We have a magician in our neighborhood in Menlo Park. His name is Hugh, The Magic Beard. Kids around here call him Huey.

In most neighborhoods, people wouldn’t notice him, or if they did, they’d notice him for his long beard and sixties-hippie appearance. However, this is Northern California, home of the Grateful Dead. We’ve all seen many folks who look like Hugh around here.

On the other hand, because my family and I have invested extra time in our neighborhood, we’ve gotten to know him pretty well. And boy, what a find Hugh is!

First, he’s a fabulous magician. He even dazzles adults like me who are absolutely certain there’s no such thing as magic. I still can’t figure out how he gets all those coins and handkerchiefs to appear, and I’ve seen his routine many times.

Besides being a technically excellent magician, Hugh’s a very good showman. He’s not flamboyant, but he captivates practically everyone in his audience, every time.

What’s more, Hugh is a very nice guy. Every time I’ve asked him to come over here to give neighborhood kids a show, he’s found a way to accommodate us. In fact, he was just over at our yard to help my family and over 100 guests celebrate the publishing of my new book, Playborhood: Turn Your Neighborhood Into a Place for Play. He’ll also be performing at my neighborhood summer camp, Camp Yale, next month. He’s told me more than once that he’d be very happy to teach my kids his tricks if they ever want to learn.

Also, Hugh’s a fascinating conversationalist. He’s had a very eclectic career, and he travels often to very interesting places.

Best of all, he lives five houses away from my family! That means we run into him often. Hugh isn’t some mysterious performer who my kids have only seen once at an event. To them, he’s Huey, a really nice neighbor who also happens to dazzle us once in a while with magic.

In other words, he’s a neighborhood treasure, an important part of the childhoods of my kids and other kids around here. Chances are, if you don’t know your neighbors very well, you’re missing a real treasure like Hugh.

All six lanes of the Dumbarton Bridge, which links Menlo Park with Fremont, will be closed in both directions starting night, May 25, at 10:00 pm and ending Tuesday, May 29, at 5:00 am, to complete a major element of a seismic retrofit project. We thought we’d take the occasion to share a bit of the bridge’s history.

One fun fact — especially given all the hoopla surrounding the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th anniversary celebration this weekend — is that the Dumbarton was the first bridge to carry automobiles across the San Francisco Bay, opening on January 15, 1927. Until the San Mateo Bridge opened two years later, it was the longest highway bridge in the world. It was privately developed and originally a drawbridge, a fact that long time residents may recall.

Purchased by the state in 1951 for $2.26 million, the original Dumbarton Bridge was replaced with a new one in 1982. It is 1.6 miles long and serves approximately 61,000 vehicles per day. (The photo at right shows the original drawbridge as construction of new bridge begins.)

The drawbridge portion of the old bridge was removed, with either end becoming fishing piers. While the Ravenswood Pier on the Menlo Park side was closed in 1994, the Dumbarton Pier on the east remains a popular sport fishing spot.

This weekend’s bridge closure is necessary in order for crews to replace the existing expansion joint on the western side of the bridge with a state-of-the-art seismic joint that will absorb and dissipate energy during an earthquake. During the closure, motorists should allow extra time for travel and use other bridges, including Route 237 and Highway 92 via the San Mateo Bridge.

While not accessible this weekend due to the closure, there are great views of the Dumbarton Bridge — along with excellent birding — from Pond SF2 in Menlo Park, part of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay Wildlife Refuge.

Photo of existing Dumbarton Bridge by Scott Loftesness

Historical photo courtesy of Caltrans

Jazz vocalist Jenna Scandalios, who will be a senior at Menlo-Atherton High School in the fall, will be traveling to Switzerland this summer to sing at the Montreux Jazz Festival. She is one of the semifinalists in the jazz voice competition, which provides aspiring jazz singers the opportunity to perform in front of a jury and an international audience.

Photo courtesy of Scandalios family

For nine-year-old Abby Heaton of Menlo Park, it was one memorable bike ride. “We rode our bikes over to Atherton Ave. and got to see the President,” she said. “I think it was so much fun because I got to see President Obama wave to me.”

Added big sister, Emma, age 12: “It was really cool because we got to see all of the Secret Service and President Obama waved at us. I wanted to go see the motorcade because the President is awesome!”

President Obama was in Atherton last night to attend a $38,000 per person fundraiser at the home of Lisa and Doug Goldman. The President spoke for about 11 minutes, followed by question and answers, before moving on to a second fundraiser at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City.

Photo courtesy of Heaton family

Yes, applied physics can be fun. For the eighth year, students at Sacred Heart Prep in Atherton took what they learned in the classroom and put it to use making cardboard canoes that they raced in the school’s pool yesterday afternoon.

“It’s become an event that’s bigger than itself,” said teacher Colin Quinton, who is head of the science department. “There is no way we could decide not to do this.”

Colin conceived of the idea along with fellow teacher, Dr. Guy Letteer. “He had the idea,” said Colin, “and we worked out the details together.”

While taking classroom outside — in the truest sense — was one goal of the canoe races, another was to create a school event that would build community, something that students, teachers and alums could all enjoy.

“The kids really get creative even though that’s not a requirement,” said Colin, who also serves as race announcer. “Some teams build for speed and durability. And, it’s not just for fun — it counts as a project grade.”

The races are open to any student currently enrolled in physics, although most participants are juniors. This year, about 50 boats were built. Seven heats were held, and seven boats made it to the finals. The winner, which got off to a very late start but paddled furiously to make up for lost ground, featured Zolta and Melissa at the helm (above).

“We used four layers of cardboard on the bottom,” said Zolta after the race. “And we made the boat as wide as allowed to make it stable. And rather than oars, I used swimmer’s paddles. That’s not breaking the rules!”

The fan favorite of the day was a dramatic reenactment of the sinking of the Titanic (pictured below). This canoe didn’t really race, emerging from its lane well after the competition. It “steamed” to mid-pool, where, encountering an “iceberg,” it “sank,” to the pretend sounds of violin music of one its skippers — and much applause, we should add!

Top-hit songs and dances of the 13th and 14th centuries, and the sacred and secular vocal music inspired by them, will be performed by Ensemble S.P.A.M. at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church on Saturday, May 26 at 7:30 pm. Advance tickets - $27 reg/$25 seniors/$15 students/$5 under 12 – are available online.

Popular song and dance music were likely as much enjoyed during the Middle Ages as they are today. Countless visual images and written descriptions of musicians and their instruments survive from the Middle Ages. But much of their music has been lost. While many of its makers may have been virtuosic singers and players, what they sang and played was never written down.

Ensemble S.P.A.M. will perform 13th-century French, rondeaus and caroles, and motets from 13th-century France containing both sacred and secular/popular elements; secular ballades and virelais by French ars nova composers Guillaume de Machaut and Guillaume Dufay; 13th-century Italian sacred laude, caccie and ballate by the Italian composers Magister Piero and Francesco Landini, a fractal canon by Johannes Ciconia, and a saltarello contained in an anonymous Italian manuscript owned by the British Library.

Ensemble S.P.A.M. is made up of Shira Kammen (vielle, harp, voice), Peter Maund (percussion), Allison Zelles Lloyd (voice, harp) and Marsha Genensky (voice). Get it?  First names are the clue!

At last night’s Menlo Park City Council meeting, life long Menlo Park resident Frank Helfrich was commended for his service to the city as a 30-year volunteer with the Menlo Park Historical Association. The proclamation, read by Mayor Kirsten Keith, cited his unparalleled knowledge of the city, making him the  “go-to guy for both routine and challenging questions on the history of Menlo Park from local citizens, city staff, elected officials, nearby communities, citizens from out of state and internationally.”

Frank grew up in a small house on Alameda and Cedar and never left the neighborhood, except for a stint in the Army. He attended Los Lomitas School, graduating with 21 other students in 1943. “Growing up on the Alameda was sometimes full of surprises,” he wrote in August 1994 issue of the Menlo Park Historical Association Newsletter. “…the area along the Alameda [in the late 1920s] was bootleg country. My mother became aware of this when a still, located under a pile of building material, blew up and nails rained across Cedar Street into our backyard. Fortunately, our yard was clear of children at the time as my mother had just called them in for lunch.

“Our five goats always caused lots of talk in the neighborhood. In Spring, my mother would sell off the surplus baby goats and would put up a sign on the gate, ‘Kids for Sale.’ People along the Alameda often saw the sign and wondered which of the seven Helfrich children were to be disposed of.”

Over the years Frank has shared his knowledge of Menlo Park through speaking engagements and articles. He’s considered the archivist of city records, articles, letters and a variety of important historical documents.

Photo by Jym Clendenin

The fall of 2008 was not a great time to buy a business, let alone expand one. But, that’s just the step husband and wife Jim Gothers and Lisa Taggart took, buying The Runner’s High in downtown Menlo Park and renaming it Fleet Feet.

“I’d worked at Runner’s High for eight years before becoming a sales rep for Mizuna,” Jim says. “I missed making connections with people everyday, so we took the leap.”

The pair met in a Marin bike shop a bit over 20 years ago. Jim followed Lisa to Iowa City when she moved there to attend grad school with the goal of becoming a writer. Back in the Bay Area, she was a travel editor at Sunset for 11 years. She’s also written a couple of books, including The Bigger the Better, the Tighter the Sweater and Women Who Win: Female Athletes on Being the Best.

Married now for 14 years with a four-and-a-half-year-old son, the two have brought community, as well as sales to Fleet Street, adding frequent guest speakers and organized training groups.

The latter has been a particular pleasure for Lisa. “People have told me the training groups changed their life,” she says. “Last year, we did our first marathon training. One of the participants, who is very successful in business locally, was training for the first time at age 50. When he finished, he burst into tears and told us that he really didn’t think he could do it, but thanks to the training group, he did.”

With all the footwear advertising, many customers come in thinking they want one particular shoe. “That’s a mistake,” says Jim. “One particular shoe doesn’t work for every body. We start by asking people what their goals are, what they want to accomplish. We do our best to make real connections.”

The pair’s newest endeavor is Stand Up 8, a non-profit foundation they started with some customers and members of their training groups. The name comes from a Japanese saying: “Fall down seven times and stand up eight.” The mission is to promote health and fitness opportunities to groups and communities that are underserved, and the first program is a walk/run training program for women Ozanam Wellness Center, a program run by St. Vincent De Paul San Francisco for people struggling with addiction and mental health issues.

Photo by Irene Searles

Books by Lisa Taggart: