Time Marches On

This mural, by Carol Ann Huboi and David van Hassell, depicts the agricultural heritage of San Benito County. It's one of several murals that grace the sides of buildings in historical downtown Hollister. Beautiful mural, isn't it? I believe the artists painted the peaceful scene from a photograph of a once-upon-a-time orchard in the area.

As a kid in Hollister, all I knew were orchards and vegetable fields. The town was surrounded by orchards. Apricot, peach, walnut, plum, cherry, prune and so on and so forth. Our county was particularly known for its Blenheim apricots, which beats the taste of any other apricots any day.

Since the 1980s, one by one the orchards have been sold to developers. I’m living in what was once a walnut orchard, for example.

The last of the orchards on Sunnyslope were pulled out last year to make way for the Highway 25 bypass. It’s a good thing, someone is thinking about painting murals to remind us how the world used to look for us.

Happy Cafe

We have five Chinese restaurants in Hollister. Our favorites are on the other side of town. When we’re in a hurry, we like to go to The Wok and get something from their buffet counter. When we’re not, we call up Happy Cafe (191-R San Felipe Road, next to McDonald’s) and then go pick up our grub.

Tonight, we ordered four dishes. General Tso’s Chicken, our favorite, was delish as usual. Deep fried, golden-chicken breast strips with a tinge of sweet heat. Better than KFC anytime, and we like KFC.

The vegetable chow fun was a hit, too. But then it’s hard to wreck chow fun for me. Wide strips of rice noodles coated in sauce and grease. Yum! All scrambled up with other ingredients. Tonight the mix was bean sprouts, snow peas, zucchini slices, and other veggies.

The snow peas, mushroom, water chestnut dish was so-so. Maybe if the cook had thrown in a few straw and shitake mushrooms, I would’ve been happy. Just your regular white button mushrooms, and too many of them. I'll be adding garlic and chives to the leftovers tomorrow for more pop.

The fog had started to roll in late this afternoon, so we decided to go for hot and sour soup. Happy Cafe usually makes it the way we like it. Tonight, it was missing something. Both the hot and sour were too subtle. We added a bit of the delicious hot sauce that the waitress gave us. Ah-ha! That did it.

Like any restaurant, Happy Cafe doesn’t score a triple heavenly yum all the time. This was one of those nights. We were still yummily happy. We shall return.

What's Happening?

We no longer have a daily local newspaper. So, Hollister residents no longer have the convenience of knowing what fun things are about to take place in our county. Just by chance, a couple weeks ago at a grocery store, hubby Dick and I saw a poster announcing that a Banjo-ologist was coming to town. $5 for advance tickets. What a deal. That’s even less than senior citizen rates at the local theater.

Mr. Banjo-ologist, Gordy Ohliger, has come and gone. He was here last Friday night at the San Benito High School auditorium (which, by the way, still has red velvet curtains for the stage and windows). It was a delightful show. Mr. Ohliger performed several types of banjos, including one built out of a gourd and goat guts. He sang, banjo-ed, and charmed the audience through American history, from the banjo’s African-Yankee roots to the 1930s jazz era.

Dick and I will definitely look at the grocery store’s bulletin boards from now on!

In addition to grocery stores, we can learn about coming events in and around Hollister at any of these on-line sources:

• Hollister Free Lance Community Bulletin
• Hollister Downtown Association Event Calendar
• San Benito County Chamber of Commerce Calendar of Events
• San Juan Bautista Chamber of Commerce Calendar of Events

What a Cute Town!

Welcome to Take 25 to Hollister, California!

This blog will be all about my hometown and all the other nooks and crannies in San Benito County, of which Hollister is the county seat. Whatever suits my fancy, I shall write about it.

What better way to introduce you to Hollister, then a bird's eye look of the city of about 35,000 people. The photo below (© by Richard A. McDavid) was taken in the Spring a couple years ago, but it could've been this year. The building moratorium is about to be over. Hopefully, the view won't become too drastic of a change for the birds.

Hubby Dick's cousins came to town last week. Practically their first words upon tumbling out of their car was "What a cute town!" And, it is.

Here's a look of San Benito Street, our main street. (A spring photograph taken by me.) For at least another couple of months, it is also Highway 25, which is the north-south passage through San Benito County.

San Benito Street, usually between 5th and South streets, gets closed for several hours for special events, such as the Christmas parade, the summer festival, and the annual Horse Show and Parade. Once the highway bypass is complete, merchants hope this will bring more pedestrian hustle and bustle downtown on an everyday basis. Hope so. It's too cute of a town to not hang out in.