Pajaro Valley Magazine | July 3, 2020

THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF THE PAJARO VALLEY

A supplement to The Pajaronian

JULY 3, 2020

RIDE THROUGH HISTORY Historic Fourth traditions that could return next year P2

COVER STORY P4 | THE MIXING BOWL P6 | PHOTO GALLERY P8

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JULY 3 - 9, 2020 | PAJARO VALLEY MAGAZINE

Raeid Farhat Real Estate Inc

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21 Brennan St, Suite 14, Watsonville, CA 95076 Phone: 831.761.7301

ABOUT THE

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We are here for all your Real Estate needs The housing inventory is at an all time low. This is having a great impact on property values. The supply and demand theory is in full swing, thus driving home values up. If you are considering selling or just want an idea of what your property value is in this current market, reach out to us.

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Cover Story

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The Mixing Bowl

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Photo Gallery

CEO & Executive Editor

Dan Pulcrano Publisher

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Tony Nuñez Contributing Writers

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Tiffani Petrov Jazmine Ancira Lupita Ortiz

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appy Fourth of July!

We might not be able to celebrate Independence Day together this year but can we acknowledge what this holiday means for our country. In 1776 the United States, then 13 colonies along the East Coast, separated from Great Britain and became independent of their rule. That was our “move out” year.

We left our parents’ house TONY NUNEZ and decided that we’d pay our own bills, cook our own meals, fight our own battles and live our own lives. One could argue that nearly 250 years later we’re still trying to figure things out.

This holiday carries a different meaning depending on a person’s circumstances and journey. For some, Independence Day is a reminder of how far we’ve come as a country and as a community.

For others, it’s simply another holiday where families can get together, have some food, share some frosty beverages and feel united. For me, the Fourth of July has always filled me with hope.

My family is not originally from here. My grandparents immigrated to the United States during the 1940s through the Bracero Program, which allowed local farmers to import cheap agricultural labor from south of the U.S.-Mexico border. My grandfather had very little when he came here, but this country gave him the opportunity to succeed, to build a family and to make sure his kids had the same opportunities.

There is no doubt we have many issues that we need to resolve, but this country—its potential and what it stands for—still brings me hope. Happy Fourth of July! Stay safe, stay physically distanced and wash your hands.

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SIZE UP The Whiskerino Hoosegow was a fundraiser for Fourth of July

festivities that “jailed” people for having no mustache or beard. They were then bailed out by friends.

ON YOUR MARKS The Spreckels hose team readies for the fire hose pull, a Fourth

of July celebration seen here in 1900, one of various sports and contests featured in Independence Day festivities.

PATRIOTIC STROLL A carriage strolls down Main Street

by the Jefsen Building during a Fourth of July parade in the early 1900s.

JULY 3 - 9, 2020 | PAJARO VALLEY MAGAZINE

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he Fourth of July is a special day of celebration for every community around the nation.

In celebrating Independence Day, we recognize everything and everyone that makes up the United States. That leaves plenty of room for interpretation. The definition of “American” is wholly different from city to city, let alone person to person.

Watsonville’s parade, commonly known as the “Spirit of Watsonville,” over the years has taken many shapes and forms—the celebrations that surround it and lead up to it have changed, too. But the Covid-19 pandemic, and the physical distancing guidelines that have come with it, forced the City of Watsonville to cancel this year’s parade. The hope is that next year we will have overcome the novel coronavirus and that we can once again celebrate the Fourth of July as we normally do: together.

There will indeed be challenges to bringing back our usual festivities.

Most of them will likely be financial.

Others could be social, as the ongoing unrest around the nation has put our founding fathers under the microscope.

With no Fourth of July celebration to speak of this year, I decided to dive back into the history of Watsonville’s Independence Day events to see if there was anything we can grab from the past and use in the future.

Here are three remnants of history that could be revived for next year’s celebration:

HAVE A BALL Nelson Mandela once said: “Sport has the power to change the world.

It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where there was only despair.”

For decades sports were an integral part of Watsonville’s Fourth of July celebrations, according to Lou Arbanas of the Pajaro Valley Historical Association. In the early 1900s the sport of choice was the fire hose pull competition in which teams from various surrounding communities would drag a fire hose down Main Street and try to notch the fastest time. During those times the majority of the city’s fire department members were volunteers, Arbanas said, so the teams that competed in the fire hose pull were a true representation of the community.

“Other than the engineer… everybody else would come running out of their homes and shops (when there was a fire),” Arbanas said. “People were seen leaving barbershops with lather still on their faces to fight fires.”

As we moved into the mid-1900s, baseball took over as the lead sport on Independence Day. Other sporting events such as motorboat races at Pinto Lake Park also had their day in the sun.

Sadly, sports were slowly phased out of the celebration over the years, and now are nonexistent in our Independence Day festivities.

Sports’ power to unite people might be something that we need for next year’s Fourth of July. Soccer tournament anyone? How about some hoops? Maybe a few Olympic events such as the 100-meters and 1,500?

Let’s bring sports back.

THE HORRIBLES PARADE Described as a “spontaneous celebration for the common-level person,” the Horribles Parade was a homespun spectacle the night before the Fourth of July that showcased the city’s innovation and its downtown businesses and nightlife.

There were no floats or giant displays in the early-1900s event. Those entries were replaced by decorated cars and carriages and makeshift behemoths such as

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HISTORY

The quirky Fourth celebrations of Watsonville past that could return

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FUNKY FUNDRAISERS As I mentioned before, putting on a parade next year will be a tough task for the city because of financial reasons. We have no clue how long Covid-19 will be a part of our lives and what kind of impacts it will have on our economy.

The city and community will have to be creative about how we will raise money to fund our celebrations.

Luckily, there are plenty of examples that we can pull from history books.

One that caught my attention while at the PVHA office was called the Whiskerino Hoosegow, which would jokingly “jail” clean-shaven men in the City Plaza as they made their daily withdrawals from the neighboring bank.

Those men would have to be bailed out by their bearded buddies or mustached mates, and that collected bond would go toward the Fourth of July festivities. There ➝7 was also a competition for

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JULY 3 - 9, 2020 | PAJARO VALLEY MAGAZINE

a Ford Model-T that was tuned-up so fiercely that it would rise to its back tires when the driver floored it.

“They used to have a saddle on the front of the hood,” Arbanas said, “and somebody used to ride on the front of the vehicle like it was a bucking bronco.”

The Horribles Parade started in the evening and went until roughly 9pm, Arbanas said. The festivities often ended in a bar crawl reminiscent to New Year’s Eve were neighbors could reconnect and celebrate.

“It gave the community a chance to riff and have fun,” Arbanas said. “It was a lot less formal than the parade the next day.”

Pulling off something like this could be near impossible today, especially with Watsonville’s Main Street under Caltrans operation. But maybe a gathering spot such as the East Lake Shopping Center or The Hangar by the Airport could have a miniature redux of The Horribles Parade—here’s hoping.

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SWEET TREAT Ground pistachios make a delicate,

soft and airy cookie.

Pistachio cookies T

SARAH RINGLER

hese pretty, spongy, golden-green cookies made from ground pistachios are just sweet enough. The recipe is from Nicole Malik at deliciouseveryday.com.

Pistachio nuts still seem special to me even though these days they are easy to find and mostly affordable. They are best when crunchy so if you’ve had some sitting in the cupboard for a while, this is a good way to use them up.

Some of you may remember when pistachios came in small long packages with dyed red shells. Since most of the nuts came from the Middle East at that time, the red dye was a way of hiding some of the

blotches on the shells, according to Anne Ewbank’s story, “America’s Pistachio Industry Came from a Single Seed.” California’s pistachio business grew from a small niche industry in the late 1970s after the United States placed a retaliatory embargo on Iranian products after Iranian college students, protesting America’s support of the monarchy of the Shah, stormed the American Embassy in Tehran.

The Iranian Revolution ensued and the current Islamic Republic was established in 1979. Iran continues to grow pistachios as it has for the last 8,700 years is now the world’s largest producer of pistachios, followed by the U.S. The measurements below may seem awkward; I had to convert metric measurements to the U.S. Customary System of Units to fit the American kitchen. Even after The Metric Conversion Act was passed by the U.S. government in 1975, the country still hasn‘t universally adopted the metric system and remains the only country in the world except for Liberia and Myanmar who haven’t.

I purchased a battery-operated kitchen scale with ounces and grams to help me make the conversions.

The recipe also called for caster sugar, also called castor sugar,

superfine or baker’s sugar. It is a more finely ground white sugar, but not as fine as confectioners’ sugar, and blends in easier and more efficiently than “regular” white sugar. It’s easy to make by putting white sugar in a blender or food processor and running for a minute or two until the sugar grains become finer.

HISTORY

to the city. During that time, multiple Pajaronian articles said the investment and interest from the community and the various groups that make up our home diminished. And as that pride in Watsonville began to falter, our celebration began to shrink and morph.

This pandemic has made many of us long for the human interaction that was commonplace just four months ago. Next year’s Fourth of July celebration seems so distant, but it could end up being this community’s first grand celebration after Covid-19 is defeated.

Maybe we leave the past in the past. Maybe we take some of those ideas and refresh them for today’s day and age. Either way, we have a chance to make next year’s parade special, and, as a community, we should all be rallying together to do just that.

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fluffy. Place heaped teaspoons on the baking trays. Chop the remaining pistachios and sprinkle over the top of the cookies.

Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly golden and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Dust with confectioners’ sugar if desired. Makes about two dozen cookies.

PISTACHIO COOKIES 1 1/2 cup shelled pistachios ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons white sugar ground in the blender or food processor 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon plain flour 3 egg whites 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar Preheat the oven to 320 degrees and lightly butter two cookie tins or line them with parchment baking paper. Process regular white sugar for a very short time in a blender until it becomes fine, but not powdery. Set aside in a small bowl.

Place 1 1/4 cups of the pistachios in the same food processor and mix just until finely ground. Make sure you don't turn it into pistachio butter.

Place the ground pistachios, ¼ cup of the caster sugar and the flour in a large bowl. Whisk to combine.

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the biggest beard and longest mustache.

I’m not sure how the jail aspect would be received today, but, as a mustached individual, I’d be more than happy to break my baby-faced friends out of jail to fund the community’s fun.

Another classic fundraiser that could be brought back in a sinch is the button sales that for decades helped spread community pride on the lapels of numerous jackets. The buttons—emblazoned with patriotic symbols—were initially sold as part of the “The Goddess of Liberty” competition. The woman who sold the most buttons was named queen, according to Arbanas.

They stopped selling the buttons in the early 2000s, Arbanas said, which was around the time the reigns of the parade and the Fourth of July festivities were handed over

Place the egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until soft peaks form.

Add the remaining caster sugar gradually and beat a little longer. Fold the egg whites into the pistachio mixture and stir carefully just until well combined.

You want to keep the batter

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PHOTO GALLERY

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Tarmo Hannula

JULY 3 - 9, 2020 | PAJARO VALLEY MAGAZINE

Have a recent photo you’d like to share? Send it to us for consideration by emailing it to tnunez@pajaronian.com or mailing it to 21 Brennan St., Suite 14, Watsonville, CA 95076. Please include a brief description of the photo as well as the name of the photographer.

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JULY 3 - 9, 2020 | PAJARO VALLEY MAGAZINE

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