Florence Chadwick in and out of the water Many years earlier, on her return to San Diego from a trip abroad, Chadwick had been greeted by city officials with considerably more pomp - a jubilant …
July 1, 2023
Back to profile
Stories by Amy Chu
Florence Chadwick wants to lose 50 pounds
What's left of San Diego's Chinatown
The Climb to Gold Mountain: San Diego's Chinatown Joe Quin has a wholesale produce business at 431 Third Avenue, between Island Avenue and J Street. He and his family live above the lugs of vegetables …
April 23, 2023
Rudford's blue plate waitresses
Blue plate special "I’ve worked at Rudford’s since 1965. Twelve years altogether — I left three times. I used to get mad at something and I'd go back and quit. Some of the girls have …
May 7, 2022
San Diego's eccentric craftsmen
Arts and crafts and controversy "In the beginning, when the group was smaller and more homogeneous, it was possible to have a unanimous vote on a new member, but now, with the active membership numbering …
April 16, 2022
Spreckels and the train over Carrizo Gorge, Ike and S.D. Country Club
140-Mile Mistake Ritz calls the Chinese the railroad’s “unsung heroes,” but new evidence suggests that labor problems were perhaps the major reason why the railroad took so long to be built. The route of the …
January 17, 2022
Jamul townies vs. Indians, Santa Ysabel honors Steve Ponchetti
Jamul Residents Wage Indian Blood Battle over Gaming Site Back in 1963, Shipek says, the Jamul band asked her to assist them in establishing their California Indian ancestry. “I took oral histories from some of …
January 8, 2022
San Diego actors' worst stories, he guards Volcan Mountain, community college adjunct
Break a Leg In 1993, Hal Holbrook was performing King Lear in the title role. Tom Hall, a San Diego actor, likes to tell the story. Hal came on too soon and started a completely …
October 24, 2021
Alexander Theroux's father and brothers, Amy Chu's mother, Matt Lickona's grandparents
Decent Life Led by the Ordinary Man I will never forget the time a monsignor from our church, favoring our simple household with a visit, stopped by and in the course of dinner, sat back, …
August 21, 2021
Sky diving above Otay Mesa, roller blading at Civic Center garage
Just Flop The camaraderie among skateboarders goes beyond advanced skaters tolerating beginners and into the realm of solidarity. “Totally,” he said, “because there’s an us-against-the-world feeling. It’s the last kind of rebel-spirited outlaw activity that …
July 31, 2021
Teddy Kennedy, Hunter Thompson as villains, San Diegan sneaks onto Coronado Islands
Arrested development: Teddy Kennedy, Hunter Thompson, Jim and Artie Mitchell Kennedy, according to Burke’s memoir, “roared with laughter.” He grabbed a handful of the poppers from the box and tossed them to Burke, saying, “Here …
April 10, 2021
Oceanside Museum, Balboa Theater, bright eye of MOPA, scandal of MOCA
Pioneer in Oceanside “In San Diego, the most important piece of architecture is, of course, the Mission San Luis Rey. But I feel strongly that this [the Oceanside museum] is the next most important piece.” …
January 23, 2021
Best Reader stories from 1982
What on earth am I settling for “Goddamnit,” said Jane one evening about six months ago when I answered the door of our apartment in Golden Hill and found her on the stoop, Jeanne sliding …
November 24, 2019
Amy Chu and the Reader
Amy Chu served as calendar editor and wrote feature stories for the Reader in the late 1970s and early 1980s. How they restore great paintings in Balboa Park A recent Tuesday morning in Balboa Park …
September 15, 2019
A.W. Coggeshall, downtown San Diego's blue-collar landlord
Suppose, for a moment, that you had a lot of money — oh, not exactly cash, but valuable property. More money, that is, than you would ever need. Suppose, too, that for most of your …
March 17, 1983
A complete survey of San Diego shopping malls
Today there isn’t much about South Bay Plaza to distinguish it from the commercial buildings around it: just two parallel lines of stores separated by an unpretentious pedestrian mall. It was the biggest shopping center …
December 16, 1982
Green Tiger Press – a true tale of the publishing business
The traveler waits on the dock surrounded by his baggage: steamer trunks, wooden crates of books, parcels of drawings and rolled-up paintings. He is dressed in a purple jacket with a daffodil in the lapel, …
October 28, 1982
In conversation with a Rudford's girl
Tomorrow is Saturday, that’s the busiest day. They’re either having a garage sale or going to one; and some of them come in to read the Racing Form. I leave home before four, especially if …
July 29, 1982
What San Diego County reservations are doing about Indian alcohol
There was no liquor on the old reservation,but as soon as the tribe was moved to Viejas, in 1931, “there was plenty of it.” She started drinking when her First husband came back from the service.
June 10, 1982
The Climb to Gold Mountain: San Diego's Chinatown
A Chinaman was fishing for abalone off Pt. Loma and it clamped on his hand and he didn’t have sense enough to take a rock and break it and he drowned. They found him clamped to a rock there.
April 8, 1982
My 75-year-old mother lives, works in streets of New York
I ask when she will retire. She asks when I will have a baby. She used to say she would retire soon. Now she says, so she won’t retire for at least another year.
December 10, 1981
Elizabeth Cotten, adopted by the Seeger family, then discovered
“I was here about a year ago, I think they told me last night. It's kind of hard to remember. . . places I go to and how long it’s been, because I don’t think …
July 2, 1981
Fierce competition among San Diego ballet aspirants
Waiting: sitting, standing, stretching, eating an orange, talking quietly or with animation, trying not to be nervous. At least some of them had not been able to sleep the night before. It’s a familiar locker-room …
April 23, 1981
San Diego Historical Society has all the photos you could imagine
It was mostly dirt. A dirt road, a bunch of one-story houses and a few two-story ones, a scattering of low wooden fences, and a lot of dirt front yards and dirt back yards. Around …
November 13, 1980
I learn courage on the south face of Tahquitz Rock
The members of the rock climbing section of the Sierra Club in San Diego, like Harlan, are city people with full-time jobs or studies. During the week, they practice bouldering at Mission Gorge or Mt. Woodson.
January 31, 1980
1979: San Diego's year in review
Rape of the Earth Medal of Dishonor The year's most infamous award goes to the voters of San Diego, a majority of whom agreed to exchange 39 acres of prime canyonland in Balboa Park for …
December 20, 1979
How they restore great paintings in Balboa Park
A recent Tuesday morning in Balboa Park had brought a wooden angel weakened by insect tunneling, a fragmented jade sculpture, and a portrait of the owner’s grandmother that was mildewed and improperly framed.
April 26, 1979