Thirty Years Ago Writer Jane Stein will tell you that Golden Hills is the first place where she has ever wanted to live permanently. "I grew up in housing developments and shopping centers. This is …

Thirty Years Ago In San Diego, even the big agencies are having their share of troubles. The local Pinkerton Agency hires only two full-time detectives, while Wackenhut supplements investigative work with security guard service and …

Crystal called and invited me to come over because she had marijuana. Knowing that my grandparents would not let me out of the house, I snuck downstairs in my pajamas, avoiding all the creaks in …

You're not having an LSD flashback. The psychedelic sounds of Silver Sunshine come courtesy of guitarist Richard Vaughan, bassist Stuart Sclater, and guitarist/organist Conor Riley, who frequently whips out a vintage Mellotron, just in case …

Thirty Years Ago The Grossmont commencement ceremony was punctuated by water balloons. The seniors were christened with bottled water stolen from the science labs.... "Five years ago the valedictorians would get up and blast the …

Thirty Years Ago When tickets for David Bowie's San Diego concert went on sale, a first-year law student from Pacific Beach bought 240 tickets -- all were in the choicest sections of the Sports Arena …

Gladness Blooms Hmmm...the happiest and saddest I've been in my life... Seems simple enough, but it's not. I was having trouble coming up with answers, so I asked around. If you're married, your wedding is …

Thirty Years Ago The recent swell of Letters to the Editor on the subject of my sourness, or sore-headedness, or however it's diagnosed, has reached a point where it seems advisable for me to step …

Thirty Years Ago ALL ANIMOSITIES aside, I would like to organize a party for people who regularly place Reader personals. Interested "regulars" reply through the Reader. The Ad Tracer. -- CLASSIFIEDS, June 3, 1976 Twenty-Five …

Thirty Years Ago "I don't believe in the cult of personality, having my portrait hung all over the place like Ronald Reagan or Mao Tse Tung" is a quote from the little red book of …

Thirty Years Ago "Hell, you want to know what flat broke is? Flat broke is when I had to walk seven miles home because I didn't have a penny left. Lost every cent. There was …

Strange and Amazing 'If I leave, they're going to come get me. They're going to kill me. They want me dead." "Do you at least want your curtains open?" I asked. "No," he said. "They'll …

Thirty Years Ago These are the best cars the English ever made, no matter what anyone may say about how much that is saying. (Some would have you believe that England could have won the …

Thirty Years Ago Victor laughs to himself thinking about how easy it is to bunk honkies. Anyone who is a transient is sure to get his ass kicked in a dope deal because, as Victor …

Growing up as the daughter of an environmental health specialist, I have a deep respect for all things recyclable. It hurts me to watch people litter, and I've been known to chase down offenders and …

Thirty Years Ago Helen Copley, lauded by Newsweek and New West for improving employee relations, has pulled in the reins a bit. Union-Tribune staffers, all 1200 of them, will be paying a dime a day …

Thirty Years Ago COME TO SEE the real men. Come to the Mission Beach Plunge. EILEEN AT Halcyon: When I said you were "homely," I only meant you look good enough to take home. Honest, …

Shady Alleys I once knew a woman who grew marijuana in a small pot next to her kitchen sink. She was going through chemotherapy for breast cancer and smoked cannabis to ease the nausea, vomiting, …

Thirty Years Ago In what could have passed as a dress rehearsal for this summer's Democratic national convention, some 325 voters jammed a Clairemont junior high school to pick a slate of 10 potential delegates …

It was 12 o'clock in the morning and I was lying in my bed, half asleep. The moon was shining so brightly through the blinds that I could see almost everything in my bedroom. All …

Thirty Years Ago San Diego's University Hospital cafeteria is similar to an army mess hall. Costumes point up rank. Nurses are all in white -- either pant suits or dresses -- while female physicians wear …

Thirty Years Ago "Most of the bites are from German shepherds. Next, from poodles. Of course, people start shaking when you mention Dobermans, but there aren't enough around to make a big percentage of bites. …

This patch of earth, longitude 117 degrees west, latitude 33 degrees 2 minutes north, passes away from the sun. The sun's light, leaning in from the west, reaches us through denser and denser layers of …

'It was a very depressing scene," blogs Wasting June's keyboard player Jeff Domitrz about a summer gig at 'Canes (found on the band's myspace.com page). "A friend of mine described it as 'drinking beer at …

Thirty Years Ago County tax assessors assess boats as personal property, unless they are a taxpayer's principal residence, and then the boat owner can file for a homeowner's exemption. If taxes are unbearable, you can …

A wild tangle of curls ran all over my head like jungle vines. I looked in the mirror and realized what I'd been depriving myself of for so long. Since that day, I have become …

Thirty Years Ago Five years ago, with the depot looking more like a white elephant, talk began about what to do with it. The Santa Fe Railroad unveiled plans for twin office towers on the …

Okay. I won't panic. Even though I graduated high school in the top 10 percent of my class and managed to gain acceptance into my preferred college, I still have my problems. My main problem …

Thirty Years Ago "Logan Heights is divided up into territories. Shelltown, which stretches from 43rd and Highland to Wabash and National and from Division to Imperial. After that comes Logan and that goes from the …

Thirty Years Ago FIRST PRIZE -- $25 to: A practical Padre named Serra Persuaded our tribesman to wear a Donation of clothes, Then handed them hoes, And assigned them to tilling the terra. LaVerne Brown …

Little kids are fascinated by animals as soon as they become aware of the world around them. I was no different, but I did have more to go up against than many kids because my …

Thirty Years Ago County tax assessors assess boats as personal property, unless they are a taxpayer's principal residence, and then the boat owner can file for a homeowner's exemption. If taxes are unbearable, you can …

Non-drinker: Brianna Sheets, female, 17, Mt. Carmel High School What are your reasons for not drinking? "Honestly, I don't really have time to go out and party. Being involved with school, tennis, and community service, …

Thirty Years Ago How do 13 parking controllers cover the entire city? "It isn't easy," said Sammons, sitting in his Traffic Department office near 6th and Market Street. Complaints of underenforcement are regularly received from …

Northstar Session's EP Little Lies was released last October and was recorded and produced by John Beard (who has worked with American Idol's Bo Bice and San Diego's blink-182 and Lucy's Fur Coat). Northstar Session …

Non-drinker: Felicia Cheng, female, 17, Mt. Carmel High School What are your reasons for not drinking? "When I first started high school, I made a conscious decision to refrain from drinking and doing drugs." Do …

Thirty Years Ago Fragments of the conversation of P. Ferrari, the Last Dairyman.... "I was born in that house right there, went to school with all these people, dairy farmers, truck farmers -- lots of …

'Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!" From the moment when Jan uttered those words, I was in love with the Bradys, all nine of them (you have to include Alice). I loved nerdy Jan, sweet Cindy, pretty Marsha, …

Thirty Years Ago In the wake of Grape's demise, Mosley returned to San Diego and worked in high schools as a janitor and later joined the Marines.What made you decide to go into the Marines? …

Thirty Years Ago They tell tales in the back rooms and archives and lecture halls of the anthropology world, of one John Peabody Harrington, linguist. Now that a comfortable 15 years have elapsed since his …

During the month of January, gyms are filled with people who swore that this year they would get into shape. Those who vowed to maintain a six-pack crowd the ab machines and pilates classes, those …

Thirty Years Ago Unlike Eastern Seaboard communities who live in fear of a sludge monster arising from the depths, San Diegans can be free from such anxieties thanks to a steep topography and a hand …

Caffeine is my life support. I drink tea and coffee. I drink iced tea like a crazy man because it is my favorite. At Starbucks, I opt for the black iced tea, sweetened. It tastes …

Thirty Years Ago After six years of self-imposed abstinence, the San Diego Union-Tribune has reopened its entertainment pages to X-rated movie ads. In reversing a 1969 decision by former publisher James Copley, the U-T management, …

Did President Bush make the right decision to have the U.S. spend billions of dollars on the war in Iraq while people worldwide suffer from hunger and diseases? Absolutely not! Though Bush had noble intentions …

Twenty-Five Years Ago HEY YOU OUT THERE, let's in memory of John Lennon give peace a chance. BEATLE FANS. Did anybody out there do any home videotaping during December 9 through the 14th? If so, …

Thirty Years Ago The surfer is always changing his mind. Suppose he's at the South Mission jetty, watching a wave with the mass of a tall house approach at 30 mph along the rocks. He …

Along with many vidiots my age, television was the teat that nurtured us all, and I was less weaned than most. I recall "discovering" the Beatles on a Smothers Brothers show from October 1968 (which …

Thirty Years Ago RETIRED CHIEF EXECUTIVE of international banking cartel, bored with yachting and women, will consider assisting with your perplexities. Armondotio...after 10 a.m. -- "CLASSIFIEDS," December 11, 1975 Twenty-Five Years Ago In 1965 Marquis …

Thirty Years Ago The porn movies today are so anti-erotic, vacuous, and monotonous that they can serve better as wide-open playgrounds for radical film theorists and discussions of Art Brut pictorialism, anti-narrative structure, the spontaneous …