If you haven’t cast your vote via mail, make sure you stop by and vote in person, I won’t presume to tell you how to vote, but I do hope you vote for someone you like, or think you like.

Hey, it is an exciting election. There’s even one candidate for Congress who can’t vote for himself in the 25th Congressional District, since he lives in the 26th. That happens in Britain. I didn’t know it could happen here.

I went grocery shopping yesterday. I forgot a bag of potatoes at the store because I couldn’t find them. Turns out, I had set that bag in the passenger seat and forgot I was looking for a place to store them. That is the passenger seat of my RV, “Billy Bob.” I found them today. I now have a spud locker in the RV – just like we had on a couple of submarines I was stationed aboard.

Had some interesting comments from my posts over the weekend. If I can get a few more folks interested in thinking about and serving in some capacity as a volunteer in our little valley, I will have accomplished something a little good. Sometimes it might take a bit of feather rustling, but that is good, too. If folks want things to change, they can’t just sit back and do nothing.

Now for a couple (or more) rather shameless plugs:

The Community Hiking Club is looking for a donation of railroad ties to use as stairs on a trail the club is repairing in our local mountains. Should you want to donate some ties or even cash so they can buy some, please contact me via the email below. Five-eighths-inch rebar would be nice, too. Please let me know and I’ll pass the info to the CHC.

One of my all-time favorite classmates, Laura Raynor, Hart High Class of 1968, is appearing in a play called “The Last Remnants of Cops, Robbers, and Hollywood Cowboys” now playing at the Complex Theatres (East Theatre), 6476 Santa Monica Blvd. You can get tickets and information at www.hollywoodfringe.org. Laura earned her MFA from the Actor’s Studio in New York and is back in her home state. The show runs through June 29. Hope to see all y’all there.

I’m again scheduled to lead a hiking tour of Mentryville on Saturday, July 12. It is a Community Hiking Club event and starts at 8 a.m. Don’t forget to pay your parking fee if you come to join us. Bring a large vehicle that will hold a lot of people so you don’t have to crowd the lot with a bunch of little cars.

End of shameless commercial messages.

Yesterday was the monthly gathering of Hart High alumni at Cathy’s Deli for breakfast. Always a good time. We had yet another discussion of the change in colors for the school from maroon and gray to red and black. Sure makes the old fight song lyrics strange. None of us at breakfast could remember the student vote to change them. Well, it was the ’60s, and it’s hard for many of us to remember stuff from that era. Hope to see more folks next month for breakfast about 9:30 a.m. Any and all Hart High School grads are welcome.

I made the mistake of trying to drive past Hart High as students were being paroled for the night. That experience hasn’t changed since I left the place. Sometimes one forgets just what fun it wasn’t on Newhall Avenue in the afternoon.

Now if only each precinct had as many cars and people around it all day tomorrow. Imagine a 98-percent voter turnout. Oh, I forgot – this is the “bastion of democracy” and not Iraq or Afghanistan. Dare I hope for 25 percent today?

Place your voter turnout bets right here and now. Of course, since the turnout is so low, we all lose. How can we change that?

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com and his commentaries, published on Tuesdays and Sundays, are archived at DManzer.com. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].