Shelf Realization

Thirty Years Ago
CHERRY COLA: I’m kinda open and I was hopin, to find someone like me, so we could just be, to write, talk or go for a walk. Sunny Days.

NEEDED: MAIDEN IN DISTRESS! Chivalrous knight-errant seeks fair lady to champion. Experienced in dragon slaying and tower rescues! Sir Mirth. P.O. Box 20507 San Diego, CA 92120.

UNDERCOVER ANGEL. I like Pina Coladas and I love green-eyed ladies. Respond in Reader and maybe we can get together. Whiskey Kid.
— CLASSIFIEDS, December 6, 1979

Twenty-Five Years Ago
Flushed with success, the Boneys opened other stores, but Cooper and other natural food retailers say the profit margins at these outlets were disappointing. In early 1984 the Boney family sold to Hadley’s fruit and nut company, though family members still run Boney’s Markets in El Cajon, Vista, and Del Mar. Hadley’s meanwhile brought new products to its Windmill Farms stores — nuts, honeys, pickles, olives, a variety of no-preservative trail mixes — but one former employee says the firm neglected the importance of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Supermarkets were at the same time chipping away at the Windmill/Frazier customer base by offering bulk grains, natural breads, carob candies, and vitamins. St. Michel says the Windmill Farms on West Point Loma Boulevard couldn’t withstand the competition from Ralphs and Safeway outlets located a short walk away.
— CITY LIGHTS: “SHELF REALIZATION,” Paul Krueger, December 6, 1984

Twenty Years Ago
Its 39 acres of parks, 900 boat slips, excursion dock, and restaurants have made Chula Vista’s new J Street marina a bayfront paradise. But Mike Irey and Luigi Sanfilippo say the multimillion-dollar tidelands project has destroyed one of San Diego Bay’s most precious resources: its fish.

Sanfilippo...says his daily catches have declined from highs of 1800 pounds in the early ’80s to 400 pounds or less in 1988-’89. Irey had bountiful catches for the first few years after he was granted a mullet permit in 1985, but his logbooks now show yields of 192, 124, 81, even 26 pounds per day. He says he has equally bad luck at several places that once yielded full nets: the J Street area, Emory Cove, and the waters just south of the Coronado Bridge.
— CITY LIGHTS: “MULLET OVER IN CHULA VISTA?” Paul Krueger, December 7, 1989

Fifteen Years Ago
At six, I became ambivalent about my name: Patrick was too formal, too distant; Pat was too intimate, too gender vague. Elementary school enemies called me “Patty” or “Patricia” or “Fat-Pat” or “Pat-the-Fat,” epithets that required immediate combat.
— “WHAT IF WE’D BEEN NAMED EDWARD?” Patrick Daugherty, December 1, 1994

Ten Years Ago
If there’s anything worse than getting up at 2:45 a.m., it’s getting up at 2:45 a.m. only to be pulled over by a policeman at 3:00 a.m. But cracking out early and tickets from bored cops on graveyard shift are occupational hazards for the hunter, particularly the hunter who wants to get from San Diego to El Centro in time for the 5:44 a.m. shoot time for the 1999 dove-season opener.
— “SHOOT TIME,” Ernie Grimm, December 2, 1999

Five Years Ago
It was with real sadness that I read of Eleanor Widmer’s passing. I remember well the interest with which we read her reviews after we arrived in San Diego in 1977.

Of course, it took a while for us to “calibrate” Ms. Widmer’s views and reviews. Obviously someone who hated salt and ate her desserts first would not have tastes that aligned with ours. But once we figured out her perspective she was a great help. I remember well when she panned a restaurant in Old Town named Berta’s. When I read the review I could tell that Berta’s was exactly my kind of place.
— LETTERS, “SALT-FREE DESSERTS,” Alan Campbell, December 2, 2004