BY HELEN ANN THOMAS
Mahjong, anyone?
Eighty-eight devotees of the game expressed a resounding “yes!” on Friday, Jan. 22. They gathered at Minami Community Center for the city’s fourth annual mahjong tournament. Donna Eschen is the energetic, imaginative, and efficient force behind this benefit for the Special Olympics program, which is sponsored by the Deptartment of Recreation and Parks.
Among the players were Maggie Daanes, Mary Oliver, Pam Elken, and Suzanne Levy. Suzanne told me, “I grew up watching my mother play mahjong. It is having a resurgence.”
Apparently, this comeback in popularity is well deserved. The game “is so much fun,” Celeste Coelho Hudson said. “About 30 of us play every Friday at the Elwin Mussell Senior Center. You should come.” I am thinking about it, Celeste. But first, I have to take lessons (from Donna, of course).
The ladies (there were three men playing) are so revved up about the game that some of them wore Asian print tops and silk jackets. Not to mention bracelets and earrings fashioned from mahjong tiles.
This tournament ran from 9:30 a.m. to about 2 p.m., after which raffle winners were announced and prizes presented to the top three game scorers. First prize was $150. Second prize was $100, and third, $75. Special Olympics athlete Taylor Stewart helped distribute prizes.
Twenty-two tables for four were placed around the playing room. The tabletops were covered with white tiles (think Scrabble pieces) bearing Chinese characters. When the games begins, a stillness fills the room as players focus on picking up and moving tiles.
It is best not to start a conversation at this time. When a player achieved a mahjong goal (unknown to me—I am new to all of this), he or she flung up a hand to alert a room monitor who noted the win.
The $38 entry fee included a lovely Continental breakfast of Starbucks coffee, Danish, banana bread, hard-boiled eggs, and miscellaneous munchies. Lunch, also included, featured pulled pork on ciabatta, tuna salad on croissants, salads, more munchies, cheesecake, and homemade creampuffs.
This is the Chinese Year of the Pig, and pig figurines were everywhere, even in the raffle prizes and on the menu (pulled pork).
Last year, this event brought in $6,000. Bianca McNeil of the city’s parks department told me that the money raised pays for travel expenses, equipment, and uniforms for the Special Olympics participants. This year’s tournament may have done better as there was an online auction as well.
All we can say, is carry on and sally forth, Donna. All this is good.
Heart of the Valley
Local history buffs began the New Year with a real treat. It turns out that Jay Hardy, founder of Hardy Diagnostics and the Moxie Café on McCoy, is a self-proclaimed history nerd and a devoted student Santa Maria’s aviation past.
As the first speaker in a new series, Heart of the Valley, Jay had a firm hold on his audience of about 55. Heart of the Valley replaced the Historical Society’s The Valley Speaks series. The new program is sponsored by the library and orchestrated by our local history muse, Shirley Contreras.
Jay’s hour-long talk, “The Warbirds of Santa Maria,” covered the evolution of an early flying school: The Hancock College of Aeronautics, which became an important training facility for WWII pilots, thanks to the effort of Capt. G. Allan Hancock. It was held Saturday morning, Jan. 19, in the main library’s Shepard Hall.
Jay’s impressive array of facts and comprehensive slide show kept us enthralled. More than 8,000 men trained in Santa Maria. This included four who flew bombing missions over Japan with Gen. James Doolittle. The program could have been subtitled, “Everything You Wanted to Know about G. Allan Hancock,” the main man behind local aviation. Jay even had a copy of Hancock’s birth certificate.
Among the crowd was City Manager Jason Stillwell. We agreed that the fact that Hancock Aeronautical College once had ties with the University of Southern California was news to us.
Other familiar faces were Dawn Kamiya and Jim Bray. Jim is so into airplanes that he recently ran for the local airport district board.
Methinks we will be seeing more of Jay Hardy on the lecture circuit. μ
If you want to hobnob with Helen, you may contact her at column151@gmail.com.
This article appears in Jan 31 – Feb 7, 2019.