Polio Strikes Norma Quinn Potter I’m very encouraged by the great reader response I’m getting from Norma’s memories. They are truly delightful. But there’s a dark lining to every silver cloud and, for Norma, it was a bout with polio as a young adult. Just like today’s COVID epidemic, the polio epidemic of the 1940s […]
We Must Raise Teacher Pay to Ensure California Public School Students Don’t Fall Behind Growing up, my parents often emphasized how important it was for me to get a good education. As the descendants of Jewish immigrants who left Eastern Europe in the early part of the last century, our family recognized how fortunate we […]
The Memories of Norma Quinn Potter – Part 4 A few weeks ago I began a series on the memories of Norma Quinn Potter, who moved to the valley as a kid in 1931. She wrote about her childhood in an essay she titled, “It’s All About Me!” and I’m quoting directly from that. Last […]
Strengthening the Safety Net for Vulnerable Youth It’s graduation season for high schools and colleges across our region, marking the transition for thousands of young people to adulthood and all that it entails. It can be deeply disorienting, isolating and lonely for young people making their way to independence; but the passage is even more unforgiving […]
Happy Mother’s Day! It was brought to the attention of the Council that an anti-Semitic symbol was discovered within our community. The Council located the graffiti and advised Los Angeles County Public Works, which removed the graffiti. The Town Council, working closely with 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office and the Crescenta Valley Sheriffs’ Station, […]
The Memories of Norma Quinn Potter – Part 3 A few weeks ago I began a series on the memories of Norma Quinn Potter, who moved to the valley as a kid in 1931. Norma today is a bright, charming woman and she was a bright, charming kid. She wrote about her childhood in an […]
Mom-isms I recently had the opportunity to sit down and have a chat with Mom who will be 86 years old this month. This doesn’t happen very often as Mom lives in Idaho and I am here in the Crescenta Valley. We had some beautiful moments together that I won’t soon forget. We laughed; we […]
Last week I began a series on the memories of Norma Quinn Potter who moved to the valley as a kid in 1931. She is a charming woman and she was a charming kid. She wrote about her childhood in an essay she titled “It’s All About Me!” and I’m quoting directly from that. We […]
Now that I’m retired, I have more time to devote to my second favorite passion, local history. (My first favorite passion is, of course, my wife.) Something that I have wanted to do for many years is to record oral histories with our longtime residents. I have over the years done a few, but it […]
Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day: Recognition is Just the Beginning Last year, newly-elected President Joe Biden commemorated Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day by laying down a historic marker. After decades of shameful silence and broken promises, he offered a simple but solemn truth: 107 years ago, the Ottoman Empire undertook a systematic effort to destroy the Armenian […]