He brought punk rock to San Diego The patrons heading into the Spirit club shortly before nine on a recent Saturday night might have thought it peculiar that a large, paint-splattered wooden stepladder would be …
June 26, 2023
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Stories by Steven Shepherd
From the Pt. Loma Women's Club to the Spirit on Buenos
Castrated San Diegans
Life as a castrated man There was one psychological change that can be attributed solely to his new shortage of testosterone. He lost his interest in sex. It wasn’t dramatic, says Tom. Rather, he simply …
August 6, 2022
Wahrenbrock's Book House, Chino's vegetables
A Long Shelf Life Valverde unburdens a perspiring white-haired man loaded from waist to double chin with titles about World War II. He says to Valverde, I'm just kinda reminiscing about my war.” Waiting in …
February 12, 2022
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
Army-Navy Academy, wine experts behind doors, castrated man's life
An unhampered look at Carlsbad's Army Navy Academy "Unlike the upper-school cadets, these boys will break down and cry, a lot. They don’t want other boys to see ’em cry, ’cause it’s not macho. But …
August 29, 2021
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
Maple Street sewer repair, part two
March 21,1997(Friday, 7a.m. to 3p.m.) ... and including, The Tale of the Palm (Act II): The Fiat is not to be seen when first I peek this morning, it remains in the driveway and the …
March 19, 1998
Maple Street sewer repair, part one
For several months last year, they tore up the streets in my neighborhood, installing a new sewer. I watched this closely, for I had taken — have still — a deep interest in repairs. Repairs, …
March 12, 1998
The San Diego life of a castrated man
I first heard about Tom Blarney from a woman with whom I had worked. She had a friend, she said, who had lost both testicles to cancer. He now took supplemental testosterone shots, and he …
April 3, 1997
What success brought Fidel's in Eden Gardens
“It’s always going to be his [Fidel’s] way. . . . You buck heads with him and he’ll tell you, ‘I don't need you.’ ” This happens fairly often and Fidel fires his sons with a certain regularity.
October 1, 1981
San Diego cystic fibrosis sufferers learn to live life by the moment
"When I was nine my grandmother heard from a friend about this clinic down in Mississippi on the Gulf Coast. So my mother and I flew down there in the winter because I was constantly …
June 11, 1981