I just found out that one of the more important people in my life's timeline passed away on September 18th. Back in 1999, I had searched everywhere locally for someplace to base my new online retail store, but vacant commercial rentals in this area were very hard to find, and none that were available were what you would call 'affordable ( Read more... )

My last cassette player died last night, alas. Actually, it wasn't even a proper cassette deck, just an old boom box connected to my receiver by its headphone jack. As close as I am to the end of my own life span, I briefly considered not bothering to get another cassette player, but I still have mix tapes I like to listen to every once in a while ( Read more... )

I've had 'Mickey' here a long, long time...


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Scored this old Covina phone book recently. It's from 1983: the year I moved away from my home town and birthplace.


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You know, normally I'd be happy to hear from someone I haven't seen in over 20 years, but a prodigal friend like that should understand that they need to come in for a 'soft landing' after such a long period of estrangement, especially since the circumstances of our parting way back when were- to put it kindly- less than satisfactory. So with that ( Read more... )

I was 10 years old when my father's youth baseball coaching career came to an end, 57 years ago today. And what an ending it was! On the evening of August 22, 1965, his Covina Post 207 team won the Anaheim American Legion Invitational Baseball Tournament, emerging victorious over 72 of the best teams in California. Winning the Anaheim Tournament ( Read more... )

I can't be certain, as there is no date on this article, but I believe the baseball brouhaha highlighted in the last paragraph below took place 57 years ago today, on August 15, 1965, at Ralph Welch Park in Pomona.


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Had my last physical therapy session yesterday. Oh, that's right, I never mentioned here that I injured my left shoulder back in January! Well, you know me - I prefer not to talk about health issues until they're in the past tense, and this latest one is just now starting to feel like it's resolving ( Read more... )

Mother sitting at my desk in my room at home, Winter 1982, shortly before I finally left the nest for good.


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I found my long-lost dissecting kit! (Not really 'lost' - I knew I still had it somewhere - I just couldn't find it in my house for about 10 years.) 😉 This is actually over a half-century old! My mom made the roll-up case for me when I was in Mr. Duncan's high school biology class in 1969-1970. Came in even more handy in grad school in the Eighties ( Read more... )