Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, May 14, 2022

Mountain View News Saturday, May 14, 2022 


SIERRA MADRE 
OLDER AMERICAN OF 
THE YEAR RECOGNITION 

Wednesday, June 15 from 4:30 pm-7:30 pmHart Park House Senior Center 

Traditionally the Senior Community Commission 
would be honoring one very special individual 
who has given themselves selflessly to 
volunteering in our community. 

This year the Commission has made a very special selection...they have selected to celebrate ALL 
of our seniors! As we begin to rediscover our friends, loved ones and neighbors, we are learninghow incredible and resilient each of you are and each one of you deserves to be celebrated! 

Please join the Senior Community Commission as we enjoy an evening of finger foods, wine,
laughter and celebration. The theme this year is “Age My Way” so please come with some fun 
stories and words of wisdom that we can share with our fellow and future seniors. 
No reservations are required. 

Please call Lawren at 626-355-5278 or email lheinz@cityofsierramadre.com 
with questions that you may have. 

PEOPLE AROUND TOWN By Justin Matthew Sapp 

CAROLYN HUFF 

“I left Slidell, Louisiana when I was 18 years old 
to go and live with my sister in Los Angeles. At 
that time, the girls would only talk about marriage, 
but I wanted to see the world.” 

Carolyn Carriere Huff is an explorer. She has 
traveled to every one of these United states, 
sometimes visiting each more than once, and 
staying in places like Chicago for a year. 

With a presence laced in love and elegance, 
Carolyn's is known to many in our community 
as a source of joy. It took all but two minutes to 
pick up the smoothness of the New Orleans accent 
in her voice, and the southern hospitalityin her words. After she called me “baby” for the 
second time I felt like I was sitting with my aunt, 
my grandmother, my mother. Like my own 
family, Carolyn participated in what's known 
as the “great migration” - the exodus of blacks 
from southern states to places like Los Angeles 
that occurred between 1915 and 1970. 

After arriving in Los Angeles in the late sixties, 
Carolyn took a job at a bank doing accountant 
work. Being a people person, she soon left that 
role and applied for the coveted job as a stewardess 
with United Airlines. 

Unlike job interviews of today that happen in 
groups or online, this was a one-on-one, rigorous 
gauntlet like experience. Carolyn was hired, 
and would spend the next 35 years traveling our 
country and being a light to everyone she met. 

“The lifestyle is different than you might think, 
some people partied, but my friends and I lived 
anormal life. We explored each city, went to nice 
dinners, and took full advantage of our job….
We took subways in New York, we walked in 
Boston, met mormons in Salt Lake City, visited 
the amish in Pennsylvania, and even went down 
to Florida and saw alligators. We did it all, we 
explored…you hear me? We were explorers!” 

Carlyon retired in 2006. She anticipated that 
she would be sad after such a change, but to her 
surprise, she is thoroughly enjoying this phase 
of her life. While a resident of Arcadia (on the 

common border of the two cities), she is a fix-
ture in the Sierra Madre community. Many have 


experienced the joy of seeing Carolyn around 
town supporting a local business or cheering 
someone up with her contagious spirit. 

“I love it, I love being out and meeting people”. 

After a short pause, Carolyn looked down, and 
said, “I just want to be a beacon for people.” 

“What kind of beacon?” I asked. 

“I want to help people realize that we are all 
the same, and that it’s okay, we don't need to be 
afraid of each other” 

Carolyn embodies a word that our society tends 
to place less and less value on and thus unknowingly 
suffers from its absence. The word is “tenderness” 
- the invisible force that fills the cynical 
cracks in our days with hope and mends our 
relational wounds with grace. 

Carolyn's story invites us to behold life as a banquet, 
to not take ourselves too seriously, and to 
perhaps, “try a little tenderness”. 

Celebrations begin at Clearman’s...Celebrations begin at Clearman’s... 
• GOURMET DINING 
Sun-Thurs 11:30am – 9:00pmFri-Sat 11:30am - 10:00pm• ONLINE RESERVATIONS• FREE & AMPLE PARKING• ONLINE ORDERING TAKEOUT• ONLINE RESERVATIONS 
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• ONLINE ORDERING TAKEOUT 
Sun Thurs 11:30am – 9:00pm 
Fri-Sat 11:30am - 10:00pm 
Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com 


WALKING SIERRA MADRE - The Social Side 

by Deanne Davis 

“The nice part about being a pessimist 
is that you are constantly being 
proven right or pleasantly surprised.” 
George Will 

“I have never hated a man enough 
to give his diamonds back.” 
Zsa Zsa Gabor 

“Good news will come from afar.” 
“You are perfect the way you are.” 
Panda Express 

“Celebrate Everything!” 

Today is one of those days when 
miscellaneous bits and pieces seem 
to be rattling ‘round in my brain. 
I’m sharing them all with you, dear 
friends and neighbors. There’s a 
new Jurassic Park movie, “Jurassic 
World: Dominion” coming to theaters 
next month. 

Here’s the premise: “Four years after 
the destruction of Isla Nublar,
dinosaurs now live--and hunt--alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance 
will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings 
are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history's most fearsome 
creatures in a new Era.” 


I’m not sure I’m brave enough to go see this as I can barely watch these movies on mybig screen TV. In the first one, “Jurassic Park,” when those raptors are teaming up to 
devour those little kids, my heart about jumps out of my chest! The reason I’m sharing 
all this superfluous information with you is I saw an article by Scott Gleeson in USA 
Today entitled: “Study: ‘Fish Lizard’ largest creature ever.” Naturally, I wondered if we’ll 
see anything like this in the new Jurassic World movie?? 

“Long-extinct “fish lizards” first appeared in the ocean about 250 million years ago, 
and their fossils were found high in the Swiss Alps. According to a study published in 
the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the fossil discovery of the marine reptile carnivores, 
known as ichthyosaurs, makes them some of the largest creatures ever to live 
on earth – even bigger than sperm whales and on par with dinosaurs – given that they 
weighed about 80 tons and spanned 65 feet. Research suggests they emerged after the 
Permian mass extinction wiped out more than 95% of marine species. Yet by 200 million 
years ago, the giant ichthyosaurs became extinct, and only smaller, dolphin-like 
animals lived until 90 million years ago.” 

Now I ask you, doesn’t this fish-lizard guy need to be in the movies?? Remember “The 
Beast From 20,000 Fathoms” from 1953? “Revived by a North Pole atomic blast, a submerged 
dinosaur swims to New York and goes to Coney Island.” That was pretty scary. 
And Godzilla who has reappeared to destroy Tokyo, Osaka and various other parts of 
Japan numerous times? But I want to see The Fish Lizard! 

However, if Jeff Goldblum is going to be in Jurassic World: Dominion, I might consider 
going. Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm is always totally cool, and I quote: 

“Life finds a way.” 
“Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that 
they didn’t stop to think if they should.” 
“Yeah, but John, (to John Hammond, creator of this fun new amusement park) if the 
Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists!” 

All of you terror fans out there, you’re going to love this. I, personally, am hoping to see 
the new Dr. Strange movie, “The Multiverse of Madness.” 

Congratulations to Chris Cimino for being selected as Sierra Madre’s July 4th Parade 
Grand Marshal, and a high five to both Dan Bell and Carol Canterbury, Hometown 
Heroes. These are three exceptional people and it’s just so thrilling to know that we 
WILL, indeed, be having a July 4th Parade again this year. 

And the Mt. Wilson Trail Race is coming! I know, we’ve been having it for years, off 
and on since 1908, in fact, but having it in October last year and nothing like normal 
at all in 2020, it’s so nice to be able to look forward to a wonderful time on May 28th. 
The Trail is in great shape, hopefully, it will be cool and nobody falls down. The picture 
today is a delightful race memory from 2017. An excellent time. 

Susan Henderson’s article in last week’s Mountain Views News was excellent. Our 
daughter, Crissy, and her husband, Chris, have two girls, Jessie and Emily, that I speak 
of frequently here. Both these girls came to them out of the foster system. Jessie when 
she was ten months old and Emily when she was just a day old. Both girls have been 
adopted and embraced by our enormous family. Both their early beginnings, before 
they ever got here were problematic. Little lives complicated by drug and alcohol 
choices made by the women who conceived them, the effects of which continue to this 
day. Susan, you nailed it. You can’t make a woman be a mother. Crissy is an exceptional 
mother to these children, Jessie in particular, who are not easy. I admire her and we are 
all glad these girls came into our lives, to be with a mother and father who will care for 
them with all the love they have in them. Thank you, Susan. 

I don’t have my tomato plant yet but I’m hoping to get to Home Depot soon. 

“There’s only two things that money can’t buy, and that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes!” 
Guy Clark 

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis 
Where you’ll find “Sunrises and Sunflowers Speak Hope”
And “A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter”
Take a look at both of these books, stuffed with hope and some really good recipes.
And there are Kindle treasures galore you can send straight to your Kindle.
Check me out, friends and neighbors!