La Jolla 1962 Dressed in long trousers and boat shoes and a white Lacoste tennis shirt, I accompanied Toby across Vista del Mar and Neptune Place to the Pump House and down concrete steps to …
August 19, 2023
Back to profile
Stories by David Burge
Fled my father in La Jolla
The Chinese buried their dead in very shallow graves
The forgotten war "It’s just like it was yesterday. On November 27 [1950] we were in a little village of Hagaru [North Korea]. That was the day the Chinese attacked further north and headed our …
May 6, 2023
San Diego's silverware nuts
Look! you've got a naked man on your fork! The drug and antique worlds share a vocabulary. Both worlds thrive on human “have to have it” weakness. Certainly, as it is with junkies, I always …
April 9, 2022
Korean War survivors, Hotel Del expels Prince Edward, Spanish Civil War vets, escape from Vietnam, tortured by Japanese
The Forgotten War Conversations with men who never forgot I do not recall putting my foot on Korean soil for the first time. I only remember the cold rain, and running, and others running with …
September 20, 2020
Spanish civil war vets, harrowing escape from Vietnam, POWs of Japan, Prince of Wales tossed from Hotel Del Coronado
The Forgotten War I do not recall putting my foot on Korean soil for the first time. I only remember the cold rain, and running, and others running with me. By David Burge, June 20, …
May 24, 2020
Best Reader stories from 1996
Mafia in San Diego before World War II (first in series of six stories) “The raids, all made with search warrants, started soon after noon and were not completed until early evening. All of the …
January 12, 2020
Best Reader stories from 1995
I've got Perry Mason on board! In early 1960, the man who created Perry Mason was introduced to an Imperial Beach resident named Francisco Muñoz. Erle Stanley Gardner had many friends, and he particularly liked …
January 11, 2020
David Burge and the Reader
The New York Times called him "one of America’s important pianists," and his concerts were described as "an overwhelming experience" (Washington Post). Author of Twentieth Century Piano Music, Burge was the former director of the …
September 28, 2019
Competition among San Diego ballet coompanies
HER EYES SHINE AS SHE LEANS FORWARD IN HER CHAIR, SMILING, REMEMBERING. “MY MOTHER WAS A DANCER,” SHE SAYS, “RIGHT HERE IN SAN DIEGO. WHENEVER A DANCE COMPANY CAME TO TOWN SHE WOULD TAKE ME, …
June 25, 1998
San Diego's Korean War vets surprised anyone wants to talk about it
“You know, when guys who were in Vietnam came back and got into some...well, some difficulty, everyone said it was the fault of the Vietnam War. But not Korea. Somehow it didn’t work that way.”
June 20, 1996
San Diego composers Gillis, Bastien, Groupe, Reynolds, Sollberger, and Ward-Steinman
“I have always been interested in music.” says composer Ron Gillis, founder and artistic director of the San Diego Choral Artists. “As a kid I always walked around with tunes in my head. I thought …
April 18, 1996
David Burge enters local homes and businesses and tests pianos
I grew up in the Midwest during the Great Depression. As was the case with most families, we were poor, but there was, nevertheless, a small upright piano in our living room. There were upright …
April 27, 1995