>> Ghostly Answers
I grew up and am still living in our family home in Tennessee Valley (Mill Valley). My grandfather, Joseph Cardosa Pimentel, owned a dairy farm for years called the Coyote Jersey Farm, which included all the land above the Tam Valley School. I believe the area where the featured home in the article “Ghost Flustered” (October) is located near where an old oak tree used to be. Many of the farm’s workers were Portuguese and would come from the whaling ships that visited the bay. One hung himself from this oak tree, which is around where Carerra Drive is today. Perhaps the Bernsteins should try speaking to the ghost in Portuguese. Also, it was very common that these workers had Asian friends; perhaps the first ghost was a friend of his?
Kathy Kirkland, via-email
>> Spotted in Snap
Let me assure you, readers pay attention to Marin Magazine’s “Snap” section. I recently received a delightful call from a student of mine from 50 years ago at Redwood High. He recognized my name and photo in your September issue, taken when I attended the Marin Sonoma Concours d’Elegance that benefited Hospice by the Bay. Thank you for the sweet student-teacher reunion. Rainbow blessings and appreciation for a great read each and every month.
Barbara Meislin, aka “The Purple Lady”
>> San Quentin’s Death Row
“San Quentin Controversy” (November), by Jim Wood, is a succinct editorial. Thanks go to him for writing it. He bypasses all the vengeance-based rhetoric with a common-sense approach.
Rabbi Jerrold Goldstein, via e-mail
>> Thanks to Marty Griffin
After reading the interview with Marty Griffin in Dialogue (October), I promptly bought his book Saving the Marin-Sonoma Coast. It has been a revelation and an inspiration for me to read this wonderful account—and I daresay it puts me to shame as a professional historian. I have to admit I had no idea how close we all came to losing our precious coastal wilderness areas in Marin and Sonoma. This kind of insouciance is understandable in a teenager who simply enjoys the wilderness that surrounds his home, as I certainly did, taking it utterly for granted. And yet, as I have returned to the Bay Area to see family and friends over the years, I have continued to return to all these places: Mount Tam, the Bolinas Ridge, the Olema Valley, Point Reyes and its beaches, Tomales Bay. They are as close as I’ll ever get to having a place I consider to be my own church. I know that Marty Griffin has probably received hundreds of testimonials of gratitude from others whom his work has touched, but I still think it is important to say thank you when the things done by another human being affect one’s life so directly and profoundly. And this he has most certainly done for me.
Michael D. Bess, Vanderbilt University
>> All Hail Patty Duke
What’s patty duke doing in marin magazine? (Marinterview, December) I asked myself. I’ve followed Duke’s career for years and I’m happy she’s finally happy. This is someone who won an Academy Award at age 16. Amazing!
Chuck Johnson, Sausalito
Letters to the editor may be edited for clarity and brevity. Send letters to Marin Magazine, One Harbor Drive, Suite 208, Sausalito, CA 94965. Or e-mail [email protected].
