Rumsey: Part II

      The diversity of California's geography is well known.  As a student of geography for many years, the Mayor is well-acquainted with this diversity.  From the coast to the eastern borders shared with Nevada and Arizona, any drawn line will traverse a zone of agricultural effort.  West of Highway 5, west of Sacramento, Highway 20/Highway 16 follows minor rift zones, providing access to pockets of intense farming where orchard crops cover fields that border Cache Creek.
      With adequate water, a long growing season with high summer temps, these fertile fields provide a bounty of crops.  Olives and almonds dominate here.  The fields are already being plowed and disked in preparation for planting.  Old trees are being pulled and their replacements are in the ground in some places.
      So, Rumsey.  We walked into the community center to witness a great American scene:  local farmers and ranchers socializing among weekend visitors, checking out the locally -grown products offered by their friends and neighbors.  Bottled olive oil of many varieties covered small tables where the grower sat with a broad smile, welcoming the shoppers.  At one table, the Mayor found a familiar face: former Congressman Pete McCloskey.  With a full head of white hair, a twinkle in his eye, and rosy cheeks, he was instantly recognizable.  Besides his own olive oil and pecans for sale, he also had copies of his memoirs: A Year in a Marine Rifle Company: Korea, 1950-51.
       This book tells his story as a lieutenant of Marines during a vicious war in Asia often called the "Forgotten War".  This war is another that is hardly 'forgotten' by those who participated in combat and were able to survive.  Pete McCloskey was one of the heroes of that war.  He was awarded the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, and 2 Purple Hearts for heroic leadership during the early months of the war after Gen Douglas MacArthur put the Marines ashore at Inchon in one of the great tactical moves of the conflict, encircling the North Korean invaders from their flank and liberating the city of Seoul.
     After the war, he returned to California, got a law degree from Stanford and began the practice of law in what is now Silicon Valley.  He spent 15 years in Congress during which he championed many environmental causes as a Republican. (He is now a Democrat, ret.).  He and his wife, Helen, live part time in Rumsey, and part time in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Their son, Peter, is a lawyer working for the International Court of Justice in the Hague where he has prosecuted war criminals(eg. Kosovo leaders), and investigates war crimes.
      Pete and I talked for awhile and I listened to a number of quick stories he was willing and happy to relate.  His wife, Helen, had a few of her own.  It was a most enjoyable encounter with a great American hero.