Friday, April 10, 2015

I is for. . .

It!  Hollister has it!

Cuteness



Agriculture



Compassion



Culture



Excitement 



Preservation



Open Space



Eccentricity



Sweetness



And, that's just the start of the It! that Hollister has!

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Thursday, April 9, 2015

H is for . . .

Hollister, California.
A no-brainer for the letter H, right? Instead of reinventing the wheel for this post, I thought let me just republish something I wrote on October, 15, 2014 about my hometown. So, here you go.
Methinks it's time again to say that Hollister, California, the store, is not the same as Hollister, California, the city.

Yup.

Abercrombie & Fitch began selling apparel with the Hollister brand in 2000, which is weaved around the fictional beach town of Hollister in Southern California where the made-up Hollister Company is located. Either the fantasy town or company was established in 1922 by an imaginary  Dutch East Indies immigrant named John Hollister. The marketing team must've had fun dreaming up the fanciful, fake Hollister, California story.

Hollister is in the far distance, at the foot of the mountain range

The real city of Hollister is located in San Benito County, the only landlocked county of the Central Coast region of California, which is about 45 miles east of the Pacific Ocean. The ocean breeze, as well as the fog, comes through the low mountain passes on most days. Thank goodness for that, otherwise the temperatures, especially in the summer, would be unbearably hot.



Hollister was founded in 1868 and, until it incorporated as a city in 1872, the town was part of Monterey County. Two years later, Hollister became the county seat of the newly formed San Benito County.



The main industry in our county is agriculture. It has been from the start and unless all the ranchers and farmers sell their land to housing developers and oil companies, we shall always be an agricultural community. Something for which we, locals, ought to be proud. The number of local farmers and ranchers choosing to follow sustainable and organic farming practices continues to increase, which I think is good for both our health and the environment.


The mascot for our local high school is the Haybaler, also called Baler. Not a machine, but a young farmer. Everyone who goes--and went--to San Benito High School, also known as Hollister High School, is a Haybaler, regardless of whether the person played a sport or not. Once a Haybaler, always a Haybaler.



I don't know about the history of the mascot, but in the late 19th century, our area was known for the quality and quantity of its Hollister Hay. During the summer of 1892, for example, 5,412 tons of hay was shipped from Hollister to Seattle, San Diego, Chicago, New York, and other parts of the United States.  In fact, the Lathrop Hay Company, owned by Hollister pioneer resident Levi B. Lathrop, constructed some of the largest hay warehouses in the world back then. Lathrop built the first hay warehouse to have a railroad track running through it and to have railroad track scales. That's rather impressive.

Hey! How did I end up talking about hay?


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Wednesday, April 8, 2015

G is for . . .


Gateway.

The eastern gateway to the Pinnacles National Park, that is. It's a not-to-well-known park (yet) about 30 miles south of Hollister. Formerly the Pinnacles National Monument, which was established in 1908, it was redesignated a national park in January 2013.


Once upon a time, millions of years ago, the park was part of a volcano that once stood in present-day Lancaster in Southern California. The beautiful, towering rock formations in the Pinnacles National Park are what it was named after. Those who hike the High Peaks Trail find themselves weaving among some of those majestic spires.


The park has various easy to strenuous trails for hikers. Visitors also have the opportunity to hike through talus caves when they are open. Rangers close the caves when the bats that live there are roosting. One cave houses a colony of Townsend's Big-eared Bats, while the other is home to a colony of Western Mastiff Bats.


Want a chance to see a California Condor flying free in the sky? Head for this park. It's the only one in the National Park Service that participates in the California Condor Recovery Program.  More than 30 condors, which were born and raised in zoos, have been released into the wilds of the Pinnacles over the last decade.


There are two gateways to the park. No road connects the two. The eastern entrance is via Hollister, while the western entrance is via Soledad. Each side is gorgeous. I'm partial, of course, and like to go through the eastern gateway.

For more information about the Pinnacles National Park, visit its website.



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Tuesday, April 7, 2015

F is for . . .

Festivals, fairs, and fiestas! Olé!

Come summer and fall, we can look forward to the various festivals, fairs, and fiestas that take place in Hollister and other parts of our county. These are just a few of the big ones. 

Annual Old Mission San Juan Bautista Fiesta


About seven miles to the west of Hollister is San Juan Bautista, named after Mission San Juan Bautista, which was established in 1797. For many decades, the mission city has held an annual fiesta to celebrate St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of the Old Mission. This year, the event will take place on Sunday, June 28. Admission is free.

The celebration starts with a procession from the mission through the city and back up to the olive grove next to the mission. For more details, check out this link.



Annual Downtown Hollister Street Festival, Car Show, and Swap Meet


On July 18, 2015, San Benito Street and the side streets, between Fourth and South Streets, close  for the 29th annual Downtown Hollister  Street Festival, Car Show, and Swap Meet.  The free event is sponsored by the Downtown Hollister Association. For more details about the free event, check out this link.



San Benito County Fair


Cowboy Boots & Local Roots is the theme of this year's San Benito County Fair at Bolado Park, about eight miles south of Hollister. Livestock exhibits. Live music. Flower, food, art, and quilt competitions. Business and nonprofit group displays. Carnival rides. Truck pulls. And much more. If you've never experienced an old-fashioned county fair, ours is the one to check out.

This year, the fair will be four days long, from Thursday, October 1 to Sunday, October 4, 2015. For more information, visit the fair's website.



San Benito Olive Festival


The third annual San Benito Olive Festival will take place on October 17, 2015. The location to be announced soon. This foodie fair celebrates the agricultural heritage and bounty, as well as the artisanal foodmakers, in our area. Some of the products from here are olive oils, chocolates, wines, Blenheim apricots,  cherries, lettuce, asparagus, greens, free-range chickens and eggs, free-range grass-fed beef, and more.

The San Benito Olive Festival, a nonprofit group, donates all of its net proceeds from the annual event back to other nonprofit groups in the community. For more details, visit its website.





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Monday, April 6, 2015

E is for. . .


Eric Tognazzini!

In his later years, Eric buzzed up and down the sidewalks of Downtown Hollister on an electric wheelchair. Before that, he rode his tricycle. Eric was constantly stopping to talk with friends and acquaintances, some of whom crossed the streets or popped out of the shops and restaurants to say hello and chat with him for awhile.

I never knew what Eric's physical disability was. I just knew that he did not stick to the shadows because of it. He had a charming personality that disarmed people so that they didn't feel uncomfortable being around him.

Eric died in May, 2011 at the age of 64. Immediately, his friends started a memorial fund to build a statue of Eric, so that we may all remember and be inspired by Eric's amazing joyful spirit. Last month, the statue was installed and unveiled in front of the Briggs Building on the corner of San Benito and Fourth Streets.

To Eric!



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