Ramblings From The Ranch   Many of us living Lakeside have noticed the dramatic decrease in needy street dogs. Thanks to many hard-working volunteers, devoting time to shelters and spay and neuter clinics progress continues. The Ranch houses anywhere from 80 to 90 dogs rescued from abusive situations or that have been abandoned. In fact, […]

A Man For All Seasons By Bert Slocombe   Sometimes chance meetings between people of different ethnicity, cultural mores and religious beliefs can leave their imprint for good, even to the point of changing one’s life objective and purpose. Such was my good fortune as a young British soldier, who, after completing war-time service in

The One-Eyed Boy By Gabrielle Blair   Today my heart aches from too much plenty. Irritation, anger, fear weighs me down. The tears stored up push like a tidal wave against a fragile dyke. I stroll the impersonal city streets and see the desolate lives of the infirm beggars, forlorn, patiently extending their plastic cups

Profiling Tepehua By Moonyeen KingPresident of the Board for Tepehuamoonie1935@yahoo.com   The Tepehua Community Center proudly opened the door to its Gymnasium at the end of July. The first week was very slow with only a few people. As weeks passed, more people came. “If you build it, (they) will come,” appropriately from the movie

Touched By Katina Pontikes   I was eager-eyed, cheerful, twenty-one years old. I had completed my junior year of college and my roommate and I were deciding what we should do with our lives. She was thinking that Chicago would be fun. I was giving serious consideration to the fact that I didn’t want to

Only For Lovers Of Words By J. D. Hicks   When I was a university student, I often went to the library. Even on a Friday or Saturday evening, I’d enjoy stalking books among the stacks. It may sound sinister or unhealthy, but I was merely a developing bibliophile. Because I was a habitual user

Welcome to México! By Victoria Schmidt   Life and Death Along la Carretera   Recently we’ve taken up residence on a road that is lateral to la carretera. The carretera is an integral part of our daily life. The rumble of traffic has become a constant in our daily life. We haven’t yet been able

The Born-Again Loser By Julie Elizabeth Mignard   I guess you’ve heard about the born loser. You know, that guy who got caught stealing penny candy in 1959. He was in juvey by the time he was 10 years old. It’s not that he was any worse than most of the guys his age. It

Priest Murdered. Alter-Boy Held By Bernie Suttle   Mom said, “We are going to a mission at the church.” A mission was a session designed to scare everyone into repentance with hell-fire and brimstone. “I said, “Do I halfta’ go?” Mom said, “It’s good for us all to go.” We went. A tag-team of two

My Karma Ran Over My Dogma! By Judy Dykstra-Brown   The small disk that had been pinned to my visor pinged off the steering wheel and landed on my lap as we jolted over the rutted dirt road. I picked it off my leg before it was jostled off onto the gray carpet covered with