Mission Days – April 1st, 2017

Mission San Antonio de Padua holds an annual celebration of California history. I was most pleased to participate in the 2017 event as story-teller and visiting author. The hundreds of visitors and dozens of presenters enjoyed an April spring day – mild sunshine, warm breezes and perfume of wildflowers – that only the  San Antonio Valley can produce – a heavenly visit to old California. I got to share Native American stories about silly Tarantula and how Kangaroo Rat got his blackened tail. I hope to be included once again next year!

El Niño’s Tears

Photo by Ed Haskell

Friend Ed Haskell’s gift and craft is to find and capture transcendent images. I try to kindle images in others’ minds by relating what I see in words. It’s a gratifying surprise when it turns out that he and I perceive the same thing. I think this happened at Mission Days last month. You be the judge:

http://www.quailbellmagazine.com/the-unreal/poem-el-ninos-tears

 

Mission Days 2016

Photo by Phyllis Walton

“Mission Days” at San Antonio de Padua both celebrates the early history of Central California and raises funds for restoration of the Mission buildings. This year’s event took place on April 2nd and was a great success. Gold-panning, brick-making, black-smithing, cowboy-singing, acorn-grinding, candle-making, wildflower-hiking were – among many others – activities one could engage in. All was topped off by Rosa Pacheco’s BBQ and a concert by the New World Baroque Orchestra. I squeezed in some story-telling – Ask me how the kangaroo rat got its paint brush of a tail! – and some book signing.

 

Tarantula and Black Maggie!

I spent a good part of yesterday telling tall tales at Mission San Antonio de Padua.  It was Mission Days – time for music, food, stories, remembrance and laughter!  If that sounds like a fiesta to you, then you’re absolutely in tune with what was going on.  If you weren’t there, you missed a great time, but there’s always next year! My bit was to tell Native American and early settler stories.  I had a good audience (even if I dragooned a couple of them, though without the help of the dragoon re-enactors outside) and worked a new story into the mix. Catch me sometime for a rendition of “Tarantula”. It’s not what you think, but it’s okay if you think it anyway.

P.S. Phyllis and I were married in this wonderful room exactly 43 years ago.