Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Westport, California

Where do you leave your heart?

CoreyAmaro_Mendocino_

 

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CoreyAmaro_Mendocino

 

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The song says that someone left their heart in San Francisco. Some would think my heart is at the brocante. Sometimes I wonder if that could be true? But this much I know, a large part of my heart is in Westport, California.

 

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The rugged coast.

Simplicity.

The sound of the Pacific while falling to sleep.

 

House on cliff

 

 

Memories of camping with my family and Uncle Jule, Aunt Frannie, my cousins… Bern, Alma, Bev, Dan, Julie, Gene.

Have you ever thought if you could go back to one or two memories which ones you might go back too?

I beleive I would go back to Westport on a foggy summer day 1972… My cousins and I swimming in the roaring tides, while my dad and Uncle Jule fished with nets, my mom and her sisters sleeping on the beach with an alarm clocking ready to ring and take them back to camp to cook for the thirty three cousins…

 

 

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I am, in someway, going back to those memories today.

Westport bound with my cousin Alma and her husband.

Thank you Bill and Julie Brazill for making it possible!

Comments

15 responses to “Westport, California”

  1. Zosia

    Enjoy!

    Reply
  2. Mardog

    Tell Mike and Alma hello. They must be ready to get away.
    I leave today for Montpellier to the equipment show. Somehow looking at tractors isn’t the same as brocante-ing I believe. Looking forward to seeing you + Franca next week!!

    Reply
  3. becky up a hill

    Westport holds dear memories for me too, with my sister having lunch. Back then the hotel’s floors were so crooked, our tea almost sloshed out of the cups, just sitting on the table. Have a wonderful time Corey!

    Reply
  4. Sheala

    Have a wonderful time, I love the coast in the fall. Please give Alma all my love! XOXOXO Shea

    Reply
  5. waveney

    corey, we stayed at the Brazils quaint 100yr old cottage last month for several magical days…..down the rabit hole to the beach to collect sea glass and don’t miss the sunday breakfast at Caspar…. not the pancake special… truly gourmet ( at the jewish community church)….. met julie there. also Im sure you have eaten at the egghead in fortBrag…YUM I envy you !!! just booked tickets for two weeks to France in may can’t wait to hit Vannes and the paris market.

    Reply
  6. Marilyn

    I can see where it would capture your heart. Oh I would love to go here too. I have been to Mendocino and Fort Bragg, but have not noticed this lovely little town. One of these days I am going to venture there.

    Reply
  7. Kathie B

    Oh Corey, you’re making me homesick for my maternal (i.e., non-Portuguese) grandparents’ subsistence farm near Eel River, and our beach outings via SR 1 to Westport and Rockport — saw my first (dead) jellyfish there. Then before going back, my grandparents would stock up at the Safeway in Ft. Bragg, where we could smell the women who came in to do their dinner marketing before going home after their shift at the local fish cannery (does anyone know what kind of fish that would’ve been back in the 1950s or early ’60s — salmon?).

    Reply
  8. Kathie B

    P.S. I just remembered reference being made during my childhood to “the grunion running” along the coast north of Ft. Bragg — and how people would come from all over to catch them — but I don’t know if that’s what was being canned in Ft. Bragg, since I seem to recall that that was a fairly brief phenomenon. Corey, are the grunion runs what brought your family to Westport?

    Reply
  9. martina

    On summer vacations we’d do car trips from Washington to California. We’d start off at 3am, get to Redding around 1pm. Then the next day head for the Coast. I remember standing on my toes in the car, trying to get the first glimpse of the Pacific, and as we returned home, staring out the back window, getting the last glimpse. Maybe this is why I collect seashells, Japanese glass floats and dream of moving to the California coast some time. Have a wonderful time at the beach Corey!

    Reply
  10. Cheryl ~ Casual Cottage Chic

    I recall an earlier post about this wonderful coastal cottage where you and your family spent many vacations. Enjoy the journey and your stay in this fabulous cottage on the coast. Hopefully you will have great weather, too.

    Reply
  11. deborah

    Have fun! Certain places, smells, foods, etc. just evoke memories, I think!

    Reply
  12. sheilaa131

    What beautiful memories of times so long ago, but memories never fade they are etched in our mines for ever. Your post was so touching and stirred emotions inside of me for the times I spent in the Mendocino-Ft. Brag area with my husband. What is it about this time of year that evokes these feelings?
    Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  13. Natalie Thiele

    What a beautiful place! I used to spend Thanksgiving holidays in Carmel. It’s exhilarating being by the ocean in autumn, or any other time, for that matter.
    Have a wonderful stay.

    Reply
  14. cynthia wolff

    I spent time near Garberville in the first part of the 70s with a dear friend who has now passed. I know Westport. It was a beautiful, wild area then. Lots of hippies going back to the land. Enjoy your time at home Corey.

    Reply
  15. corey

    Can not wait to see you!!! Get ready for the brocante baby!!
    c

    Reply

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