Bakersfield's KBAK TV sold to Sinclair Broadcast Group and more musings on Bako's horrific trash and litter problem

 * ... KBAK: The sale of KBAK (channel 29) to Sinclair Broadcast Group means all three local TV stations have changed hands in the past year. The Baltimore-based Sinclair group won a bidding war to buy Fisher Communications, which has been quietly marketing its stations for several months. In the past year, market leader KGET 17 was sold to Nexstar Communications and KERO 23 was sold to
the Scripps TV group. No word on what this will mean for KBAK and its FOX 58 affiliate and their staffs.

  * ... TRASH: More musings on our litter problem, this thought compliments of Susan Chaidez.   "Many people don’t have the time, vehicle  or money to drive to the dump to take care of their trash.  Dumping it in a business dumpster is illegal. Why doesn’t the city or county station large dumpsters (like recycle dumpsters) in particular areas that are affected by this? ... The only way to stop the freeway trash is for a CHP officer to catch the offender who has uncovered trash while driving down the highway at 70 miles per hour.  But if it happened a few times and those people were required to pick up trash on a Saturday in lieu of a fine it would be a deterrent and a win-win fix. I recently witnessed a gardener 'blow' trash from a yard he was tending into the street far enough away that I know he wasn’t going to pick it up. This issue is everyone’s problem, it looks terrible and reflects on us as a community. We are better than this!"

 * ... EAST: Rick Van Horne, a local teacher and a board member with the Bakersfield City School District, wrote to say that Pat Patterson made an appearance at the recent 75th anniversary committee meeting for East High School. "Pat, who was a longtime counselor at Bakersfield High, was a freshman on opening day at East High in 1938," he said. "She was also the very first freshman class president of East High."

 * ... MOVING ON: Congratulations to Doug Collins, a 2002 graduate of Stockdale High School and California Baptist University who is now director of students (youth pastor) at Pathways Church in Redlands. His proud mother, Laurie Collins of the Kern Council of Goverments, said he proposed to his girlfriend Anna Hickey during Christmas and is getting married in the Lodi area on August 17. "We are so proud of him and so glad God answers prayers and directs lives," she said.

 * ... MEMORY: From reader Joe Chavez: "Remember Richard's toy store? And the stamp and coin shop on Baker Street? I used to go to there after a Saturday show at the Tejon Theater to buy an Aurora model kit monsters or sci fi spaceships... This was a awesome time in the mid 1960s. Is there any one out there who has pictures of these long gone places? Either outside shots, or indoor?"

 * ... MORE MEMORIES: And Dennis Claxton added this: "I think that the Brundage Variety Store was first opened as Fiddlers Variety (I may have misspelled the name). I grew up on Cypress and remember going in there to buy candy ... also our dad worked at Golden Crust bread. He delivered bread to Taft., Maricopa and Ford City... I would go with my dad every summer for a week and load his truck and smell the bread and ride with him on his route and he would pay me $10."              

 * ...  BAKERSFIELDISM: You are really a Bakersfield old timer if you remember when the "east side students of the one high school (KCUHS) caught the street car at Baker and Sumner to 19th Street, then west to F Street and south to the high school." Thanks to Jack M. Rademacher for that one.

Michael Turnipseed fights for the Valley in Sacramento while Fisher Communications faces hostile takeover

 * ... TURNIPSEED: Hats off to Michael Turnipseed, the head of KernTax who is leading the fight to bring more equitable utility rates to the San Joaquin Valley. Turnipseed was on SmartTalk1230 with Californian columnist Lois Henry Wednesday, explaining in the clearest terms how Valley residents are being hosed (my words, not his) through a Pacific Gas and Electric rate structure that penalizes ratepayers who live in harsher climates. This is fight worth following and we should all be thankful that a pitbull like Turnipseed is in Sacramento representing our interests.

 * ... KBAK: It looks like Fisher Communications, the parent company of KBAK-TV, is in a nasty fight to fend off a hostile takeover bid from a hedge fund company. Fisher owns some 20 stations in the West, including the Bakersfield franchise. Not sure what this might mean for KBAK if the hedge fund succeeds, but they are not known for progressive management.

 * ... NURSERY: Here's something I bet you didn't know: According to reader Rob Ferree, there is a popular plum tree in town named for Carl Krauter, who ran a local nursery in town for years. Ferree said he and his wife met Krauter in 1977 "and he proudly introduced us to a plum tree called the Krauter Vesuvius which is distinguished by a dark purple leaf and pink blossoms. Apparently Carl Krauter named the variety that can be seen all over town and is quite popular elsewhere as well."

 * ... MEMORIES: Al B. Gonzales was in the first class at Garces Memorial High School and wrote to remember when "East Bako was booming. The five and dimes by the Granada Theater were Ben Franklin and Cornet, J.C. Penney's, Snider's, McMahans, Kirby Shoes, Casa Moore, Saba's and don't forget Mother's Bakery. Our dad worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad and had credit at Saba's. I bought a red flowered silk shirt with a mandarin collar. It was the style in the 1950s."

 * ... TAR HEEL: Among our community's unsung exports are our outstanding students who set out across the country attending first rate universities. One of those students is Julianne Toler, who attended Norris School and graduated from Bakersfield Christian High School in 2003. She went on to graduate Cum Laude with a bachelor's degree in athletic training from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. She then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in 2009 she received a masters in Exercise Science and Sports Medicine. She is still attending UNC in the doctorate program and should complete that in 2013 or 2014. Her father is Larry Toler, a retired battalion chief with the city fire department, and her mother Marilyn is a retired teacher with the Norris School. Proud father Larry told me Julianne will be getting married in July to Dave Schmidt, whom she met at Chapel Hill.

 * ... WILDCAT: Another youngster headed to the dorm life is Adam Karpe, who will be a freshman at the University of Arizona in the fall. Adam's older brother, Robert, will be a sophomore at the University of South Carolina. Both Karpe boys graduated from Garces Memorial High School. Adam's father is Ray Karpe, also a graduate of Garces who went on to earn a degree from CSUB. His mother, Lisa, went to Highland High School, Bakersfield College and Fresno City College.

 * ... WHO KNEW? The Rolling Stones, longtime country music fans, sang about Bakersfield in 1978 in their song “Far Away Eyes” on the album “Some Girls.”
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