A photo essay of the 1950s-era bomb shelters discovered in the Bakersfield area

 Bakersfield resident Stephen Montgomery shared these pictures of a 1950s-era bomb shelter on South Garnsey. The property is in the path of the extension of Highway 58 and likely will be paved over. Notice the pathway and the extent of the bomb shelter. These types of structures were common in Bakersfield during the early days of the Cold War. All photos courtesy of Stephen Montgomery.

Californian Radio to discuss pit bulls: misunderstood sweethearts or vicious potential killers that need to be outlawed?

* ... PIT BULLS: Did you know that in any given year pit bull type dogs account for about 60 percent of all fatal dog attacks? And when you add in Rottweilers, the number jumps to 73 percent? So how do you feel about pit bulls? Are they misunderstood sweethearts or a vicious breed that should be outlawed or at least regulated? Is it the owner that makes them mean or is it in their DNA? I will be discussing the subject Monday, on Californian Radio KERN 1180, to talk about Bakersfield's unofficial mascot. Tune in to share your stories, good and bad, by calling 842-KERN (5376) The show begins at 9 a.m.

 * ... ROY CLARK: Roy Clark, who along with the late Buck Owens made the TV show "Hee Haw" famous, played recently at The Crystal Palace but it wasn't a performance that left everyone pleased. Caleb Melton posted his own frustration on The Bakersfield Californian/Opinion's Facebook wall when he said Clark rejected his efforts to get a picture of him. "Just wanted to say if anyone did or wants to see Roy Clark live don't do it, because he knows how to shatter a person's childhood memories and has no heart." Melton dropped by Clark's bus and asked if he could get a picture. And this was after he wrote a heartfelt letter to Clark telling him how much he meant to him. "All I got was a thanks but no... he even gave the heartfelt letter back to his band manger to give back to me. He could have signed it but he didn't even do that... Mr. Clark has forgotten that if wasn't for fans like me, he would be a no one. Now I know why Buck Owens wanted to stay away from Nashville."

 * ... BAD FORM: Local businessman Herb Walker shared his frustration with me about people who use our community as their personal trash can. Herb owns a building on District Boulevard that houses the local YMCA, and over the weekend someone used his parking lot to change the oil of their motorcycle, leaving behind three Coke bottles full of oil and other assorted trash. "Who on earth does this?" he asked. Apparently, a lot of folks around town.

* ... HONOREE: Want to feel good about today's youth? Then consider Wendi Wu, a senior at Independence High School who was chosen as the "Young Woman Defining Philanthropy" at the Women's and Girls' Fund luncheon this week. Check out her accomplishments: She is a member of Independence’s Energies and Utilities Academy, she has an impressive academic record and she has a long list of community service accomplishments.  She’s also one of 1,000 students nationally selected for a Gates Millenium Scholarship. As a Gates Scholar, Wendi will have a full ride through college, including the medical degree she will pursue. (photo of Wendi with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (left) and Judi McCarthy (no relation) of the Women's and Girls' Fund.)

 * ... STRANDED: Reader Richard C. Clason wrote to respond to an earlier post by a woman who wondered why no one stopped to help when she ran out of gas. "If all she did was pull to the side of the road and get out of her car there is no reason for anyone to stop to help.  If she were to raise her hood, the men of Bakersfield would have stopped to help at the universal sign.  I know the firefighters would have stopped to help under those conditions, as I retired from the Kern County Fire Department, and know the mind set of those folks. Perhaps the best advise I could give her was some I received from my father almost 50 years ago, 'IT DOESN'T COST ANY MORE TO KEEP THE TOP HALF OF YOUR GAS TANK FULL THAN THE BOTTOM HALF!'"

* ... BOMB SHELTERS: All the memories about bomb shelters being built following the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis brought this note from reader Glen Worrell. "The principal of the school where I was teaching and living (in the College Heights area) said he wasn't going to build a bomb shelter. He was just going (if necessary) to get a piece of plastic to cover the air vent, take his shotgun and cover the air vent. When someone came out to see what was wrong he and his wife WOULD get in the bomb shelter!"

 * ... DUCK AND COVER: Sue Anderson, a counselor at the Hort School, recalled the bomb drills when she was in private grade school. "We would all go into the church and lay under the pews, and were always cautioned to cover our head and get all of our limbs underneath the pew.  Looking back, it seems sort of naiive that we thought a church pew would save us from total destruction.  I had dreams about this for years."

Ten days after the Great American Cleanup and the city has yet to remove the collected trash, and how about some water in the river for the Tour of California

 * ... TRASH: Ten days ago hundreds of local volunteers spread across our community picking up trash as part of the Great American Cleanup Day. That was terrific, yet more than a week later much of the trash remained, particularly along the Kern River bike path where the once neatly stacked piles of black trash bags were trashed themselves by the homeless, animals and inclement weather. It's a shame it took more than a week to finally pick up the trash bagged by legends of volunteers.

* ... KERN RIVER: If the city would like to make amends, perhaps it can arrange to have water in the river during the upcoming Tour of California bicycle race. At least that's the idea of Frances Rosales, one of the owners of Happy Jack's restaurant downtown. "Why can't we have water flowing down the river when the Amgen Tour of California bike race is in town? We have friends coming from Napa and it would be great to see us at our best," she said. The tour will be in Bakersfield on Thursday, May 17, for the individual time trial competition. Some 30,000 spectators are expected to watch the time trial on the Panorama bluffs near Bakersfield College.

* ... SHOE DRIVE: Rosco Rolnick is at it again, helping those in need with his 20th annual "Shoes for the Homeless" campaign benefiting the Bakersfield Homeless Center. Rosco is president of Guarantee Shoe Center on Chester Avenue and has long been a supporter of our community. The shoe drive will conclude on May 6. Donations can be dropped off at Guarantee Shoe Center, KGET TV, Second Smile Denture Car, the Downtown School and at Four Seasons activity center. Donors will receive $10 off their next purchase of regularly priced shoes of $60 or more at Guarantee Shoe Center.

 * ... BOMB SHELTERS: My earlier post on the bomb shelter in Rick Kreiser's yard in College Heights brought this note from reader Carl R. Moreland. "In 1966, when we bought our first home on 21st Street from the former Kern County Museum Director Richard Bailey, it included a bomb shelter. When visitors first came the house, we always took them went down into the submarine-like shelter. Our children Margalo and Krista and their friends used it as an underground playhouse."

 * ... BOMB BAR: And then there was this note sent to me from Richard Diffee: "One more thing about bomb shelters. Old timers may remember a bar on Union Avenue near 8th Street during the 1940s called the Bomb Shelter. Patrons went there to get bombed."

 * ... WEBSTER WEBFOOT: I wrote earlier about the old television show called Webster Webfoot and Jimmy Weldon. It brought this response from reader Gary Higgins: "Jimmy is alive and well and living in North Hollywood. I was an avid fan of Webster Webfoot when I lived in Fresno in the 1950s.

* .... WHO KNEW? From the Vision 2020 Image Committee comes this: "Did you know there is a band called Brokedown in Bakersfield that pays homage to the Bakersfield Sound, which it says is 'California country music made raw and rocking, spiked with twang and sweetened with heartfelt harmonies.'