dg

just reading up on Coastal California, which was recently suggested by one of you guys here...

what's the story behind these 'little people'?

oh, and thanks for the suggestion - the book's great!

gypsy

Anybody...?

Owen_ONeill

Not sure which book you're referring to but in 1919 poet Robinson Jeffers began building a stone cottage on Carmel Bay overlooking Point Lobos. He referenced the "little people" in his work and I believe they're part of a mythology akin to gnomes, hobbits and leprechauns. There's a referenc eto them as the "little people of the Santa Lucias" but I can't seem to find more info right now. I was unaware of his work prior to looking into this but the poem in which they are referenced is beautiful

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Wise Men in Their Bad Hours

Wise men in their bad hours have envied
The little people making merry like grasshoppers
In spots of sunlight, hardly thinking
Backward but never forward, and if they somehow
Take hold upon the future they do it
Half asleep, with the tools of generation
Foolishly reduplicating
Folly in thirty-year periods; the eat and laugh too,
Groan against labors, wars and partings,
Dance, talk, dress and undress; wise men have pretended
The summer insects enviable;
One must indulge the wise in moments of mockery.
Strength and desire possess the future,
The breed of the grasshopper shrills, "What does the future
Matter, we shall be dead?" Ah, grasshoppers,
Death's a fierce meadowlark: but to die having made
Something more equal to the centuries
Than muscle and bone, is mostly to shed weakness.
The mountains are dead stone, the people
Admire or hate their stature, their insolent quietness,
The mountains are not softened nor troubled
And a few dead men's thoughts have the same temper.

-Robinson Jeffers
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dg

Owen:
Thanks for the response - i appreciate your reply!

you're right, it's a great poem... i think i'll print it out and take it with me to read when i get there!
thanks...

moneygirl

There is a walking tour of Carmel which highlights many of the writers and artists homes and hangouts. I'm so sorry I can't remember the name of it. The docent we had was wonderful and even though I've been there many times a year for my whole life, I learned things about the area that I'd never heard before. Try to find it! (I know the Sundial Inn was one of the stops, as was Doris Day's Hotel.)

bookhall

There's a recently-published book entitled (if memory serves) Cottages by the Sea about many of the unique homes of Carmel. Worth tracking down--it's a nice treatment.

Jeffers' Tor House in Carmel is open for tours. Unfortunately, we got there (on our California trip) just after it had closed for the day--and weren't able to get back.

There's a Bob Vila series about Historic Homes of America. On one, he has a tour of Tor House, and it was hosted by Jeffers' daughter, who was living there at the time. That, too, is worth finding. Your library might have the video.

seniormsuedu

mr. o'neill, what a lovely poem. how nice of you to share it with us, and so quickly, too.

dg

ok, senior; are you being serious or facetious?

are you saying my 'thank you' was a little overboard?

if so, please forgive me - i've had the 'flu all week, and was possibly on meds at the time...

seniormsuedu

dg, i guess both of appreciated the Jeffers poem. i also printed it out.

there are many silly people who reply on these posts, but there are also sincere people. we seem to "have the same temper." and impeccible good taste.

viamar

The "watchers" are said to be small people who live in the shadows in the Big Sur/ Point Lobos area. John Steinbeck wrote about them once. He was told stories about them by his mother when he was little. She was said to of seen them when she was a school teacher in Big Sur. Keep your eyes open while in Big Sur, who knows what you may see!?