Revisiting the Oasis of Mara

Article and photos by Dan Barber

I live in the City of Twentynine Palms, California. Before it became Twentynine Palms it was known as the Oasis of Mara… I think that I prefer the Oasis of Mara name because it conjures up beauty with a mix of desert romance.

Creative use of 29!

Note, the local preference is to spell out Twentynine as a single word without hyphenation… and many local citizens abhor using the numerals 29 to describe where they live, unless some creativity can be added to the title.

The name “29 Palms” just causes some people that come here to start counting palm trees along the streets to see if it’s truly named for its number of palm trees. While counting they may miss some of the beauty. 

Some people who have come through my adopted town have attempted to attach their own view of this place by calling it “29 Stumps” or shortened simply to “The Stumps.” Legend hints that the Oasis of Mara became 29 Palms when a surveyor came upon the oasis and counted the 29 California Palms surrounding encampment of the Chemehuevi People… this is also probably where this group of native people received the name “29 Palms Band of Chemehuevi.

The original Oasis of Mara

New Indian Casino now overlooks
the original Oasis of Mara
and Chemehuevi burial ground.

Since the beginning of Twentynine Palms it has always been associated with the military in some way. Following World War I it became the home to many veterans who suffered from the effects of mustard gas on their lungs used in that war. At the onset of World War II the military built an air base to train glider pilots here. Then with the Korean War the United States Marine Corps took over the former Army base titled, “Condor Field” to create a Live Fire Marine Corps training base. The name is now the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms.

Chemehuevi burial ground.

Business people and city leaders have tried to coax people to visit this desert hideaway by coming up with slogans like “A beautiful desert oasis” or “An Oasis of Murals” another comes to mind that was once tried “The Gateway to the Mojave”… What’s wrong with the original “Oasis of Mara?”

James Cagney's Desert Getaway

So many people have come to this place and at first sight think of it as a dusty desert town. We do have a lot of dust here, but there is also a lot of beauty if you look for it. I’ve heard some people exclaim that “there’s nothing to do here!” Sometimes doing nothing is a blessing. I can spend hours just sitting and enjoying the magic of nature. This place is a dream scape where creative people can create with very little distraction. There are many writers, visual artists and performing artists to include musicians, actors and dancers who choose to visit or even live here. James Cagney a very successful actor in his time picked Twentynine Palms to build a small home where he could escape Hollywood to study painting with one of the old time artists who lived in the desert.

Me doing nothing.

U2 used the Harmony
Motel sign for an album
cover.

I have seen famous people walking down the street here without anyone taking notice. People come here to escape the big cities. I have run into people who want big box shopping built in the area. I’m rather proud of the fact that I have to drive nearly 20 miles to get to big box store of any kind. It is an outing when my wife and I have to drive more than 50 miles to get to a mall. I tell people that if they want to be a mall rat, then they should move to a big city… because we only have desert rats out here. 

Because we are a military town we do have an abundance of tattoo parlors, massage parlors, and barber shops, which are always full because Marines have to get haircuts just about every other day (disclaimer, my Granddaughter's boyfriend's father owns all but one barber shop in town). A few years ago one of our successful Inn keepers and a city booster suggested that all of the tattoo parlor owners get together and create a tattoo parlor colony and market their services world-wide. Tattoos have became more common place on civilians then on military men and women due to restrictions placed on them for the promotion of good order and discipline.

Mural honoring the Marines in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

It’s probably human nature to try to put a stamp of ownership on something or some place instead of just trying to blend into the environment. When I see the city lights of urban sprawl from a mountain top I cringe. When I see the hi-rise hotels and city lights of Honolulu I wonder if the weight of all that development will eventually sink Oahu below the ocean.

Looks like the petroglyph of a long
ago native citizen of the area
chasing a rabbit.

I hope my adopted home never changes because I love the solitude of the desert and the way it can lead people to become creative. One of the things I used to tell my military co-workers at the Marine Corps base was, “The longer we have you here in the desert, the easier it is to entertain you.” Come for a visit and check out our murals, sculptures along with the multitude of art galleries or natural desert beauty.

Is this a painted mural or an
artist at work with a bull
looking on? Stop by to
check it out.

Big Horn Sheep are also residents of the area. But these
guys won't scramble away from the photographer.

Maybe Edvard Munch got the inspiration for his painting
"The Scream" from this rock at the Joshua Tree National Park.

We have a lot of sculptures to entertain
and to try and guess what they mean.

Coyotes are a sight in our
neighborhoods

We are known for having
a lot of sunshine.

I would hate to run into a real one of
these.

Maybe the artist was inspired for this creation from alien
crops circles.

Hollywood, entertain me don't bore me

By Dan Barber

I am a self-described dolt when it comes to culture. I don’t get foreign language movies, fine wine or impressionist art.

I just read in one of my newspapers that I just love to hammer when they get the story wrong or completely askew when they slant it too far left or right, that another foreign language film festival is going to take place in one of our nearby desert towns.

I just don’t understand the draw of watching a movie and having to read the subtitles all at the same time. When I spend the time watching a movie, I want to be entertained. I want some escapism I want to laugh, cry or to think. When I spend the time reading a book, I want the same thing… but putting the both of them together into a single activity is just exhausting for me.

Watching a breathtaking filmed scene is nice however if I’m reading the subtitle I could miss what the film maker is trying to show me… on the other hand, if I’m watching the film instead of reading the subtitle I could miss what the actors or narrator are saying.

I suppose a film festival gives our local TV and radio station “celebrities” and fans  a chance to mingle with movie stars, past, present and future. And it gives recent film school graduates a chance to showcase their “art.” I’m thinking that “Rocky 6” shown in France with French subtitles can be a leading candidate for foreign film of the year there!

Wine is also a mystery to me. People have given me wine as a gift, I thank them for their generosity, I then put the bottle in my wine rack because I’m hoping that one day this bottle of wine will be sold at auction for a million dollars to a rich person who really likes wine. This idea came to me one day when I was bored so I looked up one of the bottles of wine that I had stored on my wine rack for the last 20 years. I learned that particular bottle of wine was no longer available, I thought wow I own the last surviving bottle of that particular batch of wine! But was it because every bottle of that brand and year sold out, or was it the subject of a product recall that I received as a gift?

I have tried tasting wine, but it all tastes the same to me. It could be red, white pink or purple, wet or dry. I have never developed a taste for wine and couldn’t tell one from the other. When I was much younger we used to (illegally) buy a gallon of a wine for a couple of bucks, a gallon of apple cider then we would dump both gallons into a big pot over a fire at the beach with a handful of cinnamon sticks, bring it all to a boil and then drink it to warm us up on cold nights while "fishing."

I am also afraid to buy wine… when I go into a liquor store they have a bunch of different brands with different prices… I could accidently fork over a small fortune for a bottle of wine that could have come from the same batch that I bought years ago for $2 a gallon and I wouldn’t know the difference. I drink cheap beer and it is a no-brainer on what brand to buy.

Impressionist art can lead me to become a hoarder. In the past while cleaning out the attic of the house I just bought I came across a painting that I could not figure out how to view. If I hung it on the wall it might be upside down or inside out. My fear of throwing stuff out comes from the time I read a story about someone who bought what they thought was a painter’s drop cloth for a couple of bucks at a garage sale, but turned out to be a valuable piece of art that sold for millions of dollars at auction.

Now that I’m retired I try to create what I call yard art… mostly because my wife won’t allow me to display my work in the house, so it stays in the yard or garage. Maybe one day my grandkids can sell it at auction or take it to the dump.

It’s time for another beer and maybe a nap.

Opinions are like belly buttons, everyone has one... Here's mine (opinion)

By Dan Barber

Every four years Americans witness the clash of “The Giant Egos” where the individual who possesses the biggest and brightest Ego with the most money usually wins the contest to become President of the United States.

It seems the drive to become America’s Chief Executive Officer has been corrupted by the need to “feed the greed.” I have often wondered why anyone would want the job of U.S. President. The title carries a huge risk. One can leave the office with a legacy of greatness, or a legacy of a looser which is determined by a very narrow margin of the planet’s population.

I once read that some politicians and mass murderers share a psychopathic personality disorder because they usually don’t or can’t show empathy for the actions they take. They believe they are above anyone else, regardless of the “optics” or the math error in the “calculus.”

Deep study of a candidate’s character is vital for Americans to select a President who will leave office with a legacy of greatness.

Our current Commander in Chief and his family feels the need to escape the pressure of the White House with seemingly frequent and expensive vacations or weekend getaways such as “date nights” in New York City or for weekend golfing jaunts in Florida or Palm Springs, Calif., annual vacations in Martha’s Vineyard, Hawaii, or first family trips to Europe and Asia. Obama’s supporters like to point out that George Bush spent more days on vacations then Obama. But, they leave out the fact that most of Bush’s vacation days were spent at his Texas home…much cheaper than flying around the country or globe on Air Force One. 

The image of our President hinges on coverage from the institution of the media. Images of a President playing golf on an exclusive golf course or playing in the surf on a Hawaiian beach are much more glamorous than a President chopping weeds on a Texas property.

Will this be the legacy of the Obama administration? To me and “my optics” Obama is a looser. I’m sure he is a very fine community organizer for Chicago or a union lawyer, but a huge failure for not only America’s populations, but for the world’s populations as well. Sticking one’s head in a golf course sand trap will not make terrorism go away. Blaming any number of problems on false political narratives (lies) or poorly produced videos will not cure them. Creating legislation through executive fiat or using like minded judges in the judicial branch of our government to force social change will not fully change social norms.

Refusing to consider compromise or allow input from any elected representative from an opposing political party in writing or rewriting legislation can only lead to disastrous results and added expenses for many citizens to deal with. Allowing a lazy or blindly loyal lawmaker to cast his or her vote for a bill without even reading it is in itself legislative malpractice.

America needs a leader who will lead not follow. In this next General Election, study the candidate’s characters before making your decision. Do not rely on a single “sound bite” or a speech delivered by an individual that was quite possibly written by someone else… try to balance the photo ops with reality.

Pay attention to the candidates and leave the belly button lint alone.

Am I losing my mind or just going crazy?

By Dan Barber

One risk of growing old is losing one’s mind…not going crazy, but losing memory. This process can lead to crazy though.

My morning routine is to rise, go to the coffee maker and pour myself a cup of coffee…if I remembered to set it up the night before. I Then log on to my computer, after watching my coffee maker brew my first cup of coffee, to read the news, check email then look in on my social media accounts…in that order.

For years I used a computer that my son handed down to me when he updated his computer.  It had the Windows XP operating system, which worked just fine for me. On that computer I could access everything I needed…news and email then later on social media.  Since I retired a couple of years ago I relied on that computer to backup my own brain. Since then the aged brain of the computer starting slowing down because of a lack of support from its creator (Microsoft) just like my own old brain was slowing down. This caused me to make a crazy decision… I bought a “refurbished-gently used or second-hand computer” with an unfamiliar operating system of Windows 7.

For a couple of days I muddled through my new computer options and found the “homepage” that looked familiar to me including the all important links to my email and social media sites. I understood that I would have to make up my own password just to turn on my computer because my son’s old password no longer worked. Not a problem, I entered a password that I would never forget.

The next day a window popped up saying that for a limited time I could download Windows 10 for free! Now that is a good deal I thought, because a few days earlier I saw a copy of Windows 10 at a big box store I was shopping at listed for nearly $200. I opted to download the free Windows 10. That process required me to make some changes to my computer… I thought not a problem, I could do that, but I was faced with new unfamiliar challenges, I thought, I can deal with that.

This morning I woke up got my coffee, after it finished brewing, sat down at my computer and entered the password that I would never forget to turn on my computer… I got the message that it was the wrong password! After repeated attempts to start my computer I thought the end of my mind was near! Then I read the message on the screen below my password box on how to reset the password. OK, no problem, however, I needed access to the internet to reset my password. I couldn’t get my computer turned on so what am I supposed to do! I fought down the crazy impulse to throw my computer across the room, then I remembered I could log on to the web through my smart phone.

I’m old; another process of aging is losing the ability to see small print, i.e., web pages on smart phones! I took a stab at it anyway; I grabbed my magnifying glass and logged on to my smart phone.

I used to work for the government; they warn you to never write down passwords because people can find them and hack into your work computer! The most secure web sites want you to create a password using numbers, upper and lower case letters and special symbols… from 8 to 12 characters long, and you have to change your password every 6 months or so… and you aren’t allowed to use any previous characters you used in your last six passwords!

In addition, to recover forgotten passwords you are required to list several security questions that you can use to recover your forgotten password! The problem with this process is different systems use different questions!

OK, I’m crazily drifting away… The small print on my smart phone starts asking me the security questions, which I immediately get wrong because they are the security questions I used for something else in my past!

I try it again, then when I get down the list of questions I start to become crazily paranoid! I am prompted to enter the last four digits of my credit card, etc. I immediately hang up!

With my smart phone in hand with the Google log in box staring at me I ask (pray) to Google to help me. Immediately I get a phone number that Google automatically calls for me and I get a friendly young man on the phone telling me not to worry; he will help me get my computer to operate again… he takes me through some steps of which none work!  He again assures me that they can help but he has to get a level 2 technician on the line and their service is $120 for a year of protection or $60 for this month only. OK, I willingly forked over $60, via my credit card, just to end my pain. I’m sure Google will collect their share from the referral.

 I’m now speaking  to Level 2 technician whose second language is English, however he is a very nice young man who is probably used to dealing with old men who are mentally deficient when it comes to computer technology.  I give him permission to remotely take control of my computer.  He takes my computer through those screens that looked familiar and discovers that since I upgraded my new computer just a few days earlier from Windows 7 to Windows 10 I was prompted to enter a new password! Now I remember!

I take control and enter the new password that will open Windows 10 vice Windows 7 or Windows XP! It works!

I knew that my paranoia of anything related to computers is based on self-preservation and peace of mind!

I’m still fighting the urge to fling my computer across the room, but now for an entirely different reason! I’m thinking the nice young man just made a note on my account, “id10t trouble ticket solved = $60.”