Vince Compagnone

Katheryn Hunter has been an ardent whistler since childhood and can imitate about fifty of her feathered friends trill for trill. She has recorded bird songs for Walt Disney and Cecil B. De Mille.

The glories of San Diego's trolley system

The spacious trolley car carried them up Sixteenth Street and down Broadway, where at Horton Plaza they switched to the line heading up what is now Pacific Highway. As the trolley cruised out Midway Drive and across a stretch of Mission Bay, the scenery' changed from that of a sparse business district to an open sea marsh. The trolley would lumber north through the wind-blown frame-cottage community of Mission Beach and pass by thinly populated Pacific Beach.

By Coleman Warner, Feb. 15, 1979 Read full article

“Why do you think I’m walking with a limp!” “Frostbite?” “Frostbite.”

David Diaz

The night I gave a ride to a Frozen Chosin vet

A visitor came to town a few weeks back and, as will many, he put up in a local hotel. It is called the Shaw Hotel and it leans up next to God’s House, the short-lived rescue mission on State Street across from the west side of the Hotel San Diego, downtown. The visitor rented room 202 for about a week. He drank a lot.

By Neal Matthews, June 28, 1979 Read full article

"There was a man swinging in that beautiful fern. I couldn’t imagine anyone being so damn stupid!”

Vince Compagnone

How's your fern?

Off Catalina Boulevard, up Rosecroft Lane, behind a red fieldstone wall bordered by tall trees, Katheryn Hunter nurtures an enormous family. Despite her eighty-three years. Hunter is up with the sun, for there are many children at her nursery — thousands of them. Working “eight days a week,” the petite woman has all she can do to keep her blooming charges green and healthy. Snails, aphids, red spider mites, and thrips — none of these creatures is welcome at the Rosecroft Begonia Gardens.

By Sean Rafferty, July 20, 1978 Read full article

Surfers vs. Oceanside Harbor

Some time ago the city decided it would be nice to expand the congested Oceanside harbor to make room for more boats. Visions of Newport Beach, or something. They had a good thing going with the harbor; people were coming from all over to use it (in fact 75 percent of the boats there are registered by out-of-towners), and if they could double its size they would have twice as much of a good thing. The money was set aside by the U.S. Congress ten years ago authorizing the Army Corps of Engineers to study the harbor and come up with a plan. And now they think they have it.

By Steve Sorensen, March 3, 1977 Read full article

Bob Rood and abalone, Bird Rock, 1942

Abalone's last stand

If there exists a food which Southern California can call its own, it is the abalone. Subtly flavored, cloaked in mystery, and wildly expensive, this lowly muscle now ranks with Alaskan crab and Maine lobster as the connoisseur’s delight. Even for those who can afford it, a fresh abalone dinner is something special. It is also a strictly local indulgence.

By Lee Southerland, Feb. 17, 1977 Read full article

Binh was a study in concentration, almost to the point of being stilted.

David Covey

Featherweight violinist Binh Zanh Luu

Benner and his wife befriended the large Luu family when they arrived here as refugees after taking the last plane out of Saigon; they have now settled in Lemon Grove. After some discussion it was decided that Binh would be the child on whom Benner would bestow his decades of musical learning. These two years have not been a disappointment to him, remarks Benner, who is as protective and proud of Binh as a society matron might be of her prize begonias.

By Karl Keating, March 2, 1978 Read full article