sorry Steve C. , I was just guessing. Actually I heard a different story about Larry B. I did not hear about Pete's passing away. It's too bad they don't make cops like they used to, good small town people who actually lived in the communities they serve and could cut us locals some slack.
I'm not Steve Coleman but I remember one (russ's bro) I yahoo'd Pete and he died in Apr 2005 and had been Chief of Police I saw Larry about mid 80's and he said he owned a bar at 17th and Capp in The City Later I heard he put a gun to his head. No other details.
Coleman , are you sure ? . I thought he went on to be the Police/ Fire chief and I thought I saw him at Big 5 about 5 years ago buying bullets after retiring from too much stress. And did you hear what happened to Larry Baune ?. May he R.I.P.
I just confirmed it. Bummer, I delivered his IJ on Lomita Dr. circa 1967 or 8. I believe he was a rookie then or in the acadamy. I think he managed the Slot Car track downtown prior. Good Guy
hopster , is Pete Brindly dead , I don't understand what you mean. I remember Pete when he lived down on Meadow Dr. in Alto ( M.V.) I had friends that were his neighbors and he would see all of us come and go past his house , at the time he was just a patrolman , not the Chief of Police that he was promoted to much later on. Pete was a very observant officer. Around 1971 when my dad gave me a VW bus, i was 14 years old and didn't have a drivers license yet. Pete knew who I was and how old I was and would see me driving past his house all the time. One day he talked to my friend who was his neighbor and said, I know that is Paul who drives that bus and I know he is not old enough to have a drivers license , please tell him to be carefull out there. That was a tip from the Police. I never worried about it and never had any problems from M.V.P.D. , I just kept on driving. That is the way M.V. used to be , and I always thought Pete was one cool cop.
Not to speak poorly of the dead, but Pete Brindley was up at the dam as much as anyone i can remember during the fiftys, drinking ,smoking, skinny dipping and raising hell. Of course he knew you were all up there.
R54, the City of M.V drained it around 1970, but us die hards kept going up there. One day I was up there and some hippies were diving down and one of them succeded in closing the drain valve and the resevoir filled up again. Then M.V. built a barricade out of rebar to block the entrance of the dam top. We all could easily circumvent the barricade and continued to swim there for a few more years, but the amazing thrill of the place was gone and as we grew older we lost interest. Then in the floods of 82 it was inundated with silt and was reduced to less than half the capacity of water. " The Dam " was a big thorn in the citys side that people were complaining about all through the sixty's. I remember reading articles in the IJ about all the fornication , camping partys , pot smoking and basically a bunch of fun loving totally free people " Doin what ever they wanna ", without any kind of supervision. It was one hell of of huge liaibility for the good city even then before we had sue crazy parents. Now I think the MMWD and North Bay Developers are trying to get us Southern Marin water rate payers to subsidize their pet Desal project , we all should just say NO , and fire up the Tocaloma pumps and possibly dredge out Cascade and feed M.V. in case of another 60 year drought. We don't want no stinkin DESAL round here.
I used to go there with friends about the same time. I remember the rope swing across from the dam, swinging out naked and landing in the water. Went up there at night a few times in the summer to cool off. Good times!
I used to go there with Larry Baune and some other guys about the same time. For cool and foggy Mill Valley, I do remember warm days up there. About Pete Brindley, he pulled me over that same year (I was 15) for speeding up by the lumber company. I'd seen him at the slot car track across from city hall but didn't mention it. He gave me a very serious lecture but no ticket. I always showed him more respect for that than if he had ticketed me.
Cascade was originally built by the Tamalpias Land and Water Co. to provide drinking water for Mill Valley. It was abandoned as a water supply but kept as a emergency water source for fighting fires, exectly when I don't know. I know it was a popular swimming hole in the 40's , 50's and 60's , thats when I started hanging out there , in the later 60's. What a fun place for people of all ages from all over the area. In the summer time one could go there on any day and swim and party . It was one of the wonderful fun things to do in Southern Marin. Every once in a while the police would hike up there and everybody would yell " PIGS " and scramble out of the water and put on their clothes. It was OK to hang but not legal to swim there at the time. I used to feel sorry for officer Pete Brindly when he would have to hoof up there in full police uniform and stay up there on a hot day , long sleves and 40 lbs of gear on his belt. After about an hour he would bail and we would all drop our laundry , fire up our pot sticks and beer and resume our swimming , it was a fun game. Then one summer day a group of kids from S.F. were up there drinking before noon and one kid only 12 years old was drunk and couldn't swim and drowned , I was there that day and I saw the medics haul him out on a stretcher. That was in 1969 and that was the end of Cascade Dam for swimming , the party was over and it was a very sad day. I'll never forget how much fun we all had up there and really feel sorry for the kids of today because they will never be able to do the things that we were able to do. Now they stay inside and play video games.
