HELEN ANN THOMAS

Why is Santa Maria’s being an “All American City” such a big deal?   All was revealed to a crowd of more than 40 on Saturday, Dec. 10, at the library’s Shepard Hall. Among attendees at the Historical Society’s monthly “The Valley Speaks” program were quite a few of those who went to Mobile, Ala., […]

’Tis the season for long lines at the post office and hard-to-find parking spaces at shopping centers. ’Tis also the season for beguiling shows of Christmas lights. Outdoor trees all aglow with greens, blues, reds, and yellows inject bright and cheerful pops of color into the pitch black winter nights.  One of the most splendiferous […]

What a swell party it was! There was music in the air and flowers everywhere. A guitarist in the bar. A cocktail-hour pianist in the foyer. The Riptide Big Band playing during dinner and afterwards for dancing. What an entertainment lineup! As if that wasn’t enough, before dinner, 11-year-old pianist Sarah Girges dazzled a handful […]

Guess where I was on Saturday evening, Nov. 5, six days before Veterans Day.  You got it—hobnobbing with the military at the 20th annual Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Foundation (PCVF) Military Ball, at the Fess Parker Resort in Santa Barbara.  Seven hundred guests filled the hotel’s humongous ballroom. I hobnobbed amid a sea of spiffy uniforms […]

Remember the days when the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum featured a big tank with a small shark and other marine life? Remember the snake (not my favorite) and some lizards and iguanas (which I miss)?  The Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum, under the direction of Executive Director Chris Slaughter, is moving toward the future. […]

On the evening of Saturday, Oct. 8, the annual United Way Mayors’ Ball at the Santa Maria Country Club attracted more than 200 people for a landmark anniversary celebration. This fundraising event was the brainchild of Eddie Taylor more than a decade ago, shortly after he came on board as the CEO of the organization. […]

Five members of the Elks barbecue crew turned out on Friday evening, Sept. 23, at the Veterans Community Cultural Center, to grill and serve up the most delicious chicken and top block for a very good cause: a fundraiser for Santa Maria Valley Youth Football. This program, about which I knew nothing until the event, […]

Old Town Orcutt has evolved into an entertainment hot spot. My last column chronicled the wonderful barbeque sponsored by the Old Orcutt Merchants Association in the courtyard of Deja Vu. This column is about the Boys & Girls Club’s eighth annual Tour & Taste of the Valley fundraiser held in Orcutt Union Plaza (also known […]

Mellow is the word to describe the Old Orcutt Merchants Association’s (OOMA) annual barbecue fundraiser held on Saturday evening, Aug. 20, in the courtyard of Déjà Vu (you may remember this place as the former Loading Dock). I say this event was mellow because the setting was pastoral and bucolic—on the edge of Old Orcutt—and […]

Once a year, Club K, a gathering place for hip Santa Marians, opens its doors at the Veterans Memorial Building. Owned and operated by the Noontime Kiwanis, Club K is an adventure in dining, faux gambling, and schmoozing, not to mention waltzing around the tempting silent auction tables. Club K is also the Noontime Kiwanis’ […]

I’m a sucker for the sphinx of The Ten Commandments fame. We are talking about Cecil B. DeMille’s fabled movie, filmed on the dunes of Guadalupe and released in 1923. As some of my readers know, plaster of Paris props from the movie set were left behind by Hollywood, where time, wind, and heaps of […]

A lingering whiff of barbecuing tri-tip hung in the air. Overhead, a powder blue sky dotted with puffs of cottony clouds provided cover for the 92nd annual Santa Maria Valley Pioneer Picnic held on Saturday, July 9, at Pioneer Park, near the corner of Foster and Blosser roads. Several hundred people of all ages attended […]