Mary K Talbot

Ernie Cassis wasn’t born in Rhode Island, but he’s proud of the Ocean State history that he is helping to preserve as a board member of the Westerly Armory Restoration.

After moving to town at age 83, his Realtor suggested that he get involved with the Westerly Armory, and this World War II veteran has been actively preserving local and military artifacts ever since.

Cassis has become an invaluable member of the board of Westerly Armory Restoration. According to President Roberta Mudge Humble, “We don’t know what we’d do without him.”

Cassis’ life started out in a little town in New York called Tuxedo Park.

It’s “about 30 miles due west of West Point,” says Cassis, and it’s a place he fondly remembers.

His aptitudes manifested themselves there early in his life.

“Mechanically, I’m gifted, but I would have rather been born a millionaire,” jokes Cassis.

Even though he was only 10 years old and the baby in the family, Cassis’s father invited him to look under the hood when the family’s 1929 Model A Roadster died.

The car “was burning oil like crazy,” Cassis remembers. “I overhauled the engine and it ran just fine when I got done.”

His destiny had been determined.

Cassis recalls that about eight years later his platoon leader tapped those mechanical skills again.

Cassis was a Seabee, a member of the 125th United States Construction Battalion. It was 1942 when he anchored in the port of Pearl Harbor and Company D was given the task to build a radio station in Wahiawa, where they would be stationed.

“Knobby,” as Cassis’ platoon leader was affectionately named, “asked me if I could read blueprints, and I said, ‘Yes,’ and I constructed all of the antennas for the communications system.”

That feat Cassis earned a promotion from seaman second class to electrician’s mate third class in one fell swoop. It was “one of the happiest days of my life,” he remembers.

After their assignment was completed, Company D went back to the harbor and boarded their ship. The company landed on Okinawa on the third day of the invasion.

They were tasked with improving the Yonabaru airstrip after it was captured from the Japanese.

Cassis recalls that it was “a huge task.” It took three months of construction on the 7,000-foot airstrip to make it able to accommodate heavy bomber aircraft.

Since there was no electrical work to be done on the project, Cassis was introduced to a D-7 Caterpillar Tractor which he used to lift coral, crush and level to fortify the airstrip.

Cassis was at Okinawa when the war ended. He was shipped back to the States and landed in San Francisco, where “I was handed a railroad ticket and told to report to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.” There he finished his service standing guard “over a rusty ship, protected by my 30-calibre carbine.”

“America is my country,” says Cassis, and he was proud to serve in whatever capacity to which he was assigned.

He returned to his beloved Tuxedo Park after the war. However, he was greeted with no fanfare upon his arrival.

Cassis says, “I walked from the railroad station in Spring Valley to my home on Union Avenue.”

He was ”simply relieved to finally see my family after three years being away.”

Cassis soon immersed himself in public service. Over the years, he held the positions of “building inspector, trustee, deputy mayor and village manager. And I was president of the Tuxedo Volunteer Ambulance Corps too.”

“I also ran a business for 40 years. It was imported car repair.” He says his career all “started out with a Volkswagen when I worked for Foreign Cars of Rockland, the largest VW dealership in New York State.”

In the early 1960s, “I was in the Sports Car Club of America and I was the chief technical inspector for the New York region, and I built and raced Formula Vs and with my driver, Joe Dodge, we held the New York state championship and we were third nationally.”

Cassis was married during this time and his wife became terminally ill. Before she died, “She called me over to her bedside,” he recalls. She asked Cassis to make him a promise and he said his head started spinning, wondering what she would ask of him. Fittingly she said, “I want you to restore my Jaguar.”

And he did.

After the death of his first wife, Cassis remarried. “My second wife’s children were in the Boston area and she wanted to be closer to them, and I couldn’t say no, so I left my beautiful home in Tuxedo Park that I had helped to design and build and we moved to Westerly. “

“It was in 2008, I believe,” says Cassis, when he was introduced to Westerly Armory Restoration Inc. “I gave the president my lifetime’s work and I become a member.”

Cassis isn’t just a strategic adviser at the Armory, however, he’s always been an active board member who isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and help. In addition to being a favorite bartender at Armory events, he has claimed the role of chief restoration officer.

“There’s really nothing he won’t do,” says board president Humble.

“There’s a huge cannon, it’s a parrot rifle, on the front lawn, and when I first joined, I had that sandblasted and then I painted it,” explains Cassis.

He had a sign made for the building and he noticed that two flights of steps leading from the entrance to the basement “were falling apart, they were dangerous, really,” so he rebuilt them too.

Cassis has restored wooden tables, doors, a transom, cabinets and file drawers.

“Some stuff is very unusual, so it’s fun to do,” says Cassis. “When I went to the armory, I found this thing in a pile of rubble down in the cellar,” he says, referring to a radio-controlled aerial target.

“It was used to tow the target for the antiaircraft people to shoot at.”

It was a painstaking process that took him almost six months, but Cassis “put it all back together” and now it’s on display, along with Cassis’ own World War II Navy uniform.

Cassis dedicates his days to his restoration work at the armory because he believes in the organization’s mission.

“It’s history about the town. It’s history about the people who lived in the town and gave their time to the services, and we are doing our best to preserve that history.”

Asked why he remains so dedicated to preserving history at age 96, Cassis says, “America is probably the finest thing that happened to this world — at least it is in my estimation.”

To learn more about Westerly Armory Restoration Inc., to visit the armory, or to find out how to support the nonprofit organization, visit westerlyarmory.com.

Do you know a living veteran who would be willing to share their story? Do you offer a program or service focused on serving retired military? Are you planning for veterans or their families? Email information to Mary K. Talbot at ThoseWhoServedAmerica@gmail.com

Calendar of events

◘ Wednesday, monthly meeting of the Balfour-Cole Post 64 of the American Legion, 7 pm, Prescott Avenue, Smithfield.

◘ Wednesday, Lunch & Learn with Citizens Bank and ESP, a one-hour, virtual session on how to build an effective LinkedIn profile. noon Participate online or by phone. For more information and to register, visit ringlunchlearn.splashthat.com.

◘ Friday, National military virtual career fair for service members, sponsored by Veterans Education & Transition Services. Event will be held online from 11 am to 2 pm Registration closes Wednesday. To participate, contact Jon M Skipper, jon@vets2techs.com, (484) 269-1187.

◘ Saturday, Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association 14th annual macaroni and meatball dinner fundraiser, noon to 4 pm, VFW Post #237, 850 Hope St., Bristol. Tickets $15, $7 for children 5-12. Available by calling Gary Rehak, (401) 829-3004 or by email at sfcgadget@aol.com. All proceeds benefit RI Chapter 9-1 to support veterans, troops and community events.

Veteran participation sought

Sept. 11, 20th annual observance of 9/11, sponsored by the Jaycees, 6 pm, Jaycee Corridor & Arboretum, 110 Hay St., West Warwick at the site of the Riverpoint Community Park. For more information, call Jack Lancellotta at (401) 828-9191.

The post Can-do handyman devoted to preserving armory’s historical past appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Nonalcoholic cocktails and liquor are eating up a ton of market share throughout the country and the Bay Area is doing more than its fair share of that work. Whether it be the nonalcoholic nanobar at Valencia Street’s Hawkerfare or any of the litany of bars in San Francisco with nonalcoholic options, the region has tons to offer those who prefer to stay sober. New York-based nonalcoholic bottle shop Boisson took note, and on or around September 26 will open its first San Francisco shop at 333 Hayes Street. The location is across the street from Bill Graham Auditorium and up the block from Civic Center’s vegetarian restaurant Ananda Fuara. And while Los Gatos has its own nonalcoholic bottle shop, and the Outer Richmond may well get a nonalcoholic speakeasy to pair with sober hangout Ocean Beach Cafe, Boisson marks the first dedicated nonalcoholic bottle shop and wine outlet in San Francisco.

The online retailer launched in New York in 2021 and, after opening five shops there and three in Los Angeles, it has set its eyes on San Francisco. “Outside of the first two core markets, San Francisco was obvious for us,” says Nick Bodkins, Boisson co-founder and CEO. “We had hundreds and hundreds of emails asking when we were coming to San Francisco.” (Though the business may be angling to attract the athleisure-sporting denizens of Hayes Valley, the shop is right off of Market Street and cuspy with Hayes Valley at best.)

The company says they’ve increased sales seven-and-a-half times over in 2022, which is probably in part due to the fact that about half of millennials report reducing their drinking habits in recent years. The nonalcoholic trends and products coming out of Napa and Sonoma are specifically interesting to Bodkins; the former French Laundry couple running All The Bitters are making primo alcohol-free bitters, for example. He’d like Boisson to be the neighborhood store that carries these sometimes hard-to-find products.

Boisson will offer a veritable trove of non-alcoholic wines, spirits, and beer. boisson

A spread of non-alcoholic cocktails at a Boisson pop-up. boisson

For him, proximity to California producers making alcohol-free wine is a huge part of the motivation for coming to the Bay. “It’s actually not just grape juice,” Bodkins says. “It started as full-strength wine, and this dealcoholization process is not new.” Bodkin says many people don’t realize nonalcoholic wine is actually conventionally-made wine with the alcohol removed. The process has been around for a long time, he points out, likely because of an arcane tax on wines with more than 14 percent alcohol content, which has given winemakers cause to artificially lower wine’s alcohol content — way before it was cool. Proxies is one such nonalcoholic wine he loves, alongside Blurred Vines and distilled hemp spirit the Pathfinder.

Tastings, three to five times a week, will be a part of the weekly life at the shop, and Bodkins wants to invite regional and national producers to show their drinks, though local delivery will be an option, too. He says he’d like to get a series of local restaurant and bar partnerships on the docket; the company’s partnership with Rosewood Sand Hill, through which Boisson stocked the luxury hotel in Menlo Park with nonalcoholic beverages, is one example of what Boisson will look to expand. These relationships are well-established with New York stockists Eleven Madison Park and Jose Andres’s new restaurant at the Ritz Carlton. He’s also proud of the all-electric, carbon-offset vehicles the company will use for deliveries.

As for the inspiration behind these choices, Bodkins cites being a father to an 11-month-old daughter. “My daughter wakes up at the same time whether I’ve been drinking or not,” Bodkins says.

Boisson (333 Hayes Street in San Francisco) will open the week of September 26. Hours of operation will be noon to 8 pm Sunday through Thursday, 11 am to 9 pm on Friday, and 10 am to 9 pm Saturday.

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The post Boisson, San Francisco’s First Devoted Nonalcoholic Bottle Store, Is Opening Close to Hayes Valley appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Nonalcoholic cocktails and liquor are eating up a ton of market share throughout the country and the Bay Area is doing more than its fair share of that work. Whether it be the nonalcoholic nanobar at Valencia Street’s Hawkerfare or any of the litany of bars in San Francisco with nonalcoholic options, the region has tons to offer those who prefer to stay sober. New York-based nonalcoholic bottle shop Boisson took note, and on or around September 26 will open its first San Francisco shop at 333 Hayes Street. The location is across the street from Bill Graham Auditorium and up the block from Civic Center’s vegetarian restaurant Ananda Fuara. And while Los Gatos has its own nonalcoholic bottle shop, and the Outer Richmond may well get a nonalcoholic speakeasy to pair with sober hangout Ocean Beach Cafe, Boisson marks the first dedicated nonalcoholic bottle shop and wine outlet in San Francisco.

The online retailer launched in New York in 2021 and, after opening five shops there and three in Los Angeles, it has set its eyes on San Francisco. “Outside of the first two core markets, San Francisco was obvious for us,” says Nick Bodkins, Boisson co-founder and CEO. “We had hundreds and hundreds of emails asking when we were coming to San Francisco.” (Though the business may be angling to attract the athleisure-sporting denizens of Hayes Valley, the shop is right off of Market Street and cuspy with Hayes Valley at best.)

The company says they’ve increased sales seven-and-a-half times over in 2022, which is probably in part due to the fact that about half of millennials report reducing their drinking habits in recent years. The nonalcoholic trends and products coming out of Napa and Sonoma are specifically interesting to Bodkins; the former French Laundry couple running All The Bitters are making primo alcohol-free bitters, for example. He’d like Boisson to be the neighborhood store that carries these sometimes hard-to-find products.

Boisson will offer a veritable trove of non-alcoholic wines, spirits, and beer. Boisson

A spread of non-alcoholic cocktails at a Boisson pop-up. Boisson

For him, proximity to California producers making alcohol-free wine is a huge part of the motivation for coming to the Bay. “It’s actually not just grape juice,” Bodkins says. “It started as full-strength wine, and this dealcoholization process is not new.” Bodkin says many people don’t realize nonalcoholic wine is actually conventionally-made wine with the alcohol removed. The process has been around for a long time, he points out, likely because of an arcane tax on wines with more than 14 percent alcohol content, which has given winemakers cause to artificially lower wine’s alcohol content — way before it was cool. Proxies is one such nonalcoholic wine he loves, alongside Blurred Vines and distilled hemp spirit the Pathfinder.

Tastings, three to five times a week, will be a part of the weekly life at the shop, and Bodkins wants to invite regional and national producers to show their drinks, though local delivery will be an option, too. He says he’d like to get a series of local restaurant and bar partnerships on the docket; the company’s partnership with Rosewood Sand Hill, through which Boisson stocked the luxury hotel in Menlo Park with nonalcoholic beverages, is one example of what Boisson will look to expand. These relationships are well-established with New York stockists Eleven Madison Park and Jose Andres’s new restaurant at the Ritz Carlton. He’s also proud of the all-electric, carbon-offset vehicles the company will use for deliveries.

As for the inspiration behind these choices, Bodkins cites being a father to an 11-month-old daughter. “My daughter wakes up at the same time whether I’ve been drinking or not,” Bodkins says.

Boisson (333 Hayes Street in San Francisco) will open the week of September 26. Hours of operation will be noon to 8 pm Sunday through Thursday, 11 am to 9 pm on Friday, and 10 am to 9 pm Saturday.

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The post Boisson, San Francisco’s First Devoted Nonalcoholic Bottle Store, Is Opening Close to Hayes Valley appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN JOSE (KPIX) – The Vietnamese community in San Jose on Saturday unveiled a new memorial in History Park to honor soldiers who fought against communist forces 50 years ago while the United States abandoned its allies in the country.

In 1972, when the US left the country, North Vietnamese troops overran the provincial capital Quang Tri and its old stone citadel. The army of the south resisted overwhelming adversity and after three months recaptured the fortress.

“They put up the flag and this is the image of the soldiers who put the flag up over the Quang Tri Citadel, which means the victory that was hard won during this battle,” said memorial organizer Sam Ho.

The image of soldiers hoisting a flag over the citadel, reminiscent of Iwo Jima, is cast in bronze on the Quang Tri Victory Monument. It is a source of immense pride for those who still wear their uniforms from then.

“It means that by the time the US abandoned its allies in the Vietnam War, we fought back with what we had and we won against the overwhelming enemy forces. That is the meaning of this battle, ”said Lan Quoc Nguyen, board member of the Quang Tri Memorial.

7,700 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the battle and 18,000 North Vietnamese troops were also killed.

Without US ground support, the war was ultimately lost, and the South Vietnamese army has since been criticized in films and in the media for being unattached fighters.

“Not only are the stories unfair, but I find them extremely offensive and we have to tell this story,” said Ho.

That’s what the memorial is supposed to do – remember those of Quang Tri who went on fighting alone with no help or supplies. Kristin Hong, a young Vietnamese-American student, said the courage she has shown in this moment and every moment since has been a source of inspiration for her generation.

“We were able to hold on and get to where we are now, even if it meant a lot of effort,” she said. “But we could come here and go through so much just to have a better future for ourselves.”

Nguyen says there was some bitterness about the way the US went after the war, but Vietnamese Americans have since shown the strength to forgive and move on.

“We should remember the past but look forward to the future,” he said. “To learn to be independent, to learn to be alone.”

The memorial was originally erected in Westminster, Southern California, but city support for the project was later abandoned. Instead, the city of San Jose was approached, dealt with and started construction within months.

The post San Jose Monument Devoted to South Vietnamese Who Fought at Quang Tri – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Mary K. Talbot

Ernie Cassis was not born in Rhode Island, but he is proud of the Ocean State history he preserves as a board member of the Westerly Armory Restoration.

After moving to town at the age of 83, his agent suggested he join the Westerly Armory, and this WWII veteran has been actively preserving local and military artifacts ever since.

Cassis has become an invaluable member of the board of directors of Westerly Armory Restoration. President Roberta Mudge Humble said, “We don’t know what we would do without him.”

Cassis began life in a small New York town called Tuxedo Park.

It’s “about 30 miles west of West Point,” says Cassis, and it’s a place he fondly remembers.

His abilities manifested there early in his life.

“I’m mechanically gifted, but I would have rather been born a millionaire,” jokes Cassis.

Despite being only 10 years old and the baby in the family, Cassis’s father invited him to look under the hood when the family’s 1929 Model A Roadster died.

The car “burned oil like crazy,” recalls Cassis. “I overhauled the engine and it ran fine when I finished.”

His fate was determined.

Cassis recalls that about eight years later his platoon leader was able to tap into these mechanical skills again.

Cassis was a Seabee, a member of the 125th United States Construction Battalion. It was in 1942 when he anchored in Pearl Harbor and Company D was commissioned to build a radio station in Wahiawa where it would be stationed.

“Knobby,” as Cassis’ train driver was affectionately known, “asked me if I could read blueprints and I said ‘yes’ and built all the antennas for the communications system.”

This achievement brought Cassis a promotion from second class sailor to third class electrician in one fell swoop. It was “one of the happiest days of my life,” he recalls.

After their mission was completed, Company D went back to the port and boarded their ship. The company landed in Okinawa on the third day of the invasion.

They were tasked with improving the Yonabaru airstrip after it was captured by the Japanese.

Cassis recalls that it was “a huge task”. It took three months to build the 7,000 foot runway to accommodate heavy bomber planes.

With no electrical work to be done on the project, Cassis was introduced to a D-7 Caterpillar tractor that could lift, crush, and level coral to pave the runway.

Cassis was in Okinawa when the war ended. It was shipped back to the States and landed in San Francisco, where “I was given a train ticket and told to report to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.” There he finished his job as a security guard “over a rusty ship, protected by my 30-caliber carbine”.

“America is my country,” says Cassis, and he took pride in serving in any capacity assigned to him.

After the war he returned to his beloved Tuxedo Park. On arrival, however, he was greeted without fanfare.

Says Cassis, “I went from the Spring Valley train station to my house on Union Avenue.”

He was “simply relieved to finally see my family again after three years of absence”.

Cassis soon immersed himself in the civil service. Over the years he worked as a “building inspector, trustee, deputy mayor and village head”. And I was also President of the Tuxedo Volunteer Ambulance Corps. “

“I also ran a business for 40 years. It was an imported car repair shop. ”He says his career started with a Volkswagen while I was working for Foreign Cars of Rockland, the largest VW dealer in New York State.

In the early 1960s, “I was in the Sports Car Club of America and was the chief technical inspector for the New York area, and I built and drove Formula Vs and with my driver, Joe Dodge, we held the New York State Championship,” and we went nationwide Third. “

Cassis was married during this time and his wife became terminally ill. Before she died: “She called me by her bed,” he remembers. She asked Cassis to make him a promise and he said his head was starting to turn, wondering what she was going to ask of him. Appropriately, she said, “I want you to restore my Jaguar.”

And he did.

After the death of his first wife, Cassis remarried. “My second wife’s kids were in the Boston area and she wanted to be closer to them and I couldn’t say no, so I left my lovely home in Tuxedo Park, which I helped design and build, and we moved to Westerly. “

“It was 2008 I think,” says Cassis when he was introduced to Westerly Armory Restoration Inc. “I gave the president my life’s work and I will become a member.”

Not only is Cassis a strategic advisor to the Armory, however, he’s always been an active board member who isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and help. In addition to being a popular bartender at armory events, he has also taken on the role of chief restoration officer.

“There’s really nothing he wouldn’t do,” says CEO Humble.

“There’s a huge cannon in the front yard, it’s a parrot rifle, and when I started, I had it sandblasted and then painted,” explains Cassis.

He had a sign made for the building and noticed that two flights of stairs leading from the entrance to the basement “were falling apart, they were really dangerous,” so he remodeled them too.

Cassis restored wooden tables, doors, a transom, cupboards and filing drawers.

“Some things are very unusual, so it’s fun,” says Cassis. “When I went to the armory, I found that thing down in the basement in a pile of rubble,” he says, referring to a remote-controlled aerial target.

“It was used to drag the target so the flak people could shoot them.”

It was a tedious process that took almost six months, but Cassis “put it all back together” and now it’s on display along with Cassis’ own WWII naval uniform.

Cassis devotes his days to restoring the armory because he believes in the organization’s mission.

“It’s history about the city. It’s story about the people who lived in the city and sacrificed their time for church services, and we’re doing our best to keep that story alive. “

When asked why he was still so dedicated to preserving history at the age of 96, Cassis said: “America is probably the most beautiful thing that has happened in the world – at least in my opinion.”

To learn more about Westerly Armory Restoration Inc., to visit the armory, or to find out how you can support the nonprofit, visit westerlyarmory.com.

Do you know a living veteran willing to share their story? Do you offer a program or service that focuses on serving the retired military? Are you planning for veterans or their families? Email information to Mary K. Talbot at TheseWhoServedAmerica@gmail.com

Event calendar

◘ Wednesday, American Legion Balfour-Cole Post 64 monthly meeting at 7 p.m., Prescott Avenue, Smithfield.

◘ Wednesday, Lunch & Learn with Citizens Bank and ESP, a one-hour virtual session to build an effective LinkedIn profile. Midday. Participate online or by phone. Further information and registration at ringlunchlearn.splashthat.com.

◘ Friday, National Military Virtual Careers Fair, sponsored by Veterans Education & Transition Services. The event will take place online from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Registration deadline Wednesday. To participate, contact Jon M. Skipper, jon@vets2techs.com, (484) 269-1187.

◘ Saturday, Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association’s 14th Annual Fundraiser, 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., VFW Post # 237, 850 Hope St., Bristol. Tickets $ 15, $ 7 for children ages 5-12. Available by phone from Gary Rehak, (401) 829-3004 or by email at sfcgadget@aol.com. All proceeds go to RI Chapter 9-1 to support veterans, troops, and community events.

Veteran participation wanted

September 11th, 20th Annual September 11th Sponsored by the Jaycees, 6 p.m., Jaycee Corridor & Arboretum, 110 Hay St., West Warwick on the grounds of Riverpoint Community Park. For more information, call Jack Lancellotta at (401) 828-9191.

The post Can-do handyman devoted to preserving armory’s historical past appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.