I PULLED INTO VON’S IN NORMAL HEIGHTS last Sunday to get pills for my mom’s dog, and the next thing I knew I was in an ambulance en route to Mercy Hospital. Guess I must have tripped and fallen in the parking lot. The doctor stapled up my scalp and sent me on my way but made me promise to return if I experienced any dizziness. Tuesday I was lunching with my friend Nancy and felt woozy. “Did you feel that?” I asked. “It felt like an earthquake.” “I don’t think so,” she replied. Boy was I glad she was wrong.
IF YOU WON’T BE ABLE to make it for the changing of the leaves in New England, you might ease the Buick out of the garage and motor north to Bird Rock. The place is all put back together and the Gold Medallion trees are SPECTACULAR!!!
Artistic Licenses: If “PBLOVR” and “18 INCHS” ever get together ” watch out. “I SL HMS” made me wonder how big a market there was for hummus. Oh, wait ” maybe it’s homes.
25 Years Ago: Remember when the Miramar Landfill was in Mission Bay? Me neither, but the hazy memories of my youth conjure up landfills in Florida Canyon and near College Grove Center. Guess there was one here too, ’cause the City Council asked for “a thorough investigation of the hazardous wastes buried at the abandoned Mission Bay landfill.” I’m not sure where it was, but Convair said it legally dumped more than 20,000 gallons of nitric, chromic and hydrofluoric acid there in 1957. Turns out the Ramada Inn wasn’t all that excited about building on the 135-acre site. Go figure.
50 Years Ago: The “Gray Ghost of Pacific Beach” mystery was solved when two newspaper boys captured a donkey “which had been out all night harassing police.” Spotted in La Jolla, then near Balboa and Highway 101, the beast was spotted near Kate Sessions School by Mike Roney and Bob Brooks. “As soon as we finished Bob’s paper route, we went home and got some rope,” Mike said. They chased the animal for a mile before roping him and taking him to Mike’s house at 4871 Lamont. “It’s eating all the flowers, my wife is having a fit, and there must be 25 kids in the yard already,” said Mike’s father George.
75 Years Ago: From the Beach Paragraphs column in the Evening Tribune, “City Attorney Byers has given as his opinion that the Mission Beach seawall is neither a sidewalk nor a street, therefore it is not barred to those bicycling.” I assume they’re talking about the “boardwalk,” but you get the point. It was all downhill from there.
100 Years Ago: Plans for a “boulevard” from Arctic Street (Kettner) to Del Mar hit a snag when folks in American Park complained that the right of way would interfere with traffic on Valley Forge Avenue at Morena Boulevard. The boulevard committee of the chamber of commerce, the general committee of the common council and representatives of the Kellar-Keckhoff interests planned to meet again to try and resolve the impasse.
John Fry may be reached at (858) 272-6655 or [email protected].