4a Group #3

1. Write the story title and author name.

Bienvenidos a Newport Beach by Firoozeh Dumas


2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph; be specific in your summary.

The story is of an eleven year old Iranian boy moving for the eighth time. This move would take him from a lowerclass neighborhood in Whittier, California to the posh area of Newport Beach.
The first six years of his life he lived in Iran, then in the next five years his family moved six times. This move is to a planned community with an active neighborhood association. The association has rules for everything i.e. no cars overnight on the street; exterior paint color must conform; trash cans outside no more than 24 hours in advance etc. All these rules are a far cry from the Whittier location, where rusted cars were parked on front lawns and neighborhood dogs routinely left "deposits" on their lawn. With the move to Newport Beach they felt they had found heaven.

3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph (include entire quote; use quote marks and page number)?

"Sometimes you have tolive in a house facing the Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket before you can appreciate a clean pool" pg 92


4. What did the reading make you think of?

The story reminded me of a song called "Little Boxes" - describing homes on a hillside that all look the same. The way he describes the community reminds me of the planned communities like Oakmont - I imagine these have the same rules.

5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know?

Not fluent in Spanish, I did not know that Vista Suerte meant view of luck.
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1. Write the story title and author name.

Cotton Candy by Devorah Major


2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph

In this story, the author describes in vivid detail the summer days spent at Playland at the Beach. She describes how one can spend the day on the rides that were there, from bumper cars to the ferris wheel, the arcade games and the best of all was the Fun House with its maze of mirrors, the rolling barrel, the silver disk that spun until you sled off, and the wooden slide. It was the mirrors though that made a lasting impression in her life. From those mirrors she learned "not to take reflections too seriously as the real thing."


3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph

"Summer was a time of education and character building and though there was time to waste, there was not too much time, because fall was always just around the corner." pg 102


4. What did the reading make you think of?

The story reminds me of the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Both Playland and the Boardwalk were next to the ocean and the smell of slat water and cotton candy permeated the air there. The rides were basically the same and one can still experience what she describes today (with the exception of the slide, it was removed long ago), by going to the Boardwalk.


5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know.

At the end of the story she writes "But it was the summer learning, the lessons on when to jump and when to stay still, when to show courage even when you didn't have it, when to use a surprise attack to throw off your opponent - it was those classes that helped us in ways we didn't expect, so that we could surmount the trials that faced us in, and out, of the official educational institutions of our childhood."

This passage made me look back at those childhood memories and some are really tough to remember because of the lesson they did teach, and I didn't realize it until I read this passage, how much those summer life experiences lead us to become the people we are today.

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1. Write the story title and author name.

Berkeley by Michael Chabon

2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph.

Michael Chabon has lived in many places from Puget Sound to Key West and now lives in Berkeley. In this story he describes to perfection the City of Berkeley. Berkeley is a city of approximately 100,000 people with an additional 30,000 students. It is a melting pot of geniuses, neurotics, collectors, etc. He admits that he loves the town yet it drives him crazy. The people are not afraid to tell you how they feel, in fact, they feel it is their duty to inform you.
He believes that as small towns dwindle in years to come, that Berkeley, because of its people will be "the last town in America with the infgrained perversity to hold onto its idea of itself".

3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph.

"One of the remarkable things about Berkeley is that, in spite of its decided inferiority to its great neighbor across the Bay in clout, preeminence, population, notoriety and fame, it has never seemed to dwell in San Francisco's shadow (unlike poor old Oakland down the road)." pg 108


4. What did the reading make you think of?

Some of the things he writes made me think of Sonoma - especially this line "And all of the things that drive me crazy are the very things that make this town worth knowing, worth putting up with, worth loving and working to preserve." The town and the people can drive you crazy, I guess that can be said of any small town. Compared to Berkeley though, Sonoma is small. I totally understood what he was saying, he both loves the town and abhors the town, yet we remain.


5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know?

That the town of Berkeley which basically started in the 1880's and boomed after the 1906 earthquake with people that were leaving San Francisco. In the twenty years that followed it grew to its borders.

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1. Write the story title and author name.

California Honky Tonk by Kathi Kamen Goldmark

2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph.

Over 3o years ago the author was a young folksinger with a thrown together band, who was given a real gig at a bar. The only problem was that they weren't a real band, with all the necessary components and they didn't even have enough material. To prepare for the event, they decided to do research by having one of them stake out the bar to determine what the most played song on the jukebox was. The song happened to be "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw" by Jimmy Buffet. On the way to the gig they realized they didn't have a name for their band and chose "El Rancho Motel" - simply because they were driving by it. They were basically young and innocent, and she was obsessed with putting rhinestones on everything. When they arrived at the bar, a regular took one look at her then brought her into the ladies room for a makeover (lots of makeup, a lace camisole under her now unbottoned shirt). What they did not expect was the gang of motorcycle riders that appeared, who didn't want to hear the songs they had - they were looking for the Allman Brothers and Skynrd. The natives were getting restless when they remembered the new song they rehearsed. The song quieted the place, they the crowd got into the song, dancing started and the leader, all 400 pounds of him, grabbed her off the stage, intending to do just what the song suggested only to be saved by the woman who made her up in the beginning of the evening.


3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph.

"But bruises heal, and sometimes even turn into good stories". pg 120

4. What did the reading make you think of?

This is a story that although interesting, I can't relate to it. I have had no life experience similar to it and it doesn't make me think of anything.


5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know.

Having no musical talent whatsoever, I didn't realize that you had to have a rhythm section to make a band.