Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Back When

Thirty Years Ago San Diego's University Hospital cafeteria is similar to an army mess hall. Costumes point up rank. Nurses are all in white -- either pant suits or dresses -- while female physicians wear the same coats as their male colleagues. Interns' uniforms consist of white pants and jacket. Residents wear only the jacket; the faculty sports knee-length coats. Lest any confusion arise, name and rank are clearly imprinted on plastic name tags: So-and-so, RN, Clinical Nurse III; So-and-so, LVN; So-and-so, M.D., Dept. of Surgery. -- "UP STETHOSCOPE," Seth Tulsi, April 8, 1976

Twenty-Five Years AgoFor the last five years Ben White has been on contract to about twenty-five grocery stores for the recovery of shopping carts. Safeway, Vons, Food Basket, and Mayfair pay White fifteen dollars every time he swings through their area to collect carts. Some routes, like the one for the San Ysidro Safeway, he prowls every day. Others, like the one he's on now for the Linda Vista Safeway, he hits three times a week. He completes between ten and fifteen routes a day, six days a week, dawn to dusk, and on a good day he can haul back 500 carts. -- CITY LIGHTS: "THE CART SHARKS," Neal Matthews, April 9, 1981

Sponsored
Sponsored

Twenty Years Ago You'd think with all the spinning in circles Earth does, we'd be losing weight. But all that exercise doesn't keep us in shape, and I'm afraid our planet needs to go on a diet. Not only are we spinning more slowly in our old age -- our days are getting longer by about a millisecond per century -- but we're gaining weight as well. Earth currently tips the scales at 6,585,600,000,000,000,000,000 tons. -- STRAIGHT FROM THE HIP, Matthew Alice, April 10, 1986

Fifteen Years Ago A freeway runs through it. The freeway starts in San Diego. God and Rand McNally know where it ends. If you want to go to Rainbow, you have to get off either before you get there or after you've passed it by. There are no exits in between. The highway used to run right through town. It was U.S. 395 then. Rainbow was the center point in the stretch from state 76 to the county line that they used to call the Bloody Gap. Drunks, tourists, high school kids, Mexicans, Marines, locals, whole families all crashed and burned on the Gap. -- "INSOMNIA IS THE NUMBER ONE KILLER," Jamo Jackson, April 11, 1991

Ten Years Ago Two campaign aides to Juan Vargas are wasting no time returning to their city hall jobs in the wake of the city councilman's unsuccessful challenge to incumbent Congressman Bob Filner in the Democratic primary. Larry Cohn, who was in charge of fundraising, and Paul O'Sullivan, who walked precincts and manned phone banks, go back to their jobs as council reps on April 15. Campaign manager Ralph Inzunza, however, won't be returning as chief of staff. A Vargas staffer says Inzunza is considering going back to college, either law school or graduate school, until his boss decides which higher office to try for next. "This race was just round one," the staffer says. "Juan is very young, he's very formidable, and he'll be back." -- CITY LIGHTS: "REVOLVING DOOR," Thomas K. Arnold, April 4, 1996

Five Years Ago Holding a Cup of Noodles in one hand, a rosary in the other, a woman crawls on her knees down the center aisle. Kneeling before the Sacred Heart, clutching a white Stetson to his chest, a white-haired gentleman sobs quietly. Outside Tijuana's cathedral, vendors erect their blue-tarpaulin stalls. Their tables are filled with fancy crucifixes and chalices made of straw. There are bowls heaped with scapulars. There are dozens of jars of "miracle cream." There are hundreds of pendants of Juan Soldado, Tijuana's unofficial saint. -- SHEEP AND GOATS, Abe Opincar, April 5, 2001

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Our riparian woodland begins to look like fall, Orb Weavers help decorate

Comet of the century?
Next Article

More on San Diego inventions – Spike Bite and disappearing ink

The scandal of county supervisors at the library

Thirty Years Ago San Diego's University Hospital cafeteria is similar to an army mess hall. Costumes point up rank. Nurses are all in white -- either pant suits or dresses -- while female physicians wear the same coats as their male colleagues. Interns' uniforms consist of white pants and jacket. Residents wear only the jacket; the faculty sports knee-length coats. Lest any confusion arise, name and rank are clearly imprinted on plastic name tags: So-and-so, RN, Clinical Nurse III; So-and-so, LVN; So-and-so, M.D., Dept. of Surgery. -- "UP STETHOSCOPE," Seth Tulsi, April 8, 1976

Twenty-Five Years AgoFor the last five years Ben White has been on contract to about twenty-five grocery stores for the recovery of shopping carts. Safeway, Vons, Food Basket, and Mayfair pay White fifteen dollars every time he swings through their area to collect carts. Some routes, like the one for the San Ysidro Safeway, he prowls every day. Others, like the one he's on now for the Linda Vista Safeway, he hits three times a week. He completes between ten and fifteen routes a day, six days a week, dawn to dusk, and on a good day he can haul back 500 carts. -- CITY LIGHTS: "THE CART SHARKS," Neal Matthews, April 9, 1981

Sponsored
Sponsored

Twenty Years Ago You'd think with all the spinning in circles Earth does, we'd be losing weight. But all that exercise doesn't keep us in shape, and I'm afraid our planet needs to go on a diet. Not only are we spinning more slowly in our old age -- our days are getting longer by about a millisecond per century -- but we're gaining weight as well. Earth currently tips the scales at 6,585,600,000,000,000,000,000 tons. -- STRAIGHT FROM THE HIP, Matthew Alice, April 10, 1986

Fifteen Years Ago A freeway runs through it. The freeway starts in San Diego. God and Rand McNally know where it ends. If you want to go to Rainbow, you have to get off either before you get there or after you've passed it by. There are no exits in between. The highway used to run right through town. It was U.S. 395 then. Rainbow was the center point in the stretch from state 76 to the county line that they used to call the Bloody Gap. Drunks, tourists, high school kids, Mexicans, Marines, locals, whole families all crashed and burned on the Gap. -- "INSOMNIA IS THE NUMBER ONE KILLER," Jamo Jackson, April 11, 1991

Ten Years Ago Two campaign aides to Juan Vargas are wasting no time returning to their city hall jobs in the wake of the city councilman's unsuccessful challenge to incumbent Congressman Bob Filner in the Democratic primary. Larry Cohn, who was in charge of fundraising, and Paul O'Sullivan, who walked precincts and manned phone banks, go back to their jobs as council reps on April 15. Campaign manager Ralph Inzunza, however, won't be returning as chief of staff. A Vargas staffer says Inzunza is considering going back to college, either law school or graduate school, until his boss decides which higher office to try for next. "This race was just round one," the staffer says. "Juan is very young, he's very formidable, and he'll be back." -- CITY LIGHTS: "REVOLVING DOOR," Thomas K. Arnold, April 4, 1996

Five Years Ago Holding a Cup of Noodles in one hand, a rosary in the other, a woman crawls on her knees down the center aisle. Kneeling before the Sacred Heart, clutching a white Stetson to his chest, a white-haired gentleman sobs quietly. Outside Tijuana's cathedral, vendors erect their blue-tarpaulin stalls. Their tables are filled with fancy crucifixes and chalices made of straw. There are bowls heaped with scapulars. There are dozens of jars of "miracle cream." There are hundreds of pendants of Juan Soldado, Tijuana's unofficial saint. -- SHEEP AND GOATS, Abe Opincar, April 5, 2001

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Vista imagines car-free downtown

Following Encinitas and Pacific Beach
Next Article

Larry Turner – the man who would be San Diego's mayor

Ex-Marine, cop answers the personal questions
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader