Making Local Calls

Man, the Elisaras are getting local these days! Public school will do that to you. A whole new universe of people enter your world when your child starts school, and we’re excited about helping to knit these families into a stronger community. (The first day of school I threw a brunch for the new parents—part to get to know each other, part for my personal therapy in coping with Ethan starting school.) Our local mountain, Mt. Volcan, is under threat of development, and so we are digging in with some local activism. (Write to me if you want to be involved!) Finally, we have stepped up involvement in our local church, volunteering with various ministries and making more of an effort to meet fellow members (I’ve joined the T-bags—a group of ladies who throw afternoon teas for shut-ins—how cool is that?) And oh yes, our summer garden rocks!

Many of you know that we moved to Julian seven years ago for the express reason of making our lives more local, even as we traveled for weeks, or semesters, with CCSP. We wanted to be rooted in a place, come to love and care for it, and know that it was a small enough town that when we repeatedly left and returned from NZ and Belize, people would still know us. They would know when we were going and would anticipate our return. So our involvement here has been very intentional, and now we’re taking it to a new level.

“Sense of place” and the importance of “being local” are big themes throughout CCSP. Even as many of you are in transition, I encourage you to be as local as you can and to cultivate a sense of place anyway. As we can increasingly attest, it’s very hard, nitty gritty work, but it also has tremendous payoff. It’s not something you have to wait to do until you’re “settled” in your first place, with your first job, married, with kids, whatever. It’s a way of embracing life once you step out the door.

I know the following article is a bit long, but it’s a great read. It was written by the owner of Jack’s, one of two very small grocery stores here in Julian. Not only was it printed in the Julian News, but it seems every shop owner photocopied it and placed piles of them on every checkout countertop across town. It’s a touching story and strong argument for the big principles we teach in CCSP, and in the spirit of celebrating “being local” I include it for your enjoyment. (For those of you who don’t know, the Cedar Fire of 2003 wiped out nearly 800 homes in our town.)




Cedar Fire, Collateral Damage


Turns out that not every home lost in the Cedar Fire has been lost as a result of actual flames. There are those homes, like ours, on the verge of being lost just as assuredly due to the fire, in a slower way: as a result of lost business that has resulted from the Cedar Fire.

Make sense?

Not to me, either. But facts are facts. And unless something changes in a most dramatic way and soon, we—and others like us---will officially cross the line that will designate us Fire Victims.

As a last ditch effort to save a business that has lived and thrived in Julian for over 100 years, now known as Jack’s Grocery, I make the following pleas, observations and humbling statements:

Think you’re saving money by shopping at Albertsons or Stater Bros? Last I checked our tomatoes, lettuce, onions, potatoes, organic apples, oranges, squash, choice rib eyes, ground beef, sirloins, fresh chicken breasts, homemade sausage, pork, cheese, cold cuts, milk, butter, eggs, ice creams and all other quality dairy products—organic and otherwise—were priced at or below theirs. Even our paper towels, toilet paper, sponges, dish detergent, beer, wine, charcoal, and frozen potpies are comparably priced to the big chain grocery stores.

But what do we provide that the big chains in the city, for all their convenience and choices and wide aisles and specials and uniforms and monotony, don’t?

Well…

When was the last time your “down-the-hill” checkout clerk pulled out her recipe book and made a copy for you of the perfect fudge recipe, helping you decide which baking chocolate was right for you? How often do the chain clerks ask after your father who just had a stroke? Have they ever offered to deliver your groceries to your home because they knew you had the flu? Does the chain store clerk have a child on your kid’s soccer team? Have they donated $100 required to be a booster of Julian High? If they brought your recycled coffee can with a picture of your kid pasted onto it with a plea for spare change so your kid can go to Costa Rica or Greece or Scotland, do you think Albertsons, Stater Bros, Walmart, Kmart or Costco would put that coffee can on display at the checkout counter? Do the chain store owners show up for the Senior Auction? Better yet, when was the last time they donated to it? Will the chain store clerk carry out your groceries for you, or bring your car right up to the front door when it’s raining, or push your stroller and hold your toddler’s hand, all the while asking after your family? Has anybody at a chain store ever run over to the drug store to get you the red Nyquil because all they had available was green Nyquil?

Is your Girl Scout leader employed by a chain store? No? Well, she is at Jack’s. The babysitter you’ve used for years—she works here too. And the supply clerk? His parents lost his home to the flames, and he’s on your kid’s basketball team, and you daughter just might have wanted to marry him when they were in preschool together. Yes, in preschool together right here in Julian.

I’m curious. How many Albertsons, Ralphs, Vons, Stater Bros, Kmart, Target, Walmart, Costco (insert any non-family owned, other than independent grocery store name) clerks cried with you over the loss of your home to the Cedar Fire flames? And how many of them cried again---angry tears or happy tears, as the case may be—when your plans finally got approved, or when the concrete got poured, and when the slices of your home were driven down Main Street, when your carpet got put in and you could finally spend the night in your own bed under your own roof? How many of them offered you a bottle of wine, a Pyrex dish, a special prayer or a heartfelt hug at your well deserved fortune?

We have given everything we have to our little grocery store. We live here, which means that nearly every penny we earn actually stays here. We know we can’t compete with Costco or with most of the hard goods at the chain stores. We don’t expect your every grocery dollar to be spent at Jack’s. We just want you to know, and hopefully appreciated, the web of connectedness and support that shopping locally provides for everyone in Julian. Like….

We buy our occasional lottery ticket from Larry, who employs many folks. We get our boots and flannels and paint from John and Vickie at the hardware store. They, too, help put food on the table of a few locals. We get our propane and gas from Norm, where Danny works who always has such great Christmas decorations in his yard. We buy our cold medicine, birthday cards, and gift bags at the drug store. We get Mother’s Day gifts at the American Gardener. My daughter is getting Christmas presents from the Attic and Wild Rose. The ornaments for the Christmas party I attended were purchased at Bell, Book and Candle. We make regular trips to the Julian Bookstore for paperbacks. For nine of the past ten years, our taxes have been done by Bob. George fixes my car. We buy chicken wire from Jerry. Gus takes care of our electrical problems, and Lorenzo and Gary do our plumbing. Another Gary installed our wood floor. Teddy fixes all our coolers. When tourists ask us where they can get caramel apples, we point to the Cider Mill. For pastries, go see Carrie. For breakfast? We spread the wealth between the Café and Buffalo Bill’s. For lunch, either us (yes, we have a great deli) or Miner’s Diner or Clarence’s or Margie’s or Lew’s. For dinner, it’s Romano’s or the Rongbranch or the Grille or Wynola Pizza. And pies? Well….Julian is rich with apple pie! And our recommendations run the gamut!

We buy your cub scouts popcorn and poinsettias, cookies from your girl scouts, bulbs from the high school yearbook club, wrapping paper from the elementary kids, magazine subscriptions from the junior high kids. We donate to and raise money for the volunteer fire department, attend the basketball team fundraising dinner, buy vacations at the Senior Class Auction that we know we’ll never get the time off to enjoy.

See? It’s all a circle. We all contribute in ways large and small to create a fine web of family and friends and neighbors and classmates and merchants and fellow humans in this little town that has struggled for what seems to be such a long time.

So I’ve said my piece. I have lived in this community for sixteen years. We love this town with all of our heart and soul. We are mortified to think that we might fail at a business that has weathered over 100 years here in Julian.

But none of those years has seen the catastrophic disaster that is the Cedar Fire.

Yes, you can save money shopping down the hill. But at what cost?

We console ourselves with the fact that if we do fail, it won’t be for lack of trying. And it’s not like the store itself is going anywhere, it just might be somebody else you see behind the counter.

We know that we are not the only merchants hanging on by a thread. But instead of lamenting in small, hushed groups, Michael and I are just foolish enough to say it out loud.

Thanks for letting me share.