Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Reader first-place writing contest winners over the years

Top contestants in 1974, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1984, 1985, 2022, 2024

Everybody outside of South Mission was a hick.
Everybody outside of South Mission was a hick.


The mudflats sometimes stank at low tide; it wasn’t really a bad smell, but a grassy, muddy smell that could be pleasant if you associated it with the kinds of things you did on the mudflats. When tourists or even people who lived in other parts of San Diego saw them , they usually called them sand bars, but nobody in South Mission Beach ever said anything but mudflats. They were very black mud, except for a few areas which never were covered by high tide; these, indeed, were made of sand, but they were still called mudflats, not out of ignorance but because one of the relationships we had with the mudflats was the clubby right to call them that.

Author Keith Robinson: When I put on my red trunks with the blue San Diego Lifeguard Service patch and went on my first day’s duty as a real lifeguard it was thrilling, but the kinds of joys the Beasels knew in the sand and sun that year were gone forever.

There were several things one did on the mudflats, so that a mention of them was a way of reminding ourselves that we were cool and everybody outside of South Mission was a hick. We called them all hicks and hickville was everything except the other parts of San Diego, which we called downtown; a person from the government project called Frontier Housing where the Sports Arena is now, was a hick from downtown, and so was a person from East San Diego, Mission Hills, Kensington, Loma Portal, or wherever. If there had been a Clairemont then, somebody from Clairemont who showed up in our section of Mission Bay would have been the archetypal hick from downtown....

July 11, 1974 The end of the cool life in South Mission

December 2, 1976 North Park from my window

December 2, 1978  Hillcrest – an after-dinner walk, cottages, a taxi ride

Sponsored
Sponsored

November 23, 1983  Miramar Marine pilot doesn't show for wedding

December 13, 1984 A first kiss

December 19, 1985 The Idealization of Jessica Trump

March 2, 2022 Changing of the guard

March 20, 2024 Everything in Hillcrest is fleeting



Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Live Five: Mike Pinto, Brian Pierini, Ristband, Ben Benavente, Songwriter Sanctuary

Tropical jazz, classic rock, Hawaiian soul, surf-n-ska, and in-the-round in Ocean Beach, Normal Heights, Mission Beach, Shelter Island, La Jolla
Next Article

Live Five: Nathan Raney, Safety Orange, Lori Bell, Sprung Monkey, Rebecca Jade

Blues rock, urban reggae, soulful jazz, alt-surf, and a Miles Davis Tribute in Little Italy, Ocean Beach, College Area, La Jolla
Everybody outside of South Mission was a hick.
Everybody outside of South Mission was a hick.


The mudflats sometimes stank at low tide; it wasn’t really a bad smell, but a grassy, muddy smell that could be pleasant if you associated it with the kinds of things you did on the mudflats. When tourists or even people who lived in other parts of San Diego saw them , they usually called them sand bars, but nobody in South Mission Beach ever said anything but mudflats. They were very black mud, except for a few areas which never were covered by high tide; these, indeed, were made of sand, but they were still called mudflats, not out of ignorance but because one of the relationships we had with the mudflats was the clubby right to call them that.

Author Keith Robinson: When I put on my red trunks with the blue San Diego Lifeguard Service patch and went on my first day’s duty as a real lifeguard it was thrilling, but the kinds of joys the Beasels knew in the sand and sun that year were gone forever.

There were several things one did on the mudflats, so that a mention of them was a way of reminding ourselves that we were cool and everybody outside of South Mission was a hick. We called them all hicks and hickville was everything except the other parts of San Diego, which we called downtown; a person from the government project called Frontier Housing where the Sports Arena is now, was a hick from downtown, and so was a person from East San Diego, Mission Hills, Kensington, Loma Portal, or wherever. If there had been a Clairemont then, somebody from Clairemont who showed up in our section of Mission Bay would have been the archetypal hick from downtown....

July 11, 1974 The end of the cool life in South Mission

December 2, 1976 North Park from my window

December 2, 1978  Hillcrest – an after-dinner walk, cottages, a taxi ride

Sponsored
Sponsored

November 23, 1983  Miramar Marine pilot doesn't show for wedding

December 13, 1984 A first kiss

December 19, 1985 The Idealization of Jessica Trump

March 2, 2022 Changing of the guard

March 20, 2024 Everything in Hillcrest is fleeting



Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Live Five: Mike Pinto, Brian Pierini, Ristband, Ben Benavente, Songwriter Sanctuary

Tropical jazz, classic rock, Hawaiian soul, surf-n-ska, and in-the-round in Ocean Beach, Normal Heights, Mission Beach, Shelter Island, La Jolla
Next Article

Fanatic Porsche owners of San Diego

You don’t understand until you have one
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.