Those of you who know me here on Gather know that I am an active volunteer at both the Western Sonoma County Historical Society and its offspring the Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Farm Advisory Committee.
WSCHS was formed back in the mid 70s as a grassroots organization to preserve what remained of the experimental grounds of the famed horticulturalist, Luther Burbank (1850s-1920s), in the town of Sebastopol here in Sonoma County in Northern California. Burbank's home, however, for about 50 years, was in a nearby larger town -- the town that I grew up in, Santa Rosa, California.
Burbank and his work are a source of tremendous local pride and one of the things that all schoolchildren learn about in Santa Rosa but it was not until the mid 1980s, when I undertook a campaign to save a 130+ year-old wisteria vine (along with several other plants and trees) that were slated to be demolished at the site of a former rental house I had lived in at one time and my research revealed that the plants were definitely related to Burbank, that I began to study about him with more interest. (You can find an excerpt from my book "Confessions of a Plant Activist" about my fight for the wisteria here on Gather.)
It was about that same time that, after approximately 50 years of falling into ruin, that "Burbank's Farm" was undergoing massive restoration by a small group of dedicated volunteers. One of the many, many people whom I contacted during my fight to try and save the wisteria (which my research revealed just "happened" to be located on the very road that Burbank used on an almost daily basis traveling back and forth from his home to his farm) was historical horticulturalist Bob who was referred to by the person who recommended I contact him as being "the foremost expert on Burbank and his work in all of California and, quite possibly, the entire world".
Bob was one of the first people to realize that Burbank's Experiment Farm was in imminent danger from rampant development (which I have always thought was complete misnomer as a description for the actual activities of real estate speculators) in the area and it was he, along with a few other local residents (most of whom I came to know later) who are actually responsible for the wonderful 3+ acre historical and horticultural site that is now one of the most precious "jewels" of open space in the entire County (and, IMHO, the world).
It would not be until many years later, after Hubby and I eventually moved to the town of Sebastopol and I was laid-off from my job as the Greenhouse Manager of a venerated, local, wholesale nursery, that I became much more involved with Burbank's Farm.
After answering an ad in the local newspaper calling for volunteers to help with the installation of an outdoor "Victory Garden" exhibit at the West County Museum in downtown Sebastopol in 1992 -- and putting in a full day's work of excavation and installation of the plants in the exhibit (including some herbs that I brought that morning as a donation to the effort) -- I was invited by the Curator of the Farm, Steve (the owner/operator of a successful local landscaping company who was overseeing the installation), to attend one of the monthly meetings of the Farm Committee.
I was so honored to have been invited... Up until that time, I had always thought of historical societies as being made up of the descendants of prominent, local, pioneer families who I felt certain were clannish, aristocratic, arthritic snobs distrustful of "outsiders". I even held some kind of vague notion in the back of my mind that -- like the Freemasons -- one's membership in such an organization would have to be "sponsored" somehow.
I couldn't have been more wrong... From the moment I walked in, I was greeted with open arms by several members of the Committee who seemed genuinely ecstatic to have a potential comrade-in-arms in their midst who shared their keen interest in local history combined with a deep respect for Burbank and his work with the addition of a vocational background in horticulture.
Soon, I was helping the other volunteers with the maintenance and restoration work at the Farm on a regular basis.
Having been employed for most of my life as a secretary and office administrator, I realized almost immediately that the Committee was sorely in need of someone with clerical skills, thus, it wasn't long before I was elected "Farm Scribe" with the primary responsibilty of recording and distributing the monthly meeting "minutes". Shortly after that, I was elected "Farm Secretary" which added other clerical duties such as answering routine correspondence and creating grant related status reports on behalf of the Committee to my work at the Farm.
After an initial "sizing up" stage during those first few months (and with the list of my contributions growing longer and longer) the fact that I was not descended from local pioneers and an unemployed former hippy who was 20 years or so their junior, seemed to matter less and less.
Within a couple of years, I was elected (along with another member of the Committee who was one of the Historic Society's founders) as one of two Committee "Co-Chairs" -- a capacity in which I served for the next couple of years. I was next approached by the then-President of the Western Sonoma County Historical Society (who was, at the time, also chairing the Society's Board Nomination Committee) to consider running for the office of Society Co-President.
I was elected to that office the following January along with another long-time Society member whom I had never met before but who had been a volunteer for several years at the museum and archives (that also operate under the "umbrella" of the Historical Society) located downtown at Sebastopol's former train depot building.
My Co-President -- with her years of experience on the "museum/archives" end of the Society spectrum -- and I -- with (by that time) a pretty solid background in the day-to-day administration of Burbank's Farm -- were a pretty good "fit" as far as managing the affairs of the Society went...
Our personalities and skill-sets also seemed to mesh incredibly well as I am, and have always been, an assertive person with management experience who has no problem communicating (in no uncertain terms) the expections or parameters required to "get the job done". My co-president, on the other hand, has the advantages of being descended from one of the area's most respected pioneer families along with a generally accepted reputation as being a sweet and mild-mannered person who always gives the impression that she is eager to please.
(Knowing her as I do now and having developed a great deal of affection and respect for this woman during the past few years of our -- at first, anyway -- "thrown together by fate" association, I can tell you that, in reality, beneath her mild-mannered outward appearance lurks an incredibly competent, decisive and focused individual whose organizational skills are legion.)
Last night, the Farm Committee held its annual Christmas party and pot-luck for its members and other Farm volunteers at the home of one of the present Committee "Co-Chairs". It is at these annual gatherings that the normally "strictly business" tone of our usual interactions with each other falls away and we are able to catch rare glimpses of one other in a relaxed, social setting.
As I looked around the room at my fellow volunteers, I couldn't help but smile...
Over the past 15 years or so, we have lost members to death and re-location. Others have come to join our ranks but many of these same people in that room were present when I sat down at the conference table at the very first meeting I attended and, during the time that has passed since then, I have come to respect, admire and cherish each and every one of them...
We're all older now and, for many of us, our life situations have changed and then changed again but this work we do out of love "for the greater good" binds us together and probably will until each of us goes off to that "Big Farm in the Sky"...
This "vision" we share of the preservation of a 3+ acre plot of ground -- dedicated to a man who loved the earth and the plants he so carefully coaxed out of it -- looms around us and above us and encloses us within a "circle of nature" that is almost as close as the blood of kinship.
So, it is to my fellow Burbank Farm volunteers, that I raise my glass and toast "the chosen spot of all the Earth as far as nature is concerned" *. May we draw our strength from it and live to pass the torch to coming generations.
Salud!
Above: A collage of some of the photos I took at last night's pot luck. (That's me in the upper left corner, showing my hair decorated with fresh flowers and fern leaves from my yard... ;o) )
*A Luther Burbank quote describing Sonoma County.
If you are interested in reading more about the work of the Western Sonoma County Historical Society, you can access the Society website at:
http://www.wschs-grf.pon.net
Here are links to some of my other articles and photo-essays I have posted here on Gather about Burbank, Burbank's Farm and the Western Sonoma County Historical Society:
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977122126
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977135799
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977311510&nav=Namespace
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977338148
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977343324
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977372417
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977436257&nav=MyGather
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977459685&nav=MyGather
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977471230&nav=MyGather
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Comments: 10
Indeed, ee... Indeed...