Back When

Thirty Years Ago The last remaining farm in Mission Valley has come to look almost invincible over the years. The farm is the one east-west commuters know so well, the one Interstate 8 bisects, east of the 805 freeway. Now, however, the For Sale sign over the farm's north section has come down and the developer's sign has replaced it. -- CITY LIGHTS: "FOUR-LANE BACKDROP,"Jeannette De Wyze, September 1, 1977

Twenty-Five Years Ago Several weekends ago, Los Angeles rockabilly band Jimmy and the Mustangs performed in concert at the Kings Road Cafe, San Diego's newest punk-rock nightspot, in North Park. After the show, a melee erupted between the band and about a dozen local punks; the windows to the band's van were smashed, and three musicians -- including Charlie of vocal trio Johnny Diamond and the Flat Tops, also on the bill -- were beaten with boards (Charlie suffered a bloody nose and a head wound that required stitches). Tim Mays, a San Diego concert promoter who produces more new-wave shows here than anyone else, admits that the reputation San Diego has achieved is not making his job any easier. "The audiences down here do have more of a reputation for violence, but I don't really know why that is," Mays says. -- CITY LIGHTS: "ALL RIGHT FOR FIGHTING,"Thomas K. Arnold, September 2, 1982

Twenty Years Ago Dirty Dancing is a little nothing -- or the next thing to it: a fig or its leaf -- which, if you stop to listen to the critics before attendance thereat, will be magically transformed into the latest summer fashion in Emperor's New Clothes. -- "THE WAY WE WEREN'T," Duncan Shepherd, September 3, 1987

Fifteen Years Ago Maureen's favorite ex-mayor, Roger Hedgecock, also caught at Del Mar. When the above candid was snapped on July 29, Roger had no way of knowing that his scheme to build a poker palace in Mission Valley was about to be thwarted by the very same Las Vegas interests who have kept San Diego a gambling backwater for decades! Roger's been targeted by the mob before. Way back in the 1950s, when he was a rising young radio announcer, Roger was offered his own three-hour morning radio show if he'd just agree to play some Pat Boone covers of Chuck Berry songs. -- "SAN DIEGO CONFIDENTIAL," Margot Sheehan, September 3, 1992

Ten Years Ago To white people, we are the default. When we describe other people, if they don't look like us, we say, "The black woman," "The Korean boy." We don't say, "He was a scruffy white guy." We think whitely. People like to eat Mexican food, I always say, but they don't want to see any Mexicans. -- "PEOPLE RELATED TO YOU BY JERRY-RIGGED MEANS," Jennifer Ball, September 4, 1997

Five Years Ago While your surfside sun worshipper feels "caressed" by the sun, I am more apt to feel a relentless and hellish fireball invading my being. A comment, like "It's another beautiful day in paradise, eh?" sounds in my ear as "Day 61 in this killing heat wave. No escape. I curse the day I set foot in this infernal colony." Meaning California. Though I have lived in this sunshine state for more than 20 years, it took me 10 of those years to sit on the beach for more than a few minutes. To me it was an ordeal of windblown sand, flies, and evil-looking insects. And don't forget the dehydrating pounding of carcinogenic ultraviolet rays. Within a short time I would experience a full-blown panic attack with the obsessive thought that I should be doing something else -- as if I had left the stove on or forgotten to vote. -- T.G.I.F., John Brizzolara, August 29, 2002