Best Reader stories of the late 1980s

Reader book issue, Coronado’s Don Zub, tough cop, actor kills mom, vice cop busted, candid dancing instructor. Otay Mesa's death of farming

Author

Publish Date

June 23, 2018

Jerry Gross with Stan Musial, St. Louis, 1960. By the time he came to San Diego, Gross had been a broadcaster in two World Series.

James Keeline: "I have one of the better Tom Swift collections in the country." (Earl S. Cryer)

Season's Browse

Duff Brenna's Book of Mamie won the 1988 Associated Writing Programs prize for best novel of the year. Brenna admits reading everything that crosses his path. However, there are classics he returns to often: Rolvaag's Giants in the Earth; Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. War and Peace; Conrad’s Lord Jim. "I have absolute faith in these geniuses that keep getting read and reread." Brenna says.

By various authors, Dec. 21, 1989 Read full story

Don Zub shimmied the tree one night, wearing shorts and topsiders, and broke off the uppermost couple of feet. How’d he get up there? “On mushrooms.” Why? “UDT! Iron grip!” (Paul Stachelek)

No man is an island (with the possible exception of Don Zub.)

He manages to keep three or four mostly inoperable cars stashed on the island’s streets and alleys without getting them towed more than once every couple of months. Nearly every bike on the island is his to borrow, sometimes even with the owner’s permission, though he still owes $30 to a friend’s brother for throwing his beach cruiser off a high span of the Coronado Bridge. “I crashed on that bike, and it made me mad.”

One tough cop

“These people can be violent upon you. Most of the fights I’ve had were in defense of someone else. Like, the last memorable one I had at the 3500 block of National Avenue in 1962. Took on a whole family. Six of ’em, by myself. Put ’em in the hospital."

By Judith Moore, May 18, 1989 Read full article

USD graduation, 1966

The blood upon his hands

“It was a dull, outdated play, but when Mark walked on stage, it came alive. He filled the theater with his presence.” Ehrenfreund congratulated Mark on his performance and continued to leave him free tickets at the Marquis Theater box office where the judge was performing;

By Sue Garson, March 9, 1989 Read full article

Hannibal spent five months in the Descanso detention facility, and although he’d had many friends in the police department, not one of them visited or contacted him.

Bob Hannibal was one of the good guys. Or so he thought.

Hannibal's daily efforts to convince people he wasn’t a cop, along with all the dope smoking and the ten different identities he developed as covers, inevitably led to a slippage in his real identity; he became unstuck from himself. Adding to his growing sense of unreality was something that hurt him deeply: "People never recognized me. I busted the same whore three times, and she never remembered me."

By Neal Matthews, Sept. 22, 1988 Read full article

At midnight, when Juan arrives home, his wife massages his feet and gives him a pedicure. (Craig Carlson)

One step at a time

Precisely because dancing “is such an intimate sport,” says Juan, "it’s very easy that a student can become infatuated. Students bring you cookies, cakes, pies. They bring you lunch from Burger King. You touch the students, you touch them in their heart, and it’s so easy for an instructor to break a student s heart."

By Judith Moore and Abe Opincar, July 21, 1988 Read full article

"These nodes are too close for comfort. You don’t want the fruit condensed together like this. You want them spread out on the vine.” (Robert Burroughs)

Death of a growing season

One year, Cacho grew cucumbers year round, harvesting a spring, a summer, and a winter crop, and lost several hundred thousand. The market was low that year. To hedge his bets, he now harvests cucumbers in the spring and fall, along with a little cabbage, and celery in the winter.

By Neal Matthews March 17, 1988 Read full article

Gross ended up in the unemployment line in the summer of 1976. “It was the lowest point of my life. I was totally mortified. People in line recognized me.” (Robert Burroughs)

Jerry Gross bounces back

Another factor leading to Gross’s termination as Channel 8 sports director was his feud with Padres president Buzzie Bavasi, who ran the team under two succeeding owners (C. Arnholt Smith and Ray Kroc) between 1969 and 1977. Gross had worked for Bavasi beginning in 1969, when he was hired as the announcer for the newly enfranchised San Diego Padres.

By Neal Matthews, Oct. 15, 1987 Read full article