In the Green

Thirty-Five Years Ago
Watching Lyn Lott play the final hole on Sunday was an honest lesson in the pro golf version of catch-22.... On the seventy-second, par five, eighteenth hole, the left side of the green fronted by newly created water, Lott drove into the left rough, but had a good lie. Lott, two over par through seventy-one holes, rhetorically asked the gallery what they thought, then played safe, pitching his second hit short of the water hazard, chipping over the pond, then two putting for his par. His performance won him $663.
— “IN THE GREEN,” Richard Pesin, February 20, 1975

Thirty Years Ago
One adjective in the critic’s lexicon which is often construed as pejorative is “pleasant.” For example, Kenny Loggins is pleasant. Even though I can’t imagine myself wrestling with insomnia over missing Loggins’s upcoming concert Sunday night at the Sports Arena, I wouldn’t mind attending it. His stuff with Jim Messina was always nice, soothing, and, well, pleasant.
— MUSIC SCENE: “THIS WEEK’S CONCERTS,” Steve Esmedina, February 21, 1980

Twenty-Five Years Ago
Fellow tourists you encountered on the street have told you that there’s a four-hour wait at the San Ysidro border crossing. But you’ve seen the local TV news coverage of the brand-new Otay Mesa crossing, and you’ve heard that there is virtually no wait to cross at the facility. The only trouble is that there’s not a single sign on the entire length of Revolución that would indicate its whereabouts.
— CITY LIGHTS: “LOOKING FOR SIGNS,” Abe Opincar, February 21, 1985

Twenty Years Ago
As Sooze sees it, the use of speed — methamphetamine — is rampant in Jacumba and Bouelvard. “Not long after I first came here, I was working at a tavern in Boulevard,” she relates, “and I said to one of the other waitresses, ‘Why are all these people constantly going outside and then coming back in?’ She said, ‘Just how dumb are you, anyway? They’re going out to have a little hit of speed, that’s all.’ She said you could tell the speed monsters by the little bumps on their faces. I started watching for that, and before too long I realized that almost everyone who came into the place had those bumps.”
— “DOTS ON THE MAP: HEADING EAST ON OLD HIGHWAY 80,” Roger Anderson, February 22, 1990

Fifteen Years Ago
San Diego and Imperial counties have the worst rate in the state for life-threatening birth defects, topping the list for five of the seven categories measured by state researchers.

Critics, who suspect that environmental pollution might be contributing to the problem, are calling for further study into the increased birth-defect rate. Also alarming: due to budget cuts, San Diego County has been eliminated from the monitoring program altogether.
— CITY LIGHTS: “BABIES OF A TOXIC BORDER,” Melinda Powelson, February 16, 1995

Ten Years Ago
I’ve just gotten off the trolley at 25th and Commercial, looking for breakfast. Here we’re in WWII-era San Diego. Developer money won’t touch it.

I cut up 30th Street toward Imperial. But lots of its shop fronts are locked and boarded.

That’s when I get the whiff. Across 30th. Catalano’s Pizza, a stucco place in an ancient corner building. I mean, I’d been hoping for sausages and eggs, but, hey, pizza guy’s cooking in there.
— TIN FORK: “PIZZA FOR BREAKFAST,” Ed Bedford, February 17, 2000

Five Years Ago
Whenever I’d imagined myself in police cars, I was always in back. Cops were the bad guys, just the “man” out to get you. But that was before my sister Jenny began dating Brad a couple of years ago. When I found out he was a “CHiP,” the first thing I thought was,

I guess Jen’s not coming to any more of my parties.
— “BARBARELLA SWEEPS THE BEATS WITH THE HIGHWAY PATROL,” Barbarella, February 17, 2005