Tuesday in Hollister: Do You Know Where City Hall Is?

Got a grief about which you want to fight City Hall?

No.

Do you want to pay your water bill in person? You can pay that down at City Hall.

Feel like checking out a City Council meeting? City Hall is where you want to go.

But, do you know where City Hall is?

Don't know what the building even looks like?  Here you go.

Recognize it? Where is it?  You have until Thursday to figure it out.

The Halloween Corn Maze

Have you gotten lost in the corn maze yet?

I'm talking about the Swank Farm's Halloween corn maze at 2600 San Felipe Road, just next door (on the north side) of the Hollister Airport. There are only 9 days left, if you haven't checked it out yet.

Every year, the Swanks create a new design for their Maniac Maze, which involves twists and turns through 20 acres of corn. To successfully make your way through and out of the maze, you must find 27 hidden spots that complete the story about the maze. It also helps if you or someone with you has a good great sense of direction. Otherwise. . . .

The amazing maze is open daily until October 31. On weekends, you can try your luck at night. (It's a full moon tomorrow night, by the way.) If you're into being spooked senseless, you might want to venture into the Haunted Conover Mystery Ranch.  Boo!

Swank Farm also offers other fun things for kiddies and grown-ups: Pig races, pumpkin tosses, go-carts, a farm animal zoo, and a pumpkin patch, among other activities.  You can also buy fresh produce, homemade fudge, and other food products, as well as items from the farm's Swanky clothing line, at the farm's country store.

Definitely a fun outing for everyone!  And, no, I wasn't paid, nor had my arm twisted, to write about the Swank Farm.

For more info about the farm and the corn maze, check out these links:

• Swank Farms
• Yelp reviews of the Corn Maze  
• The Great Outdoors: Outdoor Halloween Fun, by Kristin Leal, The Monterey County Herald 

Coming Up: 2010 Haybalers Homecoming Day

This Friday, October 22, is the Hollister Haybalers Homecoming Day. Whoo-hoo! Go Balers!

The homecoming parade will begin at 2 p.m., starting at the high school and ending in downtown Hollister.

The Balers will play the North Salinas Vikings that evening. The Junior Varsity game will start at 5 p.m. and the Varsity game will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Andy Hardin Stadium.

For more details, check out the San Benito High School Web site.

Okay, all you former Balers. How many of you still remember how to sing our Alma Mater?

Hail Alma Mater
Hail to thee, our Alma Mater
Hollister to you;
Rally round the crimson banner,
Loyal, fine and true.

Chorus:
Outward, onward, o’er our mountains
Let the echoes roll;
Hollister, our Alma Mater
Long the bells will toll.

Nestled in our peaceful valley
Ye whose hall we love;
In thy honor we are singing.
Hymns of praise above.

Chorus:
Outward, onward, o’er our mountains
Let the echoes roll;
Hollister, our Alma Mater
Long the bells will toll.

 GO HAYBALERS!!!!!!!

Tuesday in Hollister: Standing Beneath Time

No guessing games today. We all know where we are, the northeast corner of Fourth and San Benito Streets. We're standing in front of the Eastern Star Masonic Temple Building, which is 102 years old. The clock tower is just as old.  Over the summer, the building got a new colorful look. Click here to see what it looked like before. Nice, huh?

I like looking into the store windows as I go by there to see what new dresses are being showcased. The dresses look like something Cinderella's fairy godmother would whip up for her.  They make me wish I was going somewhere fancy so I could buy one of those dresses to wear.

When I was a kid many years ago, the storefront was a grocery store owned by the Lum family. Anyone else remember the grocery store? Anybody know what other businesses came before or after the grocery store? Please share. All I know is the antique store that was there before the dress store.

If anyone is curious about the Order of the Eastern Star, check out this site. And, if you want to read something about the clock tower, check out "Happy Birthday to Time!"

21st Anniversary of the Loma Prieta Earthquake

Use of photo is courtesy of the Wapple House Museum
Research Room, San Benito County Historical Society.

So, where were you 21 years ago when the earth shook long and hard at around 5 o'clock in the afternoon?

Twenty-one years ago today (October 17, 1989) was a Tuesday.  The Giants and A's were about to play their third game of the World Series at Candlestick Park.  Then the Loma Prieta earthquake happened. It was a slip on the San Andreas Fault that measured a surface-wave magnitude of 7.1. It caused the Cypress Street section of the Nimitz Freeway in West Oakland to crumble and a section of the Bay Bridge to fall. Many residences and buildings collapsed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Cruz county. Sixty-three people were killed as a result of the earthquake, and nearly 4,000 people were injured.

The earthquake's epicenter was about 30 miles northwest of Hollister. According to an October 23, 1989 article in the Hollister Free Lance ("Rain Brings New Misery to Victims: Quake Damage Climbs" by Dennis Taylor), the earthquake caused more that $100 million of property damage in San Benito County. About 500 homes and commercial buildings were damaged and more than 400 residents were displaced.

For many days after the earthquake, downtown Hollister between Fourth and Sixth streets were out of bounds because of major damage to buildings. Eventually, several buildings were razed. That stretch of lawn next to the Vault and the parking garage was once lined with businesses, for example. That's how much downtown Hollister changed after the Loma Prieta Earthquake.

Do you recall where you were and what you were doing when the earthquake happened?

For more about the Loma Prieta Earthquake, check out these links:

• "Responders recall hours after the Big One" The Weekend Pinnacle Online  
• "The Great Quake, 20 Years Later" The Weekend Pinnacle Online 
• 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake  
• The San Andreas Fault From Above