New museum director struggles with logo for Pioneer Village and CSUB President Horace Mitchell and wife Barbara celebrate 50 years of marriage

 * ... MUSEUM: Zoot Velasco was hired as a "change agent" for the Kern County Museum (now

Pioneer Village) and as the new CEO he has certainly come in with enough energy and new ideas to fill a room. But judging by the two proposed new logos to brand Kern Pioneer Village, Velasco lacks an eye for graphic design. It would be charitable to describe both as uninspiring, clunky and amateurish, so let's hope the museum's board of directors (can you hear me Beth Pandol?) steps in to help Zoot find a logo that lives up to the museum's promise.

 * ... FIRST COUPLE: Congratulations to CSUB President Horace Mitchell and his wife Barbara who are celebrating their 50th year wedding anniversary. Mitchell became CSUB's fourth president in July 2004.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "Common Sense isn’t a gift. It’s punishment, because you have to deal with everyone who doesn’t have it."

 * ... MEMORIES: Superior Court Judge Thomas Clark dropped me a note to recall some memories when he was a boy. Said Clark: "Your mention of crawdad fishing in the canals brought back memories. As a boy I fished many a crawdad out of the irrigation canal that abutted our property (near Brundage and N Street). All the canals were teeming with crawdads in those days. I think they are long gone now---probably as a result of mosquito abatement spraying."

 * ... GOOD FORM: Here's a big shout out to Joe Rivera, a Bakersfield High graduate who just achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. He is a member of Troop 125, which is the troop associated with St. Francis Parish. Said his proud mother Katie Rivera: "His Eagle Scout project was to paint address curbs for the senior citizens of the Kern City neighborhood, to make it easier for emergency vehicles like police, fire and ambulance to find their homes in the case of emergency. Joe and the great boys from Troop 125 (and his two younger sisters) painted 227 address curbs, a project which spanned about two months."  Joe is now a freshman at Bakersfield College.

 * ... SPOTTED: An older red Ford SUV is spotted around town with a bumper sticker that reads: "*UCK TRUMP" under what appears to be the symbol of the United Farm Workers. Do we really have to share our foul personal sentiments with everyone else?

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: This nugget comes from reader Bill Upshaw: "You would be an old timer if you remember the Santa Fe Rail Road whistle that was sounded each week day at noon and again at (I think) 12:20 p.m. This whistle was located at the rail road round house at California Avenue and Oak Streets and could be heard all over town."

 

Moms rejoice as kids go back to school, Lois Henry gets some well deserved kudos and more on those old sidewalks about our community

 * ... SCHOOL DAYS: So just how happy were all the moms to see their kids go back to school last week? Apparently ecstatic, as evidenced at the Broken Yolk Cafe across the street from Stockdale High

School. I was told the place was packed on the first day of school as celebrating moms consumed three cases of champagne after dropping off their kids.

 * ... COLLEGE DAYS: In a few short years many of those same mothers will be tearful when they drop those same little darlings off to college, a right of passage that is in full swing right now. So there is to all those friends of mine who have shared that final tearful embrace while leaving their kids at places like Arizona, Baylor, Berkeley and UCLA. You have earned the right to be proud.

* ... LOIS HENRY: Kevin Cornelius dropped me this note about my former colleague Lois Henry: "(She) is the Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes when it comes to covering or uncovering a story the public should  know about. Take for instance her article in the newspaper on August 17,  'Kern High School District has some explaining to do'....  Briefly put KHSD police officer Chief Joe Lopeteguy was fixing to get railroaded when he wasn't even on the train. Seems KHSD were trying to get Lopeteguy to take the rap because they got caught up in there own quicksand. All I can say is when this gal digs into a story she leaves no stone unturned. I have advice for all you public agencies... when Lois Henry comes knocking on your front door, run out the back!"

* ... MEMORIES: Don Ambriz added this to the discussion of old markets in east Bakersfield. "My grandmother lived near the corner of Kentucky and Kern streets - right across the street from Mayfair Market. During the 1950s, my cousin and I would buy 10 cents worth of liver from the meat counter and would go craw-dad fishing in the Lake Street canal."

* ... GOOD FORM: Here is a shout out to a group of people who rarely get recognized, our postal carriers. Thanks to Madeline Parra for passing this along: "Just wanted to share how great of a mail carrier we have. In the 28 years I have worked at Brown Armstrong I’ve never had a problem with mail delivery, and all because of Rosemary. Boy did I find out different when she went out on leave!
Rosemary Baca Arauza is a 30-year postal employee who delivers to the 4200 Truxtun Extension area where I work. About a month ago, Rosemary went out on leave and the mail delivery has been hit and miss. We are lucky to get our mail by 5 p.m. and there have been some days where we have not received our mail at all. When I called the Stockdale post office to complain, the supervisor said Rosemary has such a high-standard and she’s been doing it for so long that nobody can touch her.  I want to give a big shout out to Rosemary for going over and beyond.  I was aware Rosemary was good and always had a smile on her pretty face, but I had no idea she was in the elite class until she went out on leave and I had something to compare to. Hurry back Rosemary!"

 * ... SIDEWALKS: William Dean wrote with a personal story behind some of those old stamped sidewalks about town. In his words: "My name is William Dean and I was reading your blog about the old sidewalks in town and the contractors that poured the cement and also paved the roads as they went along. My grandfather and my uncle were two of these. They owned a company named Dean and Stroble cement contracting. And from the early 1900s to just about the time of the depression they paved and built many of the old roads and sidewalks in Bakersfield, a lot around Baker Street and also in Oildale. They had 10 model T trucks and about 40 mules plus some big cement mixers that they moved down the street as they went. I don't know how many of the mixers they had but I know of one for sure because I have an old picture of the mixer. My grandfather and my uncle are standing next to it with there work crew. I think it was taken in the area around Baker Street around 1920. My grandfather's name was Fred Thomas Dean and my uncle's name was Vance Stroble."

Moms rejoice askids go back to school, Lois Henry gets some well deserved kudos and more on those old sidewalks about our community

 * ... SCHOOL DAYS: So just how happy were all the moms to see their kids go back to school last week? Apparently ecstatic, as evidenced at the Broken Yolk Cafe across the street from Stockdale High

School. I was told the place was packed on the first day of school as celebrating moms consumed three cases of champagne after dropping off their kids.

 * ... COLLEGE DAYS: In a few short years many of those same mothers will be tearful when they drop those same little darlings off to college, a right of passage that is in full swing right now. So there is to all those friends of mine who have shared that final tearful embrace while leaving their kids at places like Arizona, Baylor, Berkeley and UCLA. You have earned the right to be proud.

* ... LOIS HENRY: Kevin Cornelius dropped me this note about my former colleague Lois Henry: "(She) is the Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes when it comes to covering or uncovering a story the public should  know about. Take for instance her article in the newspaper on August 17,  'Kern High School District has some explaining to do'....  Briefly put KHSD police officer Chief Joe Lopeteguy was fixing to get railroaded when he wasn't even on the train. Seems KHSD were trying to get Lopeteguy to take the rap because they got caught up in there own quicksand. All I can say is when this gal digs into a story she leaves no stone unturned. I have advice for all you public agencies... when Lois Henry comes knocking on your front door, run out the back!"

* ... MEMORIES: Don Ambriz added this to the discussion of old markets in east Bakersfield. "My grandmother lived near the corner of Kentucky and Kern streets - right across the street from Mayfair Market. During the 1950s, my cousin and I would buy 10 cents worth of liver from the meat counter and would go craw-dad fishing in the Lake Street canal."

* ... GOOD FORM: Here is a shout out to a group of people who rarely get recognized, our postal carriers. Thanks to Madeline Parra for passing this along: "Just wanted to share how great of a mail carrier we have. In the 28 years I have worked at Brown Armstrong I’ve never had a problem with mail delivery, and all because of Rosemary. Boy did I find out different when she went out on leave!
Rosemary Baca Arauza is a 30-year postal employee who delivers to the 4200 Truxtun Extension area where I work. About a month ago, Rosemary went out on leave and the mail delivery has been hit and miss. We are lucky to get our mail by 5 p.m. and there have been some days where we have not received our mail at all. When I called the Stockdale post office to complain, the supervisor said Rosemary has such a high-standard and she’s been doing it for so long that nobody can touch her.  I want to give a big shout out to Rosemary for going over and beyond.  I was aware Rosemary was good and always had a smile on her pretty face, but I had no idea she was in the elite class until she went out on leave and I had something to compare to. Hurry back Rosemary!"

 * ... SIDEWALKS: William Dean wrote with a personal story behind some of those old stamped sidewalks about town. In his words: "My name is William Dean and I was reading your blog about the old sidewalks in town and the contractors that poured the cement and also paved the roads as they went along. My grandfather and my uncle were two of these. They owned a company named Dean and Stroble cement contracting. And from the early 1900s to just about the time of the depression they paved and built many of the old roads and sidewalks in Bakersfield, a lot around Baker Street and also in Oildale. They had 10 model T trucks and about 40 mules plus some big cement mixers that they moved down the street as they went. I don't know how many of the mixers they had but I know of one for sure because I have an old picture of the mixer. My grandfather and my uncle are standing next to it with there work crew. I think it was taken in the area around Baker Street around 1920. My grandfather's name was Fred Thomas Dean and my uncle's name was Vance Stroble."