Musings for a New School Year

My, how they've grown...

It's back to school time. Most of South Pasadena's kids are putting their noses to the grindstone in SPUSD's public schools. Others are attending private progressive schools like Waverly, Waldorf and Sequoyah or the highly academic Polytechnic. Some are in charter schools. A few are homeschooling. A few are even unschooling. But each child is preparing for a future we all hope is bright, happy and prosperous...

A Post for Fellow Treehuggers...

Trees, trees and more South Pasadena trees!

I want to thank readers Johnny and Greenman for emailing me after yesterday's post on the library tree.  You guys asked if I had any video slideshows of my many (many!) tree pictures?  I aim to please...

But before you click on the above video, I am reminded of my very favorite South Pasadena tree story:

South Pasadena Family Tree

Ever wonder about the history of the majestic Moreton Bay fig tree outside the South Pasadena Public Library? It certainly seems primordial -- like a remnant of our earth's distant past. My daughter  once said that she thought the tree surely must have been around when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Even though I could imagine generations of pterodactyls making nests in that beautiful tree, I knew it wasn't that ancient. But I was genuinely surprised when it was revealed a few years ago that the tree is barely 100 years old...

South of Huntington

Check out the neighborhoods south of Huntington

When I first moved to South Pasadena, I thought the city's southernmost border was Huntington Drive.  It's a logical assumption: Huntington is a major thoroughfare.  It seems like some kind of line of demarcation.

As it turns out, the corner of Huntington and Fair Oaks was once the junction of the Pasadena Short Line and the Monrovia Line -- two important Big Red Car trolley routes.  After Henry E. Huntington incorporated the Pacific Electric Railway Company in 1901, he began work on what would eventually develop into the largest interurban electric rail system in the world...

Art in the City

Take a look at the public art on display in South Pasadena

I love being part of such a creative community here in South Pas.  I've already mentioned my love of the South Pasadena Arts Council.  Membership in SPARC is a great way to connect with the city's artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians and art afficianados.  But it's also fun to be reminded of South Pasadena's rich, artistic history ... and there are hints of it at every turn.  

During the Great Depression, Federal Relief agencies put many South Pasadena residents to work on projects ranging from building the control channel to constructing the high school fine arts and science buildings.  The powers-that-be realized that communities not only needed structures to have good function, they also needed them to have beautiful form.

Walking Around South Pas Neighborhoods...

So many different kinds of houses!

When I first moved to South Pasadena from the west side, I couldn't get over how beautiful it was.  It's not that my former neighborhood near the Santa Monica Airport wasn't nice.  It was great.  But South Pasadena had so many different kinds of houses nestled among so many different kinds of trees ... it was kind of overwhelming.  In a good way.  I started exploring my neighborhood on foot, and kept walking until I'd covered most of the sidewalks in town.  

Here I am, almost 9 years later, still looking around with a sense of wonder.  (My dog Rocky is always game to join me on a walk.)

Isn't it pretty here?

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