Page 8


THE


is one of my favorite memo- ries, while working in the Si- erra Mountains, happening in Calaveras County.


Y It was a


two-and- a-h a lf- year gig. I’d travel 185 miles f r o m Sonoma Count y to Mur- p h ys,


California once a week. I had always dreamed about being a cowgirl. Here, I was living it, if only for the moment. T e most amazing moment came one of those nights in Murphys. Call it an omen of things soon to come, the magic of the full moon, call it anything you’d like… I call it a howling good memory. Aſt er a day of driving, I went


BOUNTY


ears ago, I worked for Ironstone Vineyards. T e following story


OF


to the winery to work a bit. Once everything was fi nished, I checked into the Murphys Hotel, just like al- ways. I preferred the front room, at the end of the hall- way, to the leſt . T e room has French doors that open to the street below. It’s a street that’s still narrow, as it was in those Wild West days. It’s just wide enough for a couple of horses to be tied to some post, perhaps only 30 feet wide. Shops are still small, so I got to know people in most stores. It was really fun to explore. I’ll always be thank- ful; going back in time is such a hoot. [I was staying upstairs in the leſt -hand room of this picture, on the second fl oor.


SONOMA


COUNTY A Howling Good Story in Murphys, California By Jo Diaz of Gyserville, CA. • jo@diaz-communications.com ~ Photo by Jo Diaz


Joke # 2


The teacher was asking Har- old some math questions.


Teacher: If I give you two Rabbits, and two rabbits, and another two rabbits, how many rabbits do you have? Harold: SEVEN!


Teacher: Let’s try this an- other way. If I give you two bottles of pop, and two bot- tles of pop, and another two bottles of pop, how many bottles of pop do you have? Harold: SIX!


Teacher: Good! Now, if I give you two Rabbits, and two rabbits, and another two rabbits, how many rabbits do you have?


Harold: SEVEN!


Image is from the Wikimedia Commons.] T at front room could be


a blessing or a curse, mostly de- p en din g on mood. Sometimes I minded that a saloon was directly below me; other times it didn’t bother me. I learned that there’s a frenetic energy going on when you’re directly above that old saloon, in a cowboy town that’s not much changed since the Gold Rush. T e Murphys Hotel was built in 1856. I’d sit at the table between the glass doors and write things impor- tant to me.


8 • December 2018 • UPBEAT TIMES, INC.


How many of us can say they’ve been there, done that? Well, Ulysses S. Grant, T omas Lip- ton, JJ As- tor, Samuel Pi l lsbur y, Will i a m Randolph H e a r s t , D a nie l Webster, J. P ier p o n t Mo r - gan, John Cr o c k er , M a r k T wa in, Bl a ck


Bart, Susan B. Anthony, John Wayne, Sunny Ficus (if they could talk), and I can say it. Murphys Hotel’s history does tell us somethings, but not all things. Each night I’d head to the


...continued on page 10


Teacher: How on earth do you work out that three lots of two rabbits is seven? Harold: I’ve already got one rabbit at home.


“I’ve always thought


people would


fi nd a lot more pleasure in


their routines if they burst into song at signifi cant


moments.” John Barrowman


“Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild fl owers in our hair...” ~ Susan Polis Schutz


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