Will they go the way of abalone? Not long ago, sea urchins were considered a nuisance, a weed in the kelp gardens off Loma and the Channel Islands. “People used to be amused that anyone …
April 22, 2023
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Stories by Rick Geist
Sea urchins – the number-one seafood export from California
Bataan Death March victim lives to tell story
Die free One of our corporals had fallen during the night crossing Samat and injured his hip some way, so we were helping him all the way back for six days. We had to put …
July 18, 2022
I hike the San Diego River from its source
River run The river twists and winds even more. I’m trying to go south by heading east, then west. There are places where walking down the river is the only way to go — on …
July 9, 2022
San Diego Hell's Angels, truck kills bicyclist near Pringle and Kettner
Where the Bikes Are I noticed one guy playing pool using a broom as a cue. He looked as if he might have been an extra in a movie with a title like Chainsaw Rapists …
December 12, 2021
The hated game warden, the essential weatherman
We’re the New Wardens "A gray fox is a small animal, so usually the trap breaks their leg bones, and the only thing holding them in the trap is the skin that gets pinched between …
November 7, 2021
Sole survivor of fishing accident, the bitch of being 5'5", tried Morningstar for my schizophrenia
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
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
San Diego's tugboat and truck drivers, El Cajon shopping cart retrievers, gutsy stuntmen
Push Comes to Shove: Life on San Diego's Few and Mighty Tugboats “We’d come out here at low tide, bring the working hands out to the job, they’d work off the boat. We moved the …
February 21, 2021
Rick Geist and the Reader
Geist wrote for the Reader in the late 1980s and returned to write a feature story in 2016. Editor's picks of stories Geist wrote for the Reader: The San Diego-San Ysidro trolley, late at night …
September 14, 2019
Ode to O.B.'s Jim “Mouse” Robb
Early on a foggy morning in the mid 1950s, Jim “Mouse” Robb stopped by the Ocean Beach lifeguard station. The men on duty were his friends. Until the year before, he had worked beside them …
August 17, 2016
Reader writers: the story I wanted to write... but didn't
Sandy and a girlfriend had gone into a liquor store, robbed the clerk, They locked the clerk in a walk-in cooler. Sandy started feeling bad about the guy. She went back and let him out.
October 5, 1989
Whales of Baja's San Ignacio Lagoon
The Pacific Ocean swung at anchor several miles inside the entrance shoals of San Ignacio Lagoon. I hadn’t expected this place to be so big. Neither had I expected so many whales, such abundance of …
May 18, 1989
Sea urchin blackouts are gone at Point Loma, but now Japanese want them
Each urchin is worth about 75 cents to the divers, and by the time it reaches a sushi bar in San Diego, the five pads of sex organ from a single urchin are worth 15 to 20 dollars.
March 9, 1989
Frost Hardwood does its lumber number
Al Frost was a shrewd businessman. By specializing in hardwoods with their myriad uses, the company has avoided the up and down cycles of the construction and softwood lumber businesses.
November 17, 1988
Firemen on Southeast San Diego's Engine 12
Firefighters in this city have a 100% injury rate. That means everyone gets hurt sometime. Their profession is more dangerous than coal mining, which is more dangerous than being a cop. Maybe this is part of the appeal.
October 22, 1987
The San Diego-San Ysidro trolley, late at night
On the San Diego Trolley, the decision to buy a ticket or not is up to you. It's called the honor system. When I first heard about the trolley in 1981, the implications of honor …
June 25, 1987
San Diego's New Hope went down with all hands. Except one.
For an instant, Benny heard them again, those last shouts. He saw the sea leaping. He’d survived. Benny sat on the straight-backed chair under the single light at his desk. The shotgun stared at him, …
March 19, 1987