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October, 2004
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MOO TOWN NEWS
Waste Not, Want Not-Farewell Laurie
By Judy Borello
On September 10th,
the Old Western Saloon, family and friends, saluted Laurie Sturddvant who is
moving to
Delicious food was brought and
prepared by the gourmet cooks of West Marin. Anotone and John
of Tony's Seafood, Kim of Indian Peach, Chef Pat Martin and much more
contributed by many loving hands. Tasty treats indeed.
The crowd rocked to the one and only
Al Faul, who I refer to as "Alfalfa," which ain't no
hay. He's upbeat, very energetic and when he plays and sings some Johnny Cash
songs he completely blows our minds and socks off.
Surrounded by family such as Laurie's
Aunt Ruby (who bartends days at the Western), her cousin Bobby who barbecues
oysters at the Coast Cafe in Bolinas, her sister Linda who is the cleaning lady
and bartender at the Western and was behind the rails that night, her daughter
Shelly from Sacramento, but probably the most notorious member of Laurie's
family was "Fred" the sentinel who greets people at the swinging
doors whose picture "doing his job" was in the Independent Journal.
"Friendly Fred" is a cute little pug who is actually a girl who I
refer to as "Fredricka" but with the Schwartz's girly-man quip,
"Fred" is right in style.
Well-wishers came from all over the
community to honor Laurie including our Supervisor Steve Kinsey. I had heard at
a Farm Bureau meeting the week before that Steve would be on vacation the week
of the party, I
thought to myself that would mean a no-show, but in he came. I felt
"Alfalfa" should play "Hail to the Chief" and it moved me
that Laurie and her work in recycling meant a lot to Steve for him to take time
out on his vacation to honor her.
The Queen of Trash-and I certainly don't
mean anything negative about it!
Laurie returned to West Marin
approximately 14 years ago. Born in
Multi-talented and very creative, she
was nurtured by her father who taught her how to fix things, build things and
paint things.
Abounding with endless curiosity,, her nickname as a child was "For-Do."
Constantly asking what is this for? What
does this do?-gave her the handle. That same questioning and desire to learn is
what gave Laurie the motivation and energy to accomplish sometimes the
impossible. It must be in the genes! Her late brother James ran and operated
the most successful recycling plant in the United States, her sister Linda, is
the driving force at the Old Western Saloon to win the best recycler of
businesses in West Marin Award, and Laurie herself lives her talk-she has no
garbage herself in her private life. She finds uses for everything and
anything. She is a great believer in the fact that somebody's throw-aways could
be a lot of other people's treasures.
Being a very community-minded lady,
she was always there to help out. When one of my bartenders was sick on the job
and had an emergency to take care of, Laurie would step confidently behind the
rails and bartend many times at the Old Western Saloon on a moment's notice.
Thank you ,Laurie, very much for caring and being the
special lady that you are.
Referring to the Saloon as "her
living room," she socialized with style well into the night. Between her
industrious nature and her good sense of humor, she garnered admiration and
respect from many in West Marin.
The core of her nature is very
spiritual and that's the main reason she's moving back to
Laurie's already lined up a job for herself as a recycling consultant and I'll bet in time she
will build her own home because that girl is talented and self-reliant.
I wonder if she's got another
"living room" to hang out in. Probably cause
no grass grows under her feet!
PS We love you Laurie and we will miss
you very mucho. But we now have a great place to go and visit our friend
Laurie.