the vacant lot and up to the front porch of the Bear Flag. Just as she was about to climb the steps she turned and looked around. She thought someone was looking at her. She didnât see Doc.
8
The Great Roque War
Pacific Grove and Monterey sit side by side on a hill bordering the bay. The two towns touch shoulders but they are not alike. Whereas Monterey was founded a long time ago by foreigners, Indians and Spaniards and such, and the town grew up higgledy-piggledy without plan or purpose, Pacific Grove sprang full blown from the iron heart of a psycho-ideo-legal religion. It was formed as a retreat in the 1880s and came fully equipped with laws, ideals, and customs. On the townâs statute books a deed is void if liquor is ever brought on the property. As a result, the sale of iron-and-wine tonic is fantastic. Pacific Grove has a law that requires you to pull your shades down after sundown, and forbids you to pull them down before. Scorching on bicycles is forbidden, as is sea bathing and boating on Sundays. There is one crime which is not defined but which is definitely against the law. Hijinks are forbidden. It must be admitted that most of these laws are not enforced to the hilt. The fence that once surrounded the Pacific Grove retreat is no longer in existence.
Once, during its history, Pacific Grove was in trouble, deep trouble. You see, when the town was founded many old people moved to the retreat, people youâd think didnât have anything to retreat from. These old people became grumpy after a while and got to interfering in everything and causing trouble, until a philanthropist named Deems presented the town with two roque courts.
Roque is a complicated kind of croquet, with narrow wickets and short-handled mallets. You play off the sidelines, like billiards. Very complicated, it is. They say it develops character.
In a local sport there must be competition and a prize. In Pacific Grove a cup was given every year for the winning team on the roque courts. You wouldnât think a thing like that would work up much heat, particularly since most of the contestants were over seventy. But it did.
One of the teams was called the Blues and the other the Greens. The old men wore little skullcaps and striped blazers in their team colors.
Well, it wasnât more than two years before all hell broke loose. The Blues would practice in the court right alongside the Greens but they wouldnât speak to them. And then it got into the families of the teams. You were a Blue family or a Green family. Finally the feeling spread outside the family. You were a partisan of the Blues or a partisan of the Greens. It got so that the Greens tried to discourage intermarriage with the Blues, and vice versa. Pretty soon it reached into politics, so that a Green wouldnât think of voting for a Blue. It split the church right down the middle. The Blues and the Greens wouldnât sit on the same side. They made plans to build separate churches.
Of course everything got really hot at tournament time. Things were very touchy. Those old men brought a passion to the game you wouldnât believe. Why, two octogenarians would walk away into the woods and youâd find them locked in mortal combat. They even developed secret languages so that each wouldnât know what the other was talking about.
Well, things got so hot and feeling ran so high that the county had to take notice of it. A Blue got his house burned down and then a Green was found clubbed to death with a roque mallet in the woods. A roque mallet is short-handled and heavy and can be a very deadly weapon. The old men got to carrying mallets tied to their wrists by thongs, like battle-axes. They didnât go anyplace without them. There wasnât any crime each didnât charge the other with, including things theyâd outgrown and couldnât have done if theyâd wanted to. The Blues wouldnât trade in Green stores. The whole town
8
The Great Roque War
Pacific Grove and Monterey sit side by side on a hill bordering the bay. The two towns touch shoulders but they are not alike. Whereas Monterey was founded a long time ago by foreigners, Indians and Spaniards and such, and the town grew up higgledy-piggledy without plan or purpose, Pacific Grove sprang full blown from the iron heart of a psycho-ideo-legal religion. It was formed as a retreat in the 1880s and came fully equipped with laws, ideals, and customs. On the townâs statute books a deed is void if liquor is ever brought on the property. As a result, the sale of iron-and-wine tonic is fantastic. Pacific Grove has a law that requires you to pull your shades down after sundown, and forbids you to pull them down before. Scorching on bicycles is forbidden, as is sea bathing and boating on Sundays. There is one crime which is not defined but which is definitely against the law. Hijinks are forbidden. It must be admitted that most of these laws are not enforced to the hilt. The fence that once surrounded the Pacific Grove retreat is no longer in existence.
Once, during its history, Pacific Grove was in trouble, deep trouble. You see, when the town was founded many old people moved to the retreat, people youâd think didnât have anything to retreat from. These old people became grumpy after a while and got to interfering in everything and causing trouble, until a philanthropist named Deems presented the town with two roque courts.
Roque is a complicated kind of croquet, with narrow wickets and short-handled mallets. You play off the sidelines, like billiards. Very complicated, it is. They say it develops character.
In a local sport there must be competition and a prize. In Pacific Grove a cup was given every year for the winning team on the roque courts. You wouldnât think a thing like that would work up much heat, particularly since most of the contestants were over seventy. But it did.
One of the teams was called the Blues and the other the Greens. The old men wore little skullcaps and striped blazers in their team colors.
Well, it wasnât more than two years before all hell broke loose. The Blues would practice in the court right alongside the Greens but they wouldnât speak to them. And then it got into the families of the teams. You were a Blue family or a Green family. Finally the feeling spread outside the family. You were a partisan of the Blues or a partisan of the Greens. It got so that the Greens tried to discourage intermarriage with the Blues, and vice versa. Pretty soon it reached into politics, so that a Green wouldnât think of voting for a Blue. It split the church right down the middle. The Blues and the Greens wouldnât sit on the same side. They made plans to build separate churches.
Of course everything got really hot at tournament time. Things were very touchy. Those old men brought a passion to the game you wouldnât believe. Why, two octogenarians would walk away into the woods and youâd find them locked in mortal combat. They even developed secret languages so that each wouldnât know what the other was talking about.
Well, things got so hot and feeling ran so high that the county had to take notice of it. A Blue got his house burned down and then a Green was found clubbed to death with a roque mallet in the woods. A roque mallet is short-handled and heavy and can be a very deadly weapon. The old men got to carrying mallets tied to their wrists by thongs, like battle-axes. They didnât go anyplace without them. There wasnât any crime each didnât charge the other with, including things theyâd outgrown and couldnât have done if theyâd wanted to. The Blues wouldnât trade in Green stores. The whole town
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