#112. Solomon Everta on Eureka Books, Omnibus, and the Stories That Build Community

Scott Hammond: Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, it's Scott Hammond with the "100% Humboldt" podcast, with my new best friend and special guest, Simon Everta.

Solomon Everta: Hey.

Scott Hammond: Nice- nice, uh, Simon. Solomon.

Solomon Everta: You, you did the thing.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I did. Oh, man. I d- I never do that till I just did it. Hi, Solomon. How's it going?

Solomon Everta: Hey. Going great.

Scott Hammond: Welcome to the show.

Solomon Everta: Thank you.

Scott Hammond: Good. Your name is not Simon, it's Solomon.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. That happens, though. It's interesting.

Scott Hammond: Do you get that?

Solomon Everta: I'm– I have. Lots of, lots of things, and especially spelling the Solomon with an A at the end, which is incorrect. It's all O's.

Scott Hammond: It's all O's, yeah.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Solomon, not Soloman.

Solomon Everta: Solomon.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: It is with O's, yes.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: So…

Scott Hammond: I get Steve Hammond. I don't know, I, I guess I look like a Steve. So tell us the Solomon story.

Solomon Everta: Oh, my. Well, I grew up in the Bay Area.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: Um, and, uh, in East Bay.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: So shout out to Oakland, Fremont, Hayward.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Solomon Everta: And, um, moved a couple times there, but, uh, had a single mom, and go see my dads on the weekends, and, uh-

Scott Hammond: Cool

Solomon Everta: … grew up in the Bay Area. And then, uh, went to school there and went to college

Solomon Everta: up at, um, Cal State Hayward, which is now Cal State East Bay, for one year, but dropped out

Solomon Everta: because-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … of understanding my position in the economic structure as being not able to afford-

Scott Hammond: Ah

Solomon Everta: … to go to college.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Solomon Everta: So I dropped out, and after a year or two, then, uh, uh, the, my partner at the

Solomon Everta: time, uh, went up to Humboldt, and so we moved up here, and my cousin was living up here, which was great.

Scott Hammond: Wow. Connections.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, yeah. I just came to see my cousin. I was like, "This place is amazing-"

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … which you know. Uh, we all know.

Scott Hammond: Yep.

Solomon Everta: And, uh, yeah, now it's like thirty-five years later, and, um-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … and here I am still.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Solomon Everta: So-

Scott Hammond: You stuck around.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. Well, I, I jumped right in, and I got, um, I got a job at Los Bagels, so that's a way to get in the community.

Scott Hammond: That's right. I remember you worked there for a bit.

Solomon Everta: Oh, yeah, for like, uh, ten years over a twenty-year span.

Scott Hammond: Were you, were you management?

Solomon Everta: I did eventually. I was– Before I left, uh, I was managing, and then I came back for a little stint, and so I did a couple things like

Solomon Everta: that. But I-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … I just tell everyone I've done everything at that store and cleaned almost every surface-

Scott Hammond: Awesome

Solomon Everta: … in the Arcata store.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: It was-

Scott Hammond: Yes.

Solomon Everta: But yeah, it's a great place to meet people and understand, and really understand the community.

Scott Hammond: Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: It's, it was fantastic just being a part of Arcata.

Scott Hammond: Dennis and Peter, and… Dennis, Peter, and Johnny. Was he part of that?

Solomon Everta: Yeah. So John bought into the s- the store later. But yeah, uh, Dennis and Peter, and then Paul was, uh, an original owner that was, uh, with them.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: Um, so I learned a lot. You know, I was in my twenties and just learning how to be, how to work a job-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … how to interact with people. But also, I got really involved in, with, uh, Food Not Bombs-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Solomon Everta: … which, uh, was a mutual aid organization just serving food to whoever's hungry on the plaza.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Solomon Everta: And, um, we were soon after sued by the City of Arcata-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Solomon Everta: … for-

Scott Hammond: I remember that, I think.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, for violating the health code-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Solomon Everta: … which was actually 'cause we were violating the sanctity of the, the, uh, marketplace there-

Scott Hammond: Ah

Solomon Everta: … and making it kind of not look so great.

Solomon Everta: So-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … we were sued by the city-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … which, um, which was bad. And-

Scott Hammond: And they, and they won?

Solomon Everta: So we settled-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Solomon Everta: … uh, eventually.

Scott Hammond: Oh, okay.

Solomon Everta: Um, after many years of going to court and had a lot of, uh, interesting things were… happen there. So-

Scott Hammond: I know. They kinda disappeared. Now that I think of it, yeah, it just kinda faded,

Scott Hammond: but-

Solomon Everta: Well, we settled, and then, um, a later group of people who took up Food Not Bombs, the– I think they're still serving. They were serving during the pandemic actually too.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And, um, and the, part of the settlement agreement was that the city provided the, uh, the D Street Community Center as a

Solomon Everta: location-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Solomon Everta: … so that the food could be prepared in a commercial kitchen.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Solomon Everta: So that's-

Scott Hammond: Cool

Solomon Everta: … that's kinda how that worked out.

Solomon Everta: Um-

Scott Hammond: All right. City of Arcata, way to go.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. Well, the premise of Food Not Bombs is like, you know, it's, if it's, uh… You know, we don't need a permit to share food.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: You know, if people are hungry and the government's not taking care of things-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … and the private sector is definitely not taking care of it, uh, then-

Scott Hammond: What are you gonna do?

Solomon Everta: … then you got to, just gotta step up and take care of each other.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: And so-

Scott Hammond: We had Dave Reed here from, uh, uh, and, uh, Carly from, uh, the food, food bank.

Solomon Everta: Oh, yeah. Right.

Scott Hammond: Food for People, and s-he said there's no reason for anybody to go hungry in this country. Shouldn't happen.

Solomon Everta: For sure.

Scott Hammond: It's not needed. Yeah.

Solomon Everta: Well, that's one of the things, uh, you know, I was thinking about what to, you know… What were the things that I wanted to say about, you know, who I am and what my, where I'm coming from and, and really it's that there's enough wealth in this country especially-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … to… But in the world in general, for everybody to have food, everybody to have shelter, everybody to have-

Scott Hammond: Right

Solomon Everta: … education and meaningful connections. And, you know, the way that our economy works is just messed up, and it's, it's capitalism, and it's not okay.

Scott Hammond: It's, there's a lot of not okay about it. That's true. It's funny, I was, um, I really like John Mark Comer, the author, and he's written a book called The, uh, The Ruthless Elimination of, of Hurry, and then he wrote, uh, Practicing the, uh, The Art of,

Scott Hammond: of, um…

Scott Hammond: Anyway, the point that I wanted to make- … is that if you could take all the mini storage units in the nation, it wouldn't be enough to house everyone.

Solomon Everta: Right. Exactly.

Scott Hammond: It's like, what opulence? It's– That's crazy. Instead, we, we store our crap.

Solomon Everta: That's right.

Scott Hammond: Anyway, let's go, let's go right to… So you're the owner of two businesses in Eureka. So let's talk about that, and then I wanna come back and retro-

Solomon Everta: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … on your journey. So, uh, tell us about your businesses.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. Well, it's, it's one business, but I have two locations now-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Solomon Everta: … basically. So that's, uh, Eureka Books, which has, uh, been there since nineteen eighty-seven.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: Um, so we're coming up on our fortieth anniversary next year-

Scott Hammond: Cool

Solomon Everta: … which will be fantastic. And, um, we just opened an expansion into another spot, which is called Omnibus, and it's at, uh, it's on Snug Alley.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: Just, you can see it from the front of Eureka Books-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … which is fantastic.

Scott Hammond: There's my s- other store.

Solomon Everta: There's my other store. We tell people a lot because people coming in looking for graphic novels, manga, art supplies, and things like that, which have formerly been at the Eureka Books. We say, "Ah, we'll just move them across the street."

Scott Hammond: So that would be things like, uh, like greeting cards, things of that nature too, or like-

Solomon Everta: The greeting cards are still at the main shop, um, but at the, at the new shop is

Solomon Everta: more of the-

Scott Hammond: Stuff

Solomon Everta: … those like kind of art, uh, supplies-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … and then that, those like, uh, comic books and, and graphic novel-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Solomon Everta: … type things. Yeah. And then now we have some role-playing games too, and we're working a little bit with Dandars, um, to haveTo– We sell some of the products that we can only get from them because they're a, a gaming store.

Scott Hammond: And what is that? I should know that.

Solomon Everta: Dandars?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: Oh, it's a gaming store that was right next to, um-

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's right. That, right there

Solomon Everta: … right next to North Town.

Scott Hammond: That's right.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: My bad.

Solomon Everta: And so, um, so we had actually already been working with Dan, uh, from Dandars to get him to supply us with some of those role-playing game-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Solomon Everta: … products. Um, so that's really a big thing, you know, in the community too. It's like Dungeons and Dragons and those type of things.

Scott Hammond: So a partnership.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Cool.

Solomon Everta: So we, we, we kinda split this profits with him on, on some of those products that we have in the store.

Scott Hammond: That's cool. I love it.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. Yeah, but they're opening– They've got a temporary location at the Jacoby

Solomon Everta: Storehouse-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Solomon Everta: … right now, and they're kind of figuring out how that's gonna work until they get to go into their new spot-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Solomon Everta: … which is fantastic for them and North Town.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: They're gonna be in where the former Hatchet House is.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Solomon Everta: And so-

Scott Hammond: Formerly Arcata Auto Parts.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. Formerly-

Scott Hammond: Formerly

Solomon Everta: … Pacific Outfitters. Yeah, all of all these things.

Scott Hammond: Formerly Safeway.

Solomon Everta: Oh my gosh.

Scott Hammond: Who doesn't know what it was? Um, so f-for those of you that don't know or wanna recall, um, on my birthday, January second, twenty twenty-six, was a giant fire in downtown Arcata. And fortunately, there were heroes, uh, still in America, in Humboldt County, that stopped that crap because it could have really… I mean, everybody's-

Solomon Everta: Could have spread. Yeah

Scott Hammond: … assessment, that could have been really bad.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: And they kept it-

Solomon Everta: Jump on it

Scott Hammond: … to a half block, right?

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And North Town Books, a fellow book seller, was, uh, gutted. And, and when we walked by, Joni looks, she goes, "Do you see the– There's books. They're-"

Solomon Everta: Oh my gosh.

Scott Hammond: "Books are all…" And she's get– You know-

Solomon Everta: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … 'cause she's a book lover and reader, and she was just

Scott Hammond: distraught.

Solomon Everta: It was difficult to go over there.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: It was very emotional for me.

Scott Hammond: I bet. Did you know the North Town guys?

Solomon Everta: Yeah, and we're all in the industry there, you know?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: Uh, we don't all hang out in a secret cabal, but, um, we do-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … see each other once in a while.

Scott Hammond: The, with a book cabal.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, it's like-

Scott Hammond: Come on in, we're having a ball.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's funny. I like it. The, um… Yeah, they're gonna go in f-like, fairly soon? Are they working on it already? Are they installing-

Solomon Everta: They're working on it, yeah. I think it'll take them a few months to, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Like, stock and the shelves and all the stuff.

Solomon Everta: I think toward the end of summer, so it'll be great. They'll be ready for the holiday season and just-

Scott Hammond: Oh, cool

Solomon Everta: … have a chance to kinda get settled in there. It's gonna be fantastic.

Scott Hammond: Super big space too.

Solomon Everta: And they got a parking lot. I mean, come on.

Solomon Everta: It's g-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Solomon Everta: … it's just great.

Scott Hammond: So have books made a comeback like, like vinyl?

Solomon Everta: Absolutely, and I think this is one of the things that is the most misunderstood element of the book-selling business is that as far as we're concerned, you know, independent, small independent bookstores have, like, have been going strong, especially in Humboldt.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And, um, you know, Book Legger down the street is a couple years older than us-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … and North Town's been there even longer.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Solomon Everta: And this community loves books, and we've– You know, of course, we have to, you know, adapt and change.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: We, we sell audiobooks through libro.fm-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … where people can select our bookstore and do that.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Solomon Everta: People can buy books online from bookshop.org and, and select our store, and we get a little share of that.

Solomon Everta: And so-

Scott Hammond: Pick them up at the store type of thing?

Solomon Everta: And they c– Well, no, they get, and they get them shipped straight to their house.

Scott Hammond: Oh, they ship straight. Okay.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, bookshop.org.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And then other things, you know, just we sell on online, uh, venues. We sort of have, like, five places where we sell online.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Solomon Everta: And so every morning I come in and I look at the list and pull the books and ship

Solomon Everta: them out.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay. So you have, uh, multiple, multiple streams of, uh-

Solomon Everta: Oh, gosh. We have so many things, and like-

Scott Hammond: Make the books flow.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: 'Cause we do different ways of, of getting people, fi-

Scott Hammond: That's awesome

Solomon Everta: … helping people find what they, what they need.

Scott Hammond: So we have nine kids, uh, many of which are homeschooled.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And Jesse, uh, shout out to Jesse in Seoul, South Korea. He used to, we used to go to the McKinleyville Library, and he would literally bring

Scott Hammond: two boxes.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And, um, who was the sweetheart librarian? W- She was so cool. And she would just feed Jesse books like Michener and, and all this stuff, and he wound up-

Solomon Everta: Nice

Scott Hammond: … at U-UOP and then Davis for a doctorate and-

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … voracious consumer of books, kinda like his mom.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And me, I watch Gilligan's Island and Seinfeld.

Solomon Everta: I know. I know.

Scott Hammond: And do podcasts. I– It's, it's different, but it's… I actually read, actually I read books, and I wrote a book.

Scott Hammond: Hey.

Solomon Everta: Oh, hey.

Scott Hammond: How fortuitous-

Solomon Everta: That's a plug your book

Scott Hammond: … that we had-

Scott Hammond: … the everyday dad here. Um, not the point of my, uh, my show, but, um, yeah, that's an adventure publishing a book.

Solomon Everta: Oh, yeah. It's a whole-

Scott Hammond: Oh, the writing wasn't that hard. The, the editing-

Scott Hammond: … was crazy hard-

Solomon Everta: Sure

Scott Hammond: … to get it right. And the marketing was, well, freaking impossible.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: 'Cause it's just too hard. It's like, unless you're

Scott Hammond: magic.

Solomon Everta: But, you know, there's something about the in-the industry that's interesting because now you can, anybody can publish a book.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And it's, and it's, so it, so all kinds of maybe not so great things are coming out there and, and-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Solomon Everta: … there's a reason you have editors, and there's people-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … that help you polish your product and make it something-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … that people, that will actually help people and actually get across a message you want to get across.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: And it's, it's a, it's a challenge because it's a lot of work. People think it's just an easy thing, you know, but it's-

Scott Hammond: Oh, no

Solomon Everta: … but yeah, you know 'cause you did it, is that-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Solomon Everta: … is that it's like, it's a journey. And I– And of course, we talk to all the local authors, and we, we accept all the books from, uh, from local authors that bring them in. We put them on consignment, and we say, like, "Hey, man-

Scott Hammond: Sweet

Solomon Everta: … we sell it. You get your sixty percent of the-

Scott Hammond: There it is

Solomon Everta: … of the cover price. Let's do this."

Scott Hammond: That's pretty good. That's great commission.

Solomon Everta: The thing, though, I'd tell most people, though, is, like,

Solomon Everta: for– Don't go on Amazon. Don't use Amazon-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … I mean, to, to publish your book.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: It– They, they rip you off. The product is horrible.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: The books are just not high quality. Like, just even at least work with Ingram, uh, to do it instead. But there are other options too.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Solomon Everta: And, you know, we have local folks like, uh, um, Jim Height. He, you know, got found a little publisher, and they, they helped him out. And his book is, looks fantastic, you know?

Scott Hammond: I haven't seen Jim in years. What a great guy.

Solomon Everta: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hi, Jim Height.

Solomon Everta: Hey, Jim Height.

Scott Hammond: Does he come in? Is he a customer?

Solomon Everta: He's– Well, he moved out of the area, so-

Scott Hammond: He's gone, right?

Solomon Everta: Yeah, yeah, so-

Scott Hammond: Where'd he go?

Solomon Everta: You know, um, somewhere with-

Scott Hammond: Out, out of the area

Solomon Everta: … less moisture I think was the, the main thing.

Scott Hammond: Wait, that could be– Solomon, that could be anywhere.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, right. It could be anywhere.

Scott Hammond: Hey, if you're just joining us, I'm here with my special guest and new best friend, Solomon Everta. And, um, we're just having some fun here talking about stuff. So, uh, so-some of your journey then, so you're East

Scott Hammond: Bay.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And you and I share a journey 'cause I was raised by my mom in San Diego in the East

Scott Hammond: Bay-

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … of the other Bay. And, uh, I, I understand single parents and what they do now.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Then my father lived up the coast in Oceanside, who-

Solomon Everta: Mm

Scott Hammond: … uh, after he got sober when I was thirteen, we became fast friends till he

Scott Hammond: died in-

Solomon Everta: Mm

Scott Hammond: … in '04. So, um, yeah, single parent.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. Well, I had a similar– Well, not. My dad was, you know… My dad was always see us on the weekends, but when I was fourteen, I went and lived with my dad.

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow.

Solomon Everta: And I was like, it kinda is like, there's something that had to, I had to do, you know, and then I was like-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … "You know, I'm gonna go live with Dad." And my mom was like, "What?"

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Solomon Everta: But it was like-

Scott Hammond: She said-

Solomon Everta: … it's important.

Scott Hammond: She said, "Go for it."

Solomon Everta: Yeah. Yeah. I mean-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Solomon Everta: … important for a young man to understand his father and be close to him and have

Solomon Everta: some time-

Scott Hammond: I think so

Solomon Everta: … in his high school years. So that was-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … a time for us to get a little closer.

Scott Hammond: There's a lot of brokenness about guys that, you know, have deadbeat dads. They just left. And so there's not that– They never complete the math, and I think it's just hard. There's… Anyway, don't wanna go down that road too far, but hey.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. We, you know, I was able to make that connection with him and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … and find him. Um, yeah, but it's an important, important thing for young men. It's like I, I take, you know, as you know, you know, parenting is really kind of one of the main things that's drives me is just, like, being a good parent. I mean, really enjoyed being a parent of-

Scott Hammond: How many kids?

Solomon Everta: Two kids.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Solomon Everta: My daughter's up at Humboldt and doing-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Solomon Everta: … uh, second year, and my son is a junior at, uh, Eureka High School.

Scott Hammond: Very cool.

Solomon Everta: Kind of doing soccer. He just took his SAT and got a really good score. I wanna embarrass him by saying how high it was.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Solomon Everta: It's pretty amazing.

Scott Hammond: Good job.

Solomon Everta: And, uh, but yeah, he's gonna go look at some colleges, and I'm-

Scott Hammond: Sweet

Solomon Everta: … it's just kinda like that's what it's all about.

Scott Hammond: And you're on that journey with him.

Solomon Everta: That's what it's all about.

Scott Hammond: So cool. My dad drove me up to Humboldt from National City, California-

Solomon Everta: See? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: … San Diego. It's like, "What do you wanna do, Scott?" I go, "I don't know. This looks like a pretty good school. Let's go." And he, you know, a couple journeys.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And finally brought up all my crap and stayed at the Colony Inn, and-

Scott Hammond: … when he– when it was a real dump.

Solomon Everta: I remember the Colony Inn.

Scott Hammond: It really sucked, man.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It was anyways, uh, sketchy, but, um, hey, got to go to school.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. Well, my, my son is gonna go on a trip with, with my ex-wife, his mom, in, like, a couple weeks, and they're gonna go down and look at colleges.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Solomon Everta: And that's like, that's really what it's all about is just making a good, a good environment, a good place for your kids.

Scott Hammond: What's he looking at?

Solomon Everta: Well, he's looking at, uh, San Luis Obispo and, and-

Scott Hammond: Awesome

Solomon Everta: … and, uh, Berkeley. And then I was like, "Just go stop by Stanford.

Solomon Everta: Why not?"

Scott Hammond: Hey, you got the SATs, bro.

Solomon Everta: You got the SATs, bro. And he's just a great, super intelligent kid. He wants to study architecture, so like-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Slow

Solomon Everta: … after, after we go to the gym-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … in the morning, we go, like, four days a week, and we hit the gym, and we're driving around. I'm like, "Okay, look at that bi- look at that fence." Like-

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh

Solomon Everta: … "That's way too much. Like, that's an ugly fence. Like, you could do that with a hedge, you know?"

Scott Hammond: Right.

Solomon Everta: Like, we're having all these conversations about- I'm just, like, trying to be like, "Think about these things, you know?" It's like, it's about, you know, we make choices as a community about the way we want our, want the community to be and the way that, that it looks and the way that we interact with each

Solomon Everta: other. And-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … it's important for us to kind of make those decisions

Solomon Everta: consciously-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Solomon Everta: … and not just be reactive.

Scott Hammond: That's good.

Solomon Everta: You know?

Scott Hammond: That's good.

Solomon Everta: So I'm trying to instill that in him before he leaves. I got a little bit of time left.

Scott Hammond: You do, yeah. It's, it's hard 'cause you're, yeah, you always have that investment until, until you don't. Um, I think Slow's a great school.

Solomon Everta: Mm. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: My, my son Jesse, the one we, I referenced, he, he applied at St. Louis, but didn't have the SATs, in the architecture school, which is-

Solomon Everta: That's what he wants to do

Scott Hammond: … tough, tough thing to get into.

Scott Hammond: But I love that community in so many ways 'cause it's got weather, it's got a downtown, it's got good culture.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's alive. My sister-in-law has Pizza Republic-

Solomon Everta: Oh

Scott Hammond: … up by the airport.

Solomon Everta: Okay.

Scott Hammond: All right.

Solomon Everta: Let's go.

Scott Hammond: Pizza Republic, Slow. And then, uh, they used to own the, uh, Village, Old Village Grill in Arroyo Grande.

Solomon Everta: Nice.

Scott Hammond: Great burgers.

Solomon Everta: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Am I doing shout-outs now?

Solomon Everta: I guess that's what we're doing.

Scott Hammond: I guess that's what we're doing. So, um, I'll, I'll give you the, uh, the quiz is coming, but I'll, I'll give you the deeper zen quiz first. Who are you, Solomon, and, and what do you want?

Solomon Everta: Oh, yeah. I-

Scott Hammond: I mean, you just said a community thing that's pretty meaningful, you know, in terms of downloading to your son about being intentional, community intentional. But what's your, what's your answer to that if somebody said, "Who are you and what do

Scott Hammond: you want?"

Solomon Everta: So I kind of, I have a general philosophy that, that stories are relationships.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Solomon Everta: And that the stories we tell then determine what kind of relationships we have. And so I'm a curator of stories, literally-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … at the bookstore.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Right.

Solomon Everta: All the stories there. But it's also about the, the interactions we have each day with other people that we come into contact with.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And to have some honest storytelling about what's going on-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Solomon Everta: … instead of just trying, making up this, you know, imaginary thing about how we think things are.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Solomon Everta: But really deal with, like, how can we make a better story-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Solomon Everta: … where everybody's taken care of?

Solomon Everta: Like I said-

Scott Hammond: Love it

Solomon Everta: … we have enough to, for everybody to have all the basic needs met, and then-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … a little more-

Scott Hammond: Preach

Solomon Everta: … so that we can go and learn and educate ourselves and get, be better at continuing this on-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Solomon Everta: … to help the next people that come with, with us.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. I like that.

Solomon Everta: We all have a responsibility.

Scott Hammond: It's a universe of abundance thought.

Solomon Everta: Oh, for sure.

Scott Hammond: It's not a scarcity thing here.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. And it's, you know, that's one of the things is, like, growing up poor for me was a challenge because, like, I ingrained in that myself. Like, "Oh, I can't afford to go to college." I've dropped out of college, like-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … like, three times because I was like, "Ah, I can't afford. This isn't, ah, it's not gonna work."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And then, you know, in my marriage, there was, like, a lot of, like, "Oh, we can't afford this or that," or whatever.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And, and it was just like, you know what? Once I got divorced, and then it was like I found this abundance that I was like-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Solomon Everta: … "I have everything I need. I can make my dreams come true." So when the bookstore came open and was available for sale, it was just like, "Yes, I can do that."

Scott Hammond: What year was that?

Solomon Everta: So it was four years ago, actually. April 1st, um, was-

Scott Hammond: Happy anniversary.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. We just had it. So four years ago is when I, I bought the store from Jack Irvine, who-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … was very generous to, like, help, help me get started. He's actually sold me the building too, so I own the building.

Scott Hammond: Sweet.

Solomon Everta: And so that's like the, you know, the secureYou know, all the things start happening once you, like, let yourself into an abundance mindset where you can believe that things can happen.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And the thing is, though, is we have to support each other in those, in those things. We have to stop telling the story of that there's not enough for everybody-

Scott Hammond: Right

Solomon Everta: … that, that we can't make these things happen. It's like we really can.

Scott Hammond: I must overcome you so I can hit my goals.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. No.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: No, that's true. I love it, man.

Solomon Everta: It's, um, it's a, it is a mindset shift. Yeah. And I think a lot of people, you know, are living in a lot of, uh, you know, fear a-about what's gonna happen to them because we have a society where, like, we don't have healthcare. It's like-

Scott Hammond: Right

Solomon Everta: … where children don't have healthcare.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: This is ridiculous.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Solomon Everta: Uh, like, I, I get upset about it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And everybody, you know, everybody who interacts with me on a personal basis knows, like, I'm really easygoing-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … and kind of just able to, like, kind of let things go-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … do a lot of listening.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: But when you get me worked up on this stuff, man, it's like-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … I'm angry.

Scott Hammond: Kind of pissed.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Good.

Solomon Everta: It's like, come on, like, you– we can't say every child should just be able to go to the doctor and get served until they're eighteen or, what, sixteen or whatever.

Scott Hammond: Or get an education.

Solomon Everta: Right. Or get education free.

Scott Hammond: Or food.

Solomon Everta: Healthcare. It's like, come on. Like, we, we have enough resources. It's that there's a small group of people who's hoarding, hoarding the wealth because they live in this fear mindset-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … where there's afraid that they just need to keep getting more because there's never gonna be enough.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Solomon Everta: And that's what we need to change, is we need to, we need to get away from this, like, capitalist kind of attitude of where, like-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … the only way to get ahead is by taking advantage of other people, capitalizing

Solomon Everta: on, on the other people's inability to stand up for themselves.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think of a sad quote, um, I think it's Andrew Carnegie that said, um, on his deathbed, he goes, "What do, what do you need? Are you okay?" He goes, "I just need to make another million- … and I'm gonna be cool." It's like, what are you saying, bro?

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Greed's a funny, weird thing, huh?

Scott Hammond: It's like,

Scott Hammond: um, very limiting.

Solomon Everta: So we need to tell a different story.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: You know? And I think that's, that's the thing that why the arts are so important and why I felt like when we had a lot more, more artists on the, like, city council in Eureka-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … like, things started to kinda really get cool here.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: You know, we had more murals, we have more-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … activities and events happening, and there's people that are-

Scott Hammond: Do we, do we currently?

Solomon Everta: Well, yeah, like we cur- Like, yeah, now we have two on there, I think.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: But yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: And that they make things happen.

Scott Hammond: No, it's, it's really interesting. They've got the housing thing going. The, this giant Taj Mahal's going- … six, five, s- feels like ten stories, but it's five and a half or whatever, uh, by McCray Nissan, and it's, um-

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … so that's happening. The, the, the metro transportation center-

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … is all but happening.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Um-

Solomon Everta: Yeah, and, and, and part of this is because we're taking, we're taking a different perspective on what's the, what's the role of government and what's the important way that, that government can-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … can step in to encourage these things, and also looking at it from a lot of these projects are, are really being spearheaded by the Wiyot Tribe.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Solomon Everta: And when you start to think in a tribal nature, in a, in a tribal nation-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … has a different attitude. You go down to, like, Bear River, and you go and like, look, there's like a, a rec center and, uh-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … you know, all this-

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah

Solomon Everta: … community stuff there. I have to take my kid to go for his soccer practice down there because they've got the great facility because they put the money back into the community-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, they have

Solomon Everta: … that, that comes from, that comes from the, you know, casino or whatever.

Scott Hammond: They have a lot, yeah. Are you concerned about parking? The– I, I I don't mean to go off on this, uh, but with the high-rise, with the, with the housing that's going in, are you concerned about there's not commensurate parking, or is there?

Solomon Everta: Uh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: They're not doing any underground or above ground. It's just gonna… We're gonna absorb all that.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. So, um, as you may know, I was very involved in the No on Measure F campaign, and so-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … which was, and which was… We can go into all the details if you want.

Scott Hammond: That's the Rob Arkley thing, right?

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: So that, he put that on the ballot to, and it was kind of like trying to use the parking as his wedge issue to try to get people-

Scott Hammond: Shout out to Rob. Hi, Rob. Hi, Sharon.

Solomon Everta: Hi, Rob. And, uh, but, you know, despite the being outspent, I don't know-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … ten to one, a hundred to one, what were we? We, we defeated that, that, that measure-

Scott Hammond: Blew it out of the-

Solomon Everta: … because-

Scott Hammond: Blew it out of the water

Solomon Everta: … because the parking issue is, is like-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … sure, we need to, like, think about how to get people circulating more and maybe have a more, you know, proactive parking pan- plan and transportation plan to get people down there.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: But, you know, you look at studies, and you look at h-how,

Solomon Everta: uh, how people interact with parking and h- what happens when you have more people living in the area.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: It's actually the benefit to the, to the community. I'm super excited about it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: I'm not… I'm, I don't have any problem with, with, with what, with that.

Scott Hammond: Well, and you would have skin in the game as a businessman, and you don't have-

Solomon Everta: Sure

Scott Hammond: … you don't actually have tons of parking right in front of your store.

Solomon Everta: I have no parking in front of my store.

Scott Hammond: Like-

Solomon Everta: I'm actually in my, in front of my store, the, the sidewalk goes out and takes whatever parking spot would be there.

Scott Hammond: I was, I was gonna say, not, not tons of parking.

Scott Hammond: No parking.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um,

Scott Hammond: so, so you believe the, the studies, the fact that we're not overly impacted with, uh, parking currently. So, and that's what, um, forgot who said that. One of my guests, so she said, "Hey, uh, pro- you know, if we believe the Caltrans guys or the city guys, our, our parking is not that impacted

Scott Hammond: currently."

Solomon Everta: Yeah. But-

Scott Hammond: And it wouldn't be with a couple more buildings.

Solomon Everta: I have to walk a couple blocks to get to my car. I live above the bookstore, which is totally fun.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: But, um, so, like, I don't have a parking spot. I'm, like, a couple blocks away, and it's like, "Oh, boy, I have to walk a couple

Solomon Everta: blocks."

Scott Hammond: Right.

Solomon Everta: It's like, "Okay, it's fine."

Scott Hammond: I park by Dick Taylor Chocolates and start my morning down there.

Solomon Everta: That's right. When it's busy, I have to walk three blocks. You know, like-

Scott Hammond: Right

Solomon Everta: … it's, like, very much a lot of parking. I'm like, "This is not a problem."

Scott Hammond: I understand.

Solomon Everta: You know, and it, it's, it's a great urban experience, and, like, this is one of the things that was weird for me was because, like, I grew up in a very urban area in, in Oakland and, and Hayward and Fremont. And, and coming up here, I thought I was going into, like, really rural, which in a lot of ways Humboldt County is very rural.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Solomon Everta: But in Downtown Eureka and downtown Arcata-

Scott Hammond: Not so much

Solomon Everta: … it's urban, you know, and it's like-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … and we have, you know, the challenges of being an urban place, but we also have, like, the really serendipitous things that happen, like I have my window up, I can hear the speakeasy, I can walk down and go to get a ramen. It's just like-

Scott Hammond: There it is

Solomon Everta: … it's, it's a really cool place to be.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I think my landlord actually has an apartment upstairs, maybe two doors down from you or somewhere. It's right above the speakeasy in that area.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I think it faces… They, they really like it.

Scott Hammond: They, um, said they taught, uh, Lucky at Gabriel's how to make a decent

Scott Hammond: Mai Tai.

Solomon Everta: Nice.

Scott Hammond: Now, now he's, you know, he's, he's very apt, apt, I guess, but-

Solomon Everta: Great

Scott Hammond: … No, yeah. So let's talk about historic Old Town Eureka.

Solomon Everta: Sure.

Scott Hammond: Um, you, obviously, you're located there, and you've probably read about it 'cause you own a bookstore, and you probably have books about it.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: But, um, I, I don't know if there's a lot to add to that narrative, but for those that don't know, it's… We're quite old.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And Old Town was pretty different back in the day.

Solomon Everta: Absolutely.

Scott Hammond: You know, between Coffee Jack and different people that- Uh, the women of the night and the, the lumbermen that would spend their hard-earned

Scott Hammond: money, um-

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … on a weekend of, uh, whatever that was.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um, any, any other insights as to… Wanna talk about Old Town?

Solomon Everta: Yeah, well, um, I, I did a, an art project that you can find at losteureka.com, and it's-

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Solomon Everta: And it's a project called Lost Eureka, and

Solomon Everta: it's, um… What I did was, like, did research in the newspapers from 1889

Solomon Everta: from Eureka.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Solomon Everta: And, and so I learned a lot about the way it used to be down here. Um, the project is, is fantastic stories that have some slight corroboration from these newspaper articles that are in the, uh, that are in the, the t- the Standard and the Times-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … the two separate papers that-

Scott Hammond: Right

Solomon Everta: … became one later.

Scott Hammond: And now it's one half of a paper.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, really.

Scott Hammond: Uh-

Solomon Everta: So-

Scott Hammond: Love you, John Richmond, but, uh, you're… It's kinda small.

Solomon Everta: We need to do some work on that.

Solomon Everta: But, um, yeah. And so, like, lots… So there's fantastic stories, uh, that are slightly corroborated by the, uh, newspaper articles at the time.

Solomon Everta: So it's-

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's funny

Solomon Everta: … it was a real fun project to do, is to, like, really kind of become familiar with the things of how, what Eureka was like in that time period-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … and just seeing, like, there used to be…

Solomon Everta: Like, they didn't have TV, they didn't have radio.

Solomon Everta: Like, they-

Scott Hammond: Right

Solomon Everta: … like, in order to have a good time, you would go out, and you would go to one of the many halls that were available.

Scott Hammond: It's the music.

Solomon Everta: And they'd have people playing music or singing, and it was like a thing, or they have children perform, and-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Solomon Everta: … it was just… Or theater.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And these traveling theater people would come through and-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Solomon Everta: … would, would like… Guy would come, like, on the stagecoach, you know, and, and, and hang out in Eureka for a few weeks, do the shows, and do, like, "I'm gonna do a

Solomon Everta: Shakespeare-

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh

Solomon Everta: … soliloquy. I'm gonna do some poetry." And it's like-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … and that's what they would do.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: You'd go and… You'd go out and see the show.

Scott Hammond: You know, 'cause I– you made me think of the bathrooms in, at the Sea Grill. They have framed-up newspapers from the '50s.

Solomon Everta: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: And here we go. Yeah, they had… Maybe they had a little TV then, but-

Solomon Everta: Right

Scott Hammond: … it was all these acts at these bars and these different dance halls, and, and it's fascinating. It was, like, the Friday afternoon paper of all the stuff to do.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And it's like, "Oh, cool. Oh, we should go see her. She's pretty cool. She looks like… You know, she's singing all the hits." So anyway, yeah, different world.

Solomon Everta: Well, we're really blessed. I mean, as you know, we have a, an abundance of artists in Humboldt County, especially, and Eureka is just full of artists. And we have, like, great theater, and we have these, like, amazing spaces like Synapsis, which is, like, an amazing,

Solomon Everta: beautiful, um, space where, you know, all these aerial performances and, and these type of theater performances that they do.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And it's like we have to turn off the Netflix.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: Let me… I'm looking at the camera. Turn off the Netflix- … turn off your phone-

Scott Hammond: He's getting, he's getting really heated on this

Solomon Everta: … and go, go to your local theater,

Solomon Everta: NCRT-

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh

Solomon Everta: … D Street neighborhood, and, uh, Synapsis, and go to the, go to the bar and go see a show. And I mean, this is… It's important, you know.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: Go see comedy at Sava- Savage Henry.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Solomon Everta: All these great places that we have, like, there's plenty of stuff to do.

Scott Hammond: Blue Lake has music out at the brewery, and-

Solomon Everta: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … um, you know who has music that's fun is M- uh, Moonstone, uh, Crossing Winery. They do, uh-

Solomon Everta: Oh, that'd be great

Scott Hammond: … Sunday night. Quite fun.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Little outdoor venue. Pretty cool.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Or indoors. They do, they do have some there, up there that are really fun. Yeah, no, great word. You're right. Get, get, get out, and then read, read a freaking book.

Solomon Everta: Hey, well, there you go.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: There's a good idea.

Scott Hammond: There's that… Did you make that one up? Is that your bumper sticker?

Solomon Everta: No. That's, yeah, that's the North, uh, the Northtown classic, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Did, did you, do you sell those? There are a lot of b– There aren't a lot of cars in Humboldt. That bumper sticker.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: It's great.

Scott Hammond: I was– I told, I told my friend Ron about that when I was driving. I go, "Look at that bumper sticker." He goes, "Yeah, that's kind of pretentious." He goes, "I don't really like that." I go, "Okay, fair." Um, so, uh, let's do the quiz.

Scott Hammond: You ready?

Solomon Everta: Ready.

Scott Hammond: All right, here we go. Following this, we'll do the AI, um, experience.

Solomon Everta: Oh, God.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah. Let's see. Oh, wow, let's see what we have here.

Scott Hammond: Okay. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, the quiz for Solomon. Question number one, um, you could do anything you want in a day in Humboldt-

Solomon Everta: Mm

Scott Hammond: … with whoever you want, and money's not an object. What do you– How are you gonna spend that 9 AM to 9 PM window? What would you do, uh, in Humboldt County, which is right here in California? It's right on that map.

Solomon Everta: Look at that place.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, anywhere within the borders.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, it's funny because it's like I, I've watched your show before, Scott.

Scott Hammond: Have you seen it? Oh.

Solomon Everta: I knew this question was coming.

Scott Hammond: Okay. You don't look that surprised. He didn't have a puzzled look at all.

Scott Hammond: So…

Solomon Everta: You know, and I w– it's like I don't necessarily wanna work every day, but I really enjoy, like, working, hanging out with people, and actually talking to people.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And I think it's funny because people come in the shop and just talk to me.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And we just, you know… And II'll, I'll just hang out and talk with you for a

Solomon Everta: while-

Scott Hammond: That's really cool

Solomon Everta: … about books or whatever's going on.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: That'd be a nice little part of my day.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: But mostly I'd want to try to spend some time with my kids, probably go play some disc golf in Cooper Gulch.

Scott Hammond: Oh, fun.

Solomon Everta: That'd be… That's a, that's something we do when we have the time. Probably go up with my-

Scott Hammond: It's been too long. I'd like to do that again.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. Go– Yeah, disc golf's great.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I'd love it.

Solomon Everta: Great to get outside. You kinda chat. You have plenty of time to-

Scott Hammond: I played in 1977 in San Diego, Balboa Park.

Solomon Everta: There we go.

Scott Hammond: One of the first disc golf parks-

Solomon Everta: Yeah, yeah, yeah

Scott Hammond: … probably on the West Coast or ever.

Solomon Everta: For sure. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um, sorry.

Solomon Everta: No, yeah. Disc golf-

Scott Hammond: Your, your day, not mine. So disc golf.

Solomon Everta: Disc golf with the kids, have a little lunch, probably, you know, go get some ramen at, at Kokoro and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Is that the one in Opera Alley?

Solomon Everta: Opera Alley, just out my window. I can look down and see it there.

Scott Hammond: You like their ramen?

Solomon Everta: Yeah, yeah. We do the ramen.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay. They're tasty?

Solomon Everta: Yeah. We like the… Yeah, there's a… Yeah. The, the miso ramen has a little pork in it though, and it's, it's-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … fantastic.

Scott Hammond: Sounds good.

Solomon Everta: And, um, yeah, probably then ha- spend some time with my, my lady, and we'd probably go up to Trinidad. I love Trinidad-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … and probably hike the head and take a look out there, look for some whales.

Solomon Everta: So-

Scott Hammond: That's Joni's favorite. Yeah, the head.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. It's my lady's, lady's birthday, and we're gonna go and see-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Solomon Everta: … go out on the paddle and hopefully see some whales.

Solomon Everta: So-

Scott Hammond: Oh, that'd be fun

Solomon Everta: … so that, I'd put that in my day.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: So, so next, next Monday or whatever it is, it's gonna be my perfect day Sunday.

Scott Hammond: It's starting to get whale time, right?

Solomon Everta: Yeah. There's been, they've been seeing them out there, so-

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah

Solomon Everta: … so I was like, "All right. That's easy birthday gift for you."

Scott Hammond: Yeah. This is your day, but we, we actually go to, to, um, on a scenic drive there over, uh, Huda Point-

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … and pull up the van, have a picnic.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And sometimes the, there'll be whales.

Solomon Everta: Yes.

Scott Hammond: Pretty cool.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. All right. So what do you do after that?

Solomon Everta: Definitely. Well, um, yeah, so I, I, I'd find some time to do some creative work-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … do some writing-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Solomon Everta: … and do some… and read a book.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Solomon Everta: I would spend a little read a book and-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Solomon Everta: … and relax. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Solomon Everta: Probably go out to, go out to maybe Ramone's on Harrison.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: That's one thing we like to do and go play-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … play a game with friends. Oh, and then maybe get together with my, my dude friends and play some Dungeons & Dragons. I think that-

Scott Hammond: Sweet

Solomon Everta: … what a day this would be.

Scott Hammond: That's a full day, man.

Solomon Everta: I love it.

Scott Hammond: I like it.

Solomon Everta: Pack it all in.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Joni took Aunt Danna, our sister, yesterday to R-Ramone's on

Scott Hammond: Harrison.

Solomon Everta: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Shout out to Barrett. Brian.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. I, I'm, I'm-

Scott Hammond: I said it was fabulous. They have it.

Solomon Everta: I really love it. Yeah. That's like something, like I said, in a way, this is like an urban experience.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: It's like you could go do that. You go to Ramone's, it's like you might as well be in Portland or Seattle, you know?

Scott Hammond: Isn't that funny? And people from the hospital come over there that probably are, you know, besides staff, but people that, with patients, and they're stressed out, and here you are presented with a, a magnificent menu.

Solomon Everta: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Delicious.

Solomon Everta: It's great.

Scott Hammond: Their coffee's great. They roast and grind their own and-

Solomon Everta: Yeah. Super.

Scott Hammond: Pretty good. All right, question number two.

Scott Hammond: What, uh, what eviscerates you emotionally and just takes it out, the wind out of your sails? What, what sucks the life out of you in life?

Solomon Everta: Um, one of the most difficult parts about being in Old Town, which was getting a, a little shock, was just to seeing, seeing the desperation of the folks that are living on the street-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Solomon Everta: … on a daily basis.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Solomon Everta: It's so frustrating to me, as I say it again-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … is there's enough for all of us to have everything we need.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Solomon Everta: We need to figure this out, and I, I appreciate the work that the council is doing to make us be like a home, you know, get the awards for, for,

Solomon Everta: for housing-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … because we're, we need to, to address the situation.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And, and we can do this, you know. Like, there's no reason for people to be making money off of other people's desperation and, and, and, and we, we've got to figure this out.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: There's a way.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: Then, yeah, it just eats me up. It's always has been. That's why I was involved in True Knot Bombs in the early '90s, and now I kind of work behind the scenes a little bit to try to help with some of these things-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … and make them happen.

Scott Hammond: It's such a tough problem. It's got so many layers to it.

Scott Hammond: There's, you know, after talking to Betty Chen and-

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … you know, she, who's amazing.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You know, she, she blew, blew my mind. She was really amazing.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: "I sleep four hours a night, Scott, and I go and do it again." I go, "Are you ever in danger?" She goes, "Never, no. I'd, I'd never be in danger."

Solomon Everta: Right.

Scott Hammond: I go, "Okay, cool."

Solomon Everta: Yeah, and that's the thing is I don't feel like I'm ever in danger with my-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … neighbors that are, that happen to live on the streets.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And I see them all the time, and I know a lot of them, but it's just like-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … yeah, that, that really bugs me, you know, that, that we can't-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … we can't get through that because I think it's, it's eminently reachable.

Scott Hammond: Okay. Question number three. What gives you life and, like, perks you up and blows your mind and wind in your sails, all that stuff?

Solomon Everta: Yeah. Um, the main thing is seeing my kids get excited about something-

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah

Solomon Everta: … and really, like, want to follow, follow up on something.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: But also just when I can be a person who is assisting and helping someone be the best version of themselves-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Solomon Everta: … that's when I just feel like I'm really-

Scott Hammond: The sound

Solomon Everta: … doing this life thing right, you know?

Scott Hammond: That's good.

Solomon Everta: And whether that's my kids, whether that's helping you have this great podcast right now-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. You are. Thank you

Solomon Everta: … or or having, or helping my staff, my amazing staff at the bookstore-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Solomon Everta: … to really kind of find their agency within their work and find some way that they can be-

Scott Hammond: I like that

Solomon Everta: … in, in control of, of how their work experience happens-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … and, and, and find their, their truth in how they can-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … you know, have this life be beneficial for them.

Scott Hammond: I love it. Practicing the way, uh, John Mark Comer talks about apprenticeship.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: It's, it's that apprenticeship headspace, and you're, you're the mentor.

Solomon Everta: Apparently so, but I learn-

Scott Hammond: Good for you

Solomon Everta: … I learn so much from them, of course.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: And, and, and, and it's just a, it's a privilege to be in the space where I can, I can help them.

Scott Hammond: That's cool. That's a great attitude. I love that. Uh, last question. Um, what do you think the challenges are for Humboldt? Oh, I gotta ring the bell.

Solomon Everta: There we go.

Scott Hammond: Bonus question number four. What's our biggest challenges and biggest opportunities to, uh, uh, prosper? I'll use that word. I think that's a, a good enough word to cover not getting rich-

Scott Hammond: … but having a full life-

Solomon Everta: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … as a community.

Solomon Everta: So, um-I think there's a lot of outside forces that, that impact us, just things that are happening on a national scale or even on a state scale that-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … that in order to find some kind of

Solomon Everta: resilience in the face of, of those impacts or the way that, that,

Solomon Everta: you know, a new administration can come in and just tank the, the wind power-

Scott Hammond: Right

Solomon Everta: … factories. You know, it's just like-

Scott Hammond: It's kind of on hold, isn't it?

Solomon Everta: It's on hold. Yeah. So it's like maybe it'll come back when administration changes.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: But it's like we don't have any control over that thing, and I think, you know, we're blessed with so much natural abundance.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: It's great, you know, water source from the Mad River for these– for our

Solomon Everta: city here.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And it's just a matter of, like, putting in systems in place that really instills, like, our ability to keep this

Solomon Everta: place cool. And I think the thing– we have examples though of how we can do that, and I've been taking a great… Just one of the best examples of how we do things right is how these, the Klamath dams have come down.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Solomon Everta: It's amazing and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … you get emotional, like, thinking about it because-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Solomon Everta: … this is what needs to happen, is that we need to start managing this land that we live on-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … using principles of the First Nations that were here-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … and understanding, getting the, the lessons from them and let them lead. Whether it's like in housing, with the housing that we're seeing in Eureka, or just bringing down the Klamath dams there, or whether it's introducing fire into the landscape to help prevent, uh, major-

Scott Hammond: Wildfires

Solomon Everta: … wildfires.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: Let the native communities lead on this thing-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … and us people who are not native, I'm part native, but my non-native part of me needs to like-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … let the native people lead on these things.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: They have institutional knowledge that is tens of thousands of years

Solomon Everta: old.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: We need to get out of the way.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Love it. Yeah. Wildfire, there's, there's one.

Scott Hammond: Phew.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. Well-

Scott Hammond: Well, hey

Solomon Everta: … I, I worked for the Forest Service for ten years also, and-

Scott Hammond: So you know about that

Solomon Everta: … worked with some firefighters. Yeah, so we kinda have-

Scott Hammond: Bagels and forests.

Solomon Everta: That's my– Those are my two- … biggest… Bagels, forests, and now-

Scott Hammond: Books

Solomon Everta: … now books. Yeah. So I got these three things that were kind of things-

Scott Hammond: It's good. I love it

Solomon Everta: … I'm like, "When, when do I get to be an artist?"

Scott Hammond: Maybe later. The kids are growing. They're gonna be gone at some point.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. It's a transition time for sure. This next year-

Scott Hammond: Oh, I bet, yeah

Solomon Everta: … is gonna be really big for me as far as what happens next.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah. No, it's, uh… I remember saying goodbye to Jesse at UOP in Pacific and Stockton and went out to dinner with their friends, and I go, "Hey, can I take you back to the dorms to say goodbye?" He goes, "No, we'll say goodbye right here."

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I hugged him, and I got in the car, and I'm driving up the Five to go back to Sac, and I just start losing it, man.

Solomon Everta: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Just tears, and I'm going, "Dang it." You know, I just, I went with it. I just wept and prayed and-

Solomon Everta: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … gave him to God, and, you know, God speed, and he's done fine.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: They just moved from, uh, Netherlands, where she worked for, um, Jesse's wife, Yunjin, worked for, uh, Nike, which, uh, now there's a shit show at the top-

Solomon Everta: Oh my.

Scott Hammond: … to, um, to Samsung, where she's from in Seoul, South Korea.

Solomon Everta: I see. Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: Uh, and they, they're part of the, the, the folks that run that country.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. They're– It's-

Solomon Everta: For sure.

Scott Hammond: He goes, "It's kind of a paradox." He goes, "It's, um, very pro-American, pro-Trump, pro f- every– big supporters of America. No English. They don't speak it, and they don't, they don't, they don't try. They– It's not like the Netherlands. The Dutch are better at English than we are."

Solomon Everta: Mm. Right.

Scott Hammond: And, uh, he, and he's traveled internationally. I mean, the guy's a traveler, and he, he goes, "I'm lost. I can't, I can't order the freaking soup."

Scott Hammond: So-

Solomon Everta: You better learn the language, buddy.

Scott Hammond: He is. He's, he's in language school. He's– That's– He goes, "My full-time job?"

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: "Korean."

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I go, "Good. Good." He goes, "Can't come this year, Dad. Next year. I'll, I'll, I can get you around next year, but this year-"

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: "… not gonna happen anyway." So, hey, so let's go to the AI section.

Solomon Everta: Uh-oh. Okay. Love it here.

Scott Hammond: All right. Well, let's see what it says here. I, I– It's so general, but it's pretty good. Eureka Books is a beloved independent bookstore located in the historic Old Town district of Eureka-

Solomon Everta: True

Scott Hammond: … California.

Solomon Everta: True.

Scott Hammond: True or false?

Solomon Everta: True.

Scott Hammond: I think I have a new format going here. This is gonna be great. Uh, bookstore serves as a cultural hub for residents and visitors alike.

Solomon Everta: Absolutely.

Scott Hammond: Fostering a community-centered, uh, a community spirit centered around the love of literature. Yeah, pretty close. I like that. Um, well, Eureka, Old Town Eureka is well known for its well-preserved nineteenth-century architecture, bustling waterfront, and rich cultural heritage.

Solomon Everta: Sure, yeah.

Scott Hammond: And there's some Dick Taylor chocolate down there somewhere.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Come on. Um, about Eureka Books. Established in the twentieth century.

Solomon Everta: Yes. True.

Scott Hammond: Exact founding date not publicly documented. Is that true? What did-

Solomon Everta: Oh, wow. Interesting

Scott Hammond: … Jack Irvine– When did he open that thing?

Solomon Everta: Carlos Benneman opened it, uh, Carlos and Marilyn Benneman opened it in

Solomon Everta: 1987.

Scott Hammond: '87.

Solomon Everta: And then they moved into the Eure- then the building there in, like, 1988

Solomon Everta: or '89.

Scott Hammond: Where'd they start?

Solomon Everta: They were, like, a couple blocks away.

Scott Hammond: Oh, really?

Solomon Everta: Um, yeah. I think maybe it was on Fifth Street or something.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Solomon Everta: But yeah, it was very briefly.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Solomon Everta: It was just to kinda get started. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's grown from a small local bookstore to a key player in the community's cultural landscape. That's pretty general, but-

Solomon Everta: I'll take it.

Scott Hammond: Thank you very much.

Solomon Everta: Thank you very much.

Scott Hammond: That's a go. Um, more than just a retail space, it functions as a community gathering spot. It regularly hosts book signings, readings, workshops, children's story hours. Is that all true?

Solomon Everta: We do not have children's story hours or-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Solomon Everta: … or readings because-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … the space is too impactful.

Scott Hammond: Come on, AI, man. You're, you're doing LSD here.

Solomon Everta: They're, they're gonna fall off it here.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Close enough.

Scott Hammond: Um, uh, I'm sorry, this, this is fair-fairly elemental, but it's fun. Uh, Eureka Books embodies the spirit of Old Town Eureka, historic, community-oriented, and culturally rich.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It supports authors and nurtures readers of all ages and contributes to the preservation of the town's unique identity through the power of books.

Solomon Everta: Power of books

Scott Hammond: Woo!

Solomon Everta: All right.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Well, maybe, maybe the power's not in the books, it's in us-

Solomon Everta: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … as we read the books.

Solomon Everta: Well, the stories.

Scott Hammond: Love the books.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Love the stories.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I, I love the idea that, that life is… Learn that in Toastmasters, that you can– I mean, Jesus did it with parables, but you-

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … you and I do it when we tell a story.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Can I, can I tell you a quick story?

Solomon Everta: Of course.

Scott Hammond: Just kidding. I probably could come up with one, too, and I would. It would be amazing. But yeah, it's the whole– I think we live in stories.

Solomon Everta: Yep.

Scott Hammond: And, um, I'll never forget, my dad, uh, was in a sales meeting. We were, we worked for the Tri-City newspaper.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Remember The Shopper?

Solomon Everta: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Remember newsprint?

Solomon Everta: I do. I do.

Scott Hammond: And I said, "You know, I'm so excited. Come on in and tell us all about this rich heritage of salesmanship," and that you were amazing-

Solomon Everta: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … insurance sales guy and-

Solomon Everta: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: By the way, I never wanted to be my dad, and the DNA-

Solomon Everta: Now you are.

Scott Hammond: … the DNA just, it's too much, folks.

Scott Hammond: I just caved in thirteen years ago at fifty-three.

Solomon Everta: Nice.

Scott Hammond: Anyway, I'm glad. Best thing I've ever done, um, besides marry Joanie.

Scott Hammond: So he came into the sales meeting, sat around, and I go, "Dad, you know, you got the floor. You know, time's not a problem. Just go, just unload on us." And he sat there, kind of a smart-ass, smug, and he goes, "You know, if you folks are in sales for the money, you're about half paid."

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And I go, "What? Is there more?"

Scott Hammond: And he goes, "I'm done here." Rob is my middle name. Rob. He goes, "I'm done, Rob."

Solomon Everta: Mm.

Scott Hammond: And I go,

Scott Hammond: "Dad, what? Okay, great." And so we called the meeting, and I've– that has echoed in my brain for probably thirty years ago.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: If you're in life or sales or anyth- or business for the money, you're maybe about half paid.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And you said it earlier with relationships-

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … and human connection and hanging out with folks. Seems like you're really good at that.

Solomon Everta: I try.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. It's about showing up.

Solomon Everta: Showing up and listening.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: You know? I think we gotta, we gotta listen.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm working on that still.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. The, the, uh, the big part of the story is the person that's listening,

Solomon Everta: you know?

Scott Hammond: Hey. Amen.

Solomon Everta: Be that.

Scott Hammond: Maybe the main part.

Solomon Everta: Be that.

Scott Hammond: Some of the best salespeople are great listeners.

Solomon Everta: That's how, that's how you win.

Scott Hammond: My friend Brian, he– I– we go, "He'll listen to you right into a sale."

Solomon Everta: Oh, no. That's– I– People come in, and, like, I'm training new staff, and I say,

Solomon Everta: like, "Have, have them tell you."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: Like, you don't sell them the thing. You gotta understand who they are, what they, what they need.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: They're– Everybody's looking for something.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: They're coming into the bookstore, whether it's gonna be for a specifi- specific

Solomon Everta: book.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: They don't know what book they wanna, gonna want.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: But maybe they're not there for a book at this time. Maybe this time they're here just to have the experience of being in a bookstore-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Solomon Everta: … having somebody have a genuine interaction with them-

Scott Hammond: Love it

Solomon Everta: … and realize, "This is my community, and this is where I wanna be."

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Solomon Everta: They'll be back, and they'll buy a book eventually.

Scott Hammond: I love it.

Solomon Everta: I don't need them to buy it that time.

Scott Hammond: Ah, the bookstore long game.

Solomon Everta: That's right, baby.

Scott Hammond: I like the long game. I, I, yeah, I'm all about the long game.

Solomon Everta: But because what we're s- we're building and what, what the, the mission of the store isn't to make, to sell books, to make money.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: It's to, it's to build community-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … and to make, and to make this space be, you know-

Scott Hammond: I love it

Solomon Everta: … yeah, to make those connections.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. I take that with, seriously in my business.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: We do a, a recognition called Humboldt Heroes.

Scott Hammond: The fact-

Solomon Everta: Yes

Scott Hammond: … why I'm sitting here is I interviewed with this nice man over here. Hey, come on into his podcast, uh, Growing Pains with Nick Flores- … live at Humboldt County. How many episodes are you into, Nick? Two hundred and change. Two hundred and change.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And these are not short form like mine, an hour- … forty-eight minutes. Give me a break. He's doing two and three and four-hour shows.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And, uh, where was I going with that? So yeah, Humboldt Heroes, platform for blessing to be part of a community and, in this case, say thank you to veterans.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Small thing. And somebody said, "Hey, do you wanna grow it?" I go, "What do you mean?" "We could scale it, you know, do it big." I go, "Why would you wanna wreck it?"

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's cool when it's thirty or forty people on the sidewalk for f- twenty minutes.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And it's, it's organic and l- low scale, and there we go.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: So, uh, I'll, I'll wind up with two things. One is I wanna know your legacy and your, your wrap-up and how we wanna bury you and what we wanna say and what to put on your tombstone and all.

Solomon Everta: Right.

Scott Hammond: You already see that coming. You probably thought about that. What you haven't thought about is this question.

Solomon Everta: Hmm.

Scott Hammond: My real creative zinger.

Solomon Everta: Okay.

Solomon Everta: Bring it.

Scott Hammond: Um, what do you see as our– Remember the SWOT acronym, uh, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.

Solomon Everta: Right.

Scott Hammond: What do you– What's the arc of how you see Eureka, but Humboldt, in terms of where we've been, where we're at, where we're going, and if you had your way and your magic wand to wave, uh, w- how would you– what, what direction would you point us in in terms of good community solutions? Uh, you, uh, you've didacted on a number of them, but, um, what, what's been our– what's, what was our problem? What is our problem? And what w- do we need to do-

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … going forward? And, and in terms of headspace or action or… I, I don't wanna feed you the answer, but I'll, uh, let you talk, and thanks for coming, by the way.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, I, I get it. I think a lot of the work right now that I'm understanding is to help people make a shift in their mind from this individualistic kind of approach to things and looking more at a community sense. And so in order to make that happen-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … like for example, I'm working on trying to get my business, Eureka Books, to be at the point where some of my staff can buy in and become part owners of the store.

Scott Hammond: That's cool.

Solomon Everta: I think that every workplace, this is broad, but every workplace should be owned by a majority of the staff, or majority of staff should own the business.

Scott Hammond: Kind of an ESOP model.

Solomon Everta: ESOPs are okay-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: But I prefer worker-owned, uh, worker cooperatives.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Solomon Everta: And so that they're actually owned-

Scott Hammond: Different model?

Solomon Everta: Owned and, owned and managed by the staff.

Scott Hammond: So compare and contrast real quick.

Solomon Everta: First-

Scott Hammond: Just, just that-

Solomon Everta: An ESOP is an ex- yeah. It is a employee stock o-option

Solomon Everta: program-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Solomon Everta: … or something like that. And, and that's-

Scott Hammond: Like a WinCo.

Solomon Everta: That's just owning. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: They own, but the actual management then is done-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Solomon Everta: … not done by the staff, and so you still get these hierarchical situations where there's somebody up at the top making decisions, like I do now.

Solomon Everta: But-

Scott Hammond: For the record.

Solomon Everta: But that's what I'm doing, is building agency among the, the staff so that

Solomon Everta: when, when we can kinda work that out-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … that they can take some of that ownership and be-

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Solomon Everta: Own the, own the place they live. So not only in the workplace, because what it is, is that the workplace is the only place that, where we are, are like okay with, like, not having democracy. We have kings. Every little fiefdom of all these-

Scott Hammond: Oh, man

Solomon Everta: … all these businesses where this one guy comes and says what it, what the way things are gonna be, and then you just have to do it, even if it's stupid.

Scott Hammond: Some of us are evil kings.

Solomon Everta: It's-

Scott Hammond: Ha. Ha.

Solomon Everta: And this is the problem, is that we have so many benevolent kings-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … that, that we go, "Oh, well, it's okay." But, like, let's get down to the democracy of the situation and have ownership in a way that there is some actual democracy that's involved in how decisions are made in your

Solomon Everta: workplace.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Solomon Everta: Maybe how decisions are made in… You can then, you can apply this to, to healthcare. You can apply it to housing.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Solomon Everta: You know, we have people who are just, they make tons of money off of housing because we have the system where people rent inst- and so you're just subject to this, this landlord who has the dominion over all of these, these properties, and sets up the system so that it continues to funnel money up towards them.

Scott Hammond: My head's going immediately to seven dollar gas prices.

Solomon Everta: There you go.

Scott Hammond: You know, the, the, the petroleum guys in… I mean, there's something here.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: We could talk about that, but I, I, I interrupted your answer back.

Solomon Everta: No. So I think looking for more ways to ins- to, to create more democracy in our, in our daily interactions, whether that's work, whether it's healthcare, whether it's housing, whether it's

Solomon Everta: in the arts-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … and how… Because, because right now, in the arts or in how, how public service occurs, there's been a shift to, from public service being something that the government does, is the government comes in when there's a situation that needs something that, that an individual or a business can't manage. And instead, we've created this entire giant nonprofit, uh,

Solomon Everta: complex-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … you know, where, where-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Solomon Everta: … the money funneled from, you know, is donated from these rich people.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Solomon Everta: And then so the nonprofits react by doing things that the rich people like, and there's no accountability because it's not a government that's, that's making these programs happen.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Solomon Everta: It's, it's, it's a board of directors that is not

Solomon Everta: elected.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And so even though they're doing great things, there's a less– lack of democracy in the process that occurs.

Scott Hammond: Interesting.

Solomon Everta: So for me, I look at every system and I say, "How can I inc- and make more democracy in that?" And the area that I have the influence over is in my workplace and my business.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Solomon Everta: So I'm trying to do, do that work. So if you work in healthcare or you own a lot of properties, how do you– how can you make a situation where, like, you go, "I'm gonna make a system where I get paid for the work that I'm doing in making this property better-"

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Solomon Everta: "… and transition this to that, the people who live there-"

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Solomon Everta: "… become actual eventual owners." Maybe they pay a little bit of their rent. It goes tick, tick, tick, and it adds in so that they can get some equity-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … in there and get out of this, the thing stuck where we have this haves and have-nots in the, in the system.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: You create a system where there's some democracy, and then you start to see where there needs to-

Scott Hammond: I like it

Solomon Everta: … economic democracy.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: This is what Martin Luther King Jr. was, like, ready to make the next step before he got assassinated, was he was saying, "We got– We, we need civil rights, but we al- and civil d-democracy, but we also need-"

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Solomon Everta: "… economic democracy as well."

Scott Hammond: Preach. Yeah. Good work.

Solomon Everta: So that's-

Scott Hammond: So marriages too. Families. Probably the, the principle applies, right?

Solomon Everta: Mm.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. How are we gonna do this better as a family?

Solomon Everta: Right. And you, and, and so you have to have those interactions and have… The story of our family is that we come together and we, we talk things through, and we decide together as a family, because when we listen to all, everybody member of the family-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Solomon Everta: … then we can, you know… And that's how you build your children up to be like, "Hey, if you're able to take responsibility and go like, 'Hey, how often do we need to clean the toilet?'"

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: "Let's talk, man."

Scott Hammond: Yeah. What do you think?

Solomon Everta: What do you think?

Scott Hammond: An-annually?

Solomon Everta: Yeah. Right.

Scott Hammond: Like yours?

Solomon Everta: Like yours? Yeah. Exactly. And then, you know-

Scott Hammond: Quarterly?

Solomon Everta: Because they'll come around to the answer, you know. They'll be like, "I get it, Dad."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: You know?

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I like that. And, and I don't think it's gonna happen quick. I think those are all incremental steps, so don't despise the day of small beginnings. It's a good thing to get started.

Solomon Everta: We, you know… I, I continually gotta remind myself to have the beginner's mind and be like, "I'm just, I'm at the beginning of this, and I'm gonna be present in the moment." And

Solomon Everta: that's like, when I was younger, I always had a lot of, like, hopes that things would be

Solomon Everta: my ideal.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: But I think that's a, that's a false trap that people run into.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Solomon Everta: It's a, it's a very Western way of looking at things, so saying that the, that there's this ideal form that I wanna get to, or there's some salvation, or there's some afterlife that I'm gonna, I'm gonna go and find. And instead, we need to be present in this moment.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Solomon Everta: And we need to be present with the people around us, and have that relationship.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. That's good.

Solomon Everta: And have… And then tell those stories between us.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: You know?

Scott Hammond: I love that. That's cool. So-

Solomon Everta: That answer your question?

Scott Hammond: I think it does. Yeah, it does. I mean, there's a million ways to answer that question, but it starts, uh, it, it starts, it's, it's scalable. So all of us are part of something-

Solomon Everta: Right

Scott Hammond: … or some community, and we can do that.

Solomon Everta: Look for the ways that we can make, build more e-egalitarian systems rather than hierarchical systems. That's-

Scott Hammond: Right

Solomon Everta: … that's, that's what I would suggest.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: And it seems like it's not… It could apply in any community, but I think that we have a lot of individualism here that, that makes it difficult-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … to overcome that, to say like, "How do we act in community?"

Scott Hammond: Right.

Solomon Everta: And so I think, like, great things like Synapsis and, um, you know, other groups that are just like, you know, Food Not Bombs, you know, that, thatThat really brings people in to work together rather than, than like some great man has some great idea about

Solomon Everta: whatever.

Scott Hammond: Right. And have a, uh, exit strategy for the team to take

Scott Hammond: over.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Or a– or team members of-

Solomon Everta: Yeah. We, we've got a lot of people, you know, my age or older who are gonna be like, really it's time for them to move on from their businesses, and if you can think about how can I make this so that it spreads out the democracy rather than just like-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … keeping it again to the one other-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Solomon Everta: … person.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I see– I think of some business people locally that are making that, that effort and that I, I s- I sense they make that-

Solomon Everta: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … that, uh, uh, that move into the future. Uh, let's talk about your death.

Solomon Everta: I'm, I'm ready.

Scott Hammond: Speaking of which, sorry, weird transition, uh, no offense.

Scott Hammond: The um… What would you like us to say at your, uh… What would you like folks to say or talk about when they talk about you at your, uh, celebration of life, and what are you, what are you thinking is going on the

Scott Hammond: tombstone? What would you like to be remembered for, Solomon?

Solomon Everta: Sure. Well, it's interesting as I,

Solomon Everta: I, I was part of this, uh, classics book group, uh, that's been meeting for like thirty-six or seven years now.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Solomon Everta: Amazing group of people, um, that started out with, uh,

Solomon Everta: um, God, Chothru, Dixtel, and, uh, Lance Hardy. So I'm thinking of Lance Hardy. I don't know if you know him, but he-

Scott Hammond: I know the name, yeah.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, he had a thing where what's, what's part of his deal was like, you know, um, write your own tombstone and write your own epitaph.

Scott Hammond: Cool.

Solomon Everta: And, um, Lance is just a very, very smart man.

Scott Hammond: And your own obit.

Solomon Everta: What's that?

Scott Hammond: And your obit.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Solomon Everta: Write, write your own thing. And it's interesting because, like, l- I'm fifty-four, so I'm getting, starting to, you know, get my AARP things in the mail and-

Scott Hammond: Right. Turning a corner here, huh?

Solomon Everta: I went and got my hips X-rayed a couple weeks ago, and I found out I have arthritis and probably gonna have to get a replacement hip eventually someday and just-

Scott Hammond: Welcome to the club.

Solomon Everta: Yeah, right.

Scott Hammond: I got two the same day at Stanford.

Solomon Everta: You did two?

Scott Hammond: Thirteen years ago.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: At fifty-four.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. See? Uh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Crazy, dude.

Solomon Everta: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: But it's the best surgery ever.

Solomon Everta: That's what I keep hearing about-

Scott Hammond: Quickest recovery and Coons Indus- Institute, Providence, you could get it done.

Solomon Everta: I, I think that n- it's weird. I don't know. It's very much a tangent, but, like, I think a lot about, like, hip replacements and stuff like that.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: Like, as I was looking at it and seeing how it, like, how it occurs.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And I was just like-

Scott Hammond: Oh, dude

Solomon Everta: … this is amazing. This is, like, this is ch- taking part of my body away and putting this other part in.

Scott Hammond: It's a trip.

Solomon Everta: And, uh, what it really was for me was, like, uh, I, I'm beginning to, like, have this story about, like, an, as an allegory for, like, like, the transgender experience and, like-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … how, like, your body is not the way you want it to be.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: And so you do something to make it be the way you want it to be.

Scott Hammond: Give it a new hip. Yeah.

Solomon Everta: You put a new hip in. It's just, it's kinda the same deal.

Scott Hammond: It's a trip. I, um, I don't– I can't wait to watch the, the procedure on YouTube. It's t-too gross.

Solomon Everta: Ugh. Yeah. It's a little much so.

Scott Hammond: So what, what are we gonna say at your, your thing?

Scott Hammond: Your deal? Back to my question.

Solomon Everta: Well, so I've been thinking a lot about, you know, like, gosh, how am I gonna, you know, get outta here?

Solomon Everta: And so, um,

Solomon Everta: and, and I keep coming back to just being present in the moment.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Solomon Everta: I kinda don't think about that, so I'm gonna give you a very dissatisfying answer.

Scott Hammond: That's okay.

Solomon Everta: Of to say, like, like, it doesn't concern me.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. It's none of your business yet.

Solomon Everta: This is the thing is, like, when I got married, like, it was kinda like the wedding is not for you.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Solomon Everta: It's for the community.

Scott Hammond: Hmm. Love it.

Solomon Everta: My death will be not for me, but for my community-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Solomon Everta: … to remember me in the way that they see-

Scott Hammond: That they choose

Solomon Everta: … most, most fit.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Solomon Everta: And so the, so the real goal for me is for the, for me to be remembered honestly-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … and not any kind of fake thing that people are saying about me, but rather to live my life in the way-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Solomon Everta: … that I live up to what they think they, that of me.

Scott Hammond: Great answer.

Solomon Everta: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Honest. I love that. Thanks for coming.

Solomon Everta: Appreciate it.

Scott Hammond: Appreciate you. It's funny, I, I was just reflecting as we were talking, is every guest I get to know is, like, almost, almost friends.

Solomon Everta: Yeah. We get very intimate here.

Scott Hammond: It's like there's a little, there's a little connection. I love that. Thanks for doing that. Hey, if you're, uh, wanting to subscribe to us, 100% Humboldt podcast, uh, we're online, we're on all the platforms, we're Access Humboldt, we're, uh, on YouTube, we're in the air, and we'd love you to like us, uh, love us, donate to us, make all kinds of, uh, nice comments. And thanks for coming today, Solomon.

Solomon Everta: Thank you. Thanks for hu- 100% Humboldt.

Scott Hammond: With Scott Hammond and Solomon Everta.

Scott Hammond: See ya.