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
Fallbrook – a door into the past
Avocados worth stealing, home ec teacher poisons her daughter, how to spruce up downtown businesses, dishonor among Fallbrook Locos gang, anguish of growing oranges, school bus driver
Fallbrook. Outside the barbershop, the street is usually sunny. Cars stop for the light and move past us, windows down, arms resting on doors.
I want the backwards clock to go forward and the forward clock to go backwards
- Outside the barbershop, the street is usually sunny. Cars stop for the light and move past us, windows down, arms resting on doors. As we wait I tend to think of what we’ll do after the haircuts. We could eat at the soda fountain across the street, in what used to be a drugstore but is now the Café des Artistes and a gallery. We could walk another hundred yards and ask the librarian if there are any new books about the Titanic.
- By Laura McNeal, Dec. 24, 2003 Read full story
Most North County farmers have small farms, and they can't afford to absorb much theft.
Avocado growers fight off thieves
- Arrests are rare in avocado theft, but another one occurred in Fallbrook just a few days after Jeanne Strand fired a shot in the air. On a street called Paso de Oro Verde, or the Road to Green Gold, an employee of the Bejoca grove service found a man named Edward D. Allan picking avocados in a 32-acre grove. According to Bejoca, Allan asked if he could have or buy the dozen or so he'd already picked. The worker, whom I'll call Frank Salazar, refused, and Allan left.
- By Laura McNeal, Nov. 26, 1997 Read full story
Substitute teacher at Pendleton, La Paloma, Fallbrook Elementary, Potter Jr. High, and Fallbrook High
- Fallbrook is north of Escondido and south of Temecula, the very northern tip of San Diego County. It is still a town of feed stores and avocado groves though the farms are giving way to melon-colored stucco houses on streets named Rodeo Queen and Debra Ann. At every curve of Mission Road there are homemade wooden signs advertising lemons, limes, oranges, tangelos, macadamias, avocados, strawberries, pumpkins, or persimmons, depending on the season
- By Laura McNeal, Jan 5, 1995 Read full story
Lorraine Flippen, Judy, and Gladys, Live Oak Park, 1948. Lorraine’s face is blurred with happiness, and Gladys looks efficient and capable, leaning over Judy to scoop something out of a jar.
The death of Judy Huscher
- In downtown Fallbrook, the shops were closed and silent, the windows full of stuffed rabbits and Easter eggs, the sorts of things Judy would like. On Valentine’s Day, the last holiday that had involved gifts of chocolate, Mr. Huscher had driven through town with two Valentines, one for Gladys and one for Judy, because this had seemed like the best course, but it wasn’t. Gladys refused hers, and then Judy said, “Why are you so mean to my daddy?”
- By Laura McNeal, Nov. 7, 2002 Read full story
Store window on Main Street in Fallbrook
When I say Fallbrook, nothing comes to mind
- “They are going to fix the streets? For whom? Every other shop is vacant and has been for the last few years. There’s no draw for tourists. You can install as many sidewalks with lawns as you want to perk up downtown, but until the people who actually live here shop here and support local restaurateurs, I don’t how anything will change.”
- By Ruth Newell, June 24, 2012 Read full story
The curvy road from Fallbrook to De Luz is posted at 20mph.
Dishonor among Varrio Fallbrook Locos
- Their primary rival was the Vista Home Boys, from the town west of Fallbrook. But while in prison, Nico was expected to get along with his rivals, and even take orders from them. “There, we run together,” he explained. “At first I would do what they would tell me to do,” Nico remembered. “I didn’t really have a choice.” But then he started to rebel, for example, he declined to pay “taxes.” And what happens if you do not pay your taxes? “They will usually send somebody to rob you, for your stuff.”
- By Eva Knott, June 24, 2015 Read full story
Picking citrus, like riding horses, is more difficult than it appears.
Diary of an orange grove
- More and more often, avocado and orange groves are let go — the water turned off, the trees sent into a sudden and final autumn. When orange trees die standing up, the branches turn yellow-brown, like scorched tumbleweeds. When someone is ready to build an office building or a subdivision, the limbs are sold for firewood and the stumps are dragged into piles and burned. Dead avocado groves are more picturesque, and they sit on dry hills in Fallbrook like graveyards
- By Laura McNeal, Jan. 4, 1996 Read full story
Fallbrook High students on the bus. “When you’re steering a bus, you’re steering the back."
Stop food fights, clean up after motion sickness
- We passed silent, staring dogs, white chickens, vineyards, new shoots of corn, rows of lettuce, dead avocado trees, live avocado trees, and an owl on a street sign. We climbed hills and took curves as tight as paper clips. Horses kept their backs to us, and the houses seemed uninhabited. We climbed more hills, and Sharon wheeled the leviathan around more curves. “When you’re steering a bus,” Sharon told me, “you’re steering the back."
- By Laura McNeal, Sept. 19, 1996 Read full story
Here's something you might be interested in.
Fallbrook – a door into the past
Avocados worth stealing, home ec teacher poisons her daughter, how to spruce up downtown businesses, dishonor among Fallbrook Locos gang, anguish of growing oranges, school bus driver
Fallbrook – a door into the past
Avocados worth stealing, home ec teacher poisons her daughter, how to spruce up downtown businesses, dishonor among Fallbrook Locos gang, anguish of growing oranges, school bus driver
Fallbrook. Outside the barbershop, the street is usually sunny. Cars stop for the light and move past us, windows down, arms resting on doors.
I want the backwards clock to go forward and the forward clock to go backwards
- Outside the barbershop, the street is usually sunny. Cars stop for the light and move past us, windows down, arms resting on doors. As we wait I tend to think of what we’ll do after the haircuts. We could eat at the soda fountain across the street, in what used to be a drugstore but is now the Café des Artistes and a gallery. We could walk another hundred yards and ask the librarian if there are any new books about the Titanic.
- By Laura McNeal, Dec. 24, 2003 Read full story
Most North County farmers have small farms, and they can't afford to absorb much theft.
Avocado growers fight off thieves
- Arrests are rare in avocado theft, but another one occurred in Fallbrook just a few days after Jeanne Strand fired a shot in the air. On a street called Paso de Oro Verde, or the Road to Green Gold, an employee of the Bejoca grove service found a man named Edward D. Allan picking avocados in a 32-acre grove. According to Bejoca, Allan asked if he could have or buy the dozen or so he'd already picked. The worker, whom I'll call Frank Salazar, refused, and Allan left.
- By Laura McNeal, Nov. 26, 1997 Read full story
Substitute teacher at Pendleton, La Paloma, Fallbrook Elementary, Potter Jr. High, and Fallbrook High
- Fallbrook is north of Escondido and south of Temecula, the very northern tip of San Diego County. It is still a town of feed stores and avocado groves though the farms are giving way to melon-colored stucco houses on streets named Rodeo Queen and Debra Ann. At every curve of Mission Road there are homemade wooden signs advertising lemons, limes, oranges, tangelos, macadamias, avocados, strawberries, pumpkins, or persimmons, depending on the season
- By Laura McNeal, Jan 5, 1995 Read full story
Lorraine Flippen, Judy, and Gladys, Live Oak Park, 1948. Lorraine’s face is blurred with happiness, and Gladys looks efficient and capable, leaning over Judy to scoop something out of a jar.
The death of Judy Huscher
- In downtown Fallbrook, the shops were closed and silent, the windows full of stuffed rabbits and Easter eggs, the sorts of things Judy would like. On Valentine’s Day, the last holiday that had involved gifts of chocolate, Mr. Huscher had driven through town with two Valentines, one for Gladys and one for Judy, because this had seemed like the best course, but it wasn’t. Gladys refused hers, and then Judy said, “Why are you so mean to my daddy?”
- By Laura McNeal, Nov. 7, 2002 Read full story
Store window on Main Street in Fallbrook
When I say Fallbrook, nothing comes to mind
- “They are going to fix the streets? For whom? Every other shop is vacant and has been for the last few years. There’s no draw for tourists. You can install as many sidewalks with lawns as you want to perk up downtown, but until the people who actually live here shop here and support local restaurateurs, I don’t how anything will change.”
- By Ruth Newell, June 24, 2012 Read full story
The curvy road from Fallbrook to De Luz is posted at 20mph.
Dishonor among Varrio Fallbrook Locos
- Their primary rival was the Vista Home Boys, from the town west of Fallbrook. But while in prison, Nico was expected to get along with his rivals, and even take orders from them. “There, we run together,” he explained. “At first I would do what they would tell me to do,” Nico remembered. “I didn’t really have a choice.” But then he started to rebel, for example, he declined to pay “taxes.” And what happens if you do not pay your taxes? “They will usually send somebody to rob you, for your stuff.”
- By Eva Knott, June 24, 2015 Read full story
Picking citrus, like riding horses, is more difficult than it appears.
Diary of an orange grove
- More and more often, avocado and orange groves are let go — the water turned off, the trees sent into a sudden and final autumn. When orange trees die standing up, the branches turn yellow-brown, like scorched tumbleweeds. When someone is ready to build an office building or a subdivision, the limbs are sold for firewood and the stumps are dragged into piles and burned. Dead avocado groves are more picturesque, and they sit on dry hills in Fallbrook like graveyards
- By Laura McNeal, Jan. 4, 1996 Read full story
Fallbrook High students on the bus. “When you’re steering a bus, you’re steering the back."
Stop food fights, clean up after motion sickness
- We passed silent, staring dogs, white chickens, vineyards, new shoots of corn, rows of lettuce, dead avocado trees, live avocado trees, and an owl on a street sign. We climbed hills and took curves as tight as paper clips. Horses kept their backs to us, and the houses seemed uninhabited. We climbed more hills, and Sharon wheeled the leviathan around more curves. “When you’re steering a bus,” Sharon told me, “you’re steering the back."
- By Laura McNeal, Sept. 19, 1996 Read full story