Thirty Years Ago On Third Street in Encinitas, just up the hill from Moonlight Beach, there's a pair of low-rent triplexes facing each other. Somehow, over the years the two triplexes fell into the hands of separate owners, and so quite naturally accumulated different types of tenants.... The leader, by authority of his generosity and his enthusiasm for group activity, was the gardener.... Also, he was an intellectual, but was embarrassed about it and tried to disguise himself by staying drunk. -- WRITING CONTEST WINNERS: "A KINGDOM BOUGHT AND SOLD," Steven R. Sorensen, December 9, 1976

Twenty-Five Years Ago In the preface to his "true story," Fast Times at Ridgemont High, author Cameron Crowe states that he changed the names of his characters and altered superficial details in the book's juicy account of modern adolescence. But Clairemont High School insiders haven't been fooled by the cloak of anonymity. Clairemont alumnus Andy Rathbone says he became good friends with Crowe during that year: "He'd mostly hang around the lunch court and stuff and after school he'd do stuff with us. But it was not like he was doing the regular student routine." -- CITY LIGHTS: "WHAT HIGH SCHOOL DID YOU GO TO?" Jeannette De Wyze, December 3, 1981

Twenty Years Ago When two Mexican police officers and two FBI agents showed up at his beachfront Playas de Tijuana apartment on October 17, James Gibson had reason to suspect that his attempt to start a new life south of the border had been foiled. This became all the more clear to him as he was pushed into the back seat of a car and, with an FBI agent seated on either side of him, driven to the headquarters of the State Judicial Police in Tijuana. The 32-year-old fugitive -- a parole violator and the subject of warrants alleging he played a role in a New Mexico prison escape two years ago --was being informally extradited. -- "YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CANNOT HIDE (AT LEAST NOT IN TIJUANA)," Stephen Meyer, December 4, 1986

Fifteen Years Ago County Supervisor Susan Golding, who is divorcing Dick Silberman, appears to have settled her child-support battle with first hubby, lawyer Stanley Prowse. Golding and Prowse split in 1978 after a ten-year marriage. When Golding wed millionaire Silberman in 1983, Prowse claimed he stopped paying child support after his ex-wife said she didn't need it anymore. But when Silberman was indicted for money laundering in 1989, Golding sued Prowse for more than $50,000 in back payments. Argued Prowse, "Susan sent my son off to boarding school north of Santa Barbara without a word to me," and "Susan insists that the children refer to me as 'Stan' and to Dick as 'Dad.'" -- CITY LIGHTS: "MY SON CALLS ANOTHER MAN DADDY," Matt Potter, December 5, 1991

Ten Years Ago The male squirrel, like certain high school boys, is ready for mating before the female. He courts her anyway, winter comes, and she accepts him when the days are short. She carries the resulting triplets, quadruplets, or quintuplets (the record stands at 15) for six and a half weeks. The inch-long babies are hairless and blind and whiskered. -- "THEIR BABIES SMELL LIKE FRESHLY OPENED HICKORY NUTS," Laura McNeal, November 27, 1996

Five Years Ago The next day, Gwinn wrote a letter to Union-Tribune editor Karin Winner, in which he claimed, "Mr. Bauder has misrepresented the truth through conduct that may be legally actionable." In other words, Gwinn was threatening to sue the paper for what his letter alleged was Bauder's "misconduct." "I urge you to hold Mr. Bauder accountable for his misconduct. His column masqueraded as the truth but, in the end, contained deceiving assertions that bear no resemblance to the truth." -- "DID CASEY GWINN TRY TO GET DON BAUDER FIRED?" Matt Potter, November 29, 2001