Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, September 28, 2019

4


Mountain Views-News Saturday, September 28, 2019 

WALKING SIERRA MADRE - The Social Side by Deanne Davis


“Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with 
a flowing mane? Do you make it leap like a locust, striking 
terror with its proud snorting? It paws fiercely, rejoicing 
in its strength, and charges into the fray. It laughs at fear, 
afraid of nothing; it does not shy away from the sword. The 
quiver rattles against its side, along with the flashing spear 
and lance. In frenzied excitement it eats up the ground; it 
cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.” Job 39:19-24

I’m sure you all read the piece by Joan Schmidt last week 
in the Mountain Views News, “We Support Horseracing.” 
(Page 5) Well, I support horseracing, too. And with 
beautiful Santa Anita Race Track just down the hill, we’ve 
probably all spent some delightful time there watching the 
Sport of Kings with our spectacular mountains just to the 
north. In fact, when I was in high school, down at South 
Pasadena High – back in the stone age – my mother used 
to come take me out of school on Wednesdays for a period 
of time when she wanted to bet on horses and take me with 
her to Santa Anita. I was only too willing to go as just about 
anything beat afternoon P.E. featuring field hockey with 
Ms. Jacobs. My fondest memories of those Wednesdays 
involve having the best corned beef sandwich I’ve ever 
eaten in my life up to the present. Corned beef, hot, sliced 
paper thin, between slices of the softest, tastiest rye bread 
ever baked, with just a touch of Dijon mustard. Cole slaw 
on the side. Yes, I know, I’m envisioning this sandwich 
through rose-colored glasses, but, oh dear friends, it was 
beyond delicious. Or maybe it was the combination of 
skipping school and enjoying lunch at the Club House that 
made it taste so very good. 

Some years later, our son-in-law, Dave, took a whole bunch 
of family members to the track and I ordered the corned 
beef sandwich and...well, you already know, it was nothing 
like I remembered. But we’re talking about horseracing now, 
not sandwiches. The quote above, in addition to appearing 
in the Bible as part of God’s response to Job’s complaining, 
also begins and ends Secretariat, the 2010 film produced and 
released by Walt Disney Pictures.

My point? This Triple Crown winning horse loved to race. 
He wanted to run and he wanted to win. When we talk about 
horseracing, this is the real point: These champions want to 
run and they want to win. To think of sending them out to 
pasture during their prime years is just wrong.

As Joan points out, horseracing provides jobs and adds to the 
GNP. Besides, people love to see these four-legged athletes 
perform. One of the most exciting things you’ll ever hear is 
that announcer at the track shouting, “And they’re off!”

Another champion, a fictional one, is The Black Stallion. 
This is the first of a series of books by Walter Farley, which 
he started while he was still in high school. He finished it 
as an undergrad at Columbia. It was published by Random 
House in 1941 when he was just 26. I didn’t come across 
The Black Stallion till I was about 8 or 9 and then I was just 
as hooked on Alec Ramsey and The Black as all the Harry 
Potter fans are now, waiting breathlessly for the next one to 
come out. There were 21 Black Stallion books, the last one 
published in 1991 showing Walter Farley and his son, Steven 
Farley as co-authors as Walter Farley passed away in 1989. 
Steven has picked up the baton and has continued with The 
Black Stallion series.

The Black Stallion starts with a shipwreck and time spent on 
a desert island with this wild black horse, eventual rescue 
and, well, here’s a little back story and a quote. Even though 
the Black has no papers and can’t participate in any official 
races, Alec and his friend Henry Dailey decide to proceed: 

“Undeterred, they begin to train him anyway, under cover 
of darkness, at the racetrack. He is lightning fast; one night 
they have Alec ride him for a time trial and find him to be 
much faster than the two quickest champions of the day. 
Sun Raider is the west coast champion and Cyclone the 
east, but the two have never raced each other, much to the 
disappointment of the public who are captivated by their 
rivalry.” Needless to say, the excitement builds and builds 
and continues through 20+ books. And it’s all about horses 
and their desire to do what God has made them to do, to 
run, to race and to win. 

If you’ve been undecided about horseracing and whether it 
should continue in California, think about the purpose of 
these champions. If you told Serena Williams she couldn’t 
play tennis anymore, what would she do? If you told Tiger 
Woods to put down that putter and do something else, what 
would he do? Same with all true athletes whether they have 
two legs or four! If you know a kid who likes horses, you 
might give him or her The Black Stallion. Walter Farley, 
incidentally, never owned a horse of his own.

The Scarecrow Contest is on and I’ve seen some beauties...
like the one in the picture. Have a great week dear friends 
and neighbors and watch for scarecrows!

“Sunrises & Sunflowers Speak Hope” 

is a great gift for yourself or someone you love! 

Look for it on my book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis 

Star of Wonder the CD is now on TuneCore! Take a look!

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@
playwrightdd

 “A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter”

is also available on my Amazon book page.


This is just a friendly reminder 
to our past participants that 
registration for this year’s 
Scarecrow Festi-val Contest is 
due by Monday, September 16th! 
(Please disregard this reminder if 
you have already submitted your 
information online.)

If you are planning to participate this year, please be sure to fill out the contest registration form online, 
and include your Scarecrow’s name and backstory using the following link:

https://www.creativeartsgroup.org/scarecrow-festival/contest/

· More important dates…

· September 7 – September 20 – Pick up your ID tag at Creative Arts Group during office hours, 
M-F: 10-5pm, Sat. 10-2pm. 

September 21 – All Scarecrows must be in place with ID tags visible. Creative Arts Group photogra-
phers will take pictures on September 21. If your scarecrow is not in place with it’s ID tag at this time, 
you will need to submit your own vertically oriented photo to scarecrow@creativeartsgroup.org. This 
may delay your scarecrow’s web page.

· October 1 – Online map and printed Map/Ballots will be available; web pages and Facebook page 
will be live.

Creative Arts Group Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/creativeartsgroup.sierramadre/

 Your scarecrow’s web page can be found on your ID Tag, as well as at https://www.creativeartsgroup.
org/scarecrow-festival

· October 1 – Voting begins

· October 4 – Kickoff Party, 7:00pm at Creative Arts Group

· October 15 – Voting ends at noon.

· October 19 – Awards Announced on CreativeArtsGroup.org, our Facebook page and the Mt. 
Views News

For more information, please visit www.creativeartsgroup.org/scarecrow-festival

KATIE Tse....This and That


TALENTED PETS

No one appreciates your pets as much as you do. They’re kind of like children or 
grandchildren in that regard. Go ahead and show us the pictures, but just know no 
one else is as captivated as you are. That being said, please indulge me while I tell 
you all about Fibs, my parrot. (That, and I’ve got nothing else to write about this 
week. The world’s always got news, but do you really want to be depressed?)

Of course you don’t. That’s why you’ve got me, and that’s why I’ve got Fibby. Fibs/
Fibby is actually my parents’ bird. But I see them every day, and I believe I’m Fibby’s 
favorite person, so that makes him mine.

Fibby’s one of those noisy, green Amazon parrots you see flying around the area. 
Not to be confused with similar green parrots that are slightly smaller, with longer, 
tapered tails. Don’t know what kind those are.

I’ve written about Fibs before, but it’s been a while. He entered our lives when he fell out of my parents’ 
neighbor’s palm tree. He was old enough to have feathered 
wings, but the rest of him was pretty bald. Just enough 
protection to safely flutter down the 50 foot drop. I think God 
designed them with just that sort of situation in mind. He 
knows they’re klutzes.

Anyway, all the neighbors know my parents are bird people, 
and the rest is clichéd history. He’s been with us about a year 
and a half now.

Besides being adorable, Fibby’s also talented. My dad’s taught 
him the Dodger cheer and the beginning notes to Beethoven’s 
5th. He can also say, “Oh boy,” “Okay,” “Hi, Katie,” and make 
himself sound like a chicken. Fibs hasn’t quite mastered 
“Jingle Bells” yet, but we’ve got a few months till Christmas.

I’m trying to teach him to say “Seriously,” but the syllable 
count may be a bit beyond his current skill set. He’s good with 
“What?,” which he picked up in about 5 minutes.

One of his particular talents is interjecting “What?!” and “Oh 
boy!” into our conversations at just the right moment. We 
think he understands English.

But there is one talent he’s lacking. Bob, our late Umbrella 
Cockatoo, had a seemingly built-in empathetic capacity to 
know not to dump on us. If he was sitting on our shoulder, 
etc., he’d wait till he was off before doing his business.

Fibs, not so much. But we still love him. In the same vein 
however, Fibs does have an uncanny knack for knowing what color dropping will stand out most prominently 
on our clothing, and ejects them accordingly. (Hope I’m not being too graphic, but it’s all in the name of 
humor. At least I hope that’s what you’re getting.)

His care packages are green and white, but he seems to be able to make them more white if we’re wearing a 
dark color, and more green if we’re wearing light-colored clothes. Probably something to do with sphincter 
control, I suppose.

Anyway, Fibs is very talented and we couldn’t imagine life without him. Hope you’ve enjoyed this version 
of me scrolling through photos on my phone for you to look at. I promise not to do it often. But if you had 
a loveable, talented pet, and the blank canvas of a newspaper column to fill every week, you’d do the same 
thing! 

*Speaking of talented pets, check out my novel, “A Year at Apex!” Not that it’s about animals, but it does have 
a sometimes-foul-mouthed African Gray parrot. Besides that, it’s got humor, romance, the human condition, 
and public education. Paperback and ebook on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Cheers! 


SIERRA MADRE POLICE BLOTTER

September 8, to September 22, 2019 

During this period the Sierra Madre Police Department responded to 456 calls for service. 

Car vs pole On 09/11/19, at 2:17AM, officers responded to the area of E. Grandview Ave and N. Mountain 
Trail Ave in regards to a vehicle that struck and knocked down a stop sign. No injuries were reported 
at the scene. 

Unsupervised Child 

A driver traveling south in the 200 block of S. Mountain Trail Ave. on 9/13/19 at 8:30AM, stopped to assist 
a 1 year old boy that was standing alone in the middle of the street. The mother of the child arrived 
as the officers were speaking with the witness and stated that the child apparently opened the door and 
walked out. Ongoing case pending further investigation 

9/13/19 Hit and Run 

A vehicle attempting to parallel park in the 200 block of W. Sierra Madre Bl. at 
3:15PM, struck a parked vehicle. The driver left her vehicle to inspect the damage, then left the location 
headed east on Sierra Madre Bl. The driver did not leave any information for the driver of the 
vehicle she struck as required by law. 
Case to Detectives 

Public Disturbance 

On Friday, 9/13/19 at 10:00PM, a call to dispatch reported a male was outside yelling and creating a disturbance 
in the 700 block of W. Sierra Madre Bl. Officers spotted the suspect in the 00 block on N. Sunnyside 
Ave. Following a field interview in was determined that the suspect was intoxicated, the suspect 
was arrested and taken to the Pasadena Police Jail, where he was cited and released. 

Vehicle Collision into Building 

On Sunday, 9/15/19 at 10:30PM, a vehicle traveling through the rear parking lot in the 00 block of W. 
Sierra Madre Bl. struck the rear of a business causing moderate damage to the vehicle and building. The 
driver was injured and taken to a local hospital by the SMFD for treatment of her injuries. 

Vehicle collision 

A vehicle traveling north in the 100 block of S. Baldwin Ave. struck a parked truck and tree causing 
major damage to both vehicles, on Friday, 9/17/19 at 5:20AM. The driver complained of injuries and 
was taken to a local hospital. 

Theft from a Vehicle

Between 9/16/19 at 7:30PM and 9/17/19 at 4:30AM a theft from an unlocked vehicle occurred at in the 
100 block S. Hermosa Ave. The owner of the vehicle found his vehicle ransacked and personal items 
missing. Case to Detectives 

Drug arrest 

Officers were dispatched to the 00 block of Kersting Court on Wednesday, 9/18/19 at 10:00PM to a report 
of a suspicious subject in the area. During the investigation, it was determined that the subject had 
an outstanding arrest warrant and was in possession of narcotics. The suspect was arrested and taken to 
the Pasadena Jail for booking. 

Suspicious Person 

On 9/21/19 at 7:05PM, officers responded to the 400 block of Sturtevant Dr. regarding a suspicious 
vehicle (black sedan with collision damage to the rear and muffler hanging) that was seen in the area. 
Officers located the vehicle on Sierra Madre Blvd east of Mountain Trail Ave. Officers contacted the 
driver who was unlicensed and had narcotics paraphernalia in the vehicle. He was cited and released.


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com