From Ship to Shore

The wedding was planned for Sept. 18, and the groom had waited six years to marry his bride. The bride's father was reluctant to give his daughter in marriage to a young man who he felt would not provide his daughter with the type of living which she had been used to. The young man was in love and tried first one job and then another. He…

As the publisher of this grand newspaper, and turning 85 this week, I look back at the more than 60 years of being a newspaperman, and I can’t think of a…

The last figure we saw was over 65,000 Afghans were being flown out of Afghanistan to somewhere; however, it did not say where. Are we willing to have…

We do not know what it was like during World War II, only what we read in books; however, today must have many comparisons. First of all, the war went on and on and on. This country needed workers and the conditions were often difficult. People volunteered and made sacrifices. There were shortages and prices were high, with many things…

Year ago, fires burned regularly in our California forests and they were an asset, ridding the forests of the undergrowth. Actually, the forests needed them…

She was in her 80s, and I was in my 70s, when I received my first letter from Betty Stewart, written in the most beautiful handwriting I had seen since my…

It was not that long ago when we first stepped onto our own sailboat in Alameda, and sailed out into San Francisco Bay. The year was 1994. We had only sailed Lake Yosemite, and the move to San Francisco Bay was scary. We had just bought the Flying Dutchman, a 24-foot sloop made by Bayliner, to be the sailboat to meet everyone’s sailing…

“Do you mean to tell me, you shut off my phone for 66 cents?” we asked the AT&T operator. It was the last straw. We had had it with AT&T.…

It sits as a cornerstone of Downtown Merced. Known to most locals as the Mondo Building on Main Street. Facing Bob Hart Square, the Mondo Building…

Our valley is looking at 41 percent of the normal rain fall this year, and yet we continue to water our beautiful grass lawns. Remember, this land we live on is semi-desert and with every passing year the water table keeps dropping lower and lower. What are we thinking? With the state demanding 40 percent of the river runoff, and the…