Once again, Benny left them laughing

Harry Friedman stepped onto stage Wednesday at the community center his family built and gazed out at the 600-some people there to celebrate his late brother's life.

"Benny would have loved this, wouldn't he?" Harry said.

Oh, wouldn't he. Friends recited tale after tale from the life of the generous, honest, self-made Santa Rosa native who co-founded Friedman Bros. and helped make Sonoma County what it is.

Tommy Smothers recalled Benny telling the story that when his son, Bill, turned 10, his late wife, Rosemary, bought the boy a bird feeder. Benny asked her, "What am I going to get him?" and she suggested he buy something that goes with a bird feeder. So, said Benny, he got the kid a BB gun.

In a video from his life, Benny told how he got a job as a kid to help support his struggling family -- that part was true -- and after the first week brought home $5 to his mother. The second week he gave her $4.97, the third just $4.93.

Finally, he dead-panned that his mother confronted him: "Tell me the truth. Are you taking out a girl?"

Benny Friedman, one of the best friends Santa Rosa and the county ever had, died July 8 at age 90.

Son Bill looked appreciatively at the big crowd and said, "If Dad were here, he would say . . . we should have charged admission at the door!"

What will we do without Benny? Better yet, what could we do if we all were a bit more like him?

A WALL THAT UNITES: Charles Peter Torliatt Jr, 20. Barry Martin Searby, 21. David Allen Kardell, 25. Rodney Elmer Marrufo Jr., 20.

They're a few of the more than 100 young men from North Bay counties who went to Vietnam in the 1960s and '70s and did not come home.

Their names are among more than 58,000 etched into the portable Vietnam Moving Wall that's due to arrive in Santa Rosa on Tuesday. It will be open to the public at Santa Rosa Memorial Park on Franklin Avenue next Thursday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Vets will assemble the wall on Wednesday. If you'd care to pitch in, drop a line to Bud Simmons (legionbuddy@sbcglobal.net).

The vets' groups that dug deep to pay for the wall's visit will be grateful for all visitors and donations.

STOLE A PLAYGROUND? Today's a huge day at the California Parenting Institute.

Robin Bowen and her crew have been working like mad to prepare for today's 4:30 p.m. dedication of the formerly funky building that's now an inviting family-services center, thanks to a grant from the estate of late businessman G.K. Hardt.

In the midst of making ready, Robin noticed something odd. Somebody'd propped a sheet of plywood in CPI's yard and spray-painted on it, "Free Playground Equipment."

She walked out and her jaw dropped. The busy nonprofit's playground structure was gone. Maybe the thieves made the sign so witnesses wouldn't question why were they were breaking it down and hauling it off.

Haven't seen it, have you?

NAKED LADIES IN ELK: There's an added attraction to Saturday's annual Great Day parade and festival in Elk, between Point Arena and Mendocino.

The local ladies, all 50 or older, who posed tastefully semi-nude for a flowery, lovely new calendar will appear together in a parade float.

Rae Wisdom and the other ladies posed for the calendar by photographer Sharon Garner (www.ssquaredartproductions.com) and sales will benefit their town's fire company, community center and kids' camps.

Well, of course, the ladies will be fully clothed in the parade. It can get nippy in Elk.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.