A tribute to a long-term marriage and more on all that cash Meg Whitman spent

 * ... WHITMAN'S CASH: Reader David Hess weighed in on the millions Meg Whitman spent on her failed bid for governor. In his words: "You could use your column to do a little economic education.  Meg Whitman (and  her opponents) helped the economy, probably more than by donating the millions to charity.  She did  not have a bonfire and burn cash. She paid for 'things and "services.' While I know very little about the economics of public relations, those millions had to be spent through advertising companies, public  relations firms, printers, mailing houses, television stations and even newspapers. Those entities did not burn cash either. They 'employed' writers,  computer operators, secretaries, janitors, and pizza delivery people.. From a free enterprise economic point of view, it is better that the decision about how it  was spent was made by Meg Whitman, all the individuals who contributed either to or against her campaign... and all those mentioned above, rather than a government planner." 


 * ... OUR TRASH: Reader Hillary Bowden weighed in on the city's plan for a major anti-littering campaign. "I remember that recently a 'caring' mom complained about her child's school (Thorner?) requiring the students to clean up the campus after recess and lunch. Her main complaint was that it was 'beneath' her child to pick up garbage. Maybe Ms. Hoover (City Parks and Recreation Director Dianne Hoover) should start with parents like that!! I propose billboard across town: 'Don't be a slob - pick up your crap!' Thanks for the opportunity to gripe."

* ... LOVE STORY: Old friend Dan Giordano reacted to the story on marriage becoming obsolete with this valentine to his wife, Patty: "Forty years ago I was attending college (USC) studying to be a physical therapist. I was making it day by day working three jobs with marriage the furthest thought. One weekend I had nothing to do, no work no study, nothing. So I decided to come home to visit my family and get together with some friends. That weekend I had a chance meeting with a girl named Patty…..a girl I knew from before... but this meeting was somehow different. This meeting, that weekend, I knew from the first moment that this was the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, the girl I wanted to marry. Three months later I asked her to marry me and eight months later January 30 1971 we were married. Looking back I can’t think of a better way to have spent these last forty years. Raising our girls Megan and Jennifer and now enjoying our children’s families. I wouldn’t even change the ups and downs... My final comment on this subject is a wish to those who commit to a life of marriage…..to live that life with love and commitment and, after forty years, to have the same feelings with their spouse I have toward the person I gave my love and commitment. It’s a good feeling."

 * ... NANNY STATE: One day we're going to learn you can't legislate good parenting skills. That thought occurred to me when I read a story that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a law that said restaurants cannot put free toys in meals that exceed set thresholds for calories, sugar or fat. As the story said: "Libertarians are livid, parents are peeved and even advocates of healthier fast food think the ban will be counterproductive." The move was seen as a direct shot at McDonald's and its "happy meals."


* ... DONATION: Hats off to PCL Industrial Services which recently donated $10,000 to the Golden Empire Gleaners. In a time of such great need and stress, it's always encouraging to see local companies stepping up to help. PCL is an employee-owned business with a large office in Bakersfield and has long been active in the community.

* ... BAKERSFIELDISM: Thanks to reader Jack Kelly for submitting this one: You know you're a Bakersfield old-timer if "you remember the street car running from Chester Avenue to Baker Street at the railroad tracks."

A shootout at Jastro Park leaves one dead, and Hollywood's obsession with narcissism

  

* ... BAD BEHAVIOR: Nothing like a half dozen police cars screaming by your house and a helicopter hovering overhead with a floodlight to get your attention. This was downtown, early Saturday evening, and I followed the sirens to Jastro Park where paramedics were busy trying to save the life of a gunshot victim. Turns out a group of African-American families were winding up their picnic when a confrontation ensued with a group of Hispanic men on the other side of the park. "Everything was okay and then someone pulled a gun," one woman told me. "Must have been five or six shots. We had 50 babies here and we just got them out of the way." Police said the Hispanic man was shot twice and later died. Let's hope this isn't a prelude to a bloody Labor Day weekend. Meanwhile, reader Bonnie Farrer sent me a few pictures of Hart Park, totally trashed after weekend picnickers chose to ignore the trash bins and just leave their garbage on the ground. And so it goes.

  * ... LA CRESTA: More reader feedback on the old air field that was located between Bakersfield College and Greenlawn Mortuary and Cemetery in La Cresta. Brian Landis sent me a note saying he researched it at the Beale Library a few years back and recalled it was built during or just after World War I by the Army Signal Corps. "In the early bi-plane days planes had limited range so numerous strips were built up-and-down the west coast. Every single day in the 1920s the Air Corps would go on patrols along the coast. The La Cresta strip was used basically as a safe place to land when needed and to refuel. I do believe, if I remember correctly, even the legendary Hap Arnold flew from La Cresta. Why were bi-planes patrolling the coast daily, especially here in Kern County? The newly created Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve would be a valuable target to an enemy attack potentially crippling the Navy's ability to defend the coastline. If somehow an attack were mounted by a sea-borne dirigible or float plane they could intercept it further away from the enemy's objective. Japan was seen, even then, as a military threat and very imperialistic after recent and unprovoked wars with China in 1895 and Russia in 1904. The La Cresta strip was also the first home of the Bakersfield Smokers holding drag races until encroaching home development led them to an auxiliary strip near Maricopa, then finally to the Famoso strip in 1954."

 * ... OVERHEARD: A middle aged man remarking on the movie 'Eat Pray Love' starring Julia Roberts: "Fifteen million people are out of work and Hollywood produces a narcissistic, self-indulgent movie about a rich woman trying to find herself. They should have made this in 2004."

 * ... QUARRY: More feedback on the old quarry at the Kern River and the 24th Street Bridge. Jerry Sutliff, a member of West Rotary, noted that he too nearly drowned there in 1946 when he was just 10 years old. "My friend, Jimmy Gleason, and I had to extract ourselves while our adult 'supervisors' were sitting across the river drinking beer. Sometimes I get a chill when I cross the 24th Street bridge." Another reader, JOSCO Construction owner Larry Sughrue, said he plastered a lot of sand out of the quarry. "The holes were dredged by Hartman Concrete. That was around 1948-1950."

 * ... PETLAND: I never visited Thompson's Petland downtown but from the amount of feedback I have been getting, it must have been a popular place. Patti Bailey wrote that it was owned by a Mrs. Pierucci. "An interesting note is that her son, Greg Pierucci, owns Advanced Automotive, corner of 22nd Street and M Street downtown, He has been our mechanic for 18 years, long before he owned Advanced Auto, and he is the best. He is honest, generous and knows his business!"

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: You know you're a Bakersfield  old-timer if  "you were standing in Elm Grove at BHS when they announced that President Kennedy had been assassinated.

Dealing with a community that trashes its parks and resisting the rash of summer burglaries

 * ... OUR TRASH:  A lot of folks have contacted me to vent their frustration with the way our parks and green areas are trashed virtually every weekend. Bonnie Farrer was one of them.  "In Singapore if you are caught littering you are forced to clean the streets as punishment. I have driven through Hart Park and seen dirty diapers by the road. This is unacceptable, especially since there are litter bins all over the park. I also saw a woman throw a gum wrapper out her window as if it were the natural thing to do. Let's do something. Yes, we have a $1,000 fine for littering but I think it is unrealistic. Let's lower the fine and then enforce it."

 * ... CRIME WATCH: Had the chance to chat with Police Chief Greg Williamson the other day, and he told me that home and commercial burglaries are up 9 percent. Why? High unemployment, a dismal economy and the state prison system dumping literally hundreds of unsupervised parolees in Kern County. The chief's advice? Lock your doors, lower your window shades, leave the alarm on, don't leave valuables visible in your home or car and if you see something suspicious, report it immediately to the police.

 * ... MEMORIES: Speaking of old Bakersfield, reader Don Enebo recalls the old Tex's Barrel House that was located just off the Garces Circle. "In spite of its reputation, it was probably better than the Deja Vu which is in the same old neighborhood," he said.

 * ...  HEY BARACK: Heard from Philip Brandon, a recent Garces Memorial High graduate who is now living and working on Martha's Vineyard where President Obama is vacationing. Turns out that among Philip's odd jobs  is one working as a full service gas station attendant at the Airport Mobile station in Edgartown. And to keep his job while the president was vacationing Philip had to receive special clearance from the Secret Service. You just never know when a black Suburban might pull up and some familiar figure rolls down the window to bark a presidential order: 'Wipe the windows, check the oil and fill her up."

 * ... EAST BAKERSFIELD: And reader Don Kurtz wanted to wax poetic about old east Bakersfield, adding these thoughts: "How about Tiny's Diner downtown, or Clark's Broiler at Union and Monterey? Or the hamburger grill across from Jefferson Park on Beale Avenue? The Fosters Freeze at Niles and Union or Blue Jays Ice Cream Parlor on Bernard across from Longfellow School. This is just a start of really bringing back good memories of East Bakersfield and a little bit of downtown." Thanks for sharing, Don.

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: You know you're a Bakersfield old timer if "you remember the name of the dairy at North Chester and the river and the full name of the person who owned it. (Wayne's Dairy, owned by Wayne Peacock)

More on the city's sweetheart pension deals and a Realtor says don't blame the banks for the housing mess

* ... HOUSING MESS: I received a thoughtful note from local Realtor Sally Morrison on the housing crisis. She recalled a meeting in 2001 at Hodel's Restaurant that was hosted by lending institutions, right before the housing run-up. At the time the government was pushing for more home ownership and loosened regulations to make it easier for people to qualify for loans. "So what does the federal government do? They tell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that they no longer have to require an affidavit be signed by all parties that there are no other loans on the purchase of the property. So here come the 20 percent second and sometimes the 25 percent second to cover the closing costs... Everyone is happy. The real estate agents are selling houses like crazy, the lenders are making two loans at the same time, the price is going up 10 percent a month, appraisers can't keep up with the work and investors see that real estate is doing much better than the stock market so they are driving up the price a little more." Her point? "Saying that the banks are greedy and unscrupulous is not fair. The federal government wanted the banks to do just what they did. Saying banks should not make money is like putting fifty 21-year-old men naked in a Hooter's with naked waitresses and telling them there are no rules, and then wondering why there are all these newborn babies in nine months.... if the federal government would have left good enough alone we would be fine today... To own your own home requires a little integrity. You have to save some money or you have to do service for your country in the military and learn integrity there. But if you stay in school and get a good job and make a habit of saving money a home of your own will come." Well said, Sally.

 * ... SWEETHEART PENSIONS: You wonder how the stink over City Fire Chief Ron Fraze's retirement will affect the November ballot measure that would reduce pensions for future police and firefighters. Voters are up in arms and the unions are terrified that they might see their pensions reduced. We can thank our City Council for failing to deal directly with this issue and putting it on the ballot.

 * ... OVERHEARD: A man who owns a home on the Kern River across from Hart Park said every Monday homeowners are greeted with a tsunami of trash (soda cans, diapers, fast food wrappers) washing up on their property from the weekend crowds at Hart Park. "If my wife and  I can keep a couple acres clean ourselves, why can't they pick up after themselves?"

 * ... STREET SCENE: Spotted near Cafe Med on Stockdale Highway was a person celebrating the overturning of Proposition 8 with a sign that read, "Ken Mettler Don't Hit Me!"

* ... OLD BAKO: Reader Johnnie K. Adams has called Bakersfield home for 64 years and his family has been here since 1911. He shared a few remembrances: "Remember the old quarry at the 24th Street bridge where you'd be walking in two inches of water and then walk into a 50-foot hole? A lot of lives were lost that way. I still can't go into the river there. And about Mother's Bakery. They had jumbo, jumbo cream puffs (real cream, only) but you could only buy them in winter. Remember the asparagus fields on Real Road? And remember mushrooming at Stockdale and Brundage on Kern County Land Co. land? You would walk from Brundage to the river."

 * ... OLD TV: Local television pioneer Don Rodewald wrote to say how pleased he was to see his name in this blog regarding his 17-year afternoon show on KERO-TV. "Everything was live, film or slide. The two black and white cameras were tube and four lens. The KERO studio was a small section of the El Tejon Hotel at Truxtun and Chester Avenue. There were three announcers-George Day, Harry Mitchell and Don Rodewald, the last one alive. But cable hadn't arrived yet so people still remember those early days. Some even remember when my wife and I spent two weeks in a bomb shelter at 18th and Chester during the Cold War. Sorry to ramble but fun to reminisce."

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: Reader Walter E. Stewart says you know you're from Bakersfield "if you remember Starbuck's small one-room neighborhood grocery stores in the four hundred block of Monterey Street, circa 1920 and 1930s).

More scorn heaped on local litterbugs and a local attorney takes a hard fall on a mountain bike

 * ... BAD FORM: My earlier post about the trashing of our parks triggered a response from readers like Dee Rhodes, who shared her own frustration with this behavior.  "I know . . . I know . . .  It is probably the same woman that pulled up to the stop light at Oswell and Bernard (a photo-enforced intersection), literally opened her car door, physically got out of her vehicle with an arm load of garbage, deposited it on the street, in full view of operating cameras. She did not get out of her car just once, she got out of her car three separate times, each time laden with unimaginable garbage she placed in the street.  Had I have done something so reckless and heinous as to run this red light I would have been ticketed! Hmmmm."

 * ... MORE COACHLIGHT: Received a nice handwritten note (that doesn't happen every often these days) from George and Carol Bracchi. They had fond memories of Bill and Pauline Wright, former owners of the old Coachlight Inn. Apparently they also owned a drive-in on Chester Avenue before buying the Coachlight. The Bracchis also lamented so many changes in east Bakersfield and recalled Mother's Bakery, where they Carol learned that a baker's dozen was actually 13.

 * ... GRIDLOCK: Get ready from some real traffic snarls on one of our busiest streets: Truxtun Avenue. Starting Wednesday (today) traffic will be reduced to one lane on both Truxtun and Mohawk Street for several weeks as work continues to connect Mohawk to Rosedale Highway.  This should prove interesting during the morning and afternoon rush hours. Construction should last several weeks.

 * ... ON THE MEND: Local attorney David Cohn, managing partner of Chain Cohn and Stiles, is on the mend after a nasty fall on his mountain bike this past weekend. Dave was riding the trails near Mammoth, enjoying a weekend out of the Bakersfield heat, when he took a spill that required 32 stitches in his thigh. He's out for a few days recuperating.

 * ... OVERHEARD: A couple who regularly visits Carpinteria is warning others to beware of the local police. Apparently they are on a ticketing rampage, citing minor parking and open container infractions to raise money for the city. "I overheard a cop telling one person that the city manager told them to put the heat on because they needed to raise money," one frequent visitor told me. Another seasonal "Carp" resident said he hadn't witnessed any stepped up enforcement and was thankful that the city and police were working to maintain a "family friendly" environment in the seaside community.

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: You know you're an east Bakersfield old-timer if "you remember where the original Stinson's Stationers was located. (Kentucky Street just west of Baker.)

Our collective shame: the way we trash our city

 Here's  something that will make your blood boil. Take a look at these pictures I took at Yokuts and Beach parks down by the Kern River. What are people thinking?