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Thirty Years Ago Just a Suggestion, You Understand After returning from Red China in November, Colleen O'Connor said she always believed that "the corporate executives ought to be on the line riveting bolts for a week and they'd improve the working conditions of the workers." -- "WHO 'DA THUNK?" Carlos Bey, January 13, 1977

Twenty-Five Years Ago Jeremy Lighthouse was born fourteen months ago in a fiber-glass hot tub in the double garage of a La Jolla house on La Jolla Corona Drive. When he emerged from the body of his mother into the warm, salty water, he remained under the surface for 20 minutes. His parents, Jia and Patrick Lighthouse, 34 and 33 years old, respectively, shared the tub with him. Seven other adults were in the room, but apart from them, few people knew about this first documented underwater birth in America. -- CITY LIGHTS: "IT'S THE WATER," Jeannette De Wyze,

January 7, 1982

Twenty Years Ago Now Roger Hedgecock has joined the ranks of electronics salesmen with an advertising pitch that trades directly on the format of his popular radio talk show. The former mayor debuted December 8 as spokesman for Dr. Carlos Soria, a Baja California physician who claims his secret "Facial Rejuvenation" formula can "literally wipe ten to twenty years from your face" without scalpels, collagen injections, or chemical peels. Soria's clients pay $3500 for 12 days at his Villa of Youth resort clinic near Tijuana. -- THE INSIDE STORY, Paul Krueger, January 8, 1987

Fifteen Years Ago This letter is for the person(s) at your paper who call San Diego "Dago." I bet that when you write home to your parents in Anywhere, USA, that you write your return address as Sandy Eggo. That way you really sound as though you have put down your roots here! When people come to visit you at your home in sunny "SoCal," you probably show them around such places as Elka John, Jahmool, Jackoomba, and San Whyseedro. Don't forget one of the most popular spots for tourists, La Jawlah. How about taking the trolley down to Tiawanna for your friends to sample some taqweela?

M. Bucaro

Normal Heights -- LETTERS: "DAGO: LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT," January 9, 1992

Ten Years Ago When my mother tells the story of her life, she says she knew not to marry a man like her brothers. She escaped as women usually do, by marrying a man from out of town. What she escaped from is picturesque, violent, and ordinary, like all lives told in anecdotes. There was the time she cut her head ducking under barbed wire and her hair turned red with blood. Her brother's friend pushed his hand under her sweater, her brothers fought, her Mormon father rolled his own cigarettes. She saw a car wreck once in the canyon, and a dead girl lay like a doll on the rocks. In times of heavy rain, my mother and her brothers would go down to the ranch and watch the river flood its banks. -- "FAIRY GODMOTHER'S ART," Laura McNeal, January 2, 1997

Five Years Ago Chargers owner Alex Spanos, who, according to some reports, may be on the verge of pulling his team out of San Diego for the greener pastures of Los Angeles, has given $50,000 of so-called soft money to the Republican National Committee, according to end-of-year reports. Sempra Energy, on the other hand, gave $50,000 to Senate Democrats ... Porn magnate Larry Flynt is said to be planning a new "upscale" dance club sans nudity in San Diego to be called Bar Flynt. At least that's what Jimmy Flynt, Larry's brother, is telling the media in Cincinnati, where the Flynts say they want to try the same concept. -- CITY LIGHTS, Matt Potter, January 3, 2002