I moved to Santa Cruz from San Francisco. I had always wanted to live in San Francisco, and I loved it, but my future husband was a Santa Cruzan to the core. So I packed up my piano, guitars, and the wool sweaters I’d never use again and moved down to a foggy beach town which, as far as I was concerned, was in the middle of nowhere.
I knew that Santa Cruz had some things San Francisco didn’t, such as swimmable beaches, redwood forests, and chai*, but I didn’t appreciate that its very smallness would offer other advantages. (*At the time, you couldn’t get a decent cup o’ chai outsides of a few Indian restaurants anywhere but Santa Cruz. As far as I know, India Joze in Santa Cruz started the American “Chai Latte” revolution.)
We went to Santa Cruz’s Mini Maker Faire today and I was hit with something I’ve known for a while: The advantages of small town living are sometimes less obvious than a towering redwood tree. Although parking was nearly as difficult as the big one in San Mateo, this really was a “mini.” Walking into the Visual and Performing Arts complex at Cabrillo College, we were faced with a smattering of food trucks and a few fun exhibits like the “Unnecessarily High 5” pictured at the right.
Then we saw some vendors of various hand-made tschaschkes, the Ham radio guys, and a sign that said “Bronze Pour, 11am.”
Bronze Pour? We had to check that one out.
Unlike the big SF Maker Faire, which by necessity is comprised of mobile exhibits, the local one got full use of the VAPA complex. And use it they did. We got to see a bronze pour and hear an explanation of how it’s done. (See video below.) We got to do screen printing and computer programming. If we’d had little kids, we would have had ample opportunities for face-painting, craft-making, and dancing—all without the crowds and sometimes hours-long waits of the bigger fairs.
After 22 years, I have ceased thinking I’ll ever live in San Francisco again. And I’ve started enjoying my adopted hometown more than ever. So here’s a Necessarily High 5 for a little place that, I’ve learned, is Somewhere because it takes itself seriously. Our Maker Faire may not have had a mobile flame thrower, and we only spotted one guy wearing a utility kilt, but I’ll take a bronze pour and hanging out with our Ham radio guys as a pretty fine substitute.
