Interview with Ron Brunson, retired postmaster, member of the Grange

By Mark McKenna

Mark McKenna: What is your position here at the Grange?

Ron Brunson: At the Grange I am nobody. I came out here in 1970 from Arcata. I was postmaster here for 19 years. I’m still actively involved.

MM: Where did you grow up?

RB: I’m from central Washington.

MM: So you’ve been here in Blue Lake –?

RB: Thirty years. Actually it is longer than that.

MM: Tell me what the Grange is and what it does?

RB: The Grange used to be a farm organization, but now it is basically a community service organization. It is just a fraternity of nice people that want to be involved and work together.

MM: You’ve been here since before there was a Dell’Arte?

RB: Almost. I knew Carlo [Mazzone-Clementi] and Jane [Hill] when they first came out here. They were doing shows down at CR to begin with.

MM: What is CR?

RB: College of the Redwoods. They put on at least one musical down there, and I think two of them. I had known Carlo; he just passed away this last year. He was a good guy. One of a kind. And Jane, too. They were a good team. They did a lot, in the theater arts department, anyway.

MM: So Carlo eventually established Dell’Arte here?

RB: Yeah. Somehow they were able to get that building. Finally got the theater in and fixed it up so that they are able to do shows in there. They had to do a lot of work to make it safe. It used to be an IOOF hall and the Rebeccas met up there, and in fact I think even the Grange met up there in that big hall.

MM: What was Blue Lake like back then? How would you describe it?

RB: "Back then," huh? Blue Lake hasn’t changed a bit. Hasn’t grown really. Dead. The school has gone down in enrollment.

MM: Humboldt State?

RB: No. The elementary school. I worked over there for nine years, too. It used to be up to 300 and now it is down to 260 or something, since the lumber mills started closing down. When I came, I can’t remember how many tee-pee burners – Do you know what a tee-pee burner is? Well, it was a big ice-cream-cone burner upside-down, where they burned all their slice [check sp.] up. So the environmentalists, and all the smoke – eventually they were told they had to get rid of them. Then they started chipping everything, which brought on our power plant because they could use all this waste. Now there’s no waste left to speak of. I think there is only one power plant that still uses chips.

MM: The chips were the residue from the logging, and then they were burned?

RB: They had an 11-megawatt plant and now they are talking about getting propane in there to run it. Natural gas they decided was just too expensive to get out here. Now, with the new energy crunch, it will probably never become anything except a skeleton that sits there.

MM: I am from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the steel industry was real important there. We’ve seen the demise of that.

RB: Yeah. Same thing.

MM: When did that start happening?

RB: Well, it was in the ’70s, if not before. Lumber mills – it used to be that they had 500 people working up here at Korbel and Simpson’s. Now they are down to maybe 150. It makes an impact on your community, because people have to have a job.

MM: So, those people that lost jobs, did some of them leave town?

RB: A lot of them left town. A lot of them wanted better weather, too. Let’s face it, it is wet up here. We don’t have perfect weather, but it is still better than the rest of the United States. We have the Pacific Ocean here, which is a big asset. We have fishing here, which has had a decline, just like it has everywhere else in the world.

MM: What was your impression of Carlo, and when he started to bring new people on like Joan and Michael?

RB: Well, I sort of enjoyed them. Donald and I put in the backyard. We transformed it a couple of times. We used to keep it clean, ’cause there were berry vines. I just donated my time. I don’t think I ever got paid for anything. Now they have an amphitheater there. It is fenced in. I used to mow it and keep it mowed down. Donald and I spent a fair amount of time working on that. I just helped them whenever I could. It wasn’t a major interest, but they were good for the community.

MM: How so?

RB: The young people that they brought in to go to school, they have to eat and buy stamps. The Grange, when they come every fall, we put on a spaghetti feed for all of the students. They come over here and tell us where they are from and what their goals are. It is really interesting. We used to get a lot more foreign students, a lot of Swedish, Denmark, some ugly and some good-looking. It is always interesting to see all the students. Some of them are very talented and others are not so, but I think it is one of the highlights of the Grange that they get involved. They’ve always been very willing to help. We’ve always worked close with Dell’Arte.

MM: As postmaster you’ve probably seen everyone that comes through town?

RB: I saw them and I rented them a box. You get to pretty well know all these kids. Just walking around town you see these people and visit with them. They’ve always been a good bunch of people. There have never been any hippies or obnoxious jerks or anything. Never a one. I think it took 10 years for people realize that these people were not – people were scared of them. The community was scared of them because they didn’t know what to expect. They didn’t know what they did. I don’t know that any of us still do. They are a breed of their own. They are learning a trade, for them it is a school. Sometimes, the community will kid about that. It is the best-kept secret. Still nobody knows who Dell’Arte are.

MM: Tell me a little bit more about taking the 10 years for the community to feel comfortable. What were some of the fears?

RB: I think people are just that way in this community. Always afraid of anything new and different, and these were definitely different. They’ve become so entwined with the community now, like when the Chamber of Commerce puts on a parade, they are a part of the parade now. And of course, all of the young kids, Donald has taught so many students at the elementary school. There’s always been a very good working relationship with the school, so the younger kids know all these people. They’ve been brought up with them. It’s become a good community involvement. I think it was just the evolution of time. That was one of their goals, to be a part of the community. I don’t know whose idea it was, but I’ll bet it was Carlo and Jane’s. If we are to be here, then we have to be part of the community and give back everything that they give to us. They are good people.

MM: When general people are coming into the post office, can you remember any kinds of conversations or things people have said about Dell’Arte?

RB: This is a quiet neighborhood. People don’t bother their own neighbors. In fact, half the people don’t know their neighbors. There have been little jokes. What’s Dell’Arte doing? They’ll be out in their backyard yelling and screaming. It’s funny, ’cause when they practice in the backyard they can get pretty loud. I think everybody recognizes them, knows what they do now, knows that they put on shows. Of course, they go around in the springtime with their spring show. A lot of people come up from Arcata to see their shows. And Eureka. They are interested in good theater. It has taken them some years, but word of mouth.

MM: How do people in Blue Lake like that, people from Arcata and Eureka coming up?

RB: I don’t think anybody cares. They build up their own crowd now, just by reputation. Before they had to work at it more, they had to advertise, promote art. You need enough people to come out and make money on the shows, so that you don’t lose money. These people all live in Blue Lake, like Joan and Don, so we get to know them. We work together. Bobbie Ricca, ’course I’ve known them since they moved to Blue Lake. She was mayor, now her husband is on the City Council. When you are in a small community, you get to know these people on a first-name basis.

MM: And the Annie and Mary Day?

RB: They were two secretaries for the railroad at that time.

MM: And that day has changed?

RB: That era is over. I don’t believe that the railroad will ever come out here again.

There is an old bridge down there, but it is too expensive to fix up. Nowadays, it is more dependable to put it on a truck.

MM: They named this festival the Annie and Mary festival?

RB: The Chamber named it that. And then the Mad River, Dell’Arte brought that into it. They did the parade there for the last three or four years. It’s great what the kids do. People love it, but I am not into parades. I am always doing something else. Delivering roast beef to someone or something. But, yeah, it has become a big part of Annie and Mary Day. The Mad River Festival is the part that they do. They put on shows. Some of them have been outstanding, others have been mediocre.

MM: What makes a show outstanding for you?

RB: Funny mainly. Oh! The year that they jumped off the building and rode a horse down in. They had some good storylines. "Korbel One" and "Korbel Two" were funny. They were good shows. They are a little raunchy sometimes, but they were good shows.

MM: Do you think Blue Lake would be different if they were not here?

RB: It would be deader. A lot deader. It may be totally dead. I think people enjoy their presence, now that they understand what they do and how they do it. Of course, their theater only holds 120. If they had a theater that would hold 300 people, it would be full all the time, ’cause local people would go more. As it is now, people feel like they have to compete to get tickets, although I get free tickets. They are very embedded in the community. I think it took about eight years for people to realize that they were good young people, there is no bad habits, there’s no drugs, there’s no nothing. At first I had my doubts, too. In fact, I think it is by word-of-mouth by people in the community saying "Hey these are good people." Some of the ones that worried about them don’t anymore. They teach comedy. That’s what they are here for. And of course, I get to read their newsletter. Some of their students that were super nice have gone to Seattle, and their newspaper tells about what they are doing. I enjoy that. I was to the point where I knew most of them by name. The rest of the community, I can’t say that they love them, but I can say that they don’t hate them. Some people that enjoy the arts will be at the shows all the time. A lot of people from Blue Lake enjoy their shows.

Mark McKenna is artistic director and an ensemble member of Touchstone Theatre, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris. He has taught theater classes at Lehigh University and the University of Pennsylvania, and the MFA Theatre Program at Towson State University. McKenna is active in the growth of the Network of Ensemble Theatres. He is a board member of Alliance for Building Communities, a regional community-development corporation.

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