Below are some of the most memorable things said from Gilroy community members in news stories in 2011.
“Gobbledygook.”
“The albatross around our neck.”
“The deferral hokey pokey.”
“Bobbing for apples with our hands tied behind our back.”
– The Gilroy Board of Education’s growing list of euphemisms for the state budget scenario
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GUSD trustee Fred Tovar: “What’s a leach field?”
GUSD trustee Mark Good: “Fred, you can come over to my house, and I’ll show ya.”
– GUSD trustee banter during a facilities presentation at a September school board meeting
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“I would love it if we could convince the University of California to create UC Gilroy. I’m serious. We have the land and the students. I am a high school teacher.”
“Wine stroll, community garden nice addition. It’s sort of embarrassing for me to try to bring my friends from Morgan Hill downtown.”
“To support the people that actually invest in our city. Tax revenue is nice, but none of the East 152 development is a real investment in the city, just a fiscal Band-Aid for poor city planning.”
– Quotes from the Discover Gilroy Survey
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“Is that one pregnant?”
“No…she’s just fat.”
– Robin and Richard Vasquez, owners of R&R Alpaca Ranch who gave a tour of their farm and introduced Dispatch staff to their quizzical herd of Alpacas.
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“Collecting is the mental equivalent of alcohol.”
– Gracie Garcia, avid antique collector and owner of Gilroy Antiques in downtown Gilroy
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“We want to feed the homeless, not make them sick!”
– Annie Eldon, former Resident Service Director of Si, Se Puede! Learning Center in Gilroy. In March, Eldon oversaw 21 children who volunteered to make a meal for the homeless. The effort encountered minor hiccup involving uncooked sausage, but the cooking error was caught just in time.
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“It is important that students know that they are not alone. Without LGBT in history, students are bound to think that if they feel gay, they must be strange, because gay people are so rare and strange. Students will of course feel alienated from their peers without a curriculum that is honest and not afraid to include LGBT history and social studies as well.”
– GHS alumna Rachel Smith on Senate Bil 48, known informally as the gay education bill, which was signed July 14
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“You kind of want somebody to pay for what happened at some point…but you realize that doesn’t bring her back or change anything.”
“You know she was on the plane. You know it hit the Pentagon. You know she died. I had friends who wanted to read forensic autopsies…the plane was going 600 miles an hour and it hit a wall. You don’t need data to know what transpired. Getting into details doesn’t help.”
– Frank Jensen, a former San Martin resident whose wife, Suzanne Calley, died aboard American Airlines Flight 77 in the 9/11 attacks.
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“We’re hoping against hope this is going to inspire some other people to do the same thing. Time is running out.”
– Winslow Briggs, secretary of the Coe Park Preservation Fund, discussing the grassroots effort to save Coe Park. Coe was one of 70 state parks slated for closure in 2012.
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“With Edward, you just look at him, and he’s more than hotness. There’s no words to express it. It’s just something I feel.”
– Ashley Mollineto, 23, the first person in line up for the midnight premiere of “Twilight: Breaking Dawn” at Gilroy Platinum Theatre on 6851 Monterey St.
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“This is not over.”
– Chief Denise Turner after announcing the haul from ‘Operation Garlic Press’ in November.
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“Wonderful, I’ll be dead.”
– Councilman Bob Dillon, 64, after hearing the HSR would be delayed until 2033.
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“I’ve gone from ‘No’ to ‘Hell no.'”
– Dillon wanting to opt out of the habitat plan.
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“You want to start to fight but you don’t want to finish it.”
– Councilman Perry Woodward to Mayor Al Pinheiro during a heated debate about the Open Govt. Commission.
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