Florence Chadwick in and out of the water Many years earlier, on her return to San Diego from a trip abroad, Chadwick had been greeted by city officials with considerably more pomp - a jubilant …

The Climb to Gold Mountain: San Diego's Chinatown Joe Quin has a wholesale produce business at 431 Third Avenue, between Island Avenue and J Street. He and his family live above the lugs of vegetables …

Blue plate special "I’ve worked at Rudford’s since 1965. Twelve years altogether — I left three times. I used to get mad at something and I'd go back and quit. Some of the girls have …

Arts and crafts and controversy "In the beginning, when the group was smaller and more homogeneous, it was possible to have a unanimous vote on a new member, but now, with the active membership numbering …

140-Mile Mistake Ritz calls the Chinese the railroad’s “unsung heroes,” but new evidence suggests that labor problems were perhaps the major reason why the railroad took so long to be built. The route of the …

Jamul Residents Wage Indian Blood Battle over Gaming Site Back in 1963, Shipek says, the Jamul band asked her to assist them in establishing their California Indian ancestry. “I took oral histories from some of …

Break a Leg In 1993, Hal Holbrook was performing King Lear in the title role. Tom Hall, a San Diego actor, likes to tell the story. Hal came on too soon and started a completely …

Decent Life Led by the Ordinary Man I will never forget the time a monsignor from our church, favoring our simple household with a visit, stopped by and in the course of dinner, sat back, …

Just Flop The camaraderie among skateboarders goes beyond advanced skaters tolerating beginners and into the realm of solidarity. “Totally,” he said, “because there’s an us-against-the-world feeling. It’s the last kind of rebel-spirited outlaw activity that …

Arrested development: Teddy Kennedy, Hunter Thompson, Jim and Artie Mitchell Kennedy, according to Burke’s memoir, “roared with laughter.” He grabbed a handful of the poppers from the box and tossed them to Burke, saying, “Here …

Pioneer in Oceanside “In San Diego, the most important piece of architecture is, of course, the Mission San Luis Rey. But I feel strongly that this [the Oceanside museum] is the next most important piece.” …

What on earth am I settling for “Goddamnit,” said Jane one evening about six months ago when I answered the door of our apartment in Golden Hill and found her on the stoop, Jeanne sliding …

Amy Chu served as calendar editor and wrote feature stories for the Reader in the late 1970s and early 1980s. How they restore great paintings in Balboa Park A recent Tuesday morning in Balboa Park …

Suppose, for a moment, that you had a lot of money — oh, not exactly cash, but valuable property. More money, that is, than you would ever need. Suppose, too, that for most of your …

Today there isn’t much about South Bay Plaza to distinguish it from the commercial buildings around it: just two parallel lines of stores separated by an unpretentious pedestrian mall. It was the biggest shopping center …

The traveler waits on the dock surrounded by his baggage: steamer trunks, wooden crates of books, parcels of drawings and rolled-up paintings. He is dressed in a purple jacket with a daffodil in the lapel, …

Tomorrow is Saturday, that’s the busiest day. They’re either having a garage sale or going to one; and some of them come in to read the Racing Form. I leave home before four, especially if …

There was no liquor on the old reservation,but as soon as the tribe was moved to Viejas, in 1931, “there was plenty of it.” She started drinking when her First husband came back from the service.

A Chinaman was fishing for abalone off Pt. Loma and it clamped on his hand and he didn’t have sense enough to take a rock and break it and he drowned. They found him clamped to a rock there.

I ask when she will retire. She asks when I will have a baby. She used to say she would retire soon. Now she says, so she won’t retire for at least another year.

“I was here about a year ago, I think they told me last night. It's kind of hard to remember. . . places I go to and how long it’s been, because I don’t think …

Waiting: sitting, standing, stretching, eating an orange, talking quietly or with animation, trying not to be nervous. At least some of them had not been able to sleep the night before. It’s a familiar locker-room …

It was mostly dirt. A dirt road, a bunch of one-story houses and a few two-story ones, a scattering of low wooden fences, and a lot of dirt front yards and dirt back yards. Around …

The members of the rock climbing section of the Sierra Club in San Diego, like Harlan, are city people with full-time jobs or studies. During the week, they practice bouldering at Mission Gorge or Mt. Woodson.

Rape of the Earth Medal of Dishonor The year's most infamous award goes to the voters of San Diego, a majority of whom agreed to exchange 39 acres of prime canyonland in Balboa Park for …

A recent Tuesday morning in Balboa Park had brought a wooden angel weakened by insect tunneling, a fragmented jade sculpture, and a portrait of the owner’s grandmother that was mildewed and improperly framed.