Bloom An Egg-Ceptional Ball Three intensely active women leaders co-chair an event conducted by the only women’s group in Monterey that owns and operates an historical adobe. It’s not about fundraising; it’s about maintaining tradition.

by Dan Shafer

When the Grand March passes in review at the 68th annual Cascarones Ball at the Embassy Suites Hotel on March 24, three local women will be able to breathe a collective sigh of relief that will cap many months of preparation dedicated to one purpose: preserving an historically important occasion on Monterey’s social scene.

Shirleymae Conte, Carol Bushnell McCraney, and Danette Roberts are co-chairs of the gala event hosted and sponsored by the Monterey Civic Club, the only women’s organization in the city to own and operate one of the historic adobes. The Civic Club engages in a great deal of fundraising throughout the year, the Cascarones Ball “is not about money,” says Conte. “It’s about history. It’s about culture.”

The Cascarones Ball (“cascarones” is a Spanish word describing a special type of egg which is highly decorated on the outside and containing gifts within its shell) each year the club honors a local woman for community achievement and service.

The Civic Club’s Board of Directors chooses the Honored Guest, as she is called, and her identity is kept secret until the night of the Ball at which time she is presented with a large cascarones filled with silver dollars. Traditionally, the guest keeps the money and then donates the egg back to the Civic Club, which has dozens of the older eggs on display in the adobe the women maintain.

“El Baile de Los Cascarones,” as the event was known historically, is a long-standing traditional dance. In the 19th century, this pre-Lenten celebration often consisted of a series of dances at the homes of various Monterey leaders. At these times there were dozens of the cascarones — eggs that had openings made at the narrow end of the shell. The egg would then be filled with cologne and the end sealed with wax. Men and women attending the ball broke the cascarones gently over the heads of others, who considered it quite an honor to be selected as the target of this form of amusement.

Many local residents who attend this year’s Cascarones Ball will be dressed in traditional Mexican costume, which gives them an opportunity to participate in the Grand March. The couple with the most authentic costumes is awarded a cash prize. The Civic Club’s current president, Jackie Craghead, will preside over the Ball.

The adobe is known as the House of the Four Winds, and was so-named by Native Americans for the weather vane that they saw perched atop the building’s roof when they approached the building. They had never before seen a weather vane and were fascinated by it.

The current House of the Four Winds, located at 540 Calle Principal, is an expanded version of the original, featuring a large Friendship Room which the group uses for meetings and rents out for other activities.

Some of the money the Civic Club raises through its events and rentals goes to maintain the adobe, but the group is also involved in numerous charitable projects benefiting physically and mentally challenged individuals, underprivileged children, senior citizen groups, and impoverished families.

Three Big Events

The Civic Club holds three annual, large-scale events. Besides the Cascarones Ball in March, they also host a popular fashion show in November and “Christmas in the Adobe” every December. The Yuletide event is one of only two times all year that the original portion of the old adobe is open to the public.

In addition to these special events — and others that are occasionally staged at the request of Monterey civic leaders — the Civic Club gathers for monthly luncheons on the first Tuesday of each month in their Friendship Room.

The club, which was formed in 1906 with 34 women who were wives of civic and military officials as its members, now has more than 200 members. New members must be sponsored, attend three Civic Club events, plus be approved by the group’s Board of Directors. Dues are deliberately kept low to keep membership accessible to women who identify with the group’s aims.

When the Civic Club began, Conte says, “The streets were mud, the graveyard was overgrown with weeds, garbage was being dumped on the beaches, and bars were open 24 hours.”

The founding members, wishing to beautify and improve life in Monterey, joined forces to clean up some of the more egregious problems.

“They were able to get the drinking stopped at a certain hour of the night,” says McCraney. “They also planted lots of trees and found other ways to make life in Monterey a little more attractive and pleasant.”

On March 23, 1914, the Civic Club purchased the 84-year-old House of the Four Winds, which was in a state of disrepair. The building had once housed Monterey’s Hall of Records and had been damaged in the brief 1819 occupation of Monterey by the French privateer Hippolyte Bouchard.

Three years after buying the adobe, the group bought an adjoining lot that was being used as a garden and in 1953 built the Friendship Room on the site. In 1922, the old two-room adobe was converted into a single-level room and a kitchen was added.

An authentic museum-like display of furniture, costumes, implements and artifacts of a century-old lifestyle greet the rare visitor who gets the opportunity to see the old adobe’s original rooms.

Three huge scrapbooks arrayed on a large table contains press clippings, letters, telegrams, photographs and other memorabilia going back to the start of the club in 1906.

Dozens of cascarones awarded to the Honored Guests are on display. The eggs vary in size but all are ornately hand-decorated, several of them by one or more of the 2007 co-chairs of the event.

An upper room occupies a small part of the space of the main room’s floor with a recreated bedroom from the turn of the 20th Century. Few members and even fewer visitors get the opportunity to tour that portion of the adobe.

The Co-Chairs

Conte is the senior of the three co-chairs of the 2007 edition of the Cascarones Ball. The proud 71-year-old has lived on the Peninsula since she was five years old. By her own description, she met and chased her husband, Frank, and they have not only stayed married since 1953, they’ve worked together most of that time.

“He’s my best friend,” Conte says. “We’ve been working together in various businesses since 1968. Today she and Frank operate Aaron Overhead Doors.

Frank is a retired entertainer who headlined the Conte Four Show & Dance troupe for many years. Frank plays trumpet and bongos in addition to chiming in on vocals along with two other singing members of the quartet.

For more than 30 years, the band appeared in many of the top nightclubs around the country.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Conte was the group’s booking agent.

“I also designed their costumes and made their clothes,” she recalls with a chuckle. “They had to have different outfits for each event they did. It was a lot of fun.” The quartet will provide the musical entertainment for the ball.

“One of the bad experiences in my memory from that time,” she says with a shake of her head, “was what had to be one of the worst cruises in the history of cruising. We did a 23-day cruise from L.A. to Alaska and the band was the only entertainment onboard for the entire cruise. The food was awful, the service was horrible, and the passengers were not very happy.”

Conte is a past president of the Civic Club and has also served with numerous local civic and charitable groups including the Monterey Bay Republican Women, Jacob’s Heart Children’s Cancer Association, plus parent organizations.

McCraney is a native of the Peninsula, having been born in Carmel. Her maternal grandparents were from Seville, Spain, and her mother was born in Hilo, Hawaii. Her father, Eddie Bushnell, a Monterey Peninsula native, was a famous deep-sea diver who co-authored the book, The Underseas Log. The Maritime Museum is planning a permanent exhibit on his life and adventures.

McCraney’s mother came to the area to work in the canneries. When she and Bushnell fell in love, they met with a great deal of family resistance to what was perceived as a social mismatch, but they persevered.

Like Conte, McCraney works with her husband Duwane in their tile and marble contracting business, Surf Tile Co. of Pacific Grove. “I do the administrative work for the company,” she says.

McCraney’s hobbies include line dance and club work along with Tai Chi. Her interest in the martial arts comes from her husband’s life-long involvement in the ancient practice. Duwane is a world-class martial arts champion in Jujitsu, Judo and Karate, sports in which he competes, teaches, and officiates. He is an inductee in the Martial Arts Black Belt Hall of Fame.

Ms. McCraney is an active member of the Monterey Museum of History and serves on the Marienda Committee which stages a major Spanish cultural event every year. She’s also been involved with Special Olympics, working on that organization’s fundraising golf tournament for a number of years along with Conte.

Roberts’ parents were Hawaiian. She enjoys sustaining her Polynesian cultural roots as a dancer, which she’s been doing for some 28 years. She is a leader in the local Halau (hula) group and has studied Polynesian arts for most of her adult life as well.

She and her husband, John, owned Route 66 Collectible Cars in Seaside.

“My husband is a collector,” she says, “and we enjoyed turning his hobby into a business for a good many years.” Today, they operate two businesses: NewKid Marketing which specializes in premiums and promotions including floral gift packages, vacation packages and gift and incentive albums; and Bleakmore Properties, a private investment company.

Roberts is the incoming president of the Zonta Club of Monterey. Like her two co-chairs of the Cascarones Ball, she is extremely active in local civic and charitable organizations. She counts The Jacob’s Heart Children’s Cancer Association, The American Heart Association, Girl Scouts, Girls, Inc., and of course the Civic Club among her many activities.

“I never stop,” she says. “But my kids are first. My husband is a great supporter, business partner and best friend. He’s the backbone of what I do.”

Together, these three women have been working tirelessly for months getting ready for this month’s renewal of the historic Mexican tradition.