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. The Kumeyaay rock art at Hakwin Hakwin is an …
October 1, 2022
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Stories by Gordon Smith
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Hallucinogen provides key to rock art at La Rumorosa
Imperial Beach horses ride on the sand
You're always the cowboy “I took riding lessons the way some people play golf. I was the only one in my family. I started doing weekend trips. I’ve led pack trips in the Sierras for …
July 25, 2022
Surf legend Mike Doyle steals board design from Encinitas
Mike Doyle Bud Browne asked him to be the star of the movie he was filming that winter, of course Mike agreed, and later, when it was shown in civic auditoriums back in California, Mike …
July 24, 2022
Balboa Park's Society for Creative Anachronism
We live in a pre-industrial world and we prefer it there “We feel much more comfortable in medieval clothes. Throw on your tunic, your cloak, and your sword, and you’re all set. You feel much …
June 25, 2022
Cops, sailors, topless dancers eat at Johnny's Cafe
Welcome to Johnny's "I asked myself, ‘Why can’t I do this? It ain’t all that complicated.’ The first order was this young sailor who wanted French toast. I said to myself, ‘I know how to …
June 12, 2022
How cool Elon swimsuits were
Soaked In swimsuits There's something incongruous about a national trend-setting taking place within the Elon building in downtown San Diego. It’s a faded hulk of a place built as a public works project during the …
June 5, 2022
Albert Arffmann grooms La Jolla's streets
Show me a sign Arffmann works into the early-morning hours, cleaning the restaurant and preparing the Pearl for the coming day. “Imagine you were having some friends over for dinner,” he says, "and imagine the …
May 30, 2022
The city-owned land east of La Jolla disappears
How San Diego lost its pueblo land Most of the 2000-odd acres proposed for sale in 1963 would go to Irvin Kahn’s University City Corporation. Kahn had holdings all over the city’s north, but they …
May 29, 2022
Fred Schaubelt – San Diego City Council's burr under saddle
San Diego will never see another city councilman like Fred Schnaubelt “The interesting thing about being a [government] planner is that you have to be a socialist,” Schnaubelt continued mildly. Among his audience one could …
May 28, 2022
3000 hours later – SD Rep's Elephant Man
The town that San Diego would like to forget “San Ysidro’s dead,’’ says an Hispanic banker whose branch is on San Ysidro Boulevard, within sniffing distance of a McDonald’s, a donut shop, the Main Attraction, …
May 15, 2022
San Diego reporters become PR agents
Twist and Shout There are a lot of reasons for reporters to take up public relations. The prospect of making more money is one. A good journeyman at the Union or the Tribune these days …
May 9, 2022
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
They work on San Diego's smog
San Diego starting to deal with its smog The natural broom sweeps the smog into the natural dustpan of Alpine. On days when the smog is particularly bad, you can drive east on Interstate 8 …
April 24, 2022
San Diego's TV station in Tijuana
Channel 6, our Mexican TV station Channel 39’s cofounder, Larry Shushan, confirms that he and his partners from the outset looked forward eventually to capturing Channel 6’s ABC affiliation. Shushan (who then owned KPRI radio …
April 18, 2022
Little Galapagos – right next to San Diego
Death of an island “There’s not another island off the Pacific coast of North America, including Alaska, that ever evolved five of its own bird species.” points out Bill Everett, a local ornithological consultant and …
April 17, 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
The venerable Armed Forces YMCA
Downtown's YMCA – doors always open In 1944 alone, almost eight million people came through the front doors. A continual flow of humanity, 22.000 per day, filed through them. “They say it was a sea …
April 11, 2022
San Diego's bees and ostriches
The cumulative hiss of thousands of wings Mikolich moves bees to the Imperial Valley, for melon pollination, onion seed pollination, and alfalfa seed pollination. Hives there are usually set under “shades,” shelters that protect them …
April 2, 2022
Gringos drive south to Colegio Ingles
The sun is hot. The sun is yellow. The sun is in the sky. It’s been a long day for Jovanna Venegas, starting out as she did so early in her room in the house …
March 28, 2022
San Diego pound's soft hearts, local knee industry
Down, Boy “Steady, Yucon, it’s okay boy, calm down now Yucon.” Rich and DeGroot croon. The difficulty of the job registers on both their faces. DeGroot forces most of the barbiturate through the needle and …
March 19, 2022
The Zoo turns Judith Moore philosophical, aggressive dog catchers
Mananimalmananimal You tell me why, what, keeps my stub-toed Frye boot from kicking, jabbing the open-toed lavender sandals, nylon-encased toes; what stays the hand from grabbing the gray-suit lapels, from turning that wood-laminate table over; …
March 6, 2022
Clint McKinnon – San Diego's early Democrat; Gloria Penner – KPBS voice of the mundane
Mac “The Communists in San Diego had a little cell that was trying to take over the Journal. A general called me up one day; ‘Do you realize you have three Communists in your editorial …
December 27, 2021
Luis Urrea daydreams of San Diego, Oklahoma girl spends summers on Bonair Street
Homeboy on the RangeAfter school, 1965: Spring. Wearing my idiotic St. Jude’s Academy uniform. My bright red sweater calling vatos and homeboys from miles around to come kick my ass. I had a crew cut …
December 4, 2021
Tom Morey – the Boogie Board's early years
Tom Morey, creator of the Boogie Board, died on Thursday, Oct. 14 at age 86. The following is a Reader cover story on Morey by Gordon Smith in 1978. For the last seven weeks the …
October 18, 2021
Subs off Imperial Beach, Yamamoto's killer, a kid in WWII San Diego
Lie Down in Darkness The submarine had been discovered by two San Diego State students who were financing their educations by salvaging objects. They had located S-37 about 300 yards off the coast and in …
September 20, 2021
Steve Soderberg, Mike Doyle, Rusty Preisendorfer, Tom Morey
Of Wave and Camera Shaun Tomson, Larry Bertlemann, Terry Fitzgerald. Gerry Lopez, and Donald Takayama are special because of their boundless optimism, a character trait he feels is infectious. “Good surfers are the most positive …
August 9, 2021
Kate Sessions' tree man, C. Arnholt Smith's repairman
Beneath the Bunya Bunya They lived on the ranch [Scripps Ranch] for six years. He supervised teams of men in planting thousands of eucalyptuses, all together about forty percent of those that were set out …
August 8, 2021
Jack Kemp and the fugitive, U.S. Grant's son, Seals ambivalent about Jesse Ventura
Kemp and the Fugitive Fotomat also gave Graham a political base. One of the first beneficiaries was Jack Kemp. On May 23, 1968, the San Diego Union reported that Kemp had “joined Fotomat Corp., La …
July 5, 2021
San Diego corporate giants: PSA, Sheraton Hotels, Jack-in-the-Box
Thought for Food Bob Peterson (husband to Mayor Maureen O’Connor) opened his first Jack-in-the-Box restaurant at 63rd Street and El Cajon Boulevard in 1951. Peterson had expanded his chain to include 350 units by the …
June 19, 2021
Mountain lions move toward San Diego suburbs, Borrego's wild horses are not mustangs
Return of the Mountain Lion In October 1983, a lion killed a domestic goat at a ranch near Julian; in November 1983, a dead lion cub was found on the road near Santa Ysabel. In …
June 12, 2021
Been to Guatay, Buckman Springs, La Posta, Live Oak Springs, Boulevard, Bankhead Springs?
Dots on the Map Bankhead Springs is wholly owned by Helen, an 87-year-old woman who purchased it m 1939 with her husband Alvan. (The place is named after Senator John Hollis Bankhead of Arizona, who …
May 16, 2021
Acorn history, Don Juan Forster, Cabrillo, John Crosby traces trail over Baja
Acorns in San Diego History The people roasted grasshoppers, yuccas, and ate abalone. But their number-one food source was the acorn, shaken from branches of Coast Live Oak trees. They poured hot water through baskets …
April 26, 2021
Eucalyptus transformed San Diego landscape, oleander sends me over the edge
Eucalyptus It Is The eucalyptus tree and its history are not so different from the human influx into the area. Everywhere from El Cajon and La Jolla to Scripps Ranch and South Bay, up to …
April 19, 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
Fires in Alpine, San Felipe Valley, Julian
Rustic Firetraps Imagine a wildfire driven by winds gusting at 80 miles per hour is racing toward your house east of Alpine. In the predawn darkness, you can see the red-orange glow of the inferno …
February 7, 2021
Looking inside Padres lockers, Maureen Connolly, Ted Williams, spying on America's Cup rivals for the Kochs
Inside the Padres' lockers Caught looking. Tony Gwynn sat in a canvas-backed chair and peered into the wooden cubicle in front of him. “What’s in my locker?” he asked, repeating the question that had been …
January 9, 2021
Imperial Beach, town without pretense
Complete public sleeping ban Imperial Beach has banned camping or sleeping in public with an ordinance that reaches into every last corner, from pavement to median, "including but not limited to dirt or landscaped areas." …
July 6, 2020
Best Reader stories from 1984
Tight-lipped submariners aboard the Blueback open up Of course, all submariners are interested in naval history, and remain closer than even infantrymen to their dramatic and bloody heritage, and the Blueback crew seems to sense …
December 1, 2019
Best Reader stories from 1981
Postcards From Western Civilization Some years ago at Christmastime, when I was a teller at a bank downtown, I came to know Wayne Boyer, who was then an apprentice bum. I met him in the …
November 23, 2019
Best Reader stories from 1980
On the path of the old ones It’s now ten years, almost to the day, since an amateur archaeologist discovered what seemed to be extraordinarily old stone tools in a canyon above Mission Valley, and …
November 17, 2019
Best Reader stories from 1979
Park there, pay here On the afternoon of the All-Star baseball game in July, Evan Jones was standing on top of one of those pedestrian towers that corkscrew up the side of San Diego Stadium. …
November 16, 2019