Bill Lynch

Sometimes it only takes one person to make something really good happen, to stick with it, even when others falter. So many institutions here in Sonoma Valley exist today because of people like that. I was thinking of that recently when the Sonoma Community Center announced that its 2021 Muse...

There wasn’t much to see north of the Plaza expect ball fields and the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Building when I was growing up. A weathered, 100-year-old railroad depot stood nearly derelict alongside rusting railroad tracks that ran west from Sebastiani Winery and stopped at First Street West. It wasn’t a...

We were the first war babies to attend Sonoma Valley High School – the class of 1960, 125 strong, the largest in school history. Born just months after the start of World War II, we grew up in a challenging, rapidly changing world. Many of our fathers served overseas and were just getting their civilian careers back to normal as we approached our teens and then entered high school.

For as long as I can remember Sebastiani Winery has been a part of our town. Although it is several blocks from what we consider downtown Sonoma, it is inside our city limits (but just barely). A May article in the Index-Tribune (“Production to Cease at Sebastiani Winery,” May 10)...

If necessity is the mother of invention, then it follows that droughts motivate us to invent new ways to save, reuse and find more water. During the most severe drought in my memory, 1976-77, Sonoma Valley residents managed to reduce their water use by half. Some of that was because of rationing enforced by local government and reinforced by higher rates. Most residents understood the need to conserve and did their best to comply.

I started worrying last December when our rainfall was below normal. Then came January, February and March and I realized I’d passed through a time warp back to 1976-77, the driest period ever recorded in California up to that time. It began in December 1975. The creeks were mere trickles...

“Give me the making of people’s songs, and I care not who makes its laws.”. –Andrew Fletcher, Scottish writer, 1653-1716. The music that was once alive in our hills, especially those near Jack London State Historic Park, is back, bringing with it all the joy that touched our souls and filled our hearts before being cruelly silenced by a terrible plague.

The recent front-page story about the opening of the new “forever home” of Pets Lifeline (“Pets Lifeline Is Homeward Bound,” April 30) brought back memories of the Sonomans who made it all possible. Nancy King, PLL’s current executive director, has carried forward a local institution that got its start here...

There was a time when residents of our lovely vale did virtually all of their shopping at stores arrayed around the Plaza. Even as late as the 1980s, Sonoma Valley residents living on the east side of town came to the Plaza to shop for groceries at a 10,000-square-foot supermarket occupying a large swath of First Street East directly across from the Carnegie Library.

Apr. 27—Emmy winner and television icon Ed Asner returns Friday and Saturday to the Alban Arts Center, in St. Albans, with his touring political comedy, "God Help Us!" The show was previously performed with the 91-year-old actor at the Alban Arts Center in 2019. Asner is best known for his...

Apr. 27—Monster Jam, the popular touring motor sports series, returns to the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center June 4-6 with action-packed competition reimagined for 2021. The three-day monster truck extravaganza is scheduled to feature some of Monster Jam's biggest names, including Grave Digger, Great Clips Mohawk Warrior, Black Pearl, Wildside,...

By the time rock ‘n’ roll hit Sonoma in the early 1950s, the town had already been the center of just plain rolling for more than a decade. It began when Samuele Sebastiani opened his “Rollertorium” in a brand new, 9,500-square-foot building in the middle of the block on First Street East, July 11, 1940. The new roller skating rink managed by John Benedetto was welcomed by hundreds of Sonomans who donned their skates to glide around the rink at the opening celebration.

Apr. 18—If not for a trip to Charleston, HBO's new documentary, "Our Towns," might never have gotten off the ground. Steven Ascher, who co-directed the film inspired by the book "Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America" by writer/researchers James and Deborah Fallows, said, "Charleston has a special place in the film. It was the test case."

Apr. 18—Ellen Beal told me to try the lavender ice cream and then the rocky road. Both were featured flavors this month at Ellen's Homemade Ice Cream. The rocky road was brilliant, like the best version of an old favorite, but I wasn't sure what to make of the lavender.