Winter Wonders Thanksgiving is over and I can “legally” play and sing Christmas music. However, I have to fess up and admit to singing one of my favorites, “I Wonder As I Wander,” no matter what season the calendar says it is. In addition to loving the beautiful melody of this classic carol, I probably […]
The Wicked Past of Whiting Woods The little neighborhood of Whiting Woods is one of the most sedate and beautiful areas in the entire Valley. Its shaded streets wind up and around a beautiful canyon tucked into the folds of the green Verdugo Mountains. Native oaks and sycamore trees shade the large rambling homes built […]
A Bushel of Thanks I’ve written on this page before about a cherished tradition my family once had of putting up a Thanksgiving tree on our living room wall in mid-November each year. My wife is uniquely gifted when it comes to creative handicrafts (and cooking, too, but I don’t have room for that topic […]
Logging in the Crescenta Valley? Last week I described the dense forests of 100-foot tall Big Cone Douglas Fir trees that once covered the canyons of the San Gabriel Mountains above our valley and current efforts to replant. But now I’d like to talk about the logging operations that removed those forests in the first […]
Fear of Speaking Up in La Cañada Flintridge Every community has a culture that governs what people feel comfortable talking about publicly. La Cañada Flintridge is so much different from the open culture of the town where I served as a member of the board of education back in a New York suburb. That school […]
Discounts for Dessert So are you ready for the big day? Can you believe it’s only one week away? Are you feeling the excitement? Made all your preparations? Ready to consume as much as you possibly can? If you think I’m writing about the Thanksgiving feast, you are so-o-o-o-o old school. No, I’m referring to […]
Remembering the Thick Pine Forests in our Mountains The south face of the San Gabriel Mountains that loom over our valley are stark and majestic. In the late afternoon when the slanting sunlight brings out the pinks and oranges of the rock faces, our mountains look very much like desert mountains, bare and rocky like […]
Anita Had Two Clocks I spent several years working with Anita Peet Geyer in Peet Stationers including the time of her passing. I too was an inheritance recipient. Working in that store was like “stepping back in time” as Anita never threw anything away! You never knew what you would find hidden in the rafters […]
Pedalers Welcome So how did I find myself before the sun came up last Saturday morning, sitting on a hard, painfully narrow bicycle seat, waiting with my wife and thousands of other cyclists for the start of a 50-plus mile “fun ride” through the Santa Inez Valley, in 38-degree, fog-laden air with nothing more than […]
War Memorials in CV Like many American communities, we have honored our young men and women who have served their country in our military forces. One of our first war memorials was a “service roll” mounted on the side of a drug store in Montrose near the end of WWII. It consisted of a large […]