La Mesa Stories
The Light Bulb Center 7735 University Avenue, La Mesa 619-697-9371 Sid Levinson and his two older brothers started a light bulb wholesale business more than 20 years ago with the help of their dad, who …
Live Cargo 8874 La Mesa Boulevard, La Mesa 619-466-0665 It begins with Uncle Milton's Ant Farm ($11.99), and for many, that is where it ends. Hard-shelled, mandible-clad marchers give way to puppies, kittens, and horses. …
Reed's Train Shop 8039 La Mesa Boulevard, La Mesa 619-464-1672 Call the Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park -- it's the largest such museum in North America -- and ask them to recommend a model …
Matt: My friend's mother says Dennis Hopper is from La Mesa and he worked at Jack In The Box. She says she has a friend who went to school with him. Could this possibly be …
La Mesa Branch, San Diego County Library 8055 University Avenue, La Mesa (619) 469-2151 Thursday before Father's Day, 3:30 in the afternoon, hordes of little Picassos concentrated on coloring and taping letters and cutouts onto …
La Torta 4864 Cass Street, Pacific Beach (858) 272-2077 8350 La Mesa Boulevard, La Mesa (619) 466-3953 You take Mexican mainstays such as carne asada, machaca, chicken mole, refried beans, chiles relleno, and chorizo. But …
Ceramic Café Grossmont Center 5500 Grossmont Center Drive, La Mesa (619) 466-4800 Del Mar Highlands Town Center 12925 El Camino Real, Del Mar (858) 259-9958 Show her that you can produce more than hot air …
Zany Brainy 1530 Camino de la Reina, Mission Valley (619) 291-9500 5485 Grossmont Center Drive, La Mesa (619) 466-6751 10661 Westview Parkway, Mira Mesa (858) 547-8700 Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Rock, Mankind -- oh, …
Kid's Hair Salon Grossmont Center, 5500 Grossmont Center Drive, La Mesa (619) 464-4466 Airplanes and clowns hang from the ceiling. Mickey Mouse adorns the wall border, and a children's video plays in the corner. What …
Primo Salon and Day SpaGrossmont Center (619) 465-9323 Other locations in Chula Vista, Mission Valley, Fashion Valley, Poway, Carmel Mountain, University Towne Centre Feet are such unloved parts of the body. They suffer the abuse …
Souplantation 9158 Fletcher Parkway, La Mesa (619) 462-4232 Though this budget chain of all-you-can-eateries has closed several San Diego locations, its surviving outlets are entrenched in their respective neighborhoods and always filled to capacity for …
Tyler's Taste of Texas576 North Second Street, El Cajon(619) 444-92957868 El Cajon Boulevard, La Mesa(619) 466-9295 Tyler's Taste of Texas is a haven for insomniacs and those who dream of "Oinker" pork sandwiches, which are …
Dear Matt A.: There are these large cylinders on top of the first hill north of Mira Mesa along the I-15. I think that the same type of twin cylinders exist (because I've climbed up …
Books on the stairway walks of San Francisco and Los Angeles can be found on the shelves of bookstores in those areas. No such guidebook exists for San Diego, because -- despite the substantial vertical …
Sparsely visited Harry Griffin Park, tucked away in Grossmont Summit where La Mesa and El Cajon adjoin, has for years remained one of East County's well-kept secrets. As the largest park within La Mesa's city …
On the track in front of the home stands, cheerleaders arrange their hand-painted mega phones and pom-poms. The Helix mascot, a bipedal Scottish terrier, “Scottie,” wearing a Helix jersey, #00, cavorts with the crowd.
The stretch of the Boulevard people call “the Village” runs from Spring Street up past Fourth. The Village hasn’t changed much since my boyhood, when I could overlook it from my bedroom window.
“Look what’s changed in the last two months. Eric died. We barely escaped a nuclear war. By June, Kennedy might attack Cuba, and the Russians could retaliate by invading Hollywood. Bonanza could be in Russian.”
At four a.m. on Wednesday, September 7, 1977 a peculiar thing happened in the sky over La Mesa. Witnesses talk of flashing colored lights, loud humming and beeping sounds, and an “upside-down saucer in a …