A Journey with Friends

 

A Journey with Friends

Bill Barksdale, Columnist

I was going to write a column about how credit ratings work, but I’m not in the mood.  I’m sure Jennifer & The Willits Weekly would be happy to have a real real estate column from me.  One thing I learned from my long career is real estate is more than business.  Half of my job was being an untrained psychologist.  Thank goodness I’ve had a long and varied life with many experiences, many friends, many people I didn’t like so much but learned from.  That’s life’s journey.  It’s also why one chooses a place to live – thus real estate.

I called an old friend that I used to work for in San Francisco nearly 50 years ago.  Now in his early 80’s and finally closing his business, he was in a plane on the runway getting ready to take off for Italy.  Richard is a dealer in Asian antiques.  I bought a lot of things from him over the years, things I’ve enjoyed for most of my life and many I am now trying to find new homes for.  Part of the clutter of a lifetime.  Some pieces I can’t let go of, not yet, so I continue to enjoy them.  He taught me so much about how to appreciate to delicate beauty of Asian art.  What a marvelous gift!

Half a lifetime ago Joe and I moved to Willits.  We followed that dream to live in Mendocino County, to live in the country.  We followed that same mysterious, clarion call that has enticed so many over the years.  We had the experience of living in a small cabin in the woods – off the grid, an outhouse, running through the woods with the dogs in the fresh, clean air, a garden lush with John Jeavon’s double-dug beds of lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, strawberries, and celery – life’s real treasures. 

I still remember what I think of as the happiest moment of my life.  One snowy evening, sitting next to the wood stove and reading by kerosene lamps, it was so quiet that I could literally hear the snowflakes falling on the front porch.  I looked up and Joe was on the other side of the small room, reading.  On the floor between us our 3 dogs curled around each other sleeping.  Old Robin, our city cat sleeping on Joe’s lap and being used as a book-rest.  I thought ‘this is the happiest moment of my life’.  I still think of it that way.

Over the years friends have graced my life.  My severely disabled dear friend Gregg Barsi, used to come by my office for a visit in his wheel chair.  One day he asked if I’d like to go for a walk.  That “walk” was a real eye opener.  Gregg lived in his wheel chair and the sidewalks of Willits are a challenge for people with disabilities.  Driveway dips are a particular hazard and Gregg fell into the street more than once needing help to right his chair and get back in it.  Sometime the sidewalks disappeared altogether.  Sometimes some idiot would yell obscenities at him as they sped by in their car – Gregg was never able to drive in his all too short lifetime.

I remember with delight Dick & Maggie Grahams’s natural food store, Harvest Bounty.  They became treasured friends.  Dick was somehow able to make the most delicious pizza in a toaster oven!  He’s the one who got me hooked on Spirulina which I still use in my morning smoothies.  The few times we were able to get away for a vacation over the years, Dick would stay at our house and care for the animals.  I miss him and thank him every morning when I open the tin of jasmine green tea that I still keep my tea in – a gift from Dick.

Life just wouldn’t be the same without our beloved friend, Gail Richards.  She’s a collage artist and each month we receive a magnificent, humorous work from her.  Her creativity and loving kindness seem without limit.  After a recent surgery, large pots of the most delicious soups would appear on the front porch – sometimes a pie passed along from Gail’s friend whom I consider a pie-genius. 

What can I say about Emmy Good?  I have to be careful here because we talked each other through the first 2 years of the pandemic.  She & husband Bill moved here in the 1970’s from L.A.  They too followed their dream to the redwoods.  Emmy is still my yoga teacher in her 80’s. A woman of seemingly inexhaustible energy – and some very funny, often risqué’ stories.  Also, a true friend.

I often have an impulse to pick up the phone to call my cherished friend, Sally Miller Gearhart, but I can’t because Sally moved on from this life a year or so ago.  Could it be longer than that?  Sally had great wisdom and compassion.  Her love of animals and respect for the forest was unsurpassed.  She started one of the nation’s first women’s studies classes at San Francisco State University.  She marched hand-in-hand with Harvey Milk to fight for equal rights.  She was a brilliant & inventive writer, had a delicious sense of humor.  I still talk with her but in my imagination.  Who’s to say we’re not having a conversation?

John Lazaro, Kerri Vau & Lee Persico gave me my start in the real estate business at Coldwell Banker Mendo Realty.  They offer the best training.  My friend, Tara Moratti, with her seemingly endless energy and smarts took over as the  broker of C.B.M.R.  I watched her grow and learn and become a brilliant real estate agent.  Tara is a Willits hometown girl, one we can be proud of.

What about The Willits Weekly.  If it weren’t for Jennifer & Maureen we wouldn’t have a hometown paper!  Their dedication and tenacity amaze me each week.  We’re one of the few small towns in the county with an independent small-town paper.  That takes drive & dedication.  My gratitude to everyone at Willits Weekly.

As I sit here typing and recovering I can’t leave out the people who made Howard Hospital happen!  Also our fine new fire station.  This little town has two of the finest such facilities in the county.  This little town has a world-class hospital!  A group effort by dedicated people who had a dream and pride of community to see to it that we had the best!  Wow!

Somehow the Willits Center for the Arts, and the Willits Community Theatre keep hanging on, bring live entertainment and a showcase for our area’s very fine artists.  Gary Martin, Steve Marston, Mike A’dair and so many more dedicate their lives and thousands of hours to offering us art to enrich our lives.  Lois & Jeff Hoover somehow have kept our cherished Noyo Theater operating.  They’ve made this vintage theater better & better bringing us the latest in movies.  Remarkable.

The Willits Food Bank, Willits Daily Bread, Willits Senior Center – all friends.  All doing their service to our community.  All Loved – yes loved.  There are many more people on this journey I’m taking, more to thank for their generosity and sharing their own journeys with me and so many others.  This is Community.  These are some of the people that make life worth living.  The old real estate saying “Location, location, location” has many elements – not just a view.