Marie Johnson of Foothill Flowers invited my wife, son and I to a book signing they were hosting Friday night for Gage McKinney’s new book “The 1930s: No Depression Here.”
It was a fun event: not necessarily like minded people (for example, ones who support the proposed IMM and ones who don’t) getting together to celebrate Gage’s book.
It’s a long one — 525 pages without notes — but does a splendid job of documenting “how a depressed rural region in the 1920s was unexpectedly transformed after the Stock Market Crash of 1929 into a scene of vibrant activity and record employment,” as the book relates.
“Gold from the richest mining districts in California made boom towns of Grass Valley and Nevada City while the rest of the country staggered under the burdens of unemployment, financial failure and collapse.”
Gage is an engaging person. He lives in Sunnyvale but hopes to move here someday with his wife (a longtime United Airlines flight attendant) and retire. I asked him how he researched the book, and he mentioned the benefit of public libraries such as Doris Foley in Nevada City (slated to be run by outside consultants).
Let’s hope that we can continue to document the history of our county with all the proposed changes.
After visiting with Gage, preceded by the Richard Murai photography exhibit in Nevada City, we were planning to watch the second half of the NU football game, where my nephew is the quarterback.
But his team had the game well under control, so we went home to bed. On Saturday night, we’ll be hosting a big family get together to celebrate this win, as well as hooking up with my other football-playing nephews.
I hope you enjoy your Indian Summer weekend here.
Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report 