I have a few items of family memorabilia I’ve carried around from place to place as I transferred and moved for the Navy and in retirement. This one item, above all, is a memory I can’t seem to let go. It was such a happy time when it came into my life, and when it became mine, it was a very...

CASTAIC, 1957 (or thereabouts) – I lived on Church Street, west of Highway 99. It is Interstate 5 today. I remember walking up the street past Cherry Drive and into the open fields that are now all houses. There was a little hill – we called it “Little Hill” – and I could climb to the top of...

Think you’re old school? Think again. I usually get a chuckle when I read a Facebook page about “Old School SCV.” It is like a couple of younger generations are just discovering the old places and parts of the Santa Clarita Valley. What they look at as strange or unusual is really some old part...

Dear Newhall, I thank you for your letter. Yes, we have real mail service down here in Southern Arizona. Haven’t had a problem sending or receiving mail since the last big snowstorm in January of 2019. Had around 5 inches of that infernal white stuff, and it was cold. There’s something strange about...

Dear Tombstone, You and I are nearly the same age. I started about five years before you did in 1876. I’m told you became a town in 1881 or so. We were both born of a mineral in the ground. You had silver. Lots of silver. I had, and still have, oil … black gold. We both also have native peoples,...

Next time I’m in California, I think I’m going to decide which laws I want to follow. Since so few seem to adhere to the speed limit anyway, I think I will follow those laws – but I don’t think I will follow laws concerning private property. I could take the shortcuts overland with my truck....

I’ve been reading a lot about the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) of late. I have a huge interest in that project. You see, my father once lived on or near the Rosebud Reservation when my grandmother taught school there. Because of that, I know that many of the attitudes he had came from that time. His...

For those of you who don’t know, I’m once again an expatriate. I’m living in the hottest little city in the United States – Bullhead City, Ariz. That means I like hot temps, low gas prices and the Laughlin casinos just on the other side of the river. It also means I’m no longer one of “Jerry’s...

Just when I was thinking California’s High Speed Rail Authority couldn’t sink to a lower level of deception and lies, it does just that. It looks like it has been taking lessons from the Chiquita Canyon Landfill folks. You know those folks – the company that donates all kinds of money to all kinds...

We have been able to visit a couple of very old mining towns not far from Bullhead City, Ariz. I don’t feel so bad about Mentryville after seeing them. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love both of those little towns and enjoyed visiting, but one thing I kept thinking about was how the buildings in Mentryville...