Opinion

You know, living in the Salinas Valley is a pretty cool place to live. Except for the rain we have been enjoying lately, it is very much like the valley I grew up in. Well, maybe not as cool. In the summer we could...

Do you remember the year 2000? I had forgotten a lot about that year until I had a chance to visit my brother, who lives in Idaho, last week. He loves Idaho, but I didn’t lose anything up there. However, it had been a...

Local column by Joanne Banuelos

I stopped by a section of land the other day and let my mind’s eye roll back over the years to a time when that corner piece was a half a block down the alley from where my family lived for the last nine...

I’m not a doctor. I don’t even play one on television. However, I have gained a little medical information lately about specific medical maladies that could affect all of us. Now you take this Covid stuff — and I truly mean you take it,...

They say you can’t go home again. It’s my experience that sometimes you can, though it is certainly not for everyone. I was recently fortunate enough to be able to spend a week not only in my hometown, but in my home cottage where...

This week’s column was about cowgirls and cowboys and their dedication to the sport of rodeo and to the Western lifestyle. It was filled with quotes from participants of California High School Rodeo Association from three districts within the state who gathered at the...

It was very late by the time we headed south for our annual shopping weekend in Paso Robles. There is something about traveling south that is always so relaxing, even during the very busy holiday weekends. As you leave King City behind, the valley...

We don’t have kings in the United States of America; yet how many of us have at one time or other wished we had ultimate authoritarian power? Remember, even the Cowardly Lion wanted to be “Not queen, not duke, not prince” but “King of...

I recall so clearly the simplicity of the holidays when we were young. We would show up and be fed and presented with presents, as it were. (Occasionally I would help Mum with the wrapping, but that was about the extent of my responsibilities.)...