Criteria for Reading the Landscape

There is a place nestled in the hills of Sonoma where the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and Richmond are visible. Many people are unaware of this place because to get to it one must diverge off the normal hiking trails in the mountains of North West Sonoma. We call this place "The Plat". The view from this mountain top is breath taking to anyone who ventures up the hill. Many of our friends have gathered here for social gatherings on the weekends and others in the small town have similar ideas so it is a way of socializing with different types of people that you would not normally talk to. I enjoyed these gatherings at the Plat before the trail was blocked off by a barbed wire fence because of the different people i was able to interact with once we hiked up. My friends in particular loved this place because it was a great way to workout for athletics at our high school. We would start at the very bottom of the hill and run all the way up to the Plat. It would take a good 20 minutes with resting a few times but once the long uphill run through the alluvial hills was completed I would feel replenished and ready to compete. Almost every athlete that I am close friends with has made the run up to the Plat at some point in their high school career. What makes The Plat so special is the rich history it has held through decades. I was talking to one of my fathers close friends and he said he would hike to the Plat with his friends when he was in high school as well. Proving my point that the Plat is well known amongst nearly all people living in Sonoma, which makes it so notoriously historic.
When Paul Groth speaks of a healthy landscape that connects its participants to continuity and when the landscape connects its participants to important social groups is what I think best explains the qualities of both The Plat and K-Mart. K-Mart has to accept all types of people socially because they are a business, that seems almost like a given. However when different groups gather at the Plat there is not always a sense of friendliness unless an outgoing friend in one group tries to produce conversation. This simple friendly conversation connects the two groups and a healthy relationship is built so the next time two groups similar to these meet, there is no sense of hostility. In the case of K-Mart, the corporation had been in existence for decades because of its ability to put the consumer first in the line of business giving the customer a sense of superiority when shopping here. This is partly what makes some businesses so successful today. As long as companies in the future provide good continuous customer service and maintain this good reputation, as K-Mart did in the past, they shall be successful.

24 Hours at the Golden Apple

This old restaurant in Chicago, The Golden Apple, that is open 24 hours seems to have so much history in this windy city because of the array of people that go in. The different people that have been going to this restaurant for a while explain the rich history of this place and the neighborhood around it. This place seems to have become a historic restaurant in Chicago where people share their opinions and experiences with one another. For some people this restaurant is a meeting place for them and their children if they happen to ever be separated and are lost. One couple in fact in the radio broadcast on ThisAmericanLife.org said that they told their child that if he were ever lost to find a police officer and have the officer take him to The Golden Apple. This Golden Apple restaurant in Chicago reminds me a lot of two places in Sonoma, Pearls and The Sunflower Cafe. Both are old restaurants in Sonoma with history that extends back decades ago. My father would tell me stories of when he was in high school and him and his friends would go to Pearls every day for lunch to hang out and get something to eat. The other restaurant, The Sunflower Cafe, is a cafe that my mom and I try to go to every Sunday. We talk about whats going on with my baseball team and school and also listen in on other conversations around us and watch people pass by outside while sitting on the patio. The Golden Apple to these people speaking admiringly about the place is relatively how i feel about the two places that i just mentioned. If i were to recommend to anyone who was visiting Sonoma a nice place to eat with down to earth people I would say The Sunflower Cafe is the perfect place.

K'Mart has a loveable disorder

This essay wasn't of much interest to me however i can understand the relation between this essay and "The Monument and the Bungalow". The author, Hank Stuever, ideally suggests that K-Mart stores across the nation are historic in their own unique way. These stores that so many people used to shop at are being pushed to the side by stores such as Wall Mart and Target, essentially putting K-Mart out of business. Although this essay was not as intriguing as The Monument and the Bungalow the overall message was noticeable. In fact Pierce himself would agree that K-Mart is a part of history that shows some of our culture as citizens of this nation. The now empty parking lots of K-Mart stores will remain empty with nothing but the cracks in the cement that spider across the historic area, timelessly dating how old the company is by each crack similar to the rings on a tree stump. In my small town of Sonoma there is a place similar to K-Mart where friends go to hang out. This parking lot, behind the array of stores that line one of the main roads downtown, is hidden from the busy nightlife of tourists and provided a sanctuary for our friends during our high school days. We occasionally travel back there to hang out but know that our time has come to abandon our sanctuary in the event that younger students have discovered the night life in this parking lot and have taken it over. What makes this place interesting is that the local kids before me know exactly what this place is like, as do the kids before them. So as we get older and accept the fact that this place is no longer "ours" we realize that this place is a historic place for the youth of Sonoma. In essence this is one of the most popular and few hang out spots for the youth of Sonoma and it will remain this way for as long as this hidden parking lot is in existence.

The Monument and the Bungalow

What interests me most about this essay are the points that come across when Jackson speaks of an environment that is always changing through time. This to me seems true in the fact that the world around us, more specifically the landscape, changes every day. In other words, the landscape that our earth displayed yesterday will not be the same tomorrow unless documented through precise literature.
When i started reading this article i immediately thought of "Walden" and how Henry Thoreau describes every detail in the world around him. Thoreau paints a picture in the reader's mind by meticulously describing literally every aspect of nature and his writings will forever be seen as a historic record of Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts during the 19th Century. What made Thoreau such a successful writer was his ability to observe everything he saw in great detail and his ability to explain every color, animal, landscape and sound he encountered while isolated in his simple one-room hut near Walden Pond.
Thoreau valued nature and respected it for what it was and how everything in it seemed to have it's niche. Jackson has similar views and a similar respect for nature as Thoreau and myself.
When i was young i remember going camping with my family and gazing at the monumental granite cliffs of Cherry lake and the tall redwood trees that infested the upper terrain of the area outside Yosemite. I gained an appreciation for nature and its inhabitants as a young boy and still remember the images of the bald eagles soaring over our boat as i relaxed out on the lake. Gazing at the ripple effect of the murky lake water as i dragged my hand through it swimmingly while our boat glided across the glassy surface was the only thing keeping me busy while i waited to go wake boarding. My experiences when i was younger while camping have made me more aware of my surroundings and are also a big part who i am today and who i will be in the future.

My Introduction

My name is Kyle Clyde and I am a freshman in my second semester here at the SRJC. I currently live in Sonoma and commute to school every day. My heavy work load in my first semester was a little overwhelming and I'm hoping that this semester will be less stressful. I am looking forward to this online English class and everything it has to offer. Taking this class online is beneficial to me because i am on the baseball team and being able to complete the work at any time during the week is why i chose to take this class in the first place. I have high standards for my future and Acing this class is one of my goals for this semester.