Deep Silence On Redford Place

She pushed to get her father's story told and, according to Vanity Fair, suggested that the story would help the family "make enough money to pay some bills."

A sign of Joan Felt's keen interest in how the story was playing came from Cathy Christy, a close friend, who arrived at the house Wednesday to drop off a bag of tapes of news shows she'd recorded at Felt's request.

Since 1990, Felt has been an adjunct faculty member in Spanish at Santa Rosa Junior College, said Stephanie Benedict, who is in the college's human resources department.

Felt also has been a lecturer in Spanish at Sonoma State University, where some buildings on the bucolic campus here in wine country are named Cabernet and Beaujolais, since 1992.

There, she is known as "caring and compassionate, enthusiastic and encouraging and inspiring," said Jean Wasp, a university spokeswoman, quoting Felt's boss, Suzanne C. Toczyski, chair of the modern languages and literatures department. Felt also was a Fulbright scholar in Chile in the mid-1960s, Wasp said.

The only sign of a breakdown in the Felt family strategy came when Felt was informed that her father had told reporters he'd "arrange to write a book or something and get all the money I can."

Surprised, she said with a smile, "Dad speaks for himself."

Out on the street, meanwhile, Laci Moore was rehearsing her approach to the Felt house. Moore, an irrepressible teen with a thick, braided ponytail and braces on her teeth, had been amazed to learn that Deep Throat lives in her neighborhood. She couldn't be stopped, once she got going in her 17-year-old, rapid-fire, California-accented way, describing how she screamed, "Mom, Mom, Mom! He said who he is! He said who he is!"

"I was, like, ahhh! I just screamed. I don't know, it's just something I'm excited about. People think I'm crazy. I am into music and movies, but, I mean, history is my thing."

And here it is, "history!," right on Redford Place, just a few blocks from her home. She wanted Felt's autograph in her copy of "All the President's Men." She would knock on the door and say, "Hi. My name is Laci Moore. I'm an AP student from Piner High School and I've been studying Watergate."

And she did it, though to no avail. Felt's grandson told her to come back after all of the hullabaloo had died down. Even autographs, it seems, aren't yet part of the plan.

Down the block, Charles Watkins watched the scene. The retired California Highway Patrol officer said he and others had been shocked to learn that Deep Throat was in their midst.

He had humanity on his mind, though, not notoriety.

"I think the poor old guy probably doesn't have a lot longer on this Earth and maybe everybody ought to just leave him alone," Watkins said.

But that doesn't seem to be the Felt family strategy.

Staff writer Paul Farhi contributed to this report.