Every year people in Montecito celebrate July 4 with the most spirited but shortest parade in the USA. We asked young people what was on their minds and we received some interesting and surprising responses.
https://vimeo.com/354523626
Before dawn on Thursday, April 12, 2018, Jim Connors, age 63, makes his way slowly to enter the code at the front gate of Sea Meadow, a homeowner’s association in Montecito, Calif. Connors has serviced the pool and spa at Sea Meadow since it was constructed in 1990. For over 20 years Connors owned and operated a thriving pool service business, during which he serviced over 60 accounts a week, including many of the large, fabled Montecito estates, which earned him a comfortable six-figure income. ln 2014 he underwent what he thought was routine lower back surgery to deal with chronic back problems. His condition resulted in part from a nearly fatal 1978 car accident that landed him in the hospital for six weeks. During surgery, Connors says the surgeon “nicked his spinal cord,” resulting in severe nerve damage, chronic back and leg pain and daily use of potent opioid medications to control the pain. Connors condition forced him to relinquish all of his pool and spa service accounts, except for the one at Sea Meadow. (©Stan Roden) Jim Connors hauls his pool/spa leaf skimmer tool on Monday, April 9, 2018, at the Sea Meadow homeowner’s association pool, Montecito, Calif. In spite of his physical limitations and constant pain–Connors rarely sleeps more than two to three hours a night– he services the Sea Meadow account three or four days a week, depending on the weather, wind and intensity of pool and spa use. Connors’ duties include maintenance of the mechanical heating and related equipment, measuring and correcting levels of disinfecting chemicals, and most arduous of all, clearing out loose debris, including piles of leaves from nearby trees and sand imported by users coming from nearby Hammond’s beach. (©Stan Roden) Jim Connors, single and living alone, regularly breakfasts at local Santa Barbara eateries. An immensely likeable, easygoing and gregarious person by nature, Connors chats with Javier Santana, a longtime employee of the Cajun Kitchen on Tuesday, April 10, 2018, downtown Santa Barbara, Calif. On the way out of the restaurant, Connors chatted with another Cajun Kitchen employee and later with a regular customer. (©Stan Roden) Slowly and painfully, Jim Connors lowers himself to the floor of his home late on the morning of Tuesday, April 10, in Santa Barbara, Calif. Connors rarely sleeps in his bed because he cannot find a comfortable position, even with his potent opioid regime for chronic back and leg pain. Just about every day and often many nights, Connors finds some respite from his pain by placing his back flat on the carpet with his knees bent and feet flat on the floor. It takes him a long time to get down on the floor and an even longer time to get up, which presents a challenge unless there is some object nearby that will support him as he grabs and holds, grabs and holds a few times until ever so slowly, he pulls himself to his feet. (©Stan Roden) On Wednesday morning, April 4, 2018, Jim Conners makes his way up the ramp early in the morning to the Muller Aquatic Center, Santa Barbara, Calif. Connors regularly uses the 91 degree aquatic rehabilitation therapy pool to relieve the chronic pain in his lower back and legs. Connors says, “When I’m in the pool, this is just about the only time when I am able to move with relatively little pain.” (©Stan Roden) For the last seven years, Jim Connors’ only form of outdoor exercise is an occasional bike ride. Connors rides around the West Beach parking lot on Monday afternoon, April 23, 2018, Santa Barbara, Calif. Connors, a Santa Barbara native, centered most of his youthful and adult physical activities around surfing and his love of the ocean. In the late 1970s he was enrolled in Santa Barbara City College Marine Diving and Technology program. In his teens, he was a member of the Santa Barbara Surfing Club, whose members included many of the sport’s legendary names, such as surfboard maker Renny Yater. Connors accepts the extreme risk he takes riding his bike, for if he falls it is virtually impossible for him to get up without assistance. When asked how long he will continue to ride his bike, he says with a big smile, “As long as I can.” When asked how long he will continue to service the pool and spa at Sea Meadow, he says, “As long as I can do a good jobl and as long as they will have me.” (©Stan Roden)
VIDEO
baba2films has been on the streets of Santa Barbara asking people about the CA drought, now that it’s in its 4th year, and how they are coping. Our interviewees included a student, landowners, Reiki practitioner-volunteer, shop owner, real estate professional, investor, inventor and a poet-philosopher.
filming stories that aim for the heart
