Bako Bits: Stockdale High loses two key staffers to retirement and who knew the Strawberry Alarm Clock once played at a Bako bowling alley?

 * ... STOCKDALE: Stockdale High School has lost two long-time staff members with the

retirements of Mark Hance and Dave "Doc" Rangel. Hance was the athletic director and Rangel the longtime athletic trainer. If your child attended Stockdale, you no doubt are aware of the good cheer and commitment both of these men brought to their jobs. Congratulations and good luck.  

  * .... BIKES: Don Brakebill is a regular runner on our bike path and submits this reminder to cyclists who share the path. "Most are courteous in announcing 'on your left' as they approach from behind, and we respond with a left hand in the air to acknowledge we had heard and understood they were passing.  A few would race by us without a word, dangerous for the rider and for the runner as either could change direction or stop suddenly. But the worst are groups of riders riding three abreast coming toward us and not moving over to their half of the pathway. So, just as cyclists expect car drivers to respect their presence and right to be on the roads, runners and walkers expect and will appreciate the same courtesy from the bikers using the pathway. There really is room for us all and biker and runner etiquette can be learned and practiced."

* ... NAVY: Carolyn Ewert, a Centennial High graduate, has now graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a degree in ocean engineering and has been commissioned an Ensign in the Navy.  She is now getting ready to report for duty at the Naval Station Everett in Everett, Washington, and will immediately be sent to her ship, the USS Shoup, which is on deployment in the Persian Gulf. She is the oldest daughter of Dave and Nancy Ewert.

* ... MEMORIES: One more memory of old Bakersfield, this one from reader Tony Contreras: "In response to writer Dave Rangel's input about he and Russ Kinney and Mike Hicks working at the Bakersfield Bowling Academy way back when, he mentioned a roller rink and drive-in with an elephant out front. The drive-in was called Jumbo's and the roller rink was called the Starlight Roller Rink on Kentucky, just east of Union. Jumbo's was part of 'the strip' that all the teenagers cruised back then. Another drive-in which was part of 'the strip' was Michener's on 18th Street near Q Street. Truly the good ole days!"

*  ... BOWLING: And speaking of old haunts, this one the Golden State Lanes, Terry Gaiser remembers its banquet room that for a while was called "Gay 90s" and later turned into a place for teens called "Club 17." As it turns out, Gaiser said, the 1960s band Strawberry Alarm Clock played there before its one big hit, "Incense and Peppermints."

  * ... MUNITIONS: And speaking of Golden State Lanes, Hal Aaron remembers that behind the bowling alley "was a very large warehouse that was used by the government to manufacture munitions and casings for the military. The operation required high security clearance. My knowledge of the above was from two brothers who worked there, one had day shift and the other had night shift." That was around 1943 or 1944, Aaron said.

Bako Bits: Bakersfield experiences an open war on bicyclists; when will the madness end? And more readers recall the old Bakersfield Bowling Academy

 * ... BAD FORM: Are we experiencing an open season on local bicyclists? It sure seems that way, and now we have yet another example of a driver deliberately running down a cyclist, once again on Panorama Drive. Said Krisi Heriford: "To whomever hit our friend, Lisa, who was riding her bike on Father's Day up the Panorama bluffs, shame on you for not stopping after you struck her with your vehicle. The impact of being struck by your mirror threw her from her bike, landing on her head and breaking her helmet. Even though she has a huge hematoma from the impact of your mirror against her arm, and cuts and soreness, she will recover.  Her family, as well as all of her friends, are so ever grateful that she was able to return home, after going to the hospital, to celebrate Father's Day with her family, just in case you were wondering after you sped off if she survived."

 * ... BURGERS: Bryan Kelly submits this memory of a special hamburger place. "There are several reasons why I lost my 29 inch waist, but a major contributing factor is the great American institution known as the hamburger. I remember Bob's as Billy Bob's Burgers and Beer... a 'dive' is a superlative form that does not begin to describe that wonderful old place. The restrooms were in a separate building behind the bar and were labeled as 'himpies' and 'herpies.'  I speak fluent hamburger and will always have a special place in my heart and a notch on my belt for Billy Bob's."

 * .. BOWLING: My earlier post about an old bowling alley on Golden State hit a nerve with readers, and my in box was full of memories. Marlia Maples joined others in identifying it was the Bakersfield Bowling Academy. "Before moving to Golden State, Bakersfield Bowling Academy was located at 1106 18th Street. The owners were Jack Moore and Pete Lokey. There were always problems with the roof leaking as the building supported 36 lanes without the use of inside supports in the lane area. The trophy shop was managed many years by Spike Cohn. I worked the front desk on the day shift from approximately 1975 to 1978." Another reader, Nancy Green, still has a cigarette light emblazoned with the name of the bowling alley and its owners, Lokey and Moore. (reader submitted picture of the old bowling alley)

 * ... MORE BOWLING: Another reader, Dave Rangel of Stockdale High, also worked there. "I know because I was a porter there, along with Russ Kinney and Mike Hicks... Russ and myself disassembled the bowling lanes located on the site around the late 1960s." Eugene Wood remembers the area being popular with teens at the time. "It was a hub of activity in the 1950s with a roller rink, Farmer John's Pancake House and a drive in with girls on roller skates bringing orders out to your car. I don't remember the names of the roller rink or drive in, but I seem to recall a large grey elephant neon sign with the drive in."

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: John Strand of Lake Isabella says you may be a Bakersfield old timer if you remember when "the only Bank of America in Bakersfield (20th and Chester) had a full-time Bakersfield police officer in the main customer area."