Around Town Nuts & Bolts
BENICIA NEWS AND VIEWS
Perspectives on 100 years n Gene Pedrotti
Well into the holiday season and with a New Year approaching, we take joy in surrounding our family with holiday traditions. This is especially true for my family as 2021 comes to a close and we enter into our business’ Centennial year! Crossing the calendar we revel in long standing traditions which I am happy to report, continue to this day. One holiday tradition began in the early 1900s on the Sonoma coast where my grandfather Ralph Pedrotti, after being raised on a dairy farm, partnered with a member of the Casini family to operate a general store. Called Casini & Pedrotti, the shop was located in Bodega, Ca. He was 22 years old. Following a common mercantile holiday practice of the time, they gave a small gift to the customers, a custom-fired ceramic plate. However, the tradition was short-lived as the store lasted only two years. Young men were being called to duty during World War I. The shop closed and my grandfather joined the Navy. The plate is the only evidence left of that era.
26 • Benicia Magazine
Following the war, Ralph returned to California to the small town of Crockett where he again took a partner, this time prominent and wealthy merchant, Jim Firpo. They worked together for almost fifteen years and continued the tradition of giving out ceramic plates during the holidays. How do we know this? Well, shortly after moving our store to Southampton Center on Valentine’s Day, 1992, I received a call from a Benicia resident asking to meet; the caller was deliberately cryptic, only saying that it was important. Stopping by his house and after introductory pleasantries, he handed me a small ceramic plate. The object was cold and I got chills, but not from the temperature. The name burned into the clay was Firpo & Pedrotti, a 1930's relic distributed to patrons during Christmastime. The resident offered the plate for a hundred bucks and while it was ironic to pay for a gift my grandfather gave away freely, it was a fair price and I was delighted. A few months later on Father’s Day, I presented it to my father, Larry, who was stunned. He passed away in 2003 and this has since been one of our family’s prized possessions.
