I'm not sure how you came up with your measurement of time. You count years; I grow rings. A few years ago, my time was up, and now I lie like a beached whale near where I lived. Someone put a plaque next to me. "The Champagne Oak," it reads. I remember Dennis Dimond nestling bottles between me and his playhouse, but I think it was something stronger than champagne.'
Just after I was felled, Dennis Evanosky came by and counted all my rings. He says I'd be 106 years old were I still standing. According to Dennis' count, I began life in the year 1801. Native Americans had passed by occasionally, usually on the hill above me. If they did come nearer, they didn't linger. I had my valley to myself.'
I was 19 years old when the people from the south, New Spain, settled here. The Spanish had been by before, 25 or 30 years before my time. This time they came to stay. The Peraltas I learned they were called. They lived on a nearby creek so all was very quiet around me (except for an occasional cow or two).
A magnificent forest of my cousins, the redwoods, lived on the hill further up the creek. About 20 years after the Peraltas arrived, there was a lot of commotion. It lasted for about 20 years. Newcomers (from Europe, I was told) had taken all my cousins away. I remember hearing oxen braying and whips snapping and people shouting.
I was sad, but not long after, I got a lot of pretty neighbors. Henderson Luelling, who built a house right next to me, also planted fruit trees. I was proud to see how attractive and productive they were: first flowers, then fruit, season after season. Frederick Rhoda came and planted more trees; 2,000 of them, I was told.'
A bit later Hugh Dimond moved into the Luelling home. He built a bigger place and raised his family here. They still owned the home when that 1913 fire destroyed it. I suffered a fatal scar but lasted another 90 years or so.'
Hugh's son, Dennis, took good care of me. He built a playhouse next door and used me to hide all those bottles. He hauled adobe bricks up from the Peralta family house and built a handsome seat all around me. People sat and kept me company for years after the Dimond family was gone.
Caspar Hopkins came, too. He had a six-acre apple orchard just down the creek. He later bought four more acres for mulberry bushes. He hoped to see his daughters earn pocket money raising silk, I was told.'
As the years went by I remember hearing horses neighing, German music, and streetcar bells. Then the automobile came, and lots of houses were built. In my older years I watched Boy Scouts meet, children play, and people swim. I knew my time was almost up when they took away the adobe bricks around me. Then I was felled. I'm not gone, though. You can still visit me next to the swimming pool.'
Oh, and Dennis Evanosky made a 2008 calendar for the Dimond Improvement Association. I'm featured in the month of December. There I am next to Dennis Dimond, so many years ago. I really look good in that photo. So does Dennis Dimond in his straw hat. Buy a copy of the calendar and see for yourself.'
To order your 2008 History Calendar, contact the Dimond Improvement Association at dia\@dimondnews.org or call 452-7392. Order forms are also available in the Dimond Library. All proceeds go to beautification and safety projects in the Dimond District.
Dennis Evanosky can be reached at evanosky\@pacbell.net.
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