Two Gents' Worth
February 28, 2025
It was, incredibly, exactly a half-century ago this very week when I was hired by Channel 30 as the youngest TV reporter in Fresno. I was 23 — and, of course, almost completely unqualified. I had graduated from Fresno State with a degree in broadcast journalism and taken my first full-time broadcasting job as a…
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On the Saturday night before Thanksgiving a few weeks ago, we had to say good-bye to a beloved family friend. And we cried. Her name was Rocky. She was 17. She had started her life by being pulled out of a trash bin by some kindly people who discovered her when she was only a…
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On the week before Christmas more than a half-century ago, I received the greatest gift anyone had ever given me. And it changed my life. Let me tell you a story. I grew up in Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley of California. We did not have a lot of money. But Mom did have…
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Yes, it’s nearly back. Thanksgiving Day. That day of turkey and Macy’s parade and NFL football. I’ve experienced nearly three-quarters of a century’s worth of Thanksgivings (not quite — I’m not that old — not yet, at least). So I have a ton of memories of that day, as you undoubtedly do. Growing up in…
Read More about Thanksgiving, AgainThe calendar tells us — and our temperatures confirm — that autumn has arrived here in the Valley. Of all our seasons — autumn is our Emma Peel. The most beautiful. If you’re not familiar with Emma — I invite you to Google “The Avengers” TV show from the 1960’s. The lovely Emma — played…
Read More about It’s Emma Peel TimeMy brother Ken passed away a few days ago. He was 83. Over the past 10 years, he had suffered from several serious, but manageable, diseases. But his last few weeks saw him battling horrible and impossible-to-overcome ailments, and it became clear that his time had come. And it did. Ken and I were never…
Read More about Memories of My BrotherThe other day, I saw a couple of videos that someone had just put on the Channel 30 alumni website in Fresno — and they sent me onto a trip down Memory Lane. Channel 30 Action News was where I got my first TV news job. I was 23 years old — barely, if at…
Read More about Remembering “That Guy”In my last posting, I riffed about going back to my alma mater — Fresno State — for the first time in decades. I was doing research in the campus library last Friday, and being there — on campus, that is — generated a whole lot of memories. Well, I went back again today for…
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I took a trip back to my past this Friday when I returned to my university alma mater for the first time in years. I had to go to the library at California State University, Fresno (which we locals call “Fresno State”) to conduct research for a report I’m doing for the Madera County Historical…
Read More about Back to CampusSomething’s been rattling around inside my brain for a couple of months now, so I figure I’ll kick it out here, and we can both forget it. It was something Steve Karlin — the great 6 and 10 p.m. anchor on KCCI-TV in Des Moines — said on his last newscast before he retired. Trying…
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