\u201cWhat\u2019s all that water, Dad?\u201d the son asked the father, Gerald Haslam, as they drove down I-5 toward Bakersfield. \u201cI don\u2019t remember it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a moment I do not answer because we are seeing a ghost,\u201d my friend Gerry wrote then, himself gone now five years. \u201cFinally I reply, \u2018Tulare Lake.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
This is his introduction to \u201cThe Lake That Will Not Die,\u201d the second essay in his collection \u201cThe Other California: The Great Central Valley in Life and Letters\u201d (1990, 1994.)<\/p>\n
This whole book is full of beautiful insights about the lake basin we live in from one of its proudest native sons, a treasure I\u2019ve had on my bookshelf since he handed it to me in Oct. 1990. However, this particular essay, \u201cThe Lake That Will Not Die,\u201d is essential reading right now, whether you\u2019ve read it before or never heard of the guy. He puts his finger gently, but exactly on the myth that keeps us from seeing what we need to do. It could help us step up to the plate before we repeat the disasters of 2023 should the lake make its next appearance this winter.<\/p>\n
What brought it back into my field of view was an envelope I\u2019d found in my post office box from Gerry\u2019s wife, Jan. She has been producing small chapbooks of his stories and essays, illustrated with drawings by their son Garth and photographs she took of this man she married. Just the day before, I had recommended \u201cThe Other California\u201d to a writer friend who\u2019d never heard of Haslam, this Valley author who gave so much to all of us. Having pulled the book from the shelf, I found myself re-reading it cover to cover. Immersed in his straightforward, affectionate writing, I found my feet back on hallowed ground, safe in knowing I\u2019m home where I belong even though I wasn\u2019t born here.<\/p>\n
What makes Gerry\u2019s writing about us different, whether fiction or non-fiction, is it\u2019s an inside job. Born in Oildale to an Anglo working-class father and Mexican-American mother, he grew up in the \u201840s and \u201850s much like any other kid on his block or in his county, Kern. But he could see where not everybody had it as good as he did, and we hear their stories as well as his own. Looking back on that childhood as an adult, he adds the historic and geographic knowledge we acquire later about home if we\u2019re lucky. The result is his writing is compassionate without being romantic and critical at times without being caustic. Those of us living here as imports can see we also are part of the picture. He writes about the literary landscape as well as the real one, and the demographics of immigrants and small towns. One stand-alone piece about family, \u201cFather Comes Home,\u201d still brings me to a standstill with its extraordinarily ordinary real love. In that piece, he refers to Jan as \u201cthe girl I married,\u201d a term of endearment that shows how much he knew she meant to him.<\/p>\n
His deep love for this place is contagious. One of my favorite essays is \u201cThe Kern, My River,\u201d where he confesses his sense of possession of that stream \u2013 or perhaps a sense of belonging to it. Now I never drive across the Kern River without remembering his opening scene: the Kern at full flood stage, a rabbit clinging to a tree submerging in the water below the bridge Gerry\u2019s school bus was crossing, the rabbit resurfacing on the other side, still astride the tree\u2019s trunk.<\/p>\n
Unlike his river, Gerry recognized you can\u2019t possess the lake, or kill it off either. In \u201cThe Lake That Will Not Die\u201d he captures the magical, spiritual feeling so many of us have experienced when the lake returns. It\u2019s not just a Yokuts thing, although it might help us comprehend their concept of Spirit. I think it\u2019s reassurance Man can’t totally triumph over Earth. That we’re not in charge after all. Haslam details the lake\u2019s hydrology and history, a helpful summary. But his awe and excitement seeing the lake again is catching. It won\u2019t hurt us to remember and re-vision it through his eyes.<\/p>\n
There are 25 copies of \u201cThe Other California\u201d available for check-out through the San Joaquin Valley Library System. Ask your librarian for help. Prepare to be enlightened.<\/p>\n
Trudy Wischemann is a homebody who writes. Send her your lake ideas c\/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay 93247.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat\u2019s all that water, Dad?\u201d the son asked the father, Gerald Haslam, as they drove down I-5 toward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,43838,9964,781],"class_list":["post-446425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-essay","tag-kern-river","tag-lake"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}