Norman Sidebottom

Norman Sidebottom
~ 2011 ~

MONTEREY - Norman Sidebottom died Saturday evening, June 11, 2011 at his New Monterey home. He was 67. Mr. Sidebottom was born in Rhode Island. While still a child, he moved with his family to Alabama, and then on to Hollywood, California, where his uncle worked in the film industry. It was in California that he began what would be a lifelong interest in and devotion to birds; birds of all kinds - chickens, jungle fowl, pheasants, cochins, peacocks, peahens, ravens, blue jays, and crows. He housed them, studied them, tended them, and occasionally ate them. They were a delight and sometimes an irritation to neighbors, indicated by a 2002 citation from the City of Monterey. Undaunted, he enlarged his collection.
Mr. Sidebottom lived in London during the mid-1960s, returning in 1968 to take a job at the Museum of Natural History in New York. He worked in the Hall of the Ages of Man, under the direction of anthropologist Margaret Mead. His correspondence with Dr. Mead is contained within the Margaret Mead Papers in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. A man of letters throughout his life, in general he preferred reading to writing, though he did take time to write and produce two radio plays, "Kingdom Come," and "Life After Bing," which were both presented on KAZU radio.
Returning to California in the 1970s, Mr. Sidebottom settled in New Monterey. His house had been built as an artist's studio back in the days when John Steinbeck and Bruce Ariss roamed the neighborhood. It became the center of social gatherings for many years. A wonderful chef, he loved to cook for friends and to host parties, frequently lasting through the weekend. The voices of Ella Fitzgerald, Blossom Dearie, Susannah McCorkle, and the sounds of salsa, samba, laughter, and the popping of corks would drift down the street toward Prescott Avenue. Sidebottom had a unique ability to maintain dignity and self-containment in the midst of unrestrained revelry.
During the week, he worked as a mail carrier for the Pacific Grove Post Office. In addition to the mail, Mr. Sidebottom was in the habit of delivering birdseed throughout his route. For years, Pacific Grove residents would see him walking along the street pushing his mail cart, escorted from above by eager corvids swooping in anticipation. Residents would, from time to time, bring him injured birds, which he would tuck into his home incubator and nurture, in most cases, back to health.
In recent years, Mr. Sidebottom was afflicted with leukemia. He went through his treatments with grace and patience. There were fewer parties and more reading, gardening, and watching old movies. His house with filled with back and current issues of the London and the New York Review of Books, The Oldie, Anthony Trollop novels, biographies of obscure and notorious people, bird anthologies, and seed catalogs.
Mr. Sidebottom was preceded in death by his close friend, Miguel Benitez Pe–aloza. He is survived by brother, William Sidebottom; sister, Barbara Sidebottom; and friends on both sides of the Atlantic, too numerous to mention, who grieve their loss of a treasured friend, and the end of an era. A memorial gathering will be held later in the summer.