Monday, May 18, 2015

Screenwriter revisits hometown 'Pow Wow' roots, reconnects with past

Orangevale Pow Wow Days stage area 2015

Orangevale is one of those "where" places.
Any mention of it -- to most anyone -- must quickly be followed by "where" it's near.
"Between Folsom and Roseville," is where I tell people.
In northeast Sacramento County, it's where the sidewalks end.
It's my hometown and the setting of the feature film script, I'm working to turn into a major motion picture.
The arrest and trial of the dancers at the "Pink Pussy Kat a Go-Go" became a national story and helped set the rules for exotic dance.
Few people know about this. I'm trying to change that. It would be/will be an amazing gift from my home community.
You can only really be from one place (military brats excepted).
I'm from Orangevale.
I left after high school and while I live in Sacramento now, my interaction with the community is
little beyond visiting my parents.
Being one of a handful of black kids in a community I affectionately call the Idaho of California, was at times a challenge. The late 1990s were certainly better racially than ever, but the late 1990s in Orangevale was not the same as the 1990s in more diverse communities.
I made the most of it. I was student body president (CRHS 1993) so some would say I thrived. But I wouldn't say I fit in. By the time I attended high school at Casa Roble the spittoons were gone, but vail of homogeneous isolation permeated. I often felt treated as the exception to a generally accepted rule about black people.
When faced with the sheer amount of bad country music produced in the 1990s one can either give in and say you like it or fight it.  Hating country was my buttress, protecting my few black points.
Committed to the fight against country, as soon as I had a choice in the matter, I avoided "Pow Wow Days," the longstanding community parade and carnival.
Orangevale doesn't have much. It's an unincorporated spec of Sacramento County that's hard to get to by highway thus maintaining some level of rural charm, but it doesn't have that gold rush era downtown of Folsom or the size, organization and ambition of
Roseville.
Since 1963, the community has been experiencing some level of Pow Wow. As a child, I marched in it was a Boy Scout.
As adult man, sans child, who has experienced Mardi Gras (several times), it's real easy to go curmudgeon on regular old small town parades. They don't throw beads, alcohol must be smuggled and there is little chance of boobie exposure, but there is something that is uniquely community socializing and unifying about parades.
So that extent, there is something unique and great about Orangevale's "Pow Wow Days."
I made a return visit Friday night and Saturday afternoon to tell people about "Pink" and the "Pink Pussy Kat a Go-Go."
From a visitors perspective, the event seemed healthy. It's 32 acres, snuggled between other parks and schools, is an ideal venue for an outdoor concert. There were kids galore on the carnival rides, plenty of vendors, a radio station sponsor, and a healthy beer garden. (Though they could step it up with more food variety and serving local beers.)
Loosely based an actual incident, some of the ladies from the Pink Pussy Kat cause a stir at Pow Wow Days in my script. So the visit could also be considered field research.
Another bonus: Saturday I ran into my childhood friend Billy Blackburn. That night, his band Blackburn Bullet bested seven competitors to win the "battle of the bands" hosted by radio station 101.9 the wolf. Billy's already talking about writing a song for the movie.
I was buoyed by the feedback I got from people young and old towards the Pink Pussy Kat story.
Young people were excited to hear about the historic trial. With old people, you could see the sparkle in their eye as they accessed those dusty files. I didn't find the motherload treasure trove of Pink Pussy Kat photos, but I'll keep looking.
 I see a few Rotary Club breakfasts and VFW Hall visits in my future as I continue my search.
Orangevale, here I come again.

Follow the journey by email
Keep up on film project on Facebook
Connect with the Pink Pussy Kat


No comments:

Post a Comment