Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Who cared? Hitler didn't surf
San Dieguito High alumni recall the World War II years
Linda Benson
Last week’s homecoming was a big one at San Dieguito High School Academy. At the end of the accelerated first semester, the student body enjoyed homecoming activities and dress-up spirit days.
Elsewhere on the 79-year-old campus, at the beginning of homecoming week (October 23), about 100 invited alumni, staff, and current students celebrated the annual reception for the school’s founding classes — 1937 to 1945 — and inducted its first former student into the school’s newly established Hall of Fame.
The classes of 1940 and 1945 also celebrated their 75th and 70th class reunions. Bonnie Wren, the Encinitas campus’ alumni association coordinator, pointed out that those two classes were much different in campus and community culture, due to the history we now know.
Addressing the ten attending members of the Class of 1940, Wren commented, “During your senior year, Hitler had invaded Poland and was pushing across Europe. The Class of 1940 was about to go to war,” she said. “By the time the Class of 1945 graduated, the European war was over, and in your first summer out of school, Japan would surrender.”
Asked what they remembered about attending San Dieguito High, there was no talk of war and the troubled times of rationing or the neighborhood’s young men going off to battle. They instead shared stories about time with their friends, school sports, teachers, and, most of all, the beach.
Mary Arballo Magaña (’40) represented the alumni in sharing her memories to the group. Magaña returned to the campus in 1948 as the school’s first state-credentialed teacher. An old teachers’ manual read, “The principal should be involved when disruptive behaviors such as chewing gum and wearing denim dungarees occur in the classroom.”
Surf champion Linda Benson (’62) was honored as the school’s first inductee into the Hall of Fame, chosen from a list of 60 notable alumni in the fields of sports, entertainment, science, and academics.
Linda Benson at 16
At age 15, Benson became the first woman to surf Hawaii’s Waimea Bay. She went on to win the women’s world championship in 1959, followed by six U.S. titles. Benson also stunt-doubled for stars Annette Funicello, Sandra Dee, and Deborah Walley in the corny Gidget and surf movies of the 1960s.
When asked if her fellow students knew of her titles and world fame, Benson responded, “Well, yes. But it was no big deal [at San Dieguito]. That’s just what we did. We were girl surfers. We surfed all the time.”
Other notable San Dieguito alumni include surf champion Rob Machado (’91), Tom Dempsey (’64) who kicked the longest (until 2013) NFL field goal, and Mike Kozlowski (‘74) who wears two Super Bowl rings.
Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder (’82) and Switchfoot’s John (’95) and Tim (’97) Foreman may have been influenced in their early careers of fellow alumni Chris Hillman (‘62) a rock pioneer member of groups the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Until 1976, the Encinitas campus once served every high school student from Carmel Valley north to La Costa. The San Dieguito Union High School district now serves thousands of students at four campuses and two alternative schools.
Disclosure: The writer, while not yet a notable alumni, graduated from San Dieguito in 1973, where he is currently active in the school’s alumni association.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Who cared? Hitler didn't surf
San Dieguito High alumni recall the World War II years
Who cared? Hitler didn't surf
San Dieguito High alumni recall the World War II years
Linda Benson
Last week’s homecoming was a big one at San Dieguito High School Academy. At the end of the accelerated first semester, the student body enjoyed homecoming activities and dress-up spirit days.
Elsewhere on the 79-year-old campus, at the beginning of homecoming week (October 23), about 100 invited alumni, staff, and current students celebrated the annual reception for the school’s founding classes — 1937 to 1945 — and inducted its first former student into the school’s newly established Hall of Fame.
The classes of 1940 and 1945 also celebrated their 75th and 70th class reunions. Bonnie Wren, the Encinitas campus’ alumni association coordinator, pointed out that those two classes were much different in campus and community culture, due to the history we now know.
Addressing the ten attending members of the Class of 1940, Wren commented, “During your senior year, Hitler had invaded Poland and was pushing across Europe. The Class of 1940 was about to go to war,” she said. “By the time the Class of 1945 graduated, the European war was over, and in your first summer out of school, Japan would surrender.”
Asked what they remembered about attending San Dieguito High, there was no talk of war and the troubled times of rationing or the neighborhood’s young men going off to battle. They instead shared stories about time with their friends, school sports, teachers, and, most of all, the beach.
Mary Arballo Magaña (’40) represented the alumni in sharing her memories to the group. Magaña returned to the campus in 1948 as the school’s first state-credentialed teacher. An old teachers’ manual read, “The principal should be involved when disruptive behaviors such as chewing gum and wearing denim dungarees occur in the classroom.”
Surf champion Linda Benson (’62) was honored as the school’s first inductee into the Hall of Fame, chosen from a list of 60 notable alumni in the fields of sports, entertainment, science, and academics.
Linda Benson at 16
At age 15, Benson became the first woman to surf Hawaii’s Waimea Bay. She went on to win the women’s world championship in 1959, followed by six U.S. titles. Benson also stunt-doubled for stars Annette Funicello, Sandra Dee, and Deborah Walley in the corny Gidget and surf movies of the 1960s.
When asked if her fellow students knew of her titles and world fame, Benson responded, “Well, yes. But it was no big deal [at San Dieguito]. That’s just what we did. We were girl surfers. We surfed all the time.”
Other notable San Dieguito alumni include surf champion Rob Machado (’91), Tom Dempsey (’64) who kicked the longest (until 2013) NFL field goal, and Mike Kozlowski (‘74) who wears two Super Bowl rings.
Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder (’82) and Switchfoot’s John (’95) and Tim (’97) Foreman may have been influenced in their early careers of fellow alumni Chris Hillman (‘62) a rock pioneer member of groups the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Until 1976, the Encinitas campus once served every high school student from Carmel Valley north to La Costa. The San Dieguito Union High School district now serves thousands of students at four campuses and two alternative schools.
Disclosure: The writer, while not yet a notable alumni, graduated from San Dieguito in 1973, where he is currently active in the school’s alumni association.