Two new themes, Imagination Week and Vacation Week, have been added to this summer’s camp offering. Other weekly themes are Olympic Week, two Wacky Water Weeks, Carnival Week, and C.H.A.M.M.P. (Creating Health Awareness for Me and My Planet) Week.

Party In The U.S. A. Week is July 1-3.

The 9-week” Super Summer” Camp Windsor at the Windsor Community Center promotes a healthy, active lifestyle, art, science and cooking projects and swimming.

There is one staff member per eight campers. Staff members are part-time and seasonal employees of the Parks and Recreation Department. Some are Windsor High School students and college students on summer break, Toms said. Competition for those jobs is very competitive, recreation program supervisor Cindy  Toms said.

“We top out at 45 campers a week,” Toms said. ” We combine fun and learning in one camp. That’s why we’re unique.”

Kids get a different T-shirt each week. “Several kids come all summer,” Toms said.

The good news for parents and guardians is a new Before and After Care Program.

A full day of camp between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.  costs $145 a week.

This year, a child can attend morning care between 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m., afternoon care between 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. or both. The extended camp day between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. is $199 a week.

The cost of the morning care alone is $25 a week, and after care alone is $29 a week.

Those who register in person  for three weeks of camp get the fourth week for half price.

Signing up for camp with a $35 non-refundable deposit  for each week will hold a child’s spot in camp without paying the full balance up front. The total balance for each week will be due two weeks before the start of that week.

“We’re  trying to help out the working families,” Toms said.

The 8-week  Teen Excursion Camp , Windsor’s Middle School program  for ages 11-14, begins June 10-13.  Each 4-day week costs $189.

It offers trips to Chinatown  in San Francisco,  San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics games, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, IMAX movie theaters in Fairfield and San Francisco, Great America, Fisherman’s Wharf and other day trips.

“Teen Excursion Camp sells out each summer. We top out at 28 campers,” Toms said.  The older staff members of Teen Excursion  Camp have a special license to drive the campers in two vans,  Toms said.

Those who attend are expected to adhere to strict guidelines of behavior and adopt the buddy system on trips, Toms said.

“We teach accountability,” she said.

For more information call 838-1260 or visit www.townofwindsor.com/recreation

-James Lanaras

Bill Bowdoin in his Windsor sharpening studio. (KENT PORTER/ PD)

By JAMES LANARAS / The Press Democrat

There are several mobile cutlery services in the North Bay area, but Bill Bowdoin, 82, is staying put in his shop in a small, unassuming blue building on Old Redwood Highway in the Larkfield-Wikiup area.

He is sharp and still sharpening.

“I’ve been sharpening knives for 52 years,” he says.

But wait, that’s not all. He sharpens lawn mower blades, serrated knives, chain saws, garden tools, surgical blades, and clippers. His customers are barbers, beauticians, animal groomers,  ranchers, restaurants, hospitals, dentists,  wineries, golf courses, landscapers and home gardeners.

When some restaurants in Reno need their knives sharpened, their customers bring them to and from Bill’s Sharpening.

“I’ve worked with metal all my life. I’ve never been out of work,” Bowdoin said.

He was born in Prospect, Maine and moved with his father to Arcata where he was raised and found work in the saw mills from Arcata to Ukiah in the 1950s. He drove a fork lift  on the “green chain” stacking freshly cut lumber in piles.

While he was living in Ukiah, he drove to Fresno on weekends and learned cutlery from Fred Elichman, who sharpened clippers and scissors for barber and beauty shops.

“He was a smart man. When times were tough, he said, ‘Don’t raise your prices. Keep them the same or lower them a quarter’,” Bowdoin said.

Empire Sharpening started 52 years ago on South A Street in Santa Rosa. Twenty years later Bowdoin moved his business, renamed Bill’s Grinding, to Roseland where he stayed eight years.  Bowdoin again changed the name of his business to Bill’s Sharpening and moved to 9th and Ripley streets in Santa Rosa.  Fourteen years later when the building he occupied was sold and his rent tripled, Bowdoin moved to 5519 Old Redwood Highway.

Bill Bowdoin uses a lapping stone to sharpen a shearing blade.

His son Bill opened a lawn mower repair shop and Bowdoin moved his sharpening business in 2002 next door  to 5521 Old Redwood Highway.

He believes his shop is the last of four shops in Sonoma County that  hand-sharpened, polished and smoothed blades by hand on balanced, rotating lapping wheels made of Alundum, a lightweight abrasive that is harder than aluminum.  The closest shop outside of the county might be in Sacramento, he said.

Bowdoin also uses an 85-pound rotating steel wheel to sharpen clippers.

“It takes six to eight months to get the feeling for it in your fingers,” he said.

“Eleven shops like mine have closed across the country,” he said.

Bowdoin said he sharpens the clippers used on Arabian horse ranches in Salinas and Monterey, and on  miniature ponies in Sebastopol and Petaluma.

“I’ve had 2,000 customers, some for 50 years,” he said.

He runs the business himself, and keeps his own books, entering transactions daily  in a ledger.

“You can’t hire an apprentice. The worker’s compensation insurance is more than $4,000,” he said.

The work apprentices do for the first six months often is returned , he said.

“Re-dos will kill you in this business,”  he said.

Bowdoin said he worked without pay for two years to learn  his trade.

He used to sharpen hand saws used at Christmas tree farms, but turned down work sharpening 400 of them last year because the files used to sharpen them are no longer made.

Bowdoin has the equipment in his shop to sharpen the huge lawn mower blades on tractors that cut grass at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds and in Oakmont.

“I’d sharpen 15 of them from the Fairgrounds. They brought them in five at a time,” he said.

He still sharpens blades on small push lawn mowers, and for his money, they are better than gas mowers.

“They never went out of style. They do the best job. They cut clean like scissors, they don’t beat the grass off and the lawn doesn’t turn brown,” Bowdoin said.

The push mowers had iron wheels 50 years ago, and Bowdoin said be put rubber “recaps” over the wheels by boiling the rubber in water then stretching it over the wheels. The rubber tightened as it cooled.

The busy time of the year begins in April when farms, dairies and 4-H Clubs  that want to groom and show their prize  livestock at the Sonoma County Fair come in to get their clippers sharpened. Knife sharpening around Thanksgiving through January also picks up.

The Korean War veteran earned a United Nations Service Medal with two bronze stars for fighting in two major battles, and a combat infantry badge  for being under fire for 48 hours.

He also was a certified locksmith, and he still has 10,000 keys stored  in boxes in his shop.

“I made 40 keys a day, but there’s no foot traffic here now,” he said.

He raised two sons and has been married 27 years to a woman who also raised two children.  He and his wife enjoy fishing.

Bill’s Sharpening is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Monday through Friday.  The shop closes for several days once a year for a family reunion in Lake County.

“I retired once in the 1960s for a couple years. I traveled in a motor home and put 170,000 miles on it,” Bowdoin said.

“If you are doing something different every day, you don’t lose your enthusiasm for work,” he said.

Learn about the secret and not so secret life of bees from Master Gardner and Beekeeper April Lance at the Windsor Garden Club meeting at 6:30 p.m. May 21 at the Windsor Senior Center, 9231 Foxwood Drive. You need not be a member to attend. You also will learn about the bee and  hummingbird project. For more information call Bette Fitzpatrick at 838-3800.

The Harvest Band, Sonoma County’s longest running dance band, will play at The Locals, 50 Mark Springs Road in Santa Rosa  between 6 and 8 p.m.  May 24.  (Hint: That’s Bob Dylan’s birthday.) Base guitarist Dixon Cheal, keyboardist Ed Dempsey, Michael Conn and Phil Eagle on guitars and drummer Stephen Berry have been performing rock and soul favorites since 1978.  Expect rich harmonies, strong lead vocals, great food and music and no cover.

Save $75 off the $750 price by registering before May 24 for all 10 weeks of the Boys and Girls Club of Windsor’s Summer Camp. The camp is located at the Brooks Road Clubhouse, 9460 Brooks Road South. Parents and guardians also may pay $75 per week or $25 for a daily drop-in fee. The camp for ages 6-18 is open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Parent orientations and registrations  are 5:30-6:30 p.m. May 21 and 24. For more information call Kelli Swenson at 838-1959 or email kswenson@bgccsc.org.

Read to a dog at the Windsor Library between 3 and 4 p.m.  May 21. The reading dog teams love to hear stories read to them by children. Visit seven times and earn a free book to keep.  Children ages 2-5 with a parent or caregiver  are invited to Picnic Story Time outside Windsor Library on the Town Green at 11:30 a.m. May 22. Bring a picnic to enjoy after the story time. All the libraries in the county will be closed Saturday May 25 and Monday May 27.

Send your Windsor event listings to James Lanaras at windsortownnews@gmail.com.  

They will swim in Pond A” and play off-leash during the Water Bark event  between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.in a designated area of  the park at 1351 Arata Lane in Windsor.

The $5 per dog cost benefits the Sonoma Regional Parks Foundation that supports more than 50 county parks.

VIP Pet Care is giving away a coupon good for a $10 microchip worth $39 to the first 500 dogs, and Western Farm Center will give each dog a free treat.

Parking  is free for Regional Parks’ members and $7 for non-members. Due to health regulations, only dogs are allowed to swim at this event.

For more information call Melissa Kelly of the Sonoma County Regional Parks Foundation at (707) 565-1830.

-James Lanaras

The parade began at Windsor High School on Windsor Road around 10 a.m.,  moved down Windsor River Road to Market Street and headed west along McClelland Drive. Shortly after it ended around 11:10 a.m., Hauth Taekwondo Academy received the  Kiwanis Club President’s Award, and the Boys and Girls Club of Central Sonoma County won the Mayor’s  Award for their “We Shine When the Clubs Work Together” carwash  float.

“That’s awesome,”  Kelli Swenson, the Boys and Girls Club’s clubhouse director said back at Winsor High School after the parade.

Swenson said Lynn Edens was the vision and choreographer for the Club’s entries over the past six years.

This year’s parade’s Duke and Duchess were Peter and Mary Menth. Fourteen students from Windsor schools comprised the Royal Court.

Performers at the Windsor Cultural Festival between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. included Windsor Bloco’s drummers and dancers, Ballet Folklorico dancers from Windsor and Guerneville, Pomo Dancers, Danza Triqui, Chinese Ribbon Dancers and the Azteca Dancers.

A few miles away in Larkfield-Wikiup, The Redwood Empire’s Classic Chevy Club was holding its All American Car Show on Fred Stoke’s Ranch.

There were 282 American cars from 1972 or earlier on display or for sale by mid-afternoon. The annual event is on the second Saturday in May. Car owners who plan to sell or display their vehicles  pay $15, and walk-in visitors pay $5. The Club’s director Ken Williamson said proceeds pay for two $500 scholarships to the Santa Rosa Junior College’s  auto shop program.

“They’ve been doing it for 10 years, and I’ve been here 16 years,” Stoke said.

His ranch on old Redwood Highway is known for its old farm machinery and gas pumps, a replica of a  Signal gas station modeled after one in Santa Rosa, a fire station with a Wanamingo, Minn. fire truck, garage, hobby shop and a general store that actually contains Stoke’s collection of 7,500 empty oil cans.

“ I had 10,000 but sold 2,500 of them, Stoke said.

His collection started when he bought six oil cans at a swap meet around 20 years ago.

“That was a mistake,” Stoke said.

Bruno Overstreet of Healdsburg was one of hundreds of people wandering around the ranch.  He and his grandfather have restored a 1956 Chevrolet and are working on a 1957 Chevy next.

“I’ve  been a car guy from the start,” 9-year-old  Bruno said.

-James Lanaras

Phil Henley has been a regular customer at Mark West Market for the past 20 years. (CRISTA JEREMIASON / The Press Democrat)

By JAMES LANARAS  / Windsor Correspondent

Ethel Costner remembers visiting her grandparents when she was 12, taking the ferry with her family from their home in Richmond, then driving along the Old Redwood Highway to Geyserville.

On the way, one of the roadside attractions they passed was Windsor Castle, a roadhouse with a rowdy reputation.

“Windsor was the place to be for having a good old time,” she says 66 years later from her home just south of where the Castle once stood.

“My father had five girls and a son. It was like a curse word to mention it. There was not to be a conversation about it,” Costner says.

Like many other small towns along the road to the redwoods, Windsor merchants took advantage of its location by providing travelers with services of all kinds.

About the time Costner was visiting her grandparents, the Mark West Market was opening at the intersection of Old Redwood Highway and Fulton Road. Current owner Derek Patel traces its roots back to at least 1947.

“It used to be called a country store. A butcher worked in the back,” Patel said.

The prune field across the street is now a vineyard, but inside the store, time stands still.

There is still a wood ceiling fan made by Wadner Electric Corp inside the front door, and the market’s distinguishing feature is its red, neon Clover Brand Dairy Products sign on the roof.

The interior of the store is white cinder block and white wood with a black and white square tile floor. Beer, lottery tickets and snacks sell well, and Patel also has a license to sell spirits.

Although U.S. 101 took traffic off Old Redwood Highway when it was built in the 1950s, business at the market was good until 2008, Patel said. Other businesses didn’t fare as well.

The Windsor Castle closed in the 1950s, leaving legends behind. It was financed by an Italian, built by a local American contractor, painted by a Swede, employed a German bartender and was given an English name, Barbara F.Ray writes her book, “Images of America.Windsor.”

That international pedigree might account for the two-story structure’s Spanish-style architecture, stucco finish and the Dutch windmill in front.

A photograph taken in 1930 and provided by the Windsor Historical Society is included in Ray’s book. The caption informs the reader that anti-Prohibition bootleggers built the roadhouse and acquired some fast cash selling “hooch.”

In 1933, the Healdsburg Tribune reported a raid on Windsor Castle by federal prohibition agents and the arrest of the Guido Converso, the chief chef on duty at that unfortunate moment. Agents found some bottled wine and a pint of gin in a field behind the resort, according to the Tribune report.

Converso was arraigned on a charge of liquor possession and was released on property bonds. Two of the federal agents in charge of the raid told Windsor authorities that two-dozen federal agents were being discharged from duty at midnight. They said it was the end of raids based on information provided by “undercover agents,” the Tribune reported.

By the time Ethel Costner and her husband Joe bought their house at 9890 Old Redwood Highway in 1962, Windsor Castle was gone. A 12-foot driveway now separates their home from the fenced, residential property where Windsor Castle once stood.

TheCostners’ house once served as the Bear Flag Restaurant. The building next door was the Bear Flag Texaco station, and the area where the gas pumps were located can still be seen today.

“My front room was the bar,” Costner said.

During their early years, “there was very little traffic on Old Redwood Highway, just the locals. As the town began to grow, it got busier,” she said. Any pets the family had were hit by cars. “It was a scary place to be.”

Joe Costner installed railroad ties in the ground in front of the house to prevent speeding cars from using the area as a driveway and to protect their four children. A self-employed tree trimmer and musician, he died in 2004 after 54 years of marriage to Ethel.

Sometime in the late 1960s, Costner remembers pulling out onto Old Redwood Highway with some of her children in the car. She saw a car coming and tried to back up onto her property, but the drunk driver hit them anyway. Her teeth were knocked out, and she suffered fractures and internal injuries. Her children were not injured.

As Windsor grows, so does the traffic on Old Redwood Highway. To this day, Costner says, her family does not want her crossing the road to pick up her mail.

Read about key stops along those early day Sonoma County roads in the special May 12 issue of Towns:

Santa Rosa’s Cloverleaf Ranch

Cotati’s Inn of the Beginning

Cloverdale’s barnside medical advertisement

Geyserville’s Pastori Winery

Petaluma’s Poehlmann Hatchery and Cinnabar Theater

Penngrove’s ‘Electric Hatchery’

Kenwood’s railroad depot

Guerneville’s former Murphy’s Guest Ranch

Stewarts Point to Point Reyes Station: The winding legacy of Highway 1

Starting the parade will be Peter and Mary Menth, named Duke and Duchess in recognition of their community service. Their Royal Court will include the following outstanding students:

Mattie Washburn Elementary School- Jordyn Bolla, Aranda Logan Rota

Cali Calmecac School- Aliezah Hulett, Geraldo Sanchez

Brooks Elementary School- Tamara Pauli, Jake Sievers

Windsor Christian School- Juliana Craven, Giovani Marinelli

Windsor Middle School- Jordyn Vehmeyer, Ian Knoblock

Windsor Creek Elementary School- Roisin Averill, Dorian Cabalo

Windsor High School-Tessa Foster, Zachary Schneider

The parade will begin at Windsor High School, 8695 Windsor Road. For more information about the celebration or the parade, visit kiwaniswindsor.org.

The annual event held by the Redwood Empire Classic Chevy Club starts at 7 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m.

Classic American only  cars from 1972 and older will be on display and some will be on sale in the corral area, Jim Brown, a former president of the Classic Chevy Club said.

Admission is $5 for adults and kids 12 and under are admitted free. A $20 donation is requested to show cars . Food and games are part of the fun.

There is no judging of the cars and trophies are not awarded.

For more information call Ken Williamson, 527-6068.

-James Lanaras

Pearl Reed,  recreation program coordinator  in Windsor’s Department of Parks and Recreation  was concerned recently because only a few vendors planned to participate.

As of Wednesday, four vendors were on board, and the Windsor Performing Arts Academy, the Windsor Bloco Youth Drum and Dance Ensemble and Ballet Folklorico Jazmin will provide tacos, nachos and baked goods as part of their fundraising efforts.

“It’s a short event, so we don’t need a substantial amount of food. We also have restaurants on the Town Green,” Reed said.

The Windsor Cultural Festival is between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Food from the vendors includes Tri-Tip,  ribs, corn dogs, pasta and sandwiches.

“There will be something for everyone.  We also want people to come out and support our  local merchants,” Reed said.

The Windsor Day Parade and the Cultural Festival events coincide with the annual Human Race in Santa Rosa, which draws residents from all over the county who run and walk 3K or 10K to raise money for nonprofit organizations. The goal this year is $250,000.

– James Lanaras

Mary Ptak of KZST radio at 14th Annual Meals on Wheels Derby Day benefiting the Council on Aging, held at Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards in Windsor. (Scott Manchester/The Press Democrat)