Caspar Dedicates New Mail Pavilion

Caspar News and Press Releases

Three corbels by sculptor Paul Reiber on the Caspar Mail Pavilion at the Caspar Community Center capture the paradise and paradox of Caspar as well as the memory of Jerry Juhl. On Sunday December 7 friends and neighbors dedicated the new Caspar mail pavilion to the late Casparado Jerry Juhl, Muppet writer and co-creator of Fraggle Rock.

Susan Juhl made a delightful revision of WH Auden's poem Nightmail that talks of Stephanie the mail carrier and all that mail is to us. She talked of Jerry's dislike of wet letters and bills which the Mail Pavilion will alleviate and that he "would be both very surprised and then delighted to be portrayed forever leading the Gorse Monster in his beloved Caspar." She ended with a reading of Woody Guthrie's Mail Myself to You, saying, "I wish I could do what it says, and be in the mailbox of everyone who helped make this postal pavilion the magnificent structure it is. All of you great neighbors and friends, thank you for making getting the mail both a dry experience and a joyous one."

Paul Reiber explained the sculptural paradox of Caspar -- music, cows and gourmet food as well of as the paradise -- trees, lumber, community history and the abundance of nature. In way of a visual pun, one corbel has a pair of ducks and the other a pair of dice.

Before toasting the building, Paul Reiber praised the architect, the foreman, and the volunteers (over 1000 hours worth). "I want to acknowledge and thank Daniel Dickson, the architect for this project and the new kitchen to come. His ability to work with the diverse opinions coming at him and the clarity of his vision have given life to this project; and John Wozniack our paid foreman who worked with grace with an all-volunteer work force and all the attitudes and opinions our community can muster." Paul concluded: "The real hero of the project, out here every day and always cheery and willing to take on the next thing, is David Alden. His willingness to keep at it and have an eye open to the subtleties of choices make this project possible."

The other heroes of this project are the friends and family of Jerry Juhl who donated funds for this project in his memory, and the A.D. Abramson Fund of The Community Foundation of Mendocino County that funded the carvings.

The community of Caspar thanks you all.

« previous   : :   index