Gilroy’s a quirky town. How could it be otherwise when our major
claim to fame is a bulb that makes one exude noticeable fumes hours
after eating it? I love all the small, funny details that make us
who we are.
Gilroy’s a quirky town. How could it be otherwise when our major claim to fame is a bulb that makes one exude noticeable fumes hours after eating it? I love all the small, funny details that make us who we are. Here are a few on my list:
– Downtown’s mural shows a vampire lurking in the left corner. This, years before the Twilight craze! It would take a certain folkloric knowledge to know that vampires are repulsed by garlic, hence his reluctant stance in the lower margin of the mural.
– Our hospital sits in the middle of a field. That’s charming.
– Every December, someone bands the trees on Fifth Street in tin foil. It reminds me of a cigar ring. It’s loveable and unexpected. And I hope the tin foil then gets tented over the Christmas turkey. Double duty.
Our water comes from a well system. That makes us kind of 1800’s entrepreneurial. I do wish we were fluoridated … oh yeah, and that the water was less hard. But still. Checkmark!
– I always smile at the tree at Sixth and Miller that has bricks laid inside it. Someone stood there with a trowel and mortar to make it happen. Why? Tired of the Boo Radley gifts tucked inside? Did the squirrels request a more urban façade?
– The fancy carved castle mailbox on Thomas near Luchessa is a gothic marvel. Actually, it might not be a mailbox and instead simply sculpture…
– Speaking of sculpture, I have to again mention our toddler-sized civic art. Where did they find those tiny artists? It always makes me think of the scene in Spinal Tap when the Stonehenge stage prop arrives.
– I appreciate the house on Hanna Street fronting on either Fourth or Fifth, that has its own display window like a retail establishment. So cool. I’d get some mannequins and go to town.
– It’s always fun to “powder your nose” in a former jail cell, courtesy of Lizarran Restaurant. Or to eat where the fire engines used to idle.
– We must be one of very, very few cities whose theme park has rides fashioned after vegetables. The thing kids most enjoy eating. “Dude, I can’t wait to ride the mushroom again!”
I know there are tons of other quirky things, but it’s approaching midnight and the old thinker is getting slumberous. So to shift gears a bit, let me speak of something quirky in a burg not too far away.
In Moss Landing, there are two oddball things in one block. A horse statue (full-size!) on a balcony, and a Shakespeare Sanctuary. This is not Stratford on Avon, nor Ashland. What is the Shakespeare Society of America doing so close to the beach?
Well, the society is trying desperately to maintain a truly eclectic collection of Shakespeareiana. Is that a word? For 35 years, a successful theater in Los Angeles staged Shakespeare productions in a miniature replica of the Globe (wait – designed by Gilroy artists?)
Famous actors performed there over the years, such as Robert Vaughn, Steve Allen, John Houseman, Talia Shire, Annie Potts, Ed Harris, John Ritter, Sally Kirkland and Julia Duffy.
Through some shenanigans, the theater troupe lost its lease and was stranded with hundreds of costumes, photographs, playbills, and the collections of the founder. Those include a chair from the church where Shakespeare was buried, a billion busts of the bard, and a collection of books, including valuable editions with lithographs, that makes your jaw drop. The founder, R. Thad Taylor, died soon after the eviction, and it’s his son Terry who is trying to keep the rent paid on the space at Moss Landing.
The founder clearly had a sense of humor: in the 1970s, he approached Queen Elizabeth about knighting Shakespeare, and received the frosty response that posthumous knighting doesn’t happen. In response, he wrote and produced a play in which an actress playing Elizabeth does indeed bestow the honor on the clearly-deserving playwright.
Terry has great ideas to revive interest in the collections, like a mobile unit akin to a Bookmobile that could visit schools. His latest brainchild is a fundraising gala titled “Saturday Knight Out,” which takes place Feb. 12. With food, beverages and door prizes, you can show your love of Shakespeare and help out an unusual organization. Information on the event can be found at www.indiegogo.com/Saturday-Knight-Out.
As canny Portia reminded us in The Merchant of Venice, “The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed: it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.” So be like the gentle rain and show some mercy: even if you can’t attend the event, you can visit the website and donate online.
