Fowler Visit: February

This trip was planned to be our (second) Fish or Cut Bait determiner. We need a place to live and the only place that seemed at all possible to accommodate us is the Buddhist Church. We had not had much luck connecting with anyone from that organization. The church president did not return phone calls and does not do email. Not much to go on in terms of even learning if the facility really was feasible for our housing and/or venue needs.

Julie and I drove to Fowler on Friday February 18. It was a storm-ish day and reports predicted rain all day. However skies were beautiful and dynamic but we didn’t have too much rain to contend with! First we went to explore Del Rey. Stopped into the school office shortly after school let out. We found Dena, the woman Ashley W had been connecting with via email. The principal was in a closed door meeting with no predicted end time. But Dena took a few minutes in the midst of a busy office to answer some questions for us. She recommended going directly to the Sanger School District to really make any headway regarding the Del Rey School facility. (The Sanger Superintendent of Schools just won a nation award for his work!) She said that whenever anything happens in town usually the school, the Boys &; Girls Club and the local church all work together to make it happen. We walked and drove around town a bit. We both were intrigued by a big covered open air area that looked like it was for produce storage or maybe packing work area. It looked like a business/space that was no longer active and it was in an interesting location in relation to the town.

We drove over to Sanger to see what we could learn there. We stopped in to the Chamber of Commerce and talked with a very helpful and informed woman there. We collected various pamphlets and written materials. It was raining and dusk and there wasn’t anything in particular we could do so we called it a night—checked-in, had dinner, rested in preparation for our very busy Saturday.

Saturday we met with Ricky to see the Fowler Improvement Association hall. Ricky manages the building because he lives across the street. And I was reminded about advise we were given by Sandie—everyone is always a little late in Fowler because it just takes a few minutes to get anywhere in town. So people don’t leave until the time they are supposed to be there. We waited for Ricky who had forgotten about us, but it just took him a few minutes to get from wherever he was to meet us at the FIA Hall. It’s a beautiful meeting hall with a kitchen on a residential street. The FIA is like the local Women’s Club and possibly just celebrated it’s centennial.

Then great things began to happen. Before I left home on Friday morning I’d gotten a telephone message from a man named George from the Buddhist Church of Fowler. He had been instructed to get in touch with me and he’d heard we were having a meeting at the library at noon on Saturday so he’d look for us there. I called him back and asked if we could meet him at 11 instead and he said, “Sure—I’m over at the church all day.” Which was fascinating because every time we’ve ever been by the Buddhist Church it’s completely unpopulated, like a ghost town. So we agreed to meet at the Buddhist Church at 11.

When we got there, the place was filled with people and activity.  They were preparing for the Food Bazaar to happen the next day.  We found George Teraoka and met with him in the office. He is 89 and lived in Fowler most of his life.  He grows boysenberries on his farm.  He’s mechanically inclined, internet savvy and a practicing Buddhist, occasionally teaching Dharma class.  George told us his story—the broad outline, anyway.  He entered an internment camp in Arkansas on his 21^st birthday.  While he was there he began to learn what Buddhism is really about-- he was uninterested in it before. When he left that place he settled in St. Louis for some years and met his wife while there.  Eventually he returned to Fowler to help on the family farm and has remained here since.

As we talked about our project we mentioned that we were a bit stymied since we had not yet found housing for our residency.  “Well,” he said, “I don’t see why you couldn’t live here.”  I almost fell out of my chair.  We talked some more then George walked us through the whole “campus” and introduced us to lots of people and once in awhile he’d say, This would be a principle person (for our project).

We had to run off to our story circle at the library but before we left the folks in the main building kitchen made us plates for lunch: sticky rice, tiny weeners, and I can’t remember what else but it was delicious and much needed by that time.

We had a story circle at the library and were joined by about a dozen folks.  Most of them are what I have come to consider “the usuals--” long time residents with generational connections to the town.  There was a family of “newcomers” too—I think a somewhat mixed family.  They’d moved to town in 2002.  Here’s who was there:  Gus Del Toro and his wife Chris Ripley (newcomers), some young people that I think are related to them or friends of their kids: Brenna A., Amanda C. Also, Clara Bedrosian Bousain (her brothers own National Raisin), Marie Gonsalves, Arpie, Jackie Johnson & Sally S. her caretaker, Elaine Roy & her daughter Annalisa & grandaughter Samantha Tyler and  Astine Z.

There was a lot of talk of how things used to be- so many of these women spent their entire lives in Fowler.  Marie had written about her life story so that Julie could take it home with her—a handwritten page in a ziplock baggie talking about her family’s Spanish heritage, how she married her high school sweetheart, and more.    Everyone mentioned the old high school building—it was beautiful, it was replaced with ugly buildings and maybe it wasn’t even as unsafe as they were told because it was so hard to tear it down.  (This is an oft told Fowler topic.  Artist rendering of the old high school building is on display in the McDonalds.)

The “newcomers” love Fowler, too.  Gus used to drive by on the freeway and tell himself, someday I am going to live in Fowler!  But there were never any homes for sale or rent.  In the 90s the Bedrosian family sold some of their vineyard land to developer RJ Hill and new homes were built.  Gus bought one.  Some of the old timers complained that newcomers don’t appreciate the town but use it as a bedroom then do everything else in Fresno—shop, work, send their kids to school.  Gus and Chris however said they do as much locally as they can—that’s why they moved here.  The schools are great. 

We ended the meeting with thoughts about Next Steps.  When we mentioned that it was not a for-sure thing that we would be doing the play in Fowler, because we were having trouble arranging housing, Astine seemed like she pulled back a bit from participating.  She didn’t want to be in the photo we took.  Hard to say what was going on with her. 

After this story circle we visited Don and Marylyn Wilson at their farm out on Lincoln Avenue, not too far from the Masumoto Farm.  They are an older couple that we found because a Cornerstone board member was college roommates with Don’s cousin, David Ehlers.  David lived in Fowler till age 11 then his family moved to Fresno.  He lives in Orinda now (near SF) but he still visits with the Wilsons and another Fowler cousin, too.  The Wilsons welcomed us into their home on the farm—their son does the farming now.  Don’s family came to Fowler from Scotland and his father or grandfather was the beloved doctor in Fowler for many years.  Marylyn is a longtime member of the FIA (Fowler Improvement Association), a women’s club.  At one time she was president of the FIA and there was a controversial political question going on—a developer wanted to build and open a casino on Manning Avenue, in the south, more industrial side of town.  Fowler is historically resistant to any kind of growth, but this casino was being considered – I assume because it could bring revenue to the city.  Marylyn planned an FIA event to discuss both sides of this issue and there was a lot of outcry and hullaballoo that she would actually think there was an “in favor” side to present. 

[ Turns out that they did build the casino!  Here is the second act of that story.   And here is the third act. ]

The Wilsons were lovely and shared their story that includes moving away from Fowler for many years.  They lived in Alaska for awhile.

        

After we left the Wilsons we drove by The Worship Centre.  Ashley had been trying to have a conversation with the pastor there or an assistant pastor, but they were not terribly responsive.  Almost everyone in town mentions the Worship Centre when they hear we’re doing a play.  The city has a lot of their big events there.  We didn’t immediately find a pastor and we didn’t really think that space would be helpful to us in any particular way.  The congregation is largely not from Fowler plus the building is in a part of Fowler that feels like it’s on the outskirts of town.

On Sunday Julie and I had a reservation to attend the Japanese-American Citizens League Day of Remembrance event in Fresno.  It was a brunch with an awards presentation and Mas Masumoto was one of the honorees.  However, we were now much more eager to attend the Food Bazaar at the Buddhist Church of Fowler.  There were table set up to fill the inside of the Social Hall.  George paid our tickets to get a lunch plate:  delicious bbq chicken, rice, slaw, lots of things on that plate!  Additionally they were selling desserts, more side dishes, & raffle tickets.  We bought more food and a bunch of raffle tickets.  We ate with George who break from working the room pouring tea from a big pot.  We met Karen who works for the city and a number of other folks—George introduced us to many people.  Later the mayor David Cardenas joined us.  (He only recently was named Mayor.  He’d been on the city council and the previous mayor, Jim Simonian, stepped down to be a councilmember.  He’d been mayor for a long time.) David was very enthusiastic about a Fowler community play.  He praised the character of the town and referred briefly to his history there as his family emigrated from Mexico when he was a boy.    Soon his beautiful wife Anna joined us and was great to talk with even as she was anxious to get her husband moving toward the door.  Julie and I won a raffle prize—tangerines and a box of cranberry juice drink. 

The whole experience of the Food Bazaar was the most warm and welcome time either of us had experienced in Fowler so far.  Everyone was very interesting and very comfortable and having a good time being social and eating a lot of delicious food. 

Things that didn’t happen on this trip:

We never did get to see inside the Grange Hall which we were pursuing as a possible performance or rehearsal venue or maybe even housing space.  We’ve been told by other folks that the building is unusable due to disrepair from lack of use. 

Neither the priest at St. Gregory’s or the parish council president David got back to us about a conversation or a visit.

But we were quite thrilled with the prospect of living at the Buddhist church as well as a partnership that would include the Japanese & Buddhist perspective.  We already were feeling its influence on us imagining that the play could feature a Buddhist point of view.

 

california raisins

This is a great one about farm workers harvesting raisins but also about the life of one family.

This is from Sun Maid which is in Selma (as opposed to National Raisin in Fowler) but it's interesting to see this part of the process (and it's short!)

 

And finally, I don't know if this was a national ad campaign but California Raisins, but in case you are unaware of the California Raisins phenomenon:

Fowler Visit: January

 

Wednesday, January 19

Paula and Julie drive around to see the town a bit since it's Julie's first visit.

Meet Michael Bedrosian for a tour of National Raisin facility and conversation.  In arranging the meeting told him that aside from the raisin processing tour we were interested in the company’s relationship to the community, as well as the Armenian heritage and family farm characteristics of Fowler, and anything else he wanted to tell us about. The Bedrosian family is one of the major farm/business families of Fowler.

The raisin plant tour was great!  And because Michael has been working there his whole life and has done every job on the line, he was the best guide possible.  Three Bedrosian uncles started National Raisin in 1965-- why? JMM asks.  Honestly, they saw a guy with a really nice car and they thought, How can we get that?  We need to start a business. One of those brothers--Kenny was visiting the plant while Julie and I were there.  

National owns some raisin vineyards and also buys raisins from various farmers.  You can read a bit about National Raisin on their website of course and there is information online about raisins process from grape on the vine to in little boxes, Raisinets and as ingredients in many other things.  One thing I think is interesting is that raisins first dry first by being laid out on paper in the vineyard rows.

Another point of interest is that raisins get cleaned A LOT before they are packaged-- or at least they do at National which is known for innovations in raisin cleaning.

Some farmers are moving away from growing raisins, trading them in for almonds which are more of a cash crop- very popular lately.  It takes 5 years for new almond trees to produce a crop but still some farmers make this leap.  Other farmers-- and this is true over a lot of the San Joaquin Valley-- sold farm land to developers to build homes, though that has slowed down a lot since the housing market dropped.

We were due to meet with Paul Magill, Agriculture Teacher at Fowler High School who also runs school farm. He's born & raised in Fowler. He forgot about us and was not in town that day.

Thursday, January 20

We drove out to meet with David & Marcy Masumoto at their farm. They are Del Rey residents though their farm straddles the border of Del Rey and Fowler.

It was a treat to get to visit them at home on their farm.  Marcy works for the Education Dept Fresno State and a lot of her job is about outreach to local rural schools and how to get the best possible education for those kids who might have less opportunity.  David who goes by "Mas" is both a farmer and a writer.  He's written many books and has a featured column in the Fresno Bee.

We talked about many things.  Mas had just returned from a conference/event for food writers.  We talked a bit about their daughter, Nikiko, and how we met her.

[ We first met her through the experience of Cornerstone’s project in partnership with the Music Center in Los Angeles:  LA Storytellers.  We did this program twice and the second time the theme was FOOD.  People wrote in to the Music Center to apply for participation and about 60 folks were selected.  Cornerstone created a mini-version of our process so there were 2 meetings of this workshop group, the second one 2 weeks or so after the first one.  Those 60 people were divided into smaller groups and each group also included a CTC writer, director and actor.  The first meeting was about community building and story sharing.  The playwrights all spent the interim writing a short play for their groups.  The second meeting was about rehearsing and sharing back these short plays. Nikiko participated in this LA Storytellers workshop and her group, like some others, continued to keep in touch after the workshop ended.  In fact, her group participated together in adopting a Masumoto Farm peach tree for a few years!   Nikiko then participated in a Cornerstone Institute 2Day Intensive because she was inspired by the process and experience of LA Storytellers.  And that is when Cornerstone started thinking we should collaborate with Fowler for an Institute Summer Residency production.]

We talked about our experiences in Fowler so far.  About running a family farm for generations, both daily life and big questions.  We talked about what it means to be neighbors with the same families for generations.  We talked about the history of the Japanese American community in Fresno County.  In Fresno County, including Fowler, the Japanese & Japanese American people living west of the main highway (which at the time was Golden State Blvd) were relocated first.  Most people in Fresno County were sent to Gila River “Relocation Camp” in Arizona.  Mas’ parents were sent there.  

Rather than try to reiterate all that Mas & Marcy shared, I will encourage you to do some exploring on your own regarding David's family history (which he has written about and continues to write about both in books and his newspaper column) and about Japanese American history in California.

an internet guide to learning about history of Japanese internment

Densho

Japanese American National Museum

more resources re: internment

Fowler Visit: December

Raquel and I visited Fowler on Wednesday, 12/8. The drive took us about 3.5 hours.

We had scheduled a few interviews with individual residents and plans to attend the school board meeting.

Connie K met us at Starbucks. This coffee shop is a badge of honor for some in the community because neighboring town of Selma doesn’t have one. Many Hwy 99 travelers utilize the drive through and it seems that some folks in the community spend a lot of money there.

Connie and her husband own the Ace Hardware in town, bought it about 5 years ago. They have 5 sons. Connie also works with the Chamber of Commerce, is a member of the Mothers Club and works at a day care center called Kids Break. She grew up in Los Angeles. She met her husband when he was going to college in Los Angeles too. When they married 26 years ago they moved to his hometown, Fowler. She cried the whole drive when she left Los Angeles. She would never want to live in Los Angeles again. She loves living in Fowler. There are “RJ Hill” real estate signs around the area proclaiming “Fowler: The Best Kept Secret.” Connie agrees and says Fowler is a uniquely ideal place to live.

The schools are a big part of what works here. They have 4 schools in Fowler: Grades K-2 at Marshall Elementary, grades 3-5 at Fremont Elementary, grades 6-8 at Sutter Middle School and Fowler High School. There are 2 other schools in the Fowler School District—2 elementary schools in Malaga, 5 ½ miles up the road. The kids from Malaga join Fowler kids at Sutter Middle and FHS.

The Mothers Club has been around for 50 years or more. Currently its about 30-32 mothers. They meet second Thursday of the month. They’re a social club and they fundraise for projects that benefit Fowler youth. Connie is going to arrange to get us on the agenda for Mothers Club meeting on Thursday, February 10, starting at 6 or 7pm. We probably will alone have time to introduce our project and then can talk with individuals follow up with people. I’ll talk to Connie about setting up a separate story circle date and we can invite them to that as part of our presentation, too. There’s a Mothers Club publication about Fowler (from many years ago probably) at the library, Connie says. One of their traditional fundraising things is selling beerocks (a traditional German? meat-in-dough pocket).

Connie is the troup leader for Cub Scouts (1^st thru 5^th graders) and her husband leads Boy Scouts (6^th through 12^th graders). Both groups meet on Tuesday nights at Sutter Middle School.

Connie and her husband had to do an environmental study on an open lot where they are thinking of maybe building a bigger hardware store. During that process bricks were found deep in the ground on the lot and no one knew what they might be since records indicated no building had ever been there. However long time resident, D Simonian (brother of former-as-of-last-night Mayor Jim and uncle of school board member Jimmy) knew the story. A tunnel was built between somewhere on Main Street (someone’s house maybe?) and ran for 6 blocks to this location where there was an underground hiding place. This was built for local Japanese people to hide from internment officials.

R. Gauroian, Fowler resident, photographer, organic grape farmer, knows lots of local history. His wife, a local teacher, passed away 1 year ago quickly after a dire, unexpected diagnosis. This is one of many accounts of how everybody pulls together to help when someone is in crisis. “Fowler is very good at taking care of Fowler.” Everyone took good care of this family. Later we heard how the ambulance driver taking her to the hospital did a slow pass by the school so all the kids could stand and wave at her as she passed by.

M. Hurst is the swim coach.

Andy at the barber shop knows everyone/everything.

Fowler Packing (on Cedar St) is a huge employer, family-owned for many generations.

Other packing houses are employers. Bee Sweet, is one. Lion Raisin. National Raisin (main competitor of Sun Maid Raisin in nearby Selma) is owned by Bedrosian family.

Local businesses hire local employees.

Vernon & Marie Gonzalez offer a Food Bank (available 24 hours) for Fowler residents in need. They provide food and a few other items out of their garage/food pantry. The schools have canned good and coat drives to contribute to the food bank. There is a raffle during Spring Fest and you trade canned goods for raffle tickets.

In February there is a Chamber of Commerce sponsored event: Citizen of the Year Banquet. Happens at Vineyard Church Worship Center, Manning & Golden State Blvd.

[ In the 90s the controversial Vineyard Casino was approved and built but the business didn’t survive beyond 10 months. The building stood vacant for many years, but now it is this church. Pastor Rod is a community leader.] This is a big building that could potentially be a venue but it’s not particularly accessible for the community and not really neutral ground.

There’s an annual Easter Sunrise Service at Fowler Park at which all or most local churches are represented.

Farmers Market happens May through October from 5-8pm. It’s wonderful, says Connie, and you get a real sense of Fowler, lots of participation.

Second Saturday in October is the Fall Festival which includes a crowned queen, floats, high school bands, a parade and other festivities.

Folks wear red on Fridays in support of Fowler High School Redcats.

We met with Sandi M. She is retired, extremely energetic and enthusiastic about Fowler, where she’s lived since 1978. She knows lots of folks and had done a number of theatrical projects in town, mostly through Recreation Commission and through the Baptist Church. Strangely there are another woman in Fowler with her name (though it's spelled differently). Sandy M-Fever is the other one, a relative of Sandi’s ex-husband. Sandi says a play about Fowler should include raisins, anything that is supportive of local kids, the fine education system, the town’s public Christmas tree which gets set up in the middle of a main downtown intersection, and the close-knit neighborly nature. Sandi described the neighborhoods of Fowler: North of Merced Street and around Starbucks is mostly republican, downtown core and south is more democrat, west of the highway is mostly the less established households. She says there are 13 churches and 15 liquor licenses- though to visit the town you wouldn’t guess there are as many as 15 liquor licenses. Sandi also mentioned the Easters- a longtime-resident African American family that established the neighborhood just behind/north of the Merced Street truckstop (hotel, starbucks etc). They founded the Rose of Sharon Church there a long time ago.

We spent an hour with Mrs. J Schrader, the English/Drama teacher at Fowler High School. I invited Sandie to join us for this meeting, too. Originally from Los Angeles and currently living in/commuting from Visalia, Mrs. Schrader worked as a professional actress for many years, primarily in Washington DC. Mrs. Schrader also gave us names of folks to talk with, mostly at the school. She was the first person to talk with us about the growing Punjabi community in Fowler. About one-fifth of her students are Punjabi and while these students participate in school activities, they don’t seem socially integrated in the school. The Punjabi families seem to represent both higher and lower castes. There are very few African American or Asian students.

She expressed doubt that there would be summer school this year. Pre-football camp happens in summer. Swim team ends in July. Faculty starts back for 2011-12 school year on August 15, students on August 18.

Discussing the possibilities of leading workshops with her students over the next few months, she proposed we lead a one week workshop in first or second week of February where we’d have 2 different classes- a beginning drama and an advanced class (one hour each) followed by 2 hours with both groups. I told her that if she could get us confirmed permission for us to live at the high school we could make that happen, but generally that is a large commitment of time and personnel that we likely cannot otherwise afford.

Mrs. Schrader showed us the high school auditorium that we’d heard so much about. It is a cafetorium. The stage is decent, though there’s not much support space backstage. They do have a little shop room off SL. They have some lighting positions onstage but the front lighting positions are lame track instruments. The acoustics are not great, not terrible. She says that Sutter Middle School has a newer, higher stage. Mrs. Schrader’s husband, a former production manager, now works as the general manager for an event lighting company in Hanford.

Mrs. Schrader will be out of town during the summer residency. She’s performing a teaching artists project at the Globe Theater.

Wednesday evening we went to the school board meeting. There were the 5 Board members present, plus the Superintendent, the Director of Instruction and a clerk.

I had an email exchange with the Superintendent that morning, so he was expecting us and welcomed us to the meeting. Public comments were at the top of the agenda, so I introduced our project and made a formal request for use of school facilities. I offered that we would love to come back to make a visual presentation at the next meeting if they saw fit. Most board members seemed interested and a few questions were asked. We did not stay for the full meeting after our presentation since that is what it seemed to encourage. The next meeting is January 19.

Thursday we met with Rosalie Georg who teaches ballet to preschoolers and other kids at the Fowler Library. Sara Brown introduced us. Rosalie lives in Kingsburg, 11 miles south of Fowler. She told us about the beautiful traditional auditorium space at Fremont Elementary School. Her group will perform there on at 2pm on Sunday, December 19. I might be able to attend this.

November Visit to Fowler

Raquel Gutierrez (CTC’s MCP) and I drove to Fowler on Tuesday.  It’s about 210 miles from Los Angeles.  We made the trip in 3 and a half hours. 

We had a fun stop along the way at a Traver travel stop—they’ve gone all out to get folks to stop and spend money.  There is a BBQ restaurant, tons of interesting patio and garden space, a petting zoo of sorts, clean restrooms, a fruit stand, a gift store that sells local cheese and treats as well as a big selection of food, collectible, travel and kitsch items.  If you want to visit you can’t miss the signs.

We did a short driving tour around part of Fowler then headed to Fresno to meet Debra P.  Debra is M. deRosa’s sister and a long time Fresno resident.  M. is a longtime Cornerstone friend and community collaborator.  Currently she is also on our Community Advisory Committee.  It was a treat to meet M.’s sister.  Debra was a terrific host as we talked about our intended Fowler project and how she might help us.  She knows a lot of people including a few with Fowler connections.  She is an interior designer (and a dancer, too) and does design work for some well-to-do homes.  She commented that farmer wives are sometimes sort of glamorous, society-types.  Debra gave us some information about local press contacts including local public radio.  She is going to reach out to those she knows and see who might be able to talk with us and/or connect us with others.  She’s really excited to see a Fresno County community celebrated. 

Fresno is about 11 miles north of Fowler.

We headed south and did some more exploring in the car—toured around the tiny town of Del Rey.  We passed the POM (Wonderful!) plant at what seemed like quitting time for many workers.  There were not many cars driving the streets of Del Rey but there were droves of kids, probably just dropped off by the school bus, walking down the streets.  Del Rey is about 10 blocks nestled among crops, mostly grape vineyards.  It includes a store, a post office, a beauty salon, a school, a senior center, 2 or 3 churches, and the POM plant (I think is a packing facility).  

We drove into and around Fowler (pop 5500) which is approx. 26 streets, mostly east of Hwy 99.  The part of Fowler west of the highway seems like the other side of the tracks literally and figuratively.  As we parked the car in front of the Presbyterian church a woman who was on her way into the church stopped and inquired if we needed some help.  She listened to why we in town then told us a lot about her church and her community.  She showed us inside the church. The church has beautiful stained glass and an exceptional pipe organ.  She told us about many of the programs there:  ATM Diner (ATM=“at the manse” which is the priests’ house), Monday evening youth group (middle school kids), Kids Club (2 five week after school sessions), Gear Up Sports in summer (100 kids sports and arts projects, like a day camp).  Sunday worship service is at 10:30- it’s a mixed/blended service which means that there’s a mix of traditional and new music.   She recommended we talk with Sandi M. (Baptist church) who has done some drama projects.  We should also talk with the superintendent of schools.

We attended the Fowler city council meeting from 7 – 9:30pm.  There are 5 councilmen including the mayor and mayor pro tem.  Additionally the city manager, city attorney, city clerk (the only female official), and chief of police all sit at the head of the room as participants in the meeting.  Another table was present up front for 4 or 5 other officials: assessors, financial officer, fire chief, etc.  The meeting room was full with observers and stakeholders.  Public comments were at the top of the agenda.  I introduced our project and made clear our three requests (community support, assistance with affordable housing for our residency, and an affordable performance venue).  The questions from the council were Have you done this sort of work in the central valley before? (yes!) Do you charge for tickets?  (no!)  They all received information packets about Cornerstone and the Fowler project.  Councilman Rico Aguayo gave me his card then he spent his break talking with Raquel and I about how to move forward with our project.  Rico, it turns out also works with Recreation Commission, Friends of the Library, Historical Society, and probably some other organizations.  He’s the youngest council member and energetic about creating positive change in Fowler. 

[ The city council meeting was long and mostly interesting.  Highlights:

A gentleman who accused an unnamed council member (“he knows who he is”) of libel and slander and asked that the man be kicked off the council.   A Sikh gentleman thanked the council for permitting street closures and public declaration of official Sikh Appreciation? Awareness? day to be celebrated with a parade on Nov 21.  The owner of Madam Sophia’s Palm Reader reminded the council that inexplicably his business license costs $1200 when all other business licenses are $40 and could they please change that sooner than later.  Hearings for rezoning 2 properties from single-family home to multi-family properties both ended with denial based on neighbor concerns of “bad element” renters and parking impact.  It was noted that plenty of people were very unhappy to see that the cemetery neglected to put up flags for Veterans Day.  A letter of appreciation to the City from Superintendent of Schools was read acknowledging support that made the middle school band event successful.  Bids for building a Pickleball court at a local park were too high.  Adjustments were made to what the city can do on their own to reduce cost and the request for bids will go out again in January.  Two new small business owners (a salon and an antiques store called “A Little of This And A Little of That”) were granted loans from the city for business equipment. ]

Aeric, the front desk receptionist at the very new La Quinta in Fowler, is a local resident and was excited to hear about our community play project.  Folks who need a place to stay in Fowler when they come to see the show or visit the Institute will be very happy with La Quinta Inn and the manager is eager to arrange a group rate for us for the summer.

Raquel and I stopped by the School District office and spoke with Robin (the website says she is Accounts Clerk).  We left info packets for the district school board members who happened to be meeting that night.

We walked the businesses of Main Street and made purchases at 2 of the 3 markets, one of which includes a mix of Indian and Mexican items. 

We visited Sara Brown the Librarian at the local library.  I’d spoken with her on the phone previously and she’s very enthusiastic about our project.  Many organizations meet at the library so she knows all the coordinators for these groups.  Mostly they are youth programs, like ballet for preschoolers and others age 7-12, the Girl Scout Juniors, etc.   Sara made some calls to people right then to see if anyone was around to talk with us and she continues to make introductions around town on our behalf.

We spent about an hour with Yvonne, the Senior Center Coordinator.  She was generous with her time and shared a lot about her hometown.  She also asked good questions.  Yvonne is also with Recreation Commission.  She is a photographer and does design work for posters and such.  We saw the team photograph poster she made for an neighboring town’s football team.  It’d be great if we can hire her for our show photos and maybe poster, etc. 

Some other things we learned (or re-learned) about Fowler:

They are into their school sports (Go Redcats!)

They have swim team events in summer time.  There’s a pool at the high school.

Until very recently the library was a storefront on Main Street.

There’s going to be a Father/Daughter Dance event in Feb & a Mother/Son event in May.  These are new community events promoted by Recreation.

There’s a Tree Lighting event on December 4.  This is a popular traditional event.

There’s a Car Show in May.  The farmer’s market begins in May, too. 

There’s July 4 Fireworks at the high school. Folks attend from neighboring towns.

There are quite a few churches including St Gregory’s Armenian Apostolic Church, the Buddhist Church and 3 Black churches.  According to Diane L., this proportion doesn’t match the demographic of Fowler but people come from other towns to attend.  Many of the churches work together on events.

Latinos, Anglos, Armenians, South Asians, a few African Americans and a few Japanese Americans live in Fowler.   They seem mostly middle class.

There are not many apartments in Fowler, esp east of the highway.  West of the highway there is a mobile home park and a residence motel (Fowler Motel), both look nicely maintained.

People tend to be involved in multiple roles for the community, such as Connie who works with the Boy/Cub Scouts, the Chamber of Commerce, Kids Break program and the Mothers’ Club.

Generally there are a lot of folks who like things as they are and as they have been for a long time—maybe resistant, or at least slow, to change. 

Others are interested in change and engagement and active civic pride.

Residents generally really love their town and are friendly.