Bellara Changes

Acting Executive Director Jacob Harryman emailed the Buzz last week with details of the new Management Team: “I […] have some exciting updates that I would like to share. We have hired a new Culinary Director, Tina Fuller; a new Building Services Director, Jorge Lomelli Santoyo; and a new Memory Care Manager, Rose Ruiz. We have also promoted Vanessa Jauregui Romo to Vibrant Life Director, …and Roz Avila to Business Office Director. While we are still searching for a qualified Executive Director to join the Bellara family, I am excited about the strength of our leadership team. These new directors are extremely talented, and I look forward to seeing Bellara continue to grow and thrive.” 

Earlier in August, on Tuesday the 18th, Mr. Harryman addressed the Residents’ Association meeting, the first time an executive director has done so since the Bellara opened. At the time, only one of the key positions had been filled, the Executive Chef. When a Resident asked, why there has been such a complete change in Bellara management, he said, “I think they left for their own reasons.”

Here is the contact information for each of our new directors:

•  Acting Executive Director Jacob Harryman, jharryman@integralseniorliving.com

• Activities/Vibrant Life Director, Vanessa Jauregui Romo, vjaureguiromo@integralseniorliving.com

• Building Services Director, Jorge Lomeli Santoyo, jlomelisantoyo@integralseniorliving.com

• Executive Chef / Culinary Services Director, Tina Fuller,  mfuller@integralseniorliving.com

• Business Office Director, Roz Avila,  roavila@integralseniorliving.com

 (A request to our acting Executive Director for photos of our new Director was not answered in time for publication.)

Editorial

And They Have a Band

It's Tuesday morning, September 5, 1882, in Manhattan, New York, and the first Labor Day parade is about to be a humiliating failure.

Spectators have been staking out spots along lower Broadway since dawn. Expecting a riot, police on horseback ring City Hall. Ten o'clock arrives, and William McCabe, the grand marshal, has almost nobody to lead. A few hundred men, no music, and a crowd on the sidewalk cheerfully suggesting McCabe call the whole thing off. McCabe decides he'll march anyway, even if he marches alone.

Then Matthew Maguire comes running across the courthouse lawn with news. Two hundred jewelers from Newark have crossed the Hudson by ferry, and they're bringing their own band.

Just after ten, that band turns onto Broadway in dark suits and derby hats, playing a Gilbert and Sullivan tune, and everything changes. Two hundred jewelers march behind their band. Bricklayers in white aprons fall in behind them. Then seven hundred printers from the typographical union, the outfit everyone calls the Big Six. Then spectators, peeling off the sidewalk to join. By the time the procession reaches the top of the route at noon, somewhere between ten and twenty thousand men and women are marching. Banners read NO MONEY MONOPOLY and LABOR BUILT THIS REPUBLIC AND LABOR SHALL RULE IT.

No drinking is permitted during the march. Afterward there are speeches, beer, and picnics.

Look closely at these marcher, Every one of them is paying for this. There is no holiday. They have given up a day's wages to be here, and some will lose their jobs over it. Their employers have not closed for the occasion and have no intention of doing so. A parade like this is a show of strength, and the men who own the factories understand it perfectly well.

The New York Times covers the whole thing and buries it on the last page.

Jump ahead four years, to Chicago in May 1886. A general strike for the eight-hour day, a bomb thrown at a rally in Haymarket Square, police and workers dead, four anarchists hanged on thin evidence. Three years after that, the international labor movement chooses May 1 as the workers' holiday, specifically to honor those men.

Most of the world still observes that day, May 1, a day born out of events in Chicago. The United States is one of the few countries that does not recognize May 1 as its Labor Day, staying instead with the first Monday in September. The U.S. did eventually give May 1 a meaning, just not a labor one. (May 1 is Law Day, celebrating the rule of law, and also Loyalty Day, celebrating American freedoms.)

Eight years later outside Chicago, in May 1894, four thousand Pullman workers are walking off the job. George Pullman has cut their wages by a quarter and left the rent unchanged on the company houses they live in, and he will not submit any of it to arbitration.

Through June the anger spreads. On June 26, Eugene Debs brings his American Railway Union in behind the Pullman strikers. Within four days, a hundred thousand men on nearly thirty railroads are refusing to move any train carrying a Pullman car. The country's rail traffic west of Chicago is stopping.

In Washington, a Labor Day bill has sat untouched for ten months. But when the railroads stop, Congress discovers an urgent enthusiasm for honoring the American worker. The Senate passes it on June 22, the House four days later, and Cleveland signs it on June 28. The first Monday in September is now a federal holiday called Labor Day.

Back in Chicago, the trap closes. Attorney General Richard Olney, a railroad lawyer before he took the job, has been building an argument: any train carrying a mail car is a mail train, and stopping one is a federal crime. The railroads helpfully refuse to run mail trains without Pullman cars attached. The strikers can no longer boycott Pullman without obstructing the United States mail.

On July 2, a special federal attorney — a railroad lawyer Olney appointed at the railroads' own suggestion — wins a sweeping injunction. On July 3, over the objections of Illinois Governor John Altgeld, who insists his militia can keep order, Cleveland orders in the Army. The troops reach Chicago on the Fourth of July. By July 7 they are firing into crowds. Dozens are dead before it ends.

It's an election year. Historians have long called the holiday a conciliatory gesture toward labor; Cleveland's defenders call the timing coincidence. Either way the sequence stands. The holiday came first. The soldiers came the week after.

Our time travel ends on this morning, September 7, 2026. Just before the weekend, Gallup released its annual poll showing 71 percent of Americans approve of labor unions, the highest since the 1950s. A record 47 percent want unions to have more influence than they do. But only about one worker in ten actually belongs to one, down from one in five in 1983.

And the question in workplaces right now is artificial intelligence, and who gets a say in how it's used. A handful of unions have already negotiated AI rules into their contracts. For most workers there's no contract, and no table.

The first Labor Day almost didn't happen. It took two hundred men who paid for the privilege and brought their own music. A hundred and forty-four years on, the day is guaranteed. What they were marching for isn't.

Happy Labor Day.

The Chimney Riddle

A young man came to an old rabbi and said, "Rebbe, I wish to study Talmud."

"Do you know Aramaic? Hebrew? Have you studied Torah?"

"No, Rebbe. But I graduated from university with honors in philosophy. I have a trained mind. Surely I'm ready."

The rabbi stroked his beard. "Very well. Answer me one question first. Two men climb down a chimney. One comes out with a dirty face, the other with a clean face. Which one washes?"

"The dirty one, of course."

"Wrong. The dirty one looks at the clean one and thinks his own face must be clean. The clean one looks at the dirty one and thinks his own face must be dirty. So, the clean one washes."

"Ah, clever! Ask me another."

"Two men climb down a chimney. One comes out dirty, one comes out clean. Which one washes?"

The young man smiled. "We just established that. The clean one."

"Wrong. Each looks at the other, yes — but then the clean one, feeling his own face, finds no soot, while the dirty one, wiping his brow, sees the grime on his hand. So, the dirty one washes."

"Rebbe, I confess you've caught me twice. Ask me once more."

"Two men climb down a chimney. One comes out dirty, one comes out clean. Which one washes?"

Exasperated: "Then... both? Or neither?"

"Wrong. Tell me — how can two men climb down the same chimney, and one come out dirty while the other comes out clean? The question itself is nonsense. If you spend your life answering questions that are wrong from the start, all your answers will be wrong too."

Hayward History

with Resident Diane Riggs

Art News

This month I thought it might be fun to do some name-dropping of former residents who lived and worked in Hayward. Since there were many major league sports teams in the area, we often found ourselves seeing them in the neighborhood. There were others who lived here who served in our government as well and then there were the ones that went on to become truly well-known and famous!

The first group is made out of the sporting scene:

Bud Harrelson - Baseball Coach        Bill Walsh - 49er Coach                     Joe Montana - 49er quarterback

Jack DelRio - Baseball                       Jeff Barnes - Raiders                          Eddie House - Basketball

Andre Ward - Boxer                          Joan Weston - Roller Derby             Isaiah Taylor - Basketball

George Foreman - Boxer                    Dick Sadler -   Boxing Coach           Chelsea Gray - Basketball

Kristi Yamaguchi - Skater                  Sena Acolatse (hockey)                     Lon Simmons - sports announcer

Another group is made up out of those who served in our government:

Carlos Bee      Bill Lockyer        Mike Sweeny          Charles Plummer            Yesenia Sanchez    

Then we have those who went on to entertain us:

Eddie Money              Greg Kihn                   Yesterday & Today    Dwayne Johnson (AKA The Rock)

Tom Hanks                 Brian Copeland           Kimberlin Brown        Tom Eplin (soap opera)

Mahershala Ali          Thia Megia (American Idol) 

Last we have two gifted people who have found ways to make things interesting:

Bill Owens ~ story teller, author and newspaper reporter                 

I’m told that Bill was at the 1969 Altamont Race Track filming the frenetic Rolling Stone concert. The Hells Angels motorcycle club was recruited for security and reportedly paid with $500 worth of beer. Some of the motorcyclists beat up rowdy guests.

Ron Simms ~ custom motorcycles & tattoos

Over the years Ron has made a name for his craft and is very popular in Hayward, where he has a shop on Foothill Boulevard. He has honed his craft over the past 50 years and he also has a shop for those interested in tattoos!

 So ~ look around the area and tell me about some of the interesting people we have right here in Hayward!

Guest Column

by Jorge Lomeli Santoyo, Building Services Director

A little bit about me is I enjoy spending time with my family ( my wife and four children.) I really love being near the water, whether on my boat or my jet skis and I also barbecuing and camping.

My plan for the Bellara community is to work hard to ensure a safe and clean environment, while also ensuring that the staff under my supervision are happy to work and efficiently. I have eight and a half years of experience working with seniors , I love my job, and enjoy putting a smile on people faces and doing my part to make a difference. And the better way to contact me is by e mail jlomelisantoyo@integralseniorliving.com

A Very Short Story

Earl and Ruth Wallis, circa 1939, photo curtesy of the Hayward Historical Society

A Very Short Story that Surely Involves Love

In 1936, a cousin of [Russell City resident] Earl Wallis showed him a photograph of his sweetheart back in Oklahoma. Earl asked about the girl standing next to her and was told that she was the sweetheart’s cousin, Ruth. On the spot, Earl declared, “That’s the girl for me. One day I’ll marry that girl.” He began a correspondence with Ruth…. A year later, in 1937, she came to California to visit an aunt in Visalia. Fred drove out to the valley to meet her. A week after [they met,] Earl and Ruth drove to Reno, where they were married. Their first home as a couple was located on Russell Road; they paid rent of $7 a month. Their marriage lasted more than 60 years and only ended when Earl passed away in 2004. (Courtesy of Ruth Wallis.)

From Images of America / Russell City,  by María Ochoa, page 38. Adapted by permission of the Hayward Historical Society.

You Can Hear It

After the Rain, 30”x36” paper print, by Rick Wise

Hayward’s Sun Gallery (1015 E Street) is holding a small, one-person show of prints by Rick Wise that mesh multiple photographs to create new works he calls “Images.” Some of these Images are printed to metal, some to canvas, and one to paper. The show will be open Fridays and Saturdays from 10:00 to 4:00 September 4 through September 25. On Saturday September 12, the Gallery is hosting a reception with food and wine. At 1:30 the artist will give a brief talk and answer questions about his Images.

Book Club News

by Resident Lynne McKee

For the month of September, the Book Club will be reading The Day the World Came to Town / 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland, a story of what happened when 7,000 airline passengers landed in Gander.  Amazon describes the book:

"When 38 jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land at Gander International Airport in Canada by the closing of U.S. airspace on September 11, the population of this small town on Newfoundland Island swelled from 10,300 to nearly 17,000. The citizens of Gander met the stranded passengers with an overwhelming display of friendship and goodwill.

"As the passengers stepped from the airplanes, exhausted, hungry and distraught after being held on board for nearly 24 hours while security checked all of the baggage, they were greeted with a feast prepared by the townspeople. Local bus drivers who had been on strike came off the picket lines to transport the passengers to the various shelters set up in local schools and churches. Linens and toiletries were bought and donated. A middle school provided showers, as well as access to computers, email, and televisions, allowing the passengers to stay in touch with family and follow the news."

Resident Shirley Lipkin adds,

 We meet on the last Monday of the month, at 4 pm, at the long table downstairs, in the Bistro.  We’ve decided to take turns selecting the book each month, and leading the discussion.  This person should have already read the book he or she selects. Anyone can find book club discussion questions on line, to help lead the discussion. [ed: in the search line of your browser, try typing in: book club discussion question for [name of book.]]

 Once we pick a book, I let the activity department purchase the number of physical books needed.  We do have about three members who prefer using Audible, or ebooks, and they acquire their own books.  As of today, I believe we have about seven or eight members.  Two new residents have joined in the past several weeks, and all who are interested are welcome.  We are always looking for book lovers!  This is a chance to read a book you wouldn’t have chosen yourself.

Ed note: The Broadway musical, Come From Away, is another take on the same events. It is based on direct interviews with the Gander residents conducted by writer-composer team Irene Sankoff and David Hein. You can listen to the soundtrack here.

by Bellara Ears

Each month, our ears lead us to a new adventure. Previously we traveled from Bach to Collier. This month, sounds lead us to Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances,” adapted from his West Side Story which in turn is based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The version of this music that caught our ears was from the city of Birmingham’s (England) Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paavo Järvi. Järvi is an Estonian and American conductor who Google AI describes as “known for his dynamic interpretations of the symphonic repertoire and his work with world-class orchestras.” (More bio information here.) You can find the vigorous Prologue online here, and the entire disc on Spotify. (Search for “Bernstein West Side Story Symphonic Dances.”)

 We are tempted to ask, is this Classical Music? Or Pop? Perhaps we can say it’s a hybrid work that bridges classical orchestral music and popular/jazz styles. Claude AI notes, “Bernstein himself would have found the either/or framing beside the point. He spent much of his career arguing that American concert music should absorb jazz and popular idioms rather than wall itself off from them, following Gershwin's lead.”

Claude goes on: “The wall between art music and popular music largely went up in the nineteenth century, hardened in the twentieth, and has been eroding since. Many musicologists now treat "classical" as a genre label produced by the record industry and the concert establishment rather than a natural kind.”

 We suggest that whatever label you want to give this music, you take a listen. Maybe you’ll find your toes a-dancing in some of the passages, and your heart leaning in on others.