69 years in Sonoma: Rosemarie Pedranzini

Under The Sun — Q and A

You’ve lived here for some time, Rosemarie. How long exactly?

I’ve been here since I was ten years old. We moved here 69 years ago from San Francisco, where my father worked as a candy-maker.

And where in Sonoma did you live at that time?

We moved into the house behind Broadway Market; my brother Jim still lives there. My father opened a soda fountain shop with twelve stools, and at 13, as the oldest of three kids, I started as a soda jerk working behind the counter. I married my husband Benny at 23 and we moved to the house we still live in on Second Street West. Later on I worked at the “old” Adobe Drug store for ten years and then for a long time as a docent at the Depot Park Museum. I’ve gotten to know a lot of people.

It must have looked and felt different back then.

Well, there was no shopping center at the corner of Second and West Napa, just baseball fields and Blanche’s Coffee Shop. And no bank or 7/11. And no traffic on Second Street. Kids would play ball in the street! The neighborhood was entirely residential. Now commercial is right next door and vacation rentals across the street.

There have been a lot of changes, I guess, in all these years?

Some good,some bad. Maybe there are too many tourists and people wine tasting nowadays; it makes it hard to feel safe crossing the street and I need to be careful. And Second Street is very busy now. The street is also in terrible shape with potholes and the like. I complain but nobody does anything.

What do you remember most about childhood in Sonoma?

The parades. I love parades, especially the Vintage Festival parade. Some parades used to begin at the High School and come all the way down Broadway with bands and marchers. And I ran into Howard Costello recently; he’s 94 years old and was one of the teachers for my High School class of ’53. Wonderful man. And I remember when Dr. Wayne Price would make house calls for $5! Imagine.

You’re a vocal person and go to a lot of council meetings. Any comments?

There are now three women on the City Council; that’s really something! I attended my first meeting in the 70s. By now I must have gone to well over 50 meetings and watch them on TV, too. We’ll see; I may have gone to my last council meeting, but I do love to go. Some call me a “motor mouth” but my friends always say “Rosemarie, speak for me!”

So overall, how would you characterize your life?

Well, my life has not always been easy, but I was put here for a reason. Until she died I looked after my elderly neighborhood friend Louise Hayes, helping her do shopping, picking up prescriptions, that sort of thing. Perhaps I should have been a nurse. Like Daddy used to say, “Nobody’s perfect. That’s why there are erasers on the ends of pencils.”

Any final thoughts you’d like to share?

I guess I’m still a “soda jerk” at heart. I love people and talking to people. You see, money does not bring good health or happiness.

 — Interviewed by Larry Barnett