The Presco Children lived on the boundary of Oakland and Piedmont that had more millionaires per capita then any city in America. Here Sharon built a home, Roycrafters, that looks like Rufford Old Hall the seat of the Hesketh family in Britain. It is alleged Shakespeare performed a play here.

Come Saturday morning when Vic and Rosemary began their evil shout and hate match, I would get on my bicycle and ride through Piedmont, down Saint James Drive to Crocker, then to Lakeshore. I had to get away from my parents battle over lost prestige. Christine and I would lead a bunch of kids on a tour of Piedmont via the pedestrian staircases that the WPA built so The Help could get to work, and the children of the rich, make their way to school. Come Halloween we begged candy from the Piedmontese.

It was Christine’s Dream to be rich one day. Her autobiography begins with a fight we had over the last of the milk for cereal.

Vic never paid one dime for child support as ordered by the court, yet, he wanted in on the Art Game.

I noticed there is a Christmas Tree in the window of our house on San Sebastian. I think this is the one we stole from the lot on Park Blvd. above Liemert. We four boys had sewn deep pockets in our jackets, and when we went grocery shopping with Rosemary, we stole food and household items. We stole this tree by throwing it down into Dimond Canyon and retrieving it in the morning. Rosemary ordered up a flocked tree that we put red bulbs on. Then there was the precise ritual of hanging tinsel. If you did not do it right, you were shamed and replaced. It was Rosemary’s Art.

While shopping in Lucky Store in Montclair, the manager approached Rosemary and tried to shame her by saying;

“Do you know your sons are stealing us blind. I’m going to have to ask you to shop (lift) elsewhere.”

“I had no idea!”

Below is a Wikipedia article on Piedmont that may have been authored by Brad Gilbert whom I knew since he was a baby. His father, Barry Gilbert, lived below Bill Arnold on Athol Avenue. Bill painted a mural for Barry when the moved into a plush Piedmont home. Bill came to live with us when his father kicked him out. We were the Artists in Residence.

Jon Presco

Copyright 2011

Baron Hesketh, of Hesketh in the County Palatine of Lancaster, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1935 for Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 8th Baronet, who had previously briefly represented Enfield in the House of Commons as a Conservative. As of 2010 the titles are held by his grandson, the third Baron, who succeeded his father in 1955. Lord Hesketh held junior ministerial positions in the Conservative administrations of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. However, he lost his seat in the House of Lords after the House of Lords Act 1999 removed the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the upper chamber of Parliament.

The Hesketh Baronetcy, of Rufford in the County Palatine of Lancaster, was created in the Baronetage of Great Britain in 1761 for Thomas Hesketh, with special remainder to his brother Robert, who succeeded him as second Baronet. The latter’s great-great-grandson, the fifth Baronet, sat as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Preston. His grandson, the eighth Baronet, was elevated to the peerage as Baron Hesketh in 1935.

The former seat of the Barons Hesketh was Easton Neston in Northamptonshire. The house was previously the seat of the Fermor family (Earls of Pomfret since 1721), and came into the Hesketh family through the marriage in 1846 of Sir Thomas George Hesketh, 5th Baronet, to Lady Anna Maria Isabella Fermor, sister and heiress of George Richard William Fermor, 5th and last Earl of Pomfret. However, the house was sold by the current Baron in 2005.

The original seat of the Hesketh family was Rufford Old Hall in the village of Rufford in Lancashire. This house was sold to the National Trust by the first Baron Hesketh in 1936.

The hall is reputedly haunted by a grey lady, Queen Elizabeth I and a man in Elizabethan clothing.[6] The figure of a man floating above the canal at the rear of the building has also been reported.[7] On 20 February 2010, the crew of the paranormal television series Most Haunted filmed at the hall.

Piedmont is a small, affluent[2] city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is surrounded by the city of Oakland. The population was 10,667 at the 2010 census. Piedmont was incorporated in 1907 and was developed significantly in the 1920s and 1930s. Piedmont was one of the “25 Top-Earning Towns” in CNN Money Magazine’s list of ‘The Best Places to Live in 2007, and was also named one of the “Best Places To Live-Urban Enclaves” in the United States in 2007 by Forbes.[3]

Residents originally sought incorporation in 1907. Two elections were held among the citizens of Piedmont in 1907, both of which narrowly upheld the decision for Piedmont to become a separate city, rather than become a neighborhood within the city of Oakland.

By the Roaring Twenties, Piedmont was known as the “City of Millionaires” because it had the most resident millionaires per square mile of any city in the United States. Many of these millionaires built mansions that still stand, notably on Sea View Avenue and Sotelo Avenue/Glen Alpine Road in upper Piedmont. Piedmont became a charter city under the laws of the State of California on December 18, 1922. On February 27, 1923, voters adopted the charter, which can only be changed by another vote of the people.

Piedmont celebrated the year 2007 as its Centennial Anniversary since incorporation. The Centennial Committee hosted celebratory events along a trail that runs through downtown Piedmont and denoted historical landmarks in the city. The Committee also created a float for the city’s Fourth of July parade.[5]

The historical exhibit “A Deluxe Autonomy: Piedmont’s First 100 Years” was on display in the Oakland Public Library from January 5 to March 31, 2007.[6]

Notable residents
[edit] Current
Piedmont is home to a number of somewhat prominent figures in the political, business, sports, and academic communities, including: ex-Major League Baseball player Dave McCarty, ex-National Football League player Bubba Paris, San Francisco 49ers, ex-National Football League player Bill Romanowski, Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, Ambassador to Australia Jeff Bleich, and Peter Docter, director of Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. and Up and co-writer of WALL-E and AFJR, extra in the Santa Claus 3, and Billie Joe Armstrong of the rock band Green Day.
[edit] Past
Author Jack London lived in Piedmont, and John F. Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara grew up in Piedmont, where his family lived on Annerley Road.[12] Clint Eastwood resided in Piedmont and attended Piedmont schools. Country Joe McDonald resided in Piedmont in the 1970s. Actors Dean Butler (Little House on the Prairie) and Austin Tichenor (Reduced Shakespeare Company) also grew up in Piedmont. Further, notable tennis player and coach Brad Gilbert, grew up in Piedmont. Charles R. Schwab, founder of the discount stock brokerage firm bearing his name, and his family also lived in Piedmont in the early 1980s, as did Dean Witter, founder of Dean Witter Reynolds brokerage, in the 1940s.
Brad Gilbert (born August 9, 1961), is an American tennis coach, a television tennis commentator, and former professional tennis player. He was born in Oakland, California and graduated from Piedmont High School (California).
As a player, Gilbert’s career-high singles ranking was World No. 4, which he reached in January 1990. Since retiring from the tour, he has coached several top players including Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Andy Murray.