06/25/2024
*WHO NEEDS TWITTER WHEN YOU'VE GOT A CHALKBOARD?*
San Diego Union Tribune 10/22/2010
You can have your Twitter and your Facebook. One East County community continues to go the low-tech route when it comes to social networking.
It’s got a board and some chalk.
Folks in Deerhorn Valley keep a chalkboard on the side of the main road that winds in and out of their mountain neighborhood, some 25 miles east of San Diego. They use it to celebrate events such as birthdays and wedding anniversaries, or when someone returns home from military service overseas.
“It’s a community icon,” said resident Kim Hamilton.
Tommy Knepper, another local, considers the board and an adjoining welcome sign the mark of a healthy neighborhood. “It shows how comfortable people are with each other,” he said. “It’s a community-building thing.”
Longtime resident Emily Bennett believes the board and sign were erected around the late 1950s or early 1960s.
The sign on Honey Springs Road, near Mother Grundy Truck Trail, was damaged three years ago this month in the catastrophic Harris Fire. The blaze destroyed scores of homes in the area, prompting one resident to write on the board: “WE MAY HAVE LOST OUR HOUSE BUT… WE HAVEN’T LOST OUR HOME. THANK YOU FIREFIGHTERS.”
These days, the Web address for the Deerhorn Valley Community Association is posted near the blackboard. The group maintains a blog and is on Twitter and Facebook.
But, Hamilton said, “sometimes low tech is the very best.”
