Sorry you’ve not seen anything from me the last few days. I had a few articles in reserve for last week, but they ran out before I was in any mood or had the time to write another. On Mother’s Day, May 11, 2014, Kathryn Jean Benham Manzer left this world for the next. She had asked me to be there...

Is it this… “A great conspiracy has been thwarted. Elected officials have been put ‘it their place.’ The people will be heard.” … or this? “Lots of people signed something they really knew nothing about, and now it is going to cost the City of Santa Clarita.” I think baseball...

When I tell folks I served on submarines, most of the time I hear, “What was it like?” and “I couldn’t do that; I’m claustrophobic.” Followed soon after by, “Why did you pick submarines?” I didn’t “pick” the Submarine Service. I enlisted as a musician. I played bassoon. The Navy...

So many people have moved here from the San Fernando Valley, I sometimes wonder if anyone is left there. I am also worried that our Santa Clarita Valley could become a carbon copy. No, the SCV will never be like the SFV – or the AV. As you drive from any of those other places and crest the hills...

Maybe two weeks ago there was a thunderstorm here in Western Kentucky that kept me awake most the night. You see, I don’t like thunderstorms. I get “skeered.” I stay awake waiting for the tornado warning sirens, or the smell of a fire from lightning striking the house, or a million other little...

Gorman. Saugus. Castaic. Newhall-Pico Canyon-Mentryville. Saugus (again). Newhall (again) and Valencia. Plus a little time in Acton. These are all the places I’ve lived in the SCV. At one point in my life, I lived at the corner of Los Rogues and San Francisquito Canyon Road. That is an intersection...

What are you doing for your mother on Mother’s Day? Mine usually gets flowers. It has been that way since she died in 1967. Three years before my mother died, I became a member of Old West Chapter of the Order of DeMolay. It is a great organization for young men. One of the seven virtues contained...

We all remember the story of the blind men describing an elephant. A leg was a tree; the trunk a hose; the tail a rope. So I’m sitting in a diner here in Kentucky, talking about California. Impressions of my home state are all-important. I’m a proud native son of the Golden State. What I heard are...

You may know I’m no fan of chain restaurants. I prefer places like Egg Plantation, Newhall Refinery and El Trocadero, to name a few. But today I must state for the record that there are two chain-type restaurants that are not in the SCV and should be here. I just read a piece by John Boston about how...

The Marines were poised for attack at the bottom of the hill. Recent rains had made the hillside as slippery as a ski slope. A group of four started up firing rifles and lobbing grenades at the enemy. They had to take that castle on the hill. Dodging through the tall brush, each Marine pushed ever upwards...