4:00 p.m. Saturday evening: “Honky Tonk Heroes” Where did it go? Good Lord only knows. Seems like it was just the other day. (Waylon Jennings, 1973) The Renegade Inn is many things, but you don’t …
July 10, 1997
Back to profile
Stories by Hawkins Mitchell
San Diegans at the Renegade explain country music
The tough nun from San Diego's Our Lady of the Angels
A nun helped to change my life. She was cool and aloof. Like the Catholic Church of the time, she was tough and she brooked no question to her authority. Times have changed. The Catholic …
June 12, 1997
Wounded veteran Jerry Stadtmiller meets nurse at Vietnam Memorial who worked on his face
He was young and he was in Vietnam, and he took two sniper bullets in the head. The miracle was that he survived. However, his face was disfigured. He was blind, with much of his …
May 29, 1997
Gay bars in Hillcrest after midnight
9:41 p.m. Where are their faces? Friday night, and dozens of headless musclemen on video, strutting at some outdoor gay-pride event. Near-naked, their bronzed muscles stretched by steroids and molded by Nautilus machines, a cross …
May 15, 1997
San Diego surf glossary — based on Trevor Cralle's Surfin’ary
A. AAAAHOOO! The first term found in a book on “surfspeak." is reported as the sound made by a surfer when up and riding a wave, when watching another surfer catch a hot ride, or …
January 23, 1997
San Diego African-Americans to try imagine a different reality
"I wanted to be a model. If I was white, I'm sure, what with the connections white folks have, things would have gone easier, and they would have introduced me to people and helped me on my way."
August 29, 1996
Will California kill LaTwon Weaver?
SAN QUENTIN, THE MAIN BUILDING, RISES FULL INTO VIEW. This maximum-security prison is in fact a scatter of buildings, a fortressed village built upon rock for the purpose of keeping a few men in and …
January 11, 1996
Five San Diego black brothers reflect on race
I happened to be born colored, like York. By 1950, with Marcus, we had become Negro. Today we are African Americans. However, when the snapshot was taken with Shawn and Andre, we were all known as black.
December 7, 1995
Growing Up Negro in San Diego
I saw a black man sprawled in the gutter on Imperial Avenue, clutching an empty bottle of cheap Thunderbird. I felt bad for him. “He’s not in your family, is he?" my mother asked.
February 16, 1995