June 20, 2001

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"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Chuck Dickens won't mind, I'm sure, if I borrow that phase in my Tale of Two Cities, 2001.

The two cities I'm talking about are Visalia and two separate tourist groups.

Visalia, California, and Visalia, Kentucy.

Longtime Visalian Ernie Vierra recently traveled to the Midwest to attend an Army reunion at Ft. Mitchell near Cincinnati, Ohio, a stone's throw or two from the Kentucy version of Visalia. As any history buff knows, or should know, the two cities are named after members of the same family, the Vices. It was Ernie's first time in the other Visalia. It may or may not be the last.

A couple of weeks later, a couple from Cork County, Ireland, Meine and Louise Rouwhof arrived in Visalia to visit Jan and Irene Krancher. Louise, Irene's sister, has been to the States several times but this is the first time for her husband, Meine.

So this pholks is where the Tale of Two Cities picks up.

First we start with Ernie. Since he worked for the City of Visalia, California, U.S. of A. for 36 years before retiring eight years ago, he knows lots about the West Coast community. He knows where the sewer lines are, the water lines, the quality of materials used in the streets, sidewalks and lots of other stuff most all of us take for granted. And being an outgoing person, Ernie knows a lot of people in Visalia even though he has finally moved into his "new home" in Three Rivers, a home he has been building for more than a couple of years. That's another story.

Anyway, ‘ol Ern found the Kentucy version of Visalia a lot different than the Central California city. It didn't take him long to see all of Visalia, Kentucy, which he compared in size as bigger than Lemon Cove but smaller than Ivanhoe. But he took some pictures of the "Visalia Market," the "Visalia Gun and Tackle"and posed beside a Vises Trail sign attached to a stop sign post.

Then he and a couple of Army buddies stopped into "Sarah's" for a quick cool beer or soda. Ernie enjoyed a few minutes of fame when he mentioned he was from "the other Visalia."

A bar patron knew a lot about Visalia...the baseball town where Vida Pinson once played and lots of other Big Leaguer including Ron Robinson and Mike LaCoss.. The baseball movie Bull Durham also mentioned Visalia, California, U.S.A.

Although riots were raging in nearby Cincinnati during Ernie's excursion to his reunion, he saw no signs of civil unrest. "It was beautiful and green and they didn't have to water their grass, that's for sure," he said.

Now for the second of the Tales of Two Cities–the Rouwhofs and Visalia, California, U.S. of A..

Mr. Rouwhof's impression of his first visit is that the County, the trees, the roadways and the lifestyles are much bigger than Ireland. And, it is hotter. Much hotter. Of course picking this year to visit California where May set a record for high temperatures and June is even hotter was just bad luck. The native Dutchman, who has been a transplanted Irishman for 22 years, said "An Irish heatwave is about twenty-five degrees (Celsius)" That's roughly 77o F. The couple has toured Las Vegas, Monterey Bay, Morro Bay, Bakersfield, Springville, Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park points in between. They have been impressed. American highways and roads "are three times as wide as those in Ireland," Mr. Rouwhof said. He didn't indicate if that was good or bad.

Of course the couple experienced the LA freeways after arrival at LAX and will get a second shot when they leave America. But that's another story.

Anyway, what about their Tale of Our City. "It is a nice place. We went downtown to a nice restaurant where it was cool inside, " the Cork County resident said. He also noted the nice supermarket with a major feature–"Cool inside"

All in all, the tourists seemed to like Central California and Visalia. That part's cool, anyway.

As Chuck Dickens said, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." After all, "Tale of Two Cities" is a timeless classic.