Two Gents' Worth
June 13, 2026
My buddy Kopi and I — we’ve known each other a mere 70 years or so — had an early Thanksgiving of sorts this past Saturday in Fresno. And we had no idea it was coming. We met — as we had months earlier in another jaunt — in front of the 1923 adobe house…
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Bud Elliott — one of the San Joaquin Valley’s longest-tenured television news anchors — passed away in the early morning hours of Tuesday, Nov. 18. He was 76. Mr. Elliott — whose name adorns this blogsite — had courageously battled Parkinson’s disease for more than a decade. That disease had forced him to retire from…
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It was another gorgeous October day here in the Valley this past Monday. You know the type — clear days and nights, highs in the 70’s and lows in the 50’s. Just the type of day that prompts you to get up and go out. So I did — got up and went out, that…
Read More about History in the FoothillsI’m only guessing, of course, but I bet if my dad had been alive, he would have enjoyed coming with me this past Thursday when I drove out of Fresno and up into the Sierra mountains in eastern Madera County. After all, my first stop was in North Fork, where Dad and Mom (right) had…
Read More about A Trip for DadAs I was out walking Jessie the Dog this past Sunday evening in our neighborhood, I saw something I had not seen in many years — kids playing wiffle ball in the street. There were four of them, and they looked as if they were in late junior high or early high school. School was…
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Sharon and I flew up to Seattle this past weekend to say good-bye to our daughter Amy, son-in-law Steve, and their dog Filbert. They were about to leave the United States and jet to Copenhagen to live. Steve’s sister Kathy and brother-in-law Neil threw a going-away party for them on Mercer Island in Lake Washington…
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As you may recall, Sharon and I headed to Carmel on California’s Central Coast this past weekend to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary in the same charming inn where we had spent our honeymoon night. It was our first trip back to the Tickle Pink Inn since that long-ago night on July 5, 1975, and…
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Sharon and I are heading over to a charming little place called the Tickle Pink Inn in Carmel on the California coast this coming weekend. It’s been quite a while since we’ve been there. In fact, it’s been exactly a half-century. You see, we spent our honeymoon night at the Tickle Pink on July 5,…
Read More about 50, Yes, 50!Editor’s note: Over the years on this site, I’ve written several pieces about my childhood summers, growing up in Fresno in the heart of the great San Joaquin Valley. This is one of my favorites. It makes me smile, and I hope you will get pleasure out of it, as well. ** Those lazy, hazy,…
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There were plenty of proud and happy people in Madera County this past Sunday. They were proud and happy because our Museum in the Old Courthouse on Yosemite Avenue in Madera had officially been named “Best Museum in Central California” in an annual contest run by the Fresno Bee. It was an incredible achievement because…
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