Stories from here.

Editorial stories

• Excerpt from "Sign On at Sunrise" by Steve Newvine

  photo by steve newvine Grey arrived at the station onSunday atabout ahalf-hour before his shift was to begin.…

• The All Souls Day Procession in Hornitos

  The All Souls Day Procession in Hornitos has been one of those things my wife and I have wanted to do ever since her friend Judy took her to this historic ghost town upon our arrival in Merced about seven years ago.…

• Bakersfield gets the Nashville Treatment

  photo by steve newvine There’s a new compact disc out from Vince Gill and steel guitaristPaul Franklin called Bakersfield.…

• My Friend Dan

  The man working in this picture is my friend Dan.  When he was no longer able to work at his regular job due to kidney disease, he’d spend a little time making toys and other things out of wood.…

• Port of Stockton Celebrates Eighty Years

  Agriculture, food processing, and several other Merced County industrial sectors rely on the transportation and logistics systems in place throughout the state of California.…

• A Buffalo Bills Sweatshirt and a Season of High Hopes

  photo by steve newvine I will be pulling out my faded blue Buffalo Bills sweatshirt soon as the National Football League season gets underway.  The sweatshirt is now over twenty years old.…

• Remembering the Day Elvis Died

  photo by steve newvine I was twenty years old the night I heard that Elvis Presley had died at his home in Memphis.  The date was August 16, 1977.…

• School Spirit at El Capitan High School

  A student car wash fund raiser is a common site on just about any Saturday in our community.…

• Memories and Photographs

  Remember when taking a picture was a special thing in your family.  My parents’ photograph albums are filled with snapshots from birthdays, graduations, first communions, and other special events.…

• Merced’s Musical Memories

  I recommend that before the summer comes to an end, spend about an hour at the Merced County Courthouse Museum and see the exhibit on our community’s musical heritage.…

• Golf Hazards

  photo by steve newvine Having spent a lot of time on golf courses over the past few years, one can discover certain types of hazards.  Some are a direct result of nature.…

• Ping Pong and Family Time

  Recently, my brother told me he was putting the old family ping pong table out for his upcoming garage sale.…

• Having a Good Time, Wish You Were Here

  Consider the photograph of this Adirondack region lake a postcard from my recent vacation in upstate New York.…

• Backstage Pass ~ Merced Theatre

  Merced Theatre Two entertaining venues on Main Street in Merced caught my attention on a spring-time Sunday afternoon. The first was Playhouse Merced’s production of Urinetown, The Musical.…

• Marking a Tragic Anniversary

  photo by steve newvine Thursday, April 4 almost passed without my noticing it was the forty-fifth anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Junior.…

• Grateful for my Gateway

  photo by steve newvine This column is the last one to be typed on my trusty old pre-millennium computer. Our Gateway brand system was purchased in the mid-1990s. It’s time for a change. We put it off for a long time.…

• A Report Card from the School

  As it happens many times in life, we learn so much more from our children who speak about their challenges, their survival skills, and their life lessons.…

• Working Cars

  It caught my eye in the parking lot of a local strip mall.  There, in what I can say with the use of a cliché’, in all its ‘gleaming beauty’ it sat in the morning Merced County sun. It was a 1972 Mercury Montego.…

• Along California’s Beaten Paths with Huell Howser

  When I first arrived in California from upstate New York nine years ago, I had many first impressions.…

• Business Cards

  I managed to save at least one business card from every job I had where a business card was required.  Looking back on them now, I see these cards as symbols of my professional life.…

• Meeting Bush 41

  I’ve been doing a lot of thinking in the past several days about former President George H. W. Bush.  Some may know him better by the label “41” or “Bush 41” denoting that he was our nation’s forty-first President.…

• Favorite Holiday Movies

  Why should anyone care to read about what are my favorite holiday movies?  My list can be a conversation starter when the office Christmas party gets boring.…

• My Uncle Ken and Drop In Visits

  We had a not-so-unusual social tradition growing up the sixties and seventies in upstate New York:  the drop in visit. Often, my parents would decide that we should “drop in” on different relatives or friends.…

• Missing the National News Magazines

  Newsweek announced recently it would be on-line only at the end of the year. The printed version will cease publication after nearly 80 years.…