a two-year wait for this induction class, but the plan is to celebrate this group at the museum in downtown Redwood City. These are the six individuals, as well as biographical thumbnail provided by Horgan: Donovan Blythe, a globe-trotting basketball ambassador and coach whose dominant Eastside College Prep girls’ teams became state champions.

Liz Bruno, a basketball star at Mercy High School and Santa Clara University early in the Title IX era. Many of her scoring/ rebounding records still stand.

Ron DiMaggio, a longtime track and field coach who has mentored thousands of young athletes in Daly City and the North County.

Chris Dorst, a Menlo-Atherton High School and Stanford University water polo standout who became an Olympic medalist.

Scott Feldman, a Major League Baseball pitcher who honed his craft at Burlingame High School and the College of San Mateo early in his career.

Helen Lengfeld, a stellar golfer and dedicated advocate for women on the links whose influence lives on at the Peninsula Golf & Country Club and beyond.

The ceremony will take place June 23 at 5:30 p.m. in Courtroom A. Admission is $35, priced at a low-cost to help attract new members. C