One Night In Redlands - As Published by The Redlands Daily Fax - November 30, 2005 Click on Image to the right to see the actual printed article.

Original - 

Inspiration comes…

It’s the oddest thing, one day you are totally uninspired, wanting to leave Southern California for a place where the median home is somewhere south of a half million dollars. Then suddenly it hits you, there’s a reason for it.  Sun tax, lifestyle economic adjustment, opportunity expense or whatever else you want to call it there’s a reason why people want to live here.

I am speaking of our small segment of the Southern California geography of course and more specifically one night in November in early fall.  Earlier today I spoke with a national franchise manager of a major franchise and he was in Wisconsin, bearing, in his words ‘single digit temperatures where you want to have a jacket for you jacket’ and who had just flown from Southern Florida where it’s not legal to wear the amount of clothes it would take to be comfortable in that humidity.  Meanwhile this evening I am enjoying sunset at 70 degrees on a most amazing evening, there’s something about those evenings where it all comes together.  Where the air is still and quiet, the people are pleasant and inviting, and inspiration comes. 

I understand that for everyone it’s different, and everyplace has their, in NY it’s that perfect day near Christmas, where the snow is fresh and dry and the city is quiet and beautiful, in the far North of Alaska it must be the midday sun at 2 a.m., and in I envision the brisk morning where the sky is big in Texas when the sun is rising.  I have my own experiences in traveling across the country of those moments of clarity, of peace, and of beauty, but for me right now it’s this.

I met my brother-in-law at ‘The Humidor’ in Redlands for a few moments of conversation, and a nice smooth cigar.  Soon after he had to go and I walked over to the bank nearby and take care of a bit of business.  It was a Thursday and Market Night was just getting set up so I took a stroll through the chaos to take it in.  It’s an amazing evening the air is so still it softens the noise.  It feels as though I am a ghost in the middle of a yet unwritten play, the plot not yet known but anticipated.

As I walked by I am bombarded with the smell of a late 70’s Ford truck backing up to unload vegetables for one vendor, and on the other side the sweet and amazingly strong smell of the florist setting up. A little further down I am taken aback by the vendor who sells incense and camouflage shirts with Bob Marley printed on the back.  Trucks are I am somehow reminded of the bazaars described in books of ancient India, the merchants feverishly setting up to best display their wares and earn their keep.

Continuing up the street in now the early darkness of fall, vehicles fight for position to get to their spaces, personnel direct traffic to prevent congestion, incense, the smell of recently lit briquettes and propane tanks warming grills overpower the fumes of exhaust left behind by the vehicles delivering the wares.  Here you can learn of Jesus in Arabic and purchase fresh vegetables the store didn’t want.  If I could only put my finger on it I’d tell you why this is so important but it I just know it is.

Now inspired, it becomes very important for me to document this feeling and I head to my favorite club in the area, ‘The Vault’ next door to the humidor.  The most unique establishment downtown, it is entwined through the small caverns of the alley behind the businesses adjacent to the fox theater.  The patio reminds me again of those ancient markets of India with aged brick running straight up and narrow passageways moving built with no foreseeable plan in mind, the club continues through a doorway and up a narrow staircase to a loft looking over the alley ‘converted to patio’ that encompasses the business.  Left over controls for the theatre, and an unforgiving motif of Leather Couches, old dark wood accents and plastic chairs with veneer tables articulate it’s young owners desire to attract a broad clientele to their establishment.

This is a moment that inspired me, I hope that you can find your own inspiration out there and when it comes you won’t let it pass by you so easily.  Take it in for a moment, absorb it, take it all in, write it down, take a picture, remember it, never let it go, and don’t miss it.

Timothy J. Ehrlich

Resident