Visiting the CVHS Stadium

Your Boulevardier wandered down Redwood Road to check on progress toward completion of the new stadium at Castro Valley High School.

While the site is still a very active construction site, certain things looked very good: specifically, the artificial surface of the playing field, the bleachers on both sides.

The grand entryway is lacking its finished stucco coat, the parking lot and its landscaping are still unusable for parking and planting, the fencing around the stadium is not in place, and the temporary fencing around the site remains in place. To wit, some photos:




Your Boulevardier has some memories of the old Castro Valley field. Specifically, an old friend -- now a respected Doctor of Chiropractic and Christian Minister in the Sierra Foothills, but a bit of a hellion in his day -- knew how to turn on the old sod field's sprinklers, and would traditionally do so on Thanksgiving evening. The irrigation would run all night, and the next morning the field would be a soggy mess. Then the friend would host a "Turkey Mud Bowl" -- a football game whose sole purpose was to coat the players with as much mud and grass as possible. Such antics will not be possible on the pristine new artificial surface, but there's still the field at Canyon.

The New York Times Salutes Boulevardiers

While, alas, it does not salute Your Boulevardier, the Great Grey Lady has published a paean to walking and Boulevardiers. Readers might enjoy this snippet:

The 19th century was the age of the flaneur and the boulevardier, figures who made strolling down Fifth Avenue or Broadway, often vividly attired, a fashionable activity worthy of their counterparts in Paris or London.

Walking city streets played the same role for some New Yorkers as rambling through the forests and streams did for Henry David Thoreau. In a famous 1851 lecture and subsequent essay, titled simply “Walking,” Thoreau declared: “I cannot preserve my health and spirits unless I spend four hours a day at least — and it is commonly more than that — sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields absolutely free from all worldly engagements.”

During those years, the journalist Walter Whitman, who as a poet would later go by the name Walt Whitman, could be found mining the streets on foot for stories for The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and other newspapers. “Duding himself up,” Mike Wallace and Edwin G. Burrows wrote in “Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898,” Whitman “strolled around town, sporting a polished cane, absorbing scenes and characters.” The account continues: “Whitman particularly explored the plebeian world of popular culture, visiting fire companies, gambling dens, whorehouses, and theaters, and he wrote up richly detailed sketches of newsboys, pawnbrokers, stage drivers, salesclerks and butchers.”

The complete article -- entitled "The Extreme Boulevardier" by one Alex Marshall -- can be found here.

More Miscellany

Accompanied by the Trusty BoulevarDog, Your Boulevardier walked his errands today and has a few tidbits to share.

Previously, Valley Java has been nominated in this space as the friendliest establishment in town. And regular readers know of the warm spot Your Boulevardier holds in his heart (if not his waistline) for Rudy's Donuts. But another possible nominee must be considered -- Clayworth Healthcare. Your Boulevardier has been patronizing this small, family-run pharmacy for a few months, and is pleased to be greeted by name and asked -- with genuine concern -- about the well-being of Madame Boulevardier when he visits. The tiny retail store seems to have everything that the town's bigger stores have, and many things they don't. And still, there's room for some of the proprietor's sports memorabilia (the pharmacy is the official apothecary of the Oakland Athletics) and a picture of his race car.

As of 9:40 a.m., a pack of a dozen or so children waited, somewhat impatiently, to enter the Chabot Cinema to catch the free showing of Charlotte's Web. Other groups were seen walking -- yes, hooray, walking -- along the Boulevard toward the theatre. Although Your Boulevardier does not have children of his own, he thanks the Chabot for providing these free Wednesday shows.

The former Daughtrey's Department Store will once again be a Spirit Halloween Superstore this autumn; garish orange signage and exhortations to apply for seasonal employment are already posted on the building. Spirit, by the way, is an enterprise with local roots, having been founded in Hayward. (One of its two real estate offices is still in our neighboring city.) The company is now owned by a national gift-store chain.

Details have been uncovered regarding the broken window at Swenson's Ice Creamery. As Your Boulevardier passed the shop this morning, employees of Beeline Glass were busily installing a new pane in the gaping opening. An inquiry was made as to what had caused the window to break, and the workmen pointed to a brand-new fire hydrant a few dozen feet to the west of the building. An automobile had hit the previous fireplug and sent it crashing through the sash. The incident, the men said, happened late at night; we are fortunate that nobody was injured.

Finally, Your Boulevardier notes that the Taco Bell on Redwood Road is closed for remodeling. (Let us hope that the work includes a serious degreasing.) The Castro Valley outlet is one of the few in the area that maintains the faux-adobe-brick arched windows that Taco Bell popularized more than 30 years ago. (Your Boulevardier believes that the family-owned Pancho's Mexican Restaurant on Castro Valley Boulevard is in a former Taco Bell building.) Your Boulevardier has but one hope for the soon-to-be-remodeled restaurant: that it does not include a drive-through.