A holiday hike
Re: “A peak experience” [Volume 21, Issue 11 or bit.ly/2j8zQt5]
I just had my son Kenny and his family out for the Thanksgiving holiday. Kenny is in the Air Force and stationed at Canon Air Force base in Clovis, New Mexico. He went to Gage Elementary, Pershing Junior High and graduated from Patrick Henry. He is also an Eagle Scout from Troop 959.
I had told him about the 5 Peak Challenge going on at the Mission Trails Park and he wanted the whole family to do it while they were here. As you can see by the picture we all made it — including his wife Anna, daughters 12-year-old Victoria and 6-year-old Isabella and even his new son, 6-month-old Roddy.
We had a blast. If there is any way you could put the picture in Mission Times Courier, it would make his day. (Also his daughters’ day).
—Rick Derkatz, San Carlos
Wrong neighborhood
Re: “Letters: No MAD” [Volume 22, Issue 12 or bit.ly/2hr4Eos]
Hello. I’m writing to let you know of an error. Plus, I’m writing to let you know how much your error irks me.
I tore from your most-recent copy of the Mission Times Courier the offending words (highlighted below).
The Temple Emanu-El is located in the city limits of San Diego, within the community of San Carlos. Ask me how I know? Well, I’m a San Diego native, age 63, and I’ve been around a bit. Also, I used to live on the street, Whelan Drive, in the early 1970s that butts up to the back parking lot of said temple. (I lived there long before the temple was built.)
In no way is Capri Drive considered Del Cerro. It never has been, and it never will be, Del Cerro.
Maybe soccer moms will be impressed that they are sending their children to a private, costly school in “Del Cerro” when they send them to the temple? Perhaps by having ownership of that, it will comfort them (snob-wise) to offset tuition (i.e. bragging rights)?
Real estate agents trying to inflate a home’s asking price — selling homes in Allied Gardens (my neighborhood for the last 15 years) — also pull this cheap trick. They advertise a home for sale in “Del Cerro” when in fact it’s on Waring Road, for example, which is clearly not Del Cerro.
Del Cerro is the high hill and maybe immediate surrounding areas such as where the fire station and St. Therese Catholic Church are located and possibly as far as Patrick Henry High School.
Del Cerro is not San Carlos. Del Cerro is not Allied Gardens. Del Cerro is not Fletcher Hills. Del Cerro is not El Cajon. Del Cerro is not La Mesa. Del Cerro is not El Centro. You get the picture.
I intensely dislike this stretching of the truth. It’s deceptive, cunning and a bald-faced lie. Shame on you for printing such a falsehood.
Del Cerro is for rich snobs. Allied Gardens and San Carlos are defined areas and neither are Del Cerro. Neither!
Get a clue and get it correct next time, please.
P.S. I hope the rich snobs have to pay the up-charge taxes. They can well afford it.
—Suzanne Ross, Allied Gardens
[Editor’s note: We regret not catching the error in Mr. Josephs’ letter to the editor. We usually print letters as close to the original way they come in to us and Del Cerro was the designation the author gave for Temple Emanu-El’s location.]
Between a rock and a …
My family and I have lived in San Carlos for 33 years. Every day we look at our beautiful Cowles Mountain.
For 33 years I have observed a beautiful, huge rock on Cowles Mountain. This rock faces Golfcrest Drive next to Mission Trails Park.
At first this rock was just standing tall. As time passed, I noticed that this rock had split right down the middle. Now, half the rock is slanted.
My concern is for our Golfcrest neighbors. If the rock slides, where will it land? Will the rock fall into the canyon below it, or will it keep rolling and fall across the Golfcrest yards?
—Dolores Valadez, San Carlos
R.I.P., San Diego Chargers
It was a gloomy day in January of 2017 when San Diego Chargers bolted town with their Chief Dean.
Now, the Spanoses were filthy rich, packing two billion clams, but they skipped town to Carson to piggyback the Rams.
They didn’t wave or kiss their fans goodbye as their Jets soared away, like an Eagle or a Seahawk, from the egg-throwing fray.
After 55 years in town how could they Steel away? All the leaves were Brown on such a cloudy day.
And what forced these Buccaneers, these cheapskates to jump ship? Mission Valley Qualcomm Stadium was no longer hip.
They wanted to build a “convadium” downtown. But the rise of Bills and loss of tailgates made the people frown.
Dean rode the City Council like a Cowboy breaks a Colt. He tried to raid the city’s coffers like a Giant dolt.
As their tears poured down, a winter storm, San Diego said goodbye, lighting Chargers gear on fire, the flames rising to the sky.
Sad and hurt and angry, fans shouted to the news: “Dean, that Lion bastard! We can’t bear his Cardinal abuse.”
“Slinking off like a Jaguar or a Panther in the night, he’s a Titan of Vikings, it is just not right.”
So now the morning after, as tears and rain subside, Chargers fans now realize we have something to decide.
Redskins, Broncos, Dolphins — fish? Or Bengals, Texans, Falcons — birds? 49ers? Patriots? Saints? Are these not merely words?
As for the San Diego Chargers, the chapter is now shut. Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore,” so we’ll heal the deepest cut.
And as our handsome Mayor Kevin said in his State-of-Town address, San Diego did not lose the team; they lost the town that’s best.
—Patty Mooney, San Carlos