Thirty-Five Years Ago
“It’s gotten really bad in the last three years,” says Bob Moore, one of 45 Border Patrol agents patrolling the Chula Vista Sector.
“Well, this is just hearsay, you understand, but I talk to a lot of Mexican families and they tell me there’s going to be a revolution in Mexico soon and they want to get out before it happens. A lot of them feel the United States is going to crack down on illegals soon, and they better get in now while they still can.”
— “STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT,” Bob Hartley, October 21, 1976

Thirty Years Ago
What does the name “Helix Heights” have to do with the cost of a funeral service in San Diego? You’re probably stumped, but don’t be embarrassed. Until two months ago, eleven local morticians, some of whom have been in the funeral business 50 years, didn’t know the answer either. But when they found out that “Helix Heights” could triple the cost of a grave and perhaps send San Diego families chasing out to Miramar or El Cajon in search of an available plot, the morticians began a fight to defeat Proposition G on the November 3 ballot. That proposition would commit 16 acres of Mt. Hope Cemetery to industrial development.
— CITY LIGHTS: “IT’S YOUR FUNERAL,” Paul Krueger, October 22, 1981

Twenty-Five Years Ago
KSON-FM...sent nearly 400,000 glossy color flyers to random addresses throughout the county of San Diego.
The front of the mailer said the recipients might have already won $1000: if 97.3 FM, the station’s number on the dial, were on the gold lottery ticket inside the mailer, they would be an INSTANT WINNER! And many people thought they were, when they flipped open their triple-fold brochure.... The number 97.3 FM was printed not only on the tickets of those excited individuals but on every gold ticket distributed — all 400,000 of them.
KSON wasn’t planning on giving out $400 million, however.
— CITY LIGHTS: “WHEN COUNTRY WASN’T COOL,” Brae Canlen, October 23, 1986

Twenty Years Ago
There exists a post-Hemingway, post–Nelson Algren, post–Irwin Shaw cadre of men’s men male writers: the late Raymond Carver, and Jim Harrison, Thomas McGuane, Richard Ford, Russell Banks. These men’s men’s short stories and novels have in common a wiped-clean, plain truth-telling way of putting things, a bluntness, and incline toward character and setting and mood more frequently identified with country music than with literature.
— “NOVELS, THE KIND MEN LIKE,” Judith Moore, October 24, 1991

Fifteen Years Ago
I hesitate before starting with this particular detail. I want to begin with what for me was a simple fact but what to others may seem a tiresome metaphor. The psychiatrists didn’t invent this metaphor, but I suppose they helped popularize and thereby trivialize it. Psychiatrists have never done me any good, so I’ll hold my present hesitation against them as well. As I said, for me it was simply a fact: At about the same time I discovered my penis, I started writing with a fountain pen.
— “MY FOUNTAIN PEN,” J.D. McClatchy, October 24, 1996

Ten Years Ago
Just in time for war, the cafeteria at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot has been named “Best Mess Hall” by the “Major General W.P. Hill Memorial Awards Program for Food Service Excellence.” In reporting the honor, Food Service Director magazine quotes the mess manager, Master Gunnery Sergeant Edward Trevino, as saying, “As our customers come through the door, they’re expecting every day that everything will be perfect.”
— CITY LIGHTS: “BATTLE READY,” Matt Potter, October 18, 2001

Five Years Ago
A male suspect under the influence [was] yelling at another male and a possum. An officer made contact and the suspect took a fighting stance as he cursed the officer and advanced. The officer tased the suspect. The suspect removed the barbs and walked away. The suspect refused the officer’s commands to stop.
They went into a yard where a Rottweiler came at the officer. The officer shot and injured the dog.
— IT’S A CRIME: “WARRANT ARREST,” Michael Hemmingson, October 19, 2006

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

Back When: A Revolution in Mexico?