Sebastopol: My Home Town

I was born and spent my younger years in San Rafael, CA, but my preteen and teenage years were spent growing up on a small farm outside of Sebastopol, CA.

This was long ago in the 60s, which was an interesting time. It was a small agricultural town then, with an active railroad line going down the center of Main Street.

The Pine Cone restaurant was the local greasy spoon, with waitresses that would sass you and call you “hon.” Analy Theatre was the local movie house, and I attended Analy High School.

I was told at the time that all this “Analy” stuff was named after a race horse, but it turns out that wasn’t true. That actually came from the nearby Annaly Ranch, which in turn was named after a region of Ireland.

I was told the same race horse story about the Kenilworth Junior High School I attended earlier, but that bit of local lore was also inaccurate. Although there was a race horse named Kenilworth, it was actually named after Kenilworth Castle in England.

The town was originally named Pine Grove, but in the 1800s a prolonged fight broke out in the local saloon, which one bystander compared to the then-recent siege of Sevastopol in Russia during the Crimean War.

His jest stuck, and Pine Grove was reborn as Sebastopol, CA.

A visit to Sebastopol might involve either the vinegary odor of Gravenstein apples from the apple processing plant at one end of town, or the more objectionable smells from the tallow rendering plant at the other end, depending on the vagaries of wind and air pressure.

The local businesses were wary of us teenagers, and not at all forgiving of any shenanigans. I got kicked out of the theatre once for roughhousing, and my brother was evicted from the Pine Cone when he and a group of friends tried hanging out to play cards.

I remember entering Analy Drug Store (natch) and being sharply reprimanded by the owner, who didn’t allow teenagers in his store. Then he took a second look.

“Oh, it’s the Edwards kid,” he said, referring to my stepdad’s surname. “You’re all right, you can stay,” he relented, his voice taking a kinder, more fatherly tone.

Yeah, it was a different time.