When I was
younger I would have been embarrassed to tell this story, but since I turned 90
this year I no longer care. I mentioned before that 6 of us from the Corps of
Engineers in Boston agreed to help out our sister organization in San Francisco
after California suffered severe flooding damage to its northern part in
Humboldt County The flood
killed 19 people, heavily damaged or completely devastated at least 10 towns,
destroyed all or portions of more than 20 major highway and county bridges,
carried away millions of board feet of lumber and logs from mill sites,
devastated thousands of acres of agricultural land, killed 4,000 head of
livestock, and caused $100 million in damage.
The plan outlined
for us was to spend the first part of the week learning the location of damage,
the roads that were still accessible, the snakes that were poisonous and the
use of the snake bite kit if you were unfortunate to have been bitten by one.
We were stationed downtown in the City at the same hotel that was having their
annual wine growers convention. Several hundred people were scheduled to attend
with a dinner finale in the grand ball room. Prior to dinner there was
scheduled free wine and hors d'oeuvres in the adjoining rooms. With so many in
attendance they surely wouldn’t notice one or two more. I was on my 5th
or 6th wine glass and maybe my 12th hors d'oeuvres when I
felt a tap on my shoulder. “Would you come with me to the registration desk” He
wanted to know what winery I was associated with. He had left his book open and
I read upside down as fast as I could when I came to a name easy to say-
“Svenson”(not real Winery). I didn’t know Svenson had a son in the business.
No, I replied I am his grandson. Glad to know you-wait here until I get Joseph
to verify your identity. Off he went and so did I. This would be enough of a
story but there is more.
Two weeks
later I was interviewing an owner to get an assessment of his damage when he
stopped me in mid sentence. “We have met before hadn’t we” No I replied I was
from the East coast and never been to California before. He insisted we had and
was struggling to remember where. Wait, he was right. The last time is when he
went off into the crowd to find my “grandfather” Joseph. So why hadn’t he
figured it out. We were standing in his field in Jan. 1965 on a very cold day where
I had my furry hat on, my sunglasses and a heavy coat- a perfect disguise. I
quickly terminated the interview, thanked him for his cooperation and left
pronto.
So what is
the connection to Southie. As we were disembarking from the plane in San
Francisco I spotted a fellow Bostonian ahead of us. It was Anthony Athanas of
Pier 4 fame. He was in all probability attending the wine growers convention to
work out deals for his 4 Restaurants he owned in Massachusetts. The picture attached
(by Dale Cruse) is Pier 4. Can you name the other 3?
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