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JULY 2017 • ALAMO TODAY • PAGE 1
JULY 2017
FRANK LEACH: MAN OF ACTION, MAN OF WORDS
By Jody Morgan
The community celebrated Alamo’s new bocce ball courts at Livorna Park with an official ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday June 16th. Pictured left to right are Jen Quallick - aide to Supervisor Andersen, MAC Member Steve Mick, Supervisor Candace Andersen, MAC Vice Chair Susan Rock, Beverly Lane - East Bay Regional Parks District Board, MAC member Jill Winspear, Alamo resident Joe Rubay, MAC Member Sanjiv Bhandari, and Victoria Skerritt from Contra Costa Public Works. Public Works oversaw the building of the bocce ball courts for the past year using funds granted by East Bay Regional Parks as part of voter approved Measure WW. The demand for the bocce ball courts was determined by a survey of Alamo taxpayers in 2011. Courts are available on a first come, first served basis.
PACIFIC MAHJONG LEAGUE
By Fran Miller
If the game of Mahjong has ever piqued your interest, the Pacific Mahjong League (PML) invites you to learn more. This fun and sociable game combines a balance of luck, skill, and strategy that makes for intriguing competition. And it can be played for a lifetime. The game is also widely believed by researchers to aid memory. The game of Riichi Mahjong often appears overly complicated, says Daniel
Moreno, a PML organizer. “Even those who know how to play often find it difficult to teach others effectively. But luckily we have some people at the club who are amazing teachers that have experience teaching hundreds of people.
See Mahjong continued on page 19 Local Postal Customer
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ECRWSS
Frank Aleamon Leach is best remembered for saving the San Francisco Mint from impending destruction during the conflagration that followed the 1906 Earthquake and immediately stabilizing San Francisco’s financial community. Once he finally managed to retire, Leach enjoyed exploring Mount Diablo as a charter member of the Mount Diablo Park Club and writing articles for the Oakland Tribune concerning his observations. His autobiography, Recollections of a Newspaperman: A Record of Life and Events in California, ends with his return from Frank A. Leach, son Abe B. Leach, and grandson Abe Washington, DC to Oakland, B. Leach, Jr. at Diablo Decoration Day Tournament, CA in 1909. His delight in 1918 (photo courtesy of David Mackesey) Diablo’s natural bounty continued until his death in 1929. Born in Auburn, New York on August 19, 1846, Frank Leach traveled with his mother by steamer in 1852 to join his father who had made the trip almost two years in advance of their journey. His first experience with a major urban fire occurred that December in Sacramento and was followed by a flood that littered the roads with furniture and personal effects. Subsequent experiences made him no stranger to fighting a blaze when the time for action arrived. Sacramento life did not agree with his mother’s health. Leach recalls his family’s 1857 move to Napa where they arrived after dark. “I was tired and went to bed early and was awakened soon after daylight by music new to my ears, but so delightful and sweet, the impress on my memory has never dimmed. It was the singing of hundreds of various kinds of wild birds, living and nesting in the trees and brush bordering the stream flowing back of our hotel.” Always a student of nature, but never excelling in academics, Leach determined at age 17 that his best chance for employment was in utilizing skills he acquired helping his father build and repair wagons. His slight stature, he recalls, probably caused him to be rejected repeatedly in his application to apprentice as a machinist in San Francisco. Returning to Napa, he was hired by the Napa Register and learned the printing trade from the bottom up. Leach’s expertise in the mechanics of the printing trade and his ability to make friends and secure partners with talents complementing his own fostered his success. His personal connections as well as the Volume XVII - Number 7 editorial integrity of the newspapers he 3000F Danville Blvd. #117, established (first in Napa, then in Vallejo Alamo, CA 94507 and eventually in Oakland) led to his Telephone (925) 405-NEWS, 405-6397 election to the State Legislature and his Fax (925) 406-0547 appointment as Postmaster of Vallejo. Alisa Corstorphine ~ Publisher In 1897, President McKinley apEditor@yourmonthlypaper.com pointed Leach Superintendent of the Sharon Burke ~ Writer San Francisco Mint. On April 18, 1906, The opinions expressed herein belong to the writers, and do at 5:12AM Leach was awakened along not necessarily reflect that of Alamo Today. Alamo Today
See Leach cont. on pg. 20
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