If it's Thanksgiving week, it's time for the annual Pie Run and to welcome the returning college kids

 * ... JOE GOTTLIEB: Long-time Bakersfield businessman and pilot Joe Gottlieb passed away recently, prompting this note from reader Kathy Scott. "Not only did he own 'Gottlieb's Seat Cover City' for many years b ut he was once thought to be dead after not being seen for several days (or perhaps it was weeks, I am not sure) and then he remarkably showed up in Mexico after surviving an accident that put him, his airplane and a friend underwater. Then there is the fact that he had his own private airstrip in his back yard in northwest Bakersfield." 

* ... PIE RUN: One of Bakersfield's great traditions will happen at the crack of dawn on Thanksgiving out at Hart Park. It's the annual "Pie Run" where a hundred or so runners and walkers brave the early morning chill and run through the hills and return to a fire and freshly cooked trip-tip and plenty of pies, cookies and breads. It's the brain child of John Rous and has grown into one of our community's signature events, a can't miss way to start the holiday. It starts at dawn and make sure you bring warm gloves, the pie of your choice and your favorite dog.

 * ... COLLEGE KIDS: If it's Thanksgiving week then prepare for the annual influx of college kids home for the holiday. You'll spot them at Luigi's, Uricchio's, Woolgrowers and all the other favorite haunts that serve up Bakersfield home cooking. 

 * ... SPOTTED: Thirty-something mother screaming at her young daughter in the shoe department at a local Target, loudly berating her in front of others. Said one reader: "I could hear this mother clear across the store. She's screaming at this poor little girl,  'You're rude and an embarrassing child!'"

 * ... FEDWAY: Reader Patti Imes remembers her first real job as a Santa's helper at the old Fedway where she helped with the photos. "This was long before digital cameras and I had to remove the exposed film from the camera box under a zipped black bag with arm holes for your hands to go through. Then the film was placed in a mail bag, all while still not looking at what you are doing so you did not get light on the exposed film. Then the package was mailed every night and the families would get the pictures of their kids with Santa in the mail a week later. And who cannot forget the red pixie elf jacket I had to wear every night."

* ... BROCK'S: Kym Vliem wrote to recall the Campus Debs at Brock's Department Store. "In the mid 1960s I participated in Operation Quick Stitch: Brock's 7th Annual Spring Fashion show with Anne Meyers as the Campus Deb director. We were required to sew our own outfits (mine was a mini dress with matching shorts) and write a little bit of dialogue to be read as we did our runway walk."

 * ... LOIS HENRY: Californian columnist Lois Henry will join me Monday at 9 a.m. on Californian Radio (KERN 1180) to talk about investigative journalism and what drives her. Have something you want her to look into? Call the show. We'll be on until 10 a.m.