Cat owners!

I am feeding the neighborhood birds in my backyard. Naturally, cats are coming to hunt. Please help me by either keeping your pets indoors, or putting bells on them. The cats are killing a lot of birds. I keep finding the remains scattered around my yard. I get very upset each time I find the remains. Please try to understand that the birds are an integral part of our environment. They deserve to survive. I think you would miss them if they all disappeared.

Thank you for your consideration,
Cecilia (Shery) Wright

Mack and Margarette leave to the east coast.

This is a sad week on Meckel Way. Our dear friends and neighbors Mack and Margarette Law (original owners of their Streng home at 5218 Meckel Way) will be leaving us all, to go to Virginia! They are building their dream home overlooking a 75 acre pond called Cow Creek Mill Pond, near the Chesapeake Bay.

Mack and Margarette met and were childhood sweethearts in Tennessee. They were married a few years later, and they have had many amazing adventures since! Mack flew for the United States Air Force and was stationed in Korea soon after they first were married. Margarette te taught school, English primarily, (VSIS courses) at the Military Academy overseas in Taiwan, and Jr. High in Japan. Through the years Margarette te and Mack lived in Taiwan, Germany, France, and Japan before settling back in the United States. First S. Carolina was called home, before one of the Law’s best friends Raymond Woodrow Witt (an artist and teacher here in Sacramento), talked them into settling into the Northern California Valley. They lived in Carmichael for a brief period, always looking for a modern architectural home to buy. They were keeping up with all the Streng developments in the greater Sacramento area, and fell in love with a brand new subdivision called “Overbrook 1”. Mack and Margarette bought the home on Meckel Way sight unseen (since it had not been built as of yet) and bought the home on the spot. They met their soon to be next door neighbors Dick and Lois Parker, and became fast friends with another couple who would be their other next door neighbors Duncan and Lois Courvoiser. Both Margarette and Mack talk fondly of the night they danced on Duncan and Lois’s slab that the house would soon be built on. “We drank champagne and danced to Benny Goodman on 78 rpm records and other big band music all night long” Margarette said “we had so much fun”. The 2 couples had a lot in common, art, photography, food, wine and the willing to have a good time. So in 1963 the Laws moved into their 3 bedroom, 2 bath Streng home with their 2 (then) very young children Stephanie and Peter. “The entire neighborhood was surrounded by orchards” Margarette said. There were Pecans, Pears, and Apples Mack remembers, “It was a wonderful environment for children, lots of places for them to play”, Margarette added.

As Mack and Margarette ’s children grew, they attended Mission School and from there transferred to Whitney Elementary, then to Jr. High at Charles Peck Jr. High then to Churchill Jr. High, before going to La Sierra High on Ingle, Garfield and Gibbons. “This area had a lot of public and private schools to choose from, and we seemed to have tried them all”, Margarette said. “We had our son Peter in private school on Hemlock for awhile as well” Mack added.

Mack retired from the United States Air Force in 1971, but continued to fly. He has always been a keen photographer and some of his photos have been in Harpers Magazine! Mack also took up building Formula Vee Cars. Formula Vee cars are race cars, a hobby he and his son have had in common. In the day, they were known to “try them out” around the neighborhood. He is an excellent mechanic, and has helped all of us BMW owners out more than he would probably like to remember. Their son Peter has taken up flying as his dad did, but working for ATI. (Air Transport International)

Margarette an excellent cook and hostess, belongs to the Republican Women Federated where she has helped man a voters registration booth. Her style and grace will be missed around here. She classed up the place! We are sure both she and Mack will be spending a lot o time with their daughter Stephanie and her husband who own a gallery in Virginia called the Morning Glory Gallery, and their only grandchild Jessica now 27.

Thank you Mack and Margarette for everything you two contributed to the neighborhood, friendships and the sorts.

Donna Natsoulas

Jon and Rachel Schuts hosted the Neighborhood Watch Meeting today at their home on Tufts Street.

There was a brunch buffet and a plant sale organized by Fran Clarke to benefit the Neighborhood Watch fund.

The overall turnout was low this time compared to our last meetings due to the garage sales happening today and a football game that coincided with the meeting. Nevertheless, it was still a well-attended meeting.

I ran the meeting and we discussed the following:

Recent crime in the neighborhood. It has been pretty quite lately, but there was a radio stolen out of a car on Meckel this last week. In addition, someone siphoned gas out of a car on Damon Avenue. So be aware of where your car is at night. Get a locking gas cap and keep your car in a well-lit area at night.

Future meetings. We are planning a fall tree walk with Fran Clarke in early November. For December, we are planning another holiday buffet and in addition, we are hoping to have a guest speaker from the Sheriff’s department.

Open discussion. We talked about the issue of all the cars parked on Hemlock during this new semester and how difficult it is to turn onto Hemlock Street from Damon. I will investigate what our options are for what to do about it. Ideally, we would like a no parking zone at the corners to give us more room to see oncoming traffic.

Neighborhood nuisance issues as well as what to do about situations as they come up. Noisy parties and kids in loud cars peeling out late at night are the latest concern and specific instances have already been reported to the local POP (Problem Oriented Policing) Officers a few weeks ago. It has been relatively quiet since then.

My thanks to all who participated and especially to Jon and Rachel for hosting, to Mike Keefe, Rachel, and San Blois for helping distribute the flyers and to Fran Clarke for organizing and running the plant sale!