Stitched on the patriotic should of Carson City

I was drawn into the C Hill flag debate when I received an e-mail from a lady from the national flag foundation.

Apparently, someone wrote her to ask about the propriety of allowing a flag to exist so close to the ground.

She said it would be wrong for a flag to touch the ground or merchandise, but it would be nice to have a big flag on a 120-foot pole.

In my reply, I pointed out one fatal flaw in her logic. The C Hill flag is not a flag.

According to my tattered edition of Webster's, flags are made out of fabric.

The C Hill flag is a flag in name only. The C Hill flag is really a big flag patch stitched onto the patriotic shoulder of Carson City. It is a representation of a flag, but it doesn't mean anything less to those of us who live here.

Jo Ann Grace says she remembers the exact day she moved to Carson City.

"I thought, 'Wow, they gave me a parade,'" she said of her arrival on Nevada Day 1988.

The 50-year-old Southwest Gas employee moved to Carson City with her daughter from Phoenix.

"This was a big change from Phoenix," she said. "I like how Carson has grown. It's perfect right now, but I could tolerate a little more growth."

Jo Ann is involved with the Irish Ceil" at the Brewery Arts Center on Friday night. She performed with an Irish dance troupe in Reno for five years. She has been to Ireland three times and is interested in all things from the Emerald Isle.

The Ceil" is a potluck dinner and dance. The dancing is more like a contra dance, with groups of four, six and eight dancers doing patterns for the duration of a song.

"It is not as rigorous as other Irish dancing," she said. "We want to attract some wannabe dancers. We have a pretty big Irish community here."

Jo Ann's daughter is grown up now and has four children, who all enjoy Irish dancing.

"They'll be dancing there," Jo Ann said of the 7:30-10 p.m. event. For information, call 884-3747. Jo Ann also teaches salsa dancing at Comma Coffee.

When reporter Dylan Riley went to cover the Six Mile Canyon fire on Wednesday night, he decided to stick around for the night.

The fire was put out quickly as the evening progressed, and in the fine tradition of Comstock journalism, he toured the scene to ensure the saloons were safe.

"By midnight the next hottest show in town was Tuesday's open mic night at the Red Dog Saloon, and that was on its way out too," he wrote.

"Above the fire on C Street, nearing 2 a.m., with the smell of smoke in the air from inside as well as outside, musicians packed up their equipment after the show, loading speakers into a van in front of the historic saloon, seemingly unconcerned with the dying fire below."

The Safari Rose, had to be evacuated Thursday after she struck something hard at Lake Tahoe. The 80-foot yacht spent quite a bit of time beside the road in Mound House, in the median near Home Depot in Indian Hills and in Carson Valley on her way to Lake Tahoe in late June.

According to at report in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, the boat's pilot beached her to keep her from sinking.

Carson City Boy Scout Chris Moltz plans to clean up the bicycle path on the south side of Fremont Elementary School for his Eagle Scout project.

The 16-year-old Carson High School student says the first half of the project will be to talk to Dave Lowe's Fremont class about recycling.

Then at 8 a.m. Saturday he and several others will gather to pick up the path. Lowe is an assistant wrestling coach at Carson High School.

"My wrestling coach was talking about how it was pretty dirty there," said Chris, who will be a senior in the fall.

I once helped Sonia DeHart get her car, the famous Silver Bullet, started.

She was at the Genoa Post Office and was having trouble. She'd attended a few family gatherings and knew me by sight. I got behind the wheel and turned it as I tried the key and voil+, it started.

I can remember several conversations with Sonia over the years and being amazed at the level of independence she showed. My wife, Jennifer, and I have stayed at Hot Creek and I remember reading a yellowed article about her battle with Cal Worthington over the ranch. When I close my eyes and think about her, I can see her face. I'm going to miss her.

Kurt Hildebrand is acting city editor at the Nevada Appeal. Reach him at 881-1215 or e-mail him at hildebrand@nevadaappeal.com