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Lawndale Tribune
AND lAwNDAle News
The Weekly Newspaper of Lawndale
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 80, No. 50 - December 16, 2021
The Centinela Valley Union High School
District Family Has Exceptional Leadership
At this week’s Board Meeting, we recognized President Gloria Ramos, Vice-President Hugo Rojas and Clerk Marisela Ruiz for their leadership over the past year. We welcome back President Gloria Ramos and Vice-President Hugo Rojas for this coming year and congratulate
Dr. Daniel Urrutia, who is our new Board Clerk. We are thankful and grateful for our outstanding and dedicated teachers, administrators and staff. Photo courtesy Centinela Valley Union School District.
Travel from page 2
employers crowded holidays into the Christmas
advantage of the shortage of foreigners to visit
meal or service at you just because
weeks, and that coincided, not surprisingly,
their own capitals and monuments. There’s
they know they’ll never need to face you
with our slowest personal workloads. Our
something truly refreshing about being jostled
again. And with fewer customers hounding
children were grown, so there were no school
around the Trevi Fountain without a word in
vacations to match up to. The result: For a
any language but Italian.
good twenty-five years, we took off the three
Clothing:
weeks from Christmas through mid-January
Silk and cashmere long johns and underwear.
to go a-wandering.
Cashmere sweaters and scarves. Ski jackets,
And yes, the off-season in Telluride or
hats, and hoods. LL Bean and Meindl boots
Salzburg, much less in Hawaii or southern
(from Maine and Germany respectively) are
India, doesn’t match up to the off-season in
a godsend. So are Uggs and Mephistos. Lots
Stockholm or London. But generally, our
of thin layers are the secret, easily peeled off
winter migrations have produced cold weather
when necessary. After a while, you hardly
travel in out-of-the-norm circumstances. And
notice the weight, and when you shed them
those circumstances have included:
at night for bed, it feels soooo good. You
Crowds:
sleep like babies.
As in an utter lack thereof. You hardly
Closings:
need an appointment for anything, including
Any vendor who depends entirely on the
hotel rooms and especially restaurants. The
tourist trade closes in the off-season—and
line into the Louvre or the British Museum
good riddance to them! Anyone who remains
evaporates. And when you do find tourist
open has to deal with the same customers
crowds, they normally consist of locals taking
year-round. They can’t throw a bad, overpriced
them, the staffs are more than happy to make
everything perfect. Just for you, of course.
Conversation:
People have time on their hands, even
people in the restaurant trade. They’ll explain
what that odd purple sauce is on your
fish (understanding them is another matter,
of course—’tis the season where languages
might come in handy). They’ll explain why
you want the chicken dish today, rather than
the lamb or the veal. Civilians and police
will sometimes even walk you to your next
museum, instead of just vaguely pointing
off into the ether.
Snow:
We can’t deny that there are drawbacks.
One winter night in Bruxelles, the blizzard
grew so fierce, that the city closed down
not just the roads and buses, but the entire
underground Metro. Around 11:30PM, we
still had four miles to go, when the guards
apologized profusely and booted us out into
the empty streets anyway. Fortunately, we’d
dressed for the worst (see above). But the
best thing was, by the time the authorities
got around to kicking us out, the storm had
nearly vanished.
So if you’ve ever walked through a major
world city when it’s utterly shut down—when
every sane human being has already taken to
bed—when the packed mountains of snow
drown out the slightest peep of urban life—
when the white, high-rise streets resemble
vast, empty canyons of silence—then you’ll
understand the meaning of “magic in the air”.
Strandings:
No, we can’t deny there are drawbacks. But
in twenty years, we’ve been stranded exactly
once—in a storied village called Mutters on
the slope of a postcard-perfect Austrian alp.
Three days of wandering about from spa to
Bierkeller to spa to sumptuous country cooking
from our lovely hostess. We probably
could have escaped sooner, but who wanted
to take the chance? The working world was
still there when we got home.
Next up: The Thing About French.
Ben & Glinda Shipley, published writers
and photographers, share their expertise
and experience of their many world travels.
If you have any questions or interest in a
particular subject, please email them at web@
heraldpublications.com. •
Not the usual Amalfi paradise: Struggling for vertical in a winter
storm.
Your pick of Venetian gondolas: Yes, it’s as cold as it looks.
Street jazz in Paris: Yes, they’re as cold as they look.