The Second, Second Best Blog

Christmas in the ’50s was magical. Dad worked for Doyle Motors in Susanville, Mom at the hospital in Herlong. I don’t think there was a lot of money to spare after house payments and groceries for seven. In the days leading up to Christmas my brothers and I would watch the presents accumulate under the [...]

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What is needed in abundance to raise five boys with strong healthy bones and never risk them suffering the effects of rickets, as my father did as a child? Milk. Lots of fresh whole milk. I don’t remember exactly how and when my parents acquired a cow but they did. Even though we lived out [...]

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After thinking about removing the old light fixture, I just could not imagine a good outcome. Even if I did manage to get the old one out, I now had serious doubts that the new one could be installed and not leak without the kind of treatment the manufacturer had done on the original. Since [...]

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Back in 1995 when my father succumbed to liver cancer, my siblings and I each inherited a small amount of money from his estate. Most of it went straight to savings. But since my most excellent spouse, Patricia Ann, suffers from arthritis, we did spend some of it on a hot tub. Nearly everyday for [...]

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Here are some other shots from the November 1980 Torrance Townhall meeting. Then-California governor Jerry Brown introduced President Carter (above center). Can you guess who the reporters are in the other two photos? If those faces are unfamiliar to you, this typical home computer of the time ought to produce a chuckle.

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At least that’s what Brian Williams reported on the NBC Nightly News. I didn’t see it for myself. Makes one wonder what would differ if that election seven years ago had gone the other way, doesn’t it? My guess is Al Gore would not be accepting a Nobel Peace Prize. He would probably be at [...]

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Yesterday morning was cold and clear. Not so cold as the Decembers I remember in Standish when I was a teenager, not so cold as it is there right now. Cold for Orange County: 47 degrees on my patio, apparently below freezing on Santiago peak, judging by the trace of snow. This morning was so [...]

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“Wait a minute Dad”, I said to my father as he began a left turn into the Eldorado Ranch driveway off of US 395, less than a mile west of Standish, California. He was driving the family station wagon, a 1956 Ford Country Squire, with all seven of us aboard. He had been stopped, waiting [...]

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