A Good Old San Diego Political Garden Party

Thirty-Five Years Ago
Tom Hayden...came to a fundraising garden party in his behalf.... Admission at $15 a head included Jane Fonda and Jon Voight, finger food, plus the Versailles-type garden of the hosts. Drinks extra, at a dollar apiece.

Apparently starving, Fonda ate rapidly from her paper plate — Fritos, cheese, assorted dips, stuffed cherry tomatoes. Her fingers worked like wild birds.
— “POLITICAL GARDEN PARTY,” E.J. Rackow, October 16, 1975

Thirty Years Ago
[B]ecause of the recently instituted tennis-permit fee, charged to players on the 134 city-owned courts, some recreation employees at the 22 city parks with tennis courts are becoming the victims of citizen abuse.

“It’s really been rough on the staff here. You get called names, and people take out a lot of grief on you. Some guy came up to one of my employees a couple of weeks ago and said, ‘I hate you,’ just out of the blue. Some people call us fascists.”
— CITY LIGHTS: “MENACE, ANYONE?” Mark Orwoll, October 16, 1980

Twenty-Five Years Ago
San Diego’s most ambitious politicians had nearly a week to rehearse their speeches prior to the jury’s bringing back a guilty verdict in the Hedgecock case. But when reporters popped the big question, most of the would-be mayors waffled pathetically.

Police chief Bill Kolender, reached first by a radio news reporter, said he would probably seek the mayor’s job. An hour later Kolender was equivocating, telling other reporters that, yes, he’d received plenty of calls from friends urging him on, but, no, he needed more time to think about it. When Hedgecock announced his resignation on Friday, Kolender was hiding safely at a police-chiefs convention in Houston.
— THE INSIDE STORY, Paul Krueger, October 17, 1985

Twenty Years Ago
It happens at the San Diego Zoo, the Union-Tribune newspapers, and Sea World, and the scenario is always the same. An employee complains that a few of his colleagues are using or selling drugs on the job. Company executives notify the police and bring in undercover agents to ferret out the dealers.

These workplace drug arrests seem almost routine. That’s the picture that emerges in the court case of Otis Lambert, one of 39 San Diego Zoo employees suspended or fired during a December 1988 drug crackdown.
— CITY LIGHTS: “OBSERVING THE HUMAN ANIMAL,“ Paul Krueger, October 18, 1990

Fifteen Years Ago
I’ve had lots of big, noisy black birds in the trees around my house. My friend swears they’re crows, not ravens. And, whatever they are, how can I get rid of them?

Time was when most San Diego crows stuck to their territories in the mountains, while the ravens had things under control on the western slopes. But it’s the same old immigrant story. Population pressures, food supplies, jobs...things start getting hot in one place, and the hardy species will strike out for the frontiers.

As for getting rid of crows, all I can do is quote a local farmer, “Ha-ha-hahahahaha!”
— STRAIGHT FROM THE HIP, Matthew Alice, October 12, 1995

Ten Years Ago
As one beats his way through the reeds and rushes in search of the headwaters, the source of country music, one comes across the shadowy figure of Emmett Miller. Of course, off in the distance, is the monumental figure of Jimmie Rodgers, the “Father of Country Music.” Who got where first with regard to musical innovation will be moot. We leave that to ethnomusicologists, social historians, and barroom cognoscenti to thrash out. But we do know it was Miller who first came up with the blue yodel we identify with Rodgers and that he was the first country performer to record with horns and drums.
— “A YODELING FISH,” August Kleinzhaler, October 12, 2000

Five Years Ago
“In the past, people’s mindset was, ‘If people aren’t having kids, how is the Reformed faith going to grow?’” said Rick Roeda, the director of youth ministries, at San Diego Christian Reformed Church (SDCRC). “Reformed churches primarily grow through birth and through church transfer. We’re not as seeker-friendly as the Rock or happy-clappy churches.”
— SHEEP AND GOATS, Drew E. Goodmanson, October 11, 2005