A reader takes on those who abuse dogs and show a lack of decorum, while I praise the personal connections that make Bakersfield home

 * ... ANIMAL ABUSE: If you want to get someone's attention, turn the conversation to how some people treat their pets. This note from Jean Hughes Gutierrez hit home: "Your recent comment on dogs being dumped on Breckenridge Road and being attacked and eaten by wild animals was typical

of what is going on in this town. Add that to the impatient driver who ran over a mother duck and tiny babies because he got tired of waiting for them to move on Truxtun, and the father who attacked and threw his infant for too much crying. What is in common?  These living, feeling beings are helpless and dependent on powerful humans to be caring and kind. Spaying and neutering is only a small part of ending the dumping of pets who are considered throw aways when they become big, boring, or costly. The real problem is  the mind set of Bakersfield residents, combined with the systematic taking away of reasonably safe living space for both abandoned domestic animals and wild animals.  This is done because man thinks he is entitled to anything he wants, any time he wants, at any cost. Babies and animals are of little concern. The unspeakable final travesty? People gripe because domestic and wild animals eliminate on their property. And the solution, in their sick minds, is to not feed them if starving.  I guess the animals are supposed to hold their stool and urine, and ignore their hunger pangs, until they die. An we are the "superior" species?"

 * ... OUR TOWN: One of the benefits of living here is the ability to making lasting connections and friendships that withstand the test of time. I am not referring to close friends (although certainly those are important) but rather the local businessmen and women on whom we rely to furnish our homes, repair our appliances and paint our homes. I did business with Jerry Warren and his company, Bakersfield Plumbing, for years until his untimely death in 2011. Along with his wife, Jennie, I was always afforded fast, efficient service, always with a smile. (I spent more time chatting with Jerry about his family and life than he did working on my plumbing) Thanks to a stubborn drain in my old home, I recently got to meet Jerry's son, Tony, who carries on the family business and does it with his father's charisma and honesty. It's that small town feeling, and it is something to appreciate.

* ... DROUGHT: Sue Castro weighed in on the woman who confronted a neighbor for washing out his gutters. "If one of my neighbors came to my door and told me to 'please not do it again' regarding some water crime I committed, I would tell her to mind her own business. She's all proud of what she did when she should be embarrassed at being a rat fink. This drought fracas is getting out of hand.  It's like mass hysteria.  Really, people, God will open up the clouds in His time just like He always does after years of keeping it dry to show us who is boss! Remember all the other droughts we have gone through? The only difference with this one is a little old smelt.  I say kill the smelt and send us the wasted water going out to the ocean. And guys, somebody has pulled an Orsen Welles on you all.  Stop freaking out."

 * ... TAKE MY WIFE: And speaking of the drought, Don Kurtz added this: "Trying to comply with the orders from Gov. Brown on saving water, I told my wife we could shower together. She told me she would rather pay the $10,000 fine!"

 * ... COUNTRY CLUB: Up at the Bakersfield County Club there is a lot of work being done to make sure the club uses as little water as necessary. Dr. C. Allen Anderson wrote to praise the club’s president, Kevin Small, and his board of directors and ground superintendent, Steve Scarborough. "I was recently invited as a member’s guest to play golf at BCC. I was pleased to see several large and strategic areas of the course had been renovated into drought resistant landscaping. Evidently, these measures have been underway long before the media and government directed us all to conserve. These areas are beautiful and yet require very little water. We could all take a lesson from BCC."

Gaggles of ex cons put downtown residents on edge, and solving the mystery of the internment camps

 * ... ANIMAL ABUSE: Am glad to see prosecutors going after the 43-year-old man accused of taking a golf club to a small dog and then spraying bleach into its eyes. It's a case of almost unimaginable cruelty, but things like this also bring out the best in our community. Folks at the Coffee Road Animal Hospital say they have been overwhelmed with donations to help the dog, named Lacey. And a rescue home has already stepped forward to care for Lacey, whose long-term prognosis remains uncertain. Meanwhile, prosecutors are filing felony animal cruelty charges against Robert Gonzales, the alleged abuser.

* ... GRAPEVINE: Larry Miller, a retired battalion commander with the Kern County Fire Department, wrote to recall the hot summer days before air conditioning when trucks would navigate the Grapevine. "I marveled at the truck drivers who would stand on the running board of their trucks trying to escape the hellish, mind-bending engine and pavement heat coming up through the floorboards of their rigs as they were creeping over the Grapevine at 10 miles per hour. With a brick propped on the accelerator to keep the rigs moving, they would reach through the open cab door with their right hand on the steering wheel while clinging to the open door frame with their left arm. No seat belts on those days." 

 * ... EX CONS: If you live or work downtown, you're accustomed to seeing groups of freshly paroled prisoners hanging out in front of the Greyhound Bus Station. They're unmistakable in their khaki pants, black slippers with no laces, white T-shirts and prison-issued manila envelopes. These are people who have served their time, but their presence has put some downtown business people on edge. Don Martin, the tireless advocate for downtown and himself owner of Metro Galleries on 19th Street, lives downtown and routinely enjoys his walk to and from work. But not always. He was outside the downtown Rite Aid the other day when he was "stopped by a guy saying he just got released from prison. He wanted me to fill a prescription for him. I told management at Rite Aid." The previous day, he was stopped on 19th Street by another man who also had just been released who was trying to sell him stamps. Martin politely declined. With the recession deepening and the state on the verge of releasing thousands more inmates because of overcrowding chances are this kind of thing will continue for a while. Meanwhile, Martin is one of a group of downtown business owners who have been working - unsuccessfully so far - to get the bus station moved.

* ... INTERNMENT CAMP:  I may have learned what happened to the couple who ran a produce stand in 1943 but were sent to a Japanese internment camp. A reader, who did not want her name published, said the name of the produce stand and market was Sogo's Produce, and it was owned an operated by Utaro and Koye Sogo and their son-in-law, Kingo Nakamoto. Their families, longtime Bakersfield residents, were relocated to Poston, Arizona where there was a Japanese internment camp. Apparently, according to this source, the business was turned over to the Lum family who successfully ran a produce business in town for many years. The produce stand was located at the intersection of Golden State Highway and Union Avenue.

 * ... OVERHEARD: Reader Becky Williams: shared her encounter with a young lady at a local sandwich store recently.  "I'd like a turkey sandwich please,"  she said. The young lady replied, "I'm sorry. I can't make you a sandwich because our lettuce hasn't come yet."  Hold the lettuce then, Williams answered.  "I can't do that," the clerk said, "because I don't have any lettuce and it has to look like the picture."

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: You know you're a Bakersfield old timer "if you've taken part in the soap box derby races held in the late 1930s on River Boulevard between Columbus and Greenlawn Cemetery." Thanks to F. Valentich for that one.