Talking with Mr. Johnny Leach

While at Magnolia Plantation, I had the opportunity to speak with someone who has been working on the Plantation for 58 years. On a hot, humid day, you would think that an 85 year old man, who claimed he was "retired," wouldn't be outside working, but he was - and looked more comfortable outside than I did!

Ms. Jane Taylor introduced me to Mr. Leach, and we talked about how the Plantation and Gardens had changed since the 1940s. Initially, Mr. Leach was shy and quiet, but the more I asked him about his work, the more animated he became. He explained to me that the Gardens today do look different than they did in the 1940s as things have become more overgrown and plants have been added, so that the Gardens can remain open all year . When HH and Lolita would have visited, the Gardens would have only been open for 3 months or so. He also explained that now they have machines to do things that were done by hand back then - when about 20 people worked the Plantation and Gardens.

There's more to this interview, but I just wanted to give a few details. Thank you to Mr. Leach for speaking with me.

Magnolia Plantation visit.... some thoughts...

My internet connection here is SLOW and frustrating; I feel like I'm on dialup, so this may be brief.

Today I visited Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, which is mentioned extensively (as compared with other sites) in Lolita. It wasn't as productive a visit as I had hoped; they just don't have extensive accessible archives, but Ms. Jane Taylor was extremely generous with her time and did find some useful material. I'm hoping my visit tomorrow to the SC Historical Society produces some good material too.

What struck me today was my visit to the "antebelleum house," aka slave quarters. I heard a slave talk given by a member of the staff there. The focus of the talk was on how slaves were treated well at the Plantation. I kept hearing about how things were not as bad for slaves as people think, etc. The idea of the talk was to deal with some of the misconceptions regarding slavery. It really made me uncomfortable. Yes, there were all sorts of experiences for slaves, and we can't essentialize the experience of slavery, but at its heart, the idea of one human OWNING another is beyond repellent.

The idea, too, that the place where I was sitting was used as a home up until 15 years ago was also pretty shocking; these cabins, which were once homes for slaves then became homes for those living and working on the plantation. You can see the picture of the outside here, and I have ones from the inside as well. Maybe I'll post those later.

Anyway, I want to post this now since the internet connection is so slow. I'll try to post more later.

Putting it all together...

Right now I am in my hotel room in Charleston, SC. I'll go to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens tomorrow, but this afternoon/evening, I plan to work on writing up some of the entries for my California trip. There is a lot of work to do - the visiting, research, and talking with folks are the esay parts of this project; the actual writing is the challenge. I'm working on mini-essays for each "stop" and also thinking about academic articles. I believe I mentioned the Mexico-Lolita idea earlier. At the moment I am working on the RLS site. I have a headache and would rather be having coffee in a nice coffeeshop, but free internet in the hotel is pretty good for now.

Tomorrow I should have some photos and info about my trip to the Plantation. I just hope the weather holds.

My California adventures...

Just a few words on the experience of being here in CA. It's been a great trip, and I'm very thankful to the helpful folks I've met here.

My first stop, the Public Library, was an excellent destination and provided a lot of useful material. Even the midafternoon evacuation didn't slow me down. : )

My trip to Mission Dolores was productive; I have contact information - a business town until Monday, so I will perhaps try to reach him Monday before I leave - or just call once I'm back in OH. I took some video both in the Mission and in the cemetery. I also took some good shots at the site. I need to learn a bit more about the site in the 40s, but those questions might be answered by a book I purchased in the shop. I was interested to learn of the Mexico connection, which I think might be an avenue to pursue for an article.

At Russian Gulch, Tracy, the park ranger with whom I'd been in email contact, was very helpful to me in allowing me to look at the unit history that she kept - it wasn't too detailed, but it did have some fragments of material. I took some video both on the beach and up on the ridge overlooking the Pacific ocean. It's beautiful in Mendocino County. I've never seen anytihng quite like it. The "blow hole" was impressive - and the sign (pictured in another post) nearly scared me away.

At Mt. St. Helena, I did my research at Bothe Napa State Park - thanks to Linda Moran, who was in the visitor's center, and Eileen Bielecki, with whom I corresponded before visit. They were both very helpful to me. I bought a book by Ken Stanton and have his contact info, so I will try to call him soon. I also stopped by the Silverado Museum, where Mr. Reynolds is curator. Although I didn't learn anything period-specific, I did pick up a copy of the Silverado Squatters by RLS - and Mr. Reynolds kindly gave me a copy of his play.

So, tomorrow I leave for OH. I won't arrive until Tuesday, so I am not looking forward to the trip home - and then the drive from the airport to the house. Then I'm off on Th to Charleston, SC to see Magnolia Plantations.

Overall, I really enjoy this sort of research - it's challenging, because I'm following these various threads without necessarily knowing what I'm chasing. I'm looking forward to writing more and to seeing the results of my efforts on the Web site. I think Lolita readers will find the site useful - I know that I've learned a great deal already.

The top of Mount Saint Helena

Yesterday I hiked Mt. St. Helena (helleena). The temperature was over 100 degrees - probably nearer to 110 - and the hike is about 5 miles up - the first mile or so I was on the trail near the RLS monument - but the rest is a dirt, fire road that is long, long, long with very little shade. Luckily, I ran into another hiker, Douglas, who had a lot of water with him - preparing for a trip to the Sierra Nevada range with his son. So, I had some company. There's more to share about the hike, but I just wanted to post a few pictures. These aren't necessarily Lolita-related - although I would guess that VN may have hiked the mountain in search of butterflies - we saw a few and my fellow hiker thought they were red admirals?





I will post a picture of the monument at some point; I want to save my best pictures for the official On the Road with Lolita site.

Russian Gulch State Park invites you ...

or not.... This is the sign I encountered on the nature trail to the "blow-hole" overlook. I couldn't tell whether I was supposed to NOT follow the trail (stay back) or continue (how to survive). It was very misleading. I was particularly moved by the "Many have died here." Yikes. But I'm back in SF safely. More pictures soon.

Mission Dolores and Return to the SFPL

Right now I am blogging again from the History Center. I just can't seem to stay away from libraries.

This morning after having breakfast, I walked 17th street, with its 17.5% grade, to Mission Dolores. The post below re my trip is one I started while I was in a cafe:

Am at Café Trieste on Market Street. I went to Mission Dolores this morning after meeting Rich for breakfast at Zazie or whatever it’s called. It was about a 3 mile walk, so I was ready to eat when I got there. Now I am having a ham and cheese sandwich with a morning roll.

Mission Dolores is at the corner of 16^th and Dolores. The actual mission church is the smaller of the two structures – the basilica stands out most. After giving a five dollar donation, I enter the adobe church, which was not surprisingly very cool – four foot walls will do that. It kinda smells like poo in here for some reason. Ok, back to the Mission… I set up the video camera tripod and took one shot at getting the inside – it worked, I think. I’ll have to look at it later. I’m not sure how fast I can go, but I was nervous that someone would stop me.

Oh, before I forget, there’s a connection between the Mission and Mexico, which reminded me of HH’s dismissive comments re the Mexican trash in Charlotte’s home and Dolores being a product of their trip – Harold and Charlotte’s – to Mexico. I don’t think anyone has made this connection, so I really want to write something about that. But what to make of it?

So, the inside of the church is really impressive – particularly the reredos at the front and the mural on the side. I took a lot of photos but have no clue whether they’ll turn out ok. Then I went through the door to a breezeway – there’s a museum up on the left that has pretty interesting artifacts in it. I should have spent more time there. The most interesting part of my tour was going through the cemetery, which has a lot of impressive headstones and a beautiful garden – there are a ton of plants and such in there. I think VN would have been impressed had he visited. I took a LOT of photos in there, and I also did another round robin with the video camera. Again, I was feeling rushed because I was afraid someone would stop me. After spending a lot of time in the cemetery, I went in to the gift shop and proceeded to pick up as much as possible with Mission Dolores on it, including a wooden whistle with a train and Mission Dolores written on the side. Why a wooden whistle? Who knows? I also bought a Miraculous Medal for Mom. I’m wearing the one she got from Grandma. I almost got hit by a car last night right in front of the Mission – was crossing 16^th at Dolores, and I had the walk sign, but then I just stopped for some reason. This lady FLIES into the intersection and nearly hits me – she would have had I not stopped as she didn’t stop her car until it was where I would have been. That would have been nasty. The lady in the store was really nice and she even gave me a bottle of iced water for free! I thought that was cool.
And I did need the water.

So now that I've returned to "live blogging," I'll just say that I will post some pictures soon. I just haven't had the time to download them to the computer yet. I don't know if I'll be online tomorrow as I'm going to Russian Gulch State Park, but we'll see how it goes.

Visit to the San Francisco Public Library and a Mission Dolores tease

Today I spent most of the day - 7 hrs - at the SFPL. I was working in the Government Information Center looking at materials related to the state parks. Then I spent most of the time in the San Francisco History Center. The first gentleman I spoke with wasn't very helpful - he was slightly helpful, so I'm justified in using "very" - but then I spoke with the woman who responded to my email queries, and she had a lot of ideas. I looked at some clippings files for Mission Dolores as well as some old San Francisco and Northern California tourist guides from the late 40s. She also suggested I stop by the AAA offices nearby, because there's an archive there. I think it's right on Van Ness as I recall seeing a very large AAA office on my walk down to Mission Dolores. By the time I got to Mission Dolores, it was closed, but I took some outside shots. The walk there was somewhat shady at times, but I felt reasonably safe. Carrying the video camera and digital camera and tripod made me feel a bit vulnerable, but the tripod's a definite weapon too.

Tomorrow's itinerary: back to the Mission!

Today's plans: San Francisco Public Library and Mission Dolores

No pictures yet to share, sorry, but today I will be taking some, so I should have soemthing to show this evening. The weather here is cool, cloudy. I hope it does not rain - that could dampen my efforts to take pictures.

The history room is not open until 10am, and the library does not open until 9am, so I am just doing some research in the room here until about 8:30am.

Today's plans: San Francisco Public Library and Mission Dolores

No pictures yet to share, sorry, but today I will be taking some, so I should have soemthing to show this evening. The weather here is cool, cloudy. I hope it does not rain - that could dampen my efforts to take pictures.

The history room is not open until 10am, and the library does not open until 9am, so I am just doing some research in the room here until about 8:30am.

Back on the road; Destination: San Francisco, CA

Today I am blogging from Dayton International Airport thanks to free internet.
I will be in the Bay area visiting three sites: Mt. St. Helena, Russian Gulch State Park, and Mission Dolores.

For some reason, Mission Dolores has not responded to multiple queries; perhaps they're embarassed by the association with the novel? I also noted a Mission Dolores in TX that I may have to check out if I have time -- but not today.

I've been working on the Mesker Zoo piece, and I'm still struggling to finish that, but plan to complete it by the end of July.

As I get some interesting pictures of my travels this time, I'll post them.

Thanks for checking in.

Project Update

There's been a lot of activity lately on this project, but I am trying to restrict the number of posts here. First, it looks like the interface for the Web site has been determined, and I'm very excited about this. Now, I just need to locate the right blue sedan. Second, I'm heading on the road now that our summer session has ended. I'll be visiting Mission Dolores, Russian Gulch State Park, and Mt. St. Helena next week; I'll be visiting Magnolia Gardens the following week.

I've also been working on the Mesker Zoo article; so far, it's coming along slowly. My goal is to complete that article this month and complete another article in August.

Thanks to everyone who has been helpful to me with this project; I really believe it will be an amazing thing once it's done.