My Guest Column in the Davis Enterprise

Davis Enterprise -- Sept. 27, 2011

As a child and young man, I loved you for many reasons; your numerous and flat bike paths, your pleasant weather (yes, even your hot summers are pleasant compared to most other summers across the globe), your skilled teachers at your excellent schools, your many opportunities for youth athletics and activities, your green areas and creeks that offered so many wonderlands of childhood dreaming and possibility. As I grew older, my love for you grew stronger and more nuanced. I was always enamored with the way the fresh-cut grass smelled at the Little League fields on opening day. I loved riding my bike to my friends Lucas Taber or Ian Sierchio’s houses near Pioneer Elementary School or walking down the street to play Wiffle Ball with Steve Walter or play video games with Kris Mircetich. I loved the Cottonwood dander that would float over our roof from the North Branch of Putah Creek behind our house and carpet our front lawn like new-fallen snow. I couldn’t wait for a trip to Quissenberry’s to stock up on candy before a movie at The Varsity across the street. The drum cadence of the Aggie Band-uh or the DHS Band before a football game always sent a chill up my spine. The coming of spring and the overwhelming scent of Star Jasmine and Honeysuckle filled my head with the expectation of lazy Summer days and even the smell of rotting tomatoes in the field would remind me that school was soon to start and new friends and opportunities awaited. Valley sunsets as viewed from the summit of the Mace Boulevard overpass would paint purples, reds and oranges across the sky and take my breath away. All of these things led me to believe that I loved you, Davis, but I don’t love you. Here’s why. My father, Mike Flowers, moved to Davis from Ft. Worth, Texas between his junior and senior years in High School in 1964. After marrying my mother Kathy in 1970, he chose to return to Davis to raise his family because Davis had come to mean so much to him. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2008. He had his tongue removed along with the tumor and in spite of the obvious challenges something like that brought, my father crammed a whole other life’s worth of living in the following two and a half years before passing away in June of this year. My father’s experiences during that time showed me that while I have a true affection for Davis, what I love is what Davis is shorthand for—the people, past and present, which call her home. Davis isn’t Toad Tunnels and historic potholes, it’s people. During my father’s time of trial, the people of Davis rallied around him and my family in our deepest need. There are too many people to thank by name, but they transformed my father’s final days from ones of sadness and despair to ones of joy, laughter and love. From his Coldwell-Banker colleagues that paraded, fund-raised and supported him (several times) to our dear family friends that helped he and my mother more than they will ever know; this is what my Dad loved most about his adopted home. People. Everyone has a story and my father always listened and paid attention to those stories because that is how you come to know someone and how you learn to love them. He understood and loved Davis only because he knew that to love a place is to love its people. My father’s enduring legacy is one of loving-kindness. He always paid attention to those around him and endeavored to make them feel special and loved. He felt that by doing this you could truly change the world. It also made him feel very good. Davis was the perfect crucible for his Alchemy of the Heart. Time and time again, the people of Davis returned that love back to him a hundredfold. I will always have a special place in my heart for my hometown, but it isn’t the City but the people of Davis that I adore. So, citizens of Davis, I thank you. I thank you for loving my father Mike, my mother Kathy my sister Michelle, her children and I thank you for loving me. I love you right back. Adam Flowers grew up in South Davis and attended Pioneer Elementary, Holmes Junior High and Davis Senior High Schools. He studied Journalism and Vocal Performance at San Jose State University. He currently lives in San Francisco with his wife Nicole and performs with the San Francisco Opera as a full-time member of the Regular Chorus.