Nightmare of the New Hope A little cry of relief burst from him, lost in the shriek of the wind. His hands scrambled, searching for the inflate cord. The sea bounced him. Spray lashed the …
October 2, 2021
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Stories by David Steinman
Sole survivor of fishing accident, the bitch of being 5'5", tried Morningstar for my schizophrenia
Utterly alone with abortion, Father Bud Kaicher's court statement, behind Debby Fleming's suicide
Dutiful Daughter After three days, I lost all feeling that something had “happened” to my body. I realized it would be possible to deny that this had ever happened to me, if I chose to …
May 15, 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
Stories hidden inside the San Diego Reader
Editor: The following feature stories appeared in the interior pages of the Reader in the 1970s and 1980s and have just been converted to digital form. Meditations while riding San Diego Transit “Yes, these people …
January 26, 2019
A slow dirge for Steve and Susan
Sherry Richardson wanted a change in her life, wanted to get away from the States for a while. She had a woman friend in Mexico she could stay with as long as she wanted, so …
May 8, 1986
San Diego's explosives man
Terry Barrett the powder man stood on the edge of a fifty-foot cliff he was about to destroy. As he spoke he pointed downward to the pit of a granite quarry, where there sat a …
November 10, 1983
Scott Thile, San Diego's master piano tuner
There was once a fine old Sohmer grand piano that fell asleep inside a church — the Seventh-Day Adventist Church of Oceanside. For many years, the church pianist and the 1917-vintage Sohmer grand had created …
July 21, 1983
The problem with Turkish rugs on West Lewis Street
The shop’s name is Guzel, a Turkish word meaning beautiful. And inside Giizel, located at 1621 West Lewis Street in Mission Hills, are Oriental rugs that, indeed, are beautiful. They are draped upon darkly stained …
May 5, 1983
The same day Kelly had rented us a home in Cardiff, she found out she was pregnant
“I can’t afford to buy a bed and pay for an abortion too.” “Hey!” Her voice rose in pitch, tightening. “I never said I’d have an abortion.”
November 18, 1982
Tim Joe Key - San Diego's version of a Tarahumara runner
When he and his father talked after that, T.J. said. “I wouldn’t mind going to college. I wonder if you would help?” “My father never helped me go to college,” his father replied.
October 21, 1982
Del Mar's horse vet Jack Jocoy has seen it all
On the pinto that he rode, he felt the beast’s physicality, its thickness through the barrel, feeling the strong uneven lope, a muscular ripple along the horse’s glistening croup and withers, the leather saddle against …
September 9, 1982