News

LAKEPORT – “The Moving Wall,” a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., will arrive this week in Lakeport, its only Northern California stop on this year’s tour.

The Moving Wall has visited more than 1,000 communities in the past 20 years and will be on display in Lakeport from Thursday, June 11 through Monday, June 15.

The Lake County chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) is bringing The Moving Wall to Lake County as a community event that will provide an opportunity for residents and visitors alike to experience the memorial. It will be on display at the Lake County Fairgrounds, 401 Martin St., Lakeport.

On Monday, in preparation for the wall's Wednesday arrival, VVA and its volunteers began building the wall's platform and installed the Avenue of Flags, said VVA President Dean Gotham.

Gotham reported that they also completed set up for the opening ceremony, which is set for 9 a.m. Friday, June 12.

Following the opening, The Moving Wall will be accessible 24 hours per day until the closing ceremony on June 15. An information booth with a directory of names and refreshments will be available.

“ ‘A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers,’ President John F. Kennedy said. The opportunity for Lake County to reveal itself will occur when The Moving Wall opens on June 11,” said Gotham.

The goal of The Moving Wall, which was built in 1983-1984 by the Vietnam Combat Veterans Ltd., was to share the feelings and experiences of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. as many veterans and the general public do not have the opportunity to see the memorial in person.

Spanning over 250 feet in length, The Moving Wall, will provide visitors the opportunity to learn, demonstrate honor and respect, and provide some closure to Vietnam veterans.

For more information or to volunteer assistance, materials, or tax-deductible donations, call Gotham at 707-350-1159 or visit www.vva951.org .

LOWER LAKE – The Lake County Sheriff's Office is warning the public about a new scam that reportedly took $30,000 from a local woman.

Sheriff's Capt. James Bauman said Monday that an elderly Lower Lake woman reported on May 29 that she had been scammed out of $30,000 by a man posing to be her grandson on the telephone.

This is the third report of scams or attempted scams this year in which elderly victims have been called by someone posing to be a grandson who alleges to have gotten into trouble in another country and asks for large amounts of money, Bauman said.

Seventy-two-year-old Marie Newsom reported getting a phone call on the morning of May 28 in which the male caller told her he was her grandson, Joshua Hazzard, according to Bauman.

Bauman said the caller told Newsom that he and several of his friends had been arrested in Hong Kong for soliciting prostitutes and they needed $30,000 transferred to a Hong Kong bank to bail out of jail.

Immediately after getting the call, Newsom arranged for the transfer of funds to the Hong Kong bank, Bauman said.

The same man called Newsom back later in the day to see if she had transferred the funds and she told him she had, according to Bauman's report.

The following day, Newsom became concerned that she had been scammed and called her grandson’s other grandmother in Las Vegas where Hazzard apparently resides. She then learned Hazzard was in Las Vegas and had not been to China at all, said Bauman.

An elderly Clearlake Oaks couple fell victim to a similar crime in February of this year when they got a call from a man posing as their grandson who told them he was in jail in Canada and needed $3,000 to bail out, as Lake County News has reported.

Another elderly man from Clearlake Oaks got a similar call in January of this year in which the “grandson” asked him to wire $6,000 to Canada to get him out of trouble. Fortunately in that case, the would-be victim called his daughter and the mother of his grandson in Los Angeles before sending any money and learned his grandson was not in Canada, Bauman said.

Bauman said the sheriff’s office is again reminding all members of the public that there isn’t nearly as much advice on avoiding being the victim of such scams as there are ways to be defrauded.

However, aside from always protecting your personal information, members of the public are encouraged to always verify unsolicited transactions of any kind before acting on them, Bauman said.

NICE – A vehicle crash late Sunday morning closed Highway 20 for more than an hour and a half.

The California Highway Patrol reported that the collision took place shortly before 11:30 a.m. near Robinson Rancheria in Nice.

A white pickup rolled over and hit two other vehicles, blocking the roadway.

CHP, Lake County Sheriff's deputies, Caltrans and Northshore Fire medics responded to the scene.

Three subjects, whose names were not immediately available, were reported injured, and two air ambulances came to the scene to transport them to the hospital.

The CHP reported the roadway was closed, with vehicles being diverted at the Reclamation Road cutoff.

Caltrans road signs were activated at the intersections of Highway 20 and Highway 53 and Highway 20 and Highway 29 to alert drivers to the closure.

The roadway reopened at 1:10 p.m., the CHP reported.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

 

 

I ain’t in no hurry

but I ain’t got no time to lose ...

– Chicago Blues Queen Koko Taylor, June 5, 2007

These are difficult times for your CyberSoulMan. Some of you may know that my mother recently left this earth for the next level and I’m dealing with all the accompanying emotion that accompanies a loss of that magnitude.

Koko Taylor, who passed June 3, was an artist dear to my mom’s heart, as well as my own.

My mom helped shape my blues sensibilities. I’ve written before that my mom introduced me to the music of Sugar Pie DeSanto. By way of mother inserting Koko Taylor’s classic song “Wang Dang Doodle” on the hi-fi, I became a Koko convert as well.

I actually met Koko face to face several times – on two occasions at the Russian River Blues Festival. At the 2007 Russian River I hung with her one on one for about 20 minutes until Little Richard’s limo pulled up and he requested her queenly presence. I also spoke with her briefly at the Chicago Blues Festival last year

I was very proud of returning from the 2007 Russian River Blues Festival with a picture I’d taken with Koko Taylor to present my mother. She, in turn, proudly displayed the picture on her refrigerator.

Prior to the event on the Russian River, I interviewed Koko Taylor on June 5, 2007, by phone for my Internet radio show. When I told her that my mom introduced me to her music she remarked that she would like to meet mom when she came to California. I thought that a very kind thing to say and when I repeated it to mom she received it kindly as well.

When Koko agreed to do a radio promo for me she graciously insisted on doing multiple takes until it was perfect. She was so willing to please and thoroughly enjoyed her work.

During my travel to the Chicago Blues Festival of 2008, I was able to witness Queen of the Chicago Blues Koko Taylor meet and greet Queen of the West Coast Blues Sugar Pie DeSanto.

Here is how I reported it for www.soul-patrol.com .

Fast forward to June 6, 2008. Before leaving the Essex Hotel for sound check, Queen of the West Coast Blues Sugar Pie DeSanto is summoned by the hospitality coordinator to the parking garage because Chicago Blues Queen Koko Taylor wants to greet Sugar Pie. They meet and greet each other like the long-lost sisters in the blues that they are. They hug and charm each other with statements like, "What you gon' do girl?"

"Honey, I'm gon' kill 'em." Koko does her dance. Sugar Pie does hers. It's a Soul Patrol moment.

That was exactly a year ago Saturday. I listened to the audio of the interview I did with Koko on Saturday and will be posting it on my Web site in the near future. Then you can hear Koko explain how she and her husband came to Chicago in the early 1950s from Bartlett, Tennessee. They came by bus and when they arrived all they had was a box of Ritz crackers and 35 cents between them.

Her story entails her humble beginnings scrubbing floors for $5 per week, meeting the legendary Willie Dixon at Sylvio’s in Chicago, auditioning for Leonard Chess and catapulting to the top of the Blues world and staying there her whole career.

She performed her last gig on May 7, where she received her 29th award for Traditional Blues Artist of the Year. Koko Taylor, The Blues Wailer, rest in peace.

Keep prayin’, keep thinkin’ those kind thoughts.

*****

Upcoming cool local events:

Lake Blues All-Stars w/Neon, Blues Monday, 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. June 8, Blue Wing Saloon & Café, 9520 Main St., Upper Lake. Telephone, 707-275-2233, or online, www.bluewingsaloon.com .

Open mike night, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, June 11. Blue Wing Saloon & Café, 9520 Main St., Upper Lake. Telephone, 707-275-2233, or online, www.bluewingsaloon.com .

Chris Botti in concert, 8:15 p.m. Saturday, June 20. Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa, 8727 Soda Bay Road, Kelseyville. Telephone, 800-660-LAKE, or online at www.konoctiharbor.com .

Smokey Robinson in concert, 7:15 p.m. Saturday, July 31. Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa, 8727 Soda Bay Road, Kelseyville. Telephone, 800-660-LAKE, or online at www.konoctiharbor.com .

The Four Tops in Concert, 9 p.m. Saturday, July 31. Cache Creek Casino Resort, 14455 Highway 16, Brooks. Telephone, 888-77-CACHE, or online at www.cachecreek.com .

 

T. Watts is a writer, radio host and music critic. Visit his Web site at www.teewatts.biz.

 

 

 

 

LAKEPORT – Several dozen people gathering at the lakeside Saturday morning to remember the day, 65 years before, when 155,000 Allied soldiers took part in history's largest amphibious invasion on the beaches of Normandy, France.

D-Day – June 6, 1944 – was the day when thousands of troops and ships arrived and began the historic landing at Omaha, Utah, Sword, Juno and Gold beaches.

The actual operations ran from June 4 through 14, 1944, as part of Operation Overlord, an audacious and seemingly improbable plan that ultimately pierced Adolf Hitler's hold on Europe and led to the Allied victory in World War II.

The local ceremony, led by Ronnie Bogner, was held at the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association's memorial mast in Library Park. The Lakeport Sea Scouts – teenagers not many years different in age from the young men who would have arrived on Normandy's beaches decades ago – raised the American flag on the mast.

Rev. Mike Suski, a chaplain with the Lake County Sheriff's Office and Lakeport Police Department, offered an opening invocation.

Suski, born in Poland, said D-Day had special significance for him; his father, at age 16, was taken from his home by the Nazis and forced into slave labor in the salt mines on the border of Germany and France. The Allied advance freed the elder Suski and millions of others, and turned the fortunes of the war. Suski said his fathered died March 13.

He remembered those who gave their lives for freedom, peace and democracy, and prayed for those now serving in the country's leadership.

Businessman John Tompkins led the group in singing the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

Bob Bartley, a Kelseyville resident who is a member of a World War II reenactment group, wore an authentic wool uniform like that worn by the soldiers landing at Normandy. Bartley had attended last year's D-Day ceremony in full uniform, including the pack carried by the men, which can weigh as much as 70 pounds. He skipped that part this year, noting that it left his back out for days the last time.

Those heavy packs proved fatal for many soldiers in the landing. In some cases, the soldiers were let off of the amphibious carriers in deep water and had to try to swim to shore with the weight. It was noted during the ceremony that many men drowned under the packs' weight.

Other historic military touches included a 1968 Kaiser relay truck used by the Marines during Vietnam which Carl Thompson, a California Highway Patrol officer, is restoring.

One of the featured speakers was Lucerne resident Jim Harris, who was at both the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 and at D-Day, where he served aboard the destroyer USS McCook (DD 496).

He recalled the practice run for D-Day at Slapton Sands, near Dover, England. “This rehearsal was what you might call chaos,” he said, noting that German submarines showed up and sank three troop ships. Slapton Sands was kept so quiet that the men who died there were counted as casualties at D-Day he said.

The stormy weather in June of 1944 caused a delay in the invasion, he said. Many ships already had been under way and had to be rounded up after the cancellation order was given.

Eventually, though, on the morning of June 6, 1944, 5,000 vessels were under way toward the French coast. “We were so very fortunate that the fog held,” Harris said.

But there were problems with the landing, from men landing too far out and struggling under heavy packs to the soldiers scrambling up onto the beach to find they had only 8 feet of beach up against a cliff to find safety, while fierce fire came from the cliffs above at Pointe du Hoc.

Harris said the USS McCook's captain saw Germans firing from the cliffs above onto the Allied forces on the beaches. The admiral gave the command to go after them, so the 345-foot McCook was steered into the breakers, trying to avoid mines while attempting to get close enough to shoot at the cliffs above. With each wave, the ship had to be thrust into reverse to avoid the mines or running aground.

In his book “The Americans at D-Day,” author John C. McManus writes that the McCook shot 1,000 rounds that day.

Harris, a helmsman on the McCook, said she and another destroyer, the USS Carmick, wiped out the German fire power in the cliffs in about 20 minutes, including German “tiger” tanks.

“That was the longest day I ever lived,” he said.

Another World War II veterans, 89-year-old Bob Tucker, spoke at the ceremony.

Tucker wasn't at D-Day, but he took part in the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1942 under Gen. George Patton, “the greatest soldier that walked this earth.”

He shared D-Day statistics: there were 5,303 ships, 13,000 US paratroopers, 325 heavy bomber planes and 2,500 dead. Omaha Beach was an important landing spot because of the cliffs and reefs that prevented landing elsewhere along the coast.

Recalling his own trip to Europe for the war, Tucker said as he sailed out of New York City, he looked at the Statue of Liberty and said, “Oh, girl, I may never see you again.”

Punctuating the end of the ceremony was a rifle salvo by the United Veterans Council Military Funeral Honors Team and the playing of “Taps.”

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .