Landmarks Part I

Photo by Stephanie Johnson

So far not a single post has mentioned Berkeley’s most well known landmark (except that link about the Oscar Meyer Wiener Song).  Seriously, have any locals actually been to the top of the Campanile?  My mom went up there once for an article about the foundry that made the bells.  She’s the only person I know who’s done it.

It seems like real Berkeley folks are fiercely attached to more ingrained and accessible landmarks.  Surprise-surprise, most of them involve food.  I remember a grad school class that focused on the idea that culture is more than just food and clothes.  Anyone wishing to make a counter argument can use this page as an example.

…she refers to Monterey market as "Tom and Mary's"... she was at Tom & Mary's going away/retirement party.

...she waves at people at the French Hotel that she knows only from Tuolumne Camp.

...she's still a little wary of the waitresses at Edy's

... she used to hang out at The Wall. (Or still does.)

....because when you came home from Lincoln (soon to be Malcolm X) elementary school you found Mom already home from work early because her office above the store on Telegraph Ave. had been tear gassed.

...she left you home alone to go clogging at Ashkenaz.

…she would leave her kids alone in the 1976 green Volvo while she did her Monterey Market shopping

…she would take you to Mr. Mopps for all your friends birthday gifts

…she stops and smells flowers sometimes when we walk up Rose street on our way to get an extra foamy Latte from Angel at the French Hotel.

… I almost hit her as she ran out into the street after checking to make sure she had the red light because she couldn't wait an extra 30 seconds to get a cappuccino served in a bowl from that bread place near the wine place down on San Pablo.

            … you mean the cafe owned by a Berkeley mom?

…Cafe Muthafuckin' Fanny....and that was MY mom you almost hit.

… snack time at Montessori elementary could only be celery with co-op peanut butter, apples with co-op peanut butter, or carrot and raisin salad. Too bad these days, kids cannot even bring peanut butter to schools!

… that when she goes to Cactus Taqueria she tips each line cook an equal percentage of the total because otherwise it wouldn't be fair.

… she still calls it Old Grove Street cuz, “how can you have rose and grove market on rose and mlkwy?”

…childhood pictures involve the Bubble Lady, the Med, the Polka Dot Man or being naked in the campus fountain.

…she named one of her son's after Cody's books.

…she still calls Chesters the Egg & Apple Press.

…she still calls "Fatapples" "Fat Alberts."

…she broke her foot sliding down the big slide at Codornices park and was so high at the time that she walked away and all the way down the hill to the Cheeseboard before she realized that something was very, very wrong.