It was a time when columnists were not allowed to write about the paper we write for. We were not to mention co-workers, personal lives or the difficulty of making a newspaper happen in a rural area where the printing plant often loses power in the winter and hillsides fall on the road.

Everything had to be written at a 5th grade reading level and the front page came straight off the AP wire. Fundraisers and school events were mentioned only if they were part of paid announcements. Objectivity ruled.

And objectivity is important for news regarding council and committee meetings, law enforcement, zoning issues, sewer plants and such dry and necessary stuff. We have great reporters who sit through these meetings and remain so objective and focused I’m in awe of them.

Residents in the Hiouchi area the past two weeks may have been surprised to see some men high in the tops of some of the tallest trees in the world.

A new state department branch known as the “Tree Hazard Program” has been formed and a crew has been working at Jedediah Smith State Park in Del Norte County.

The purpose of this program is to send recently hired men around to different parks to remove all dead or broken branches, cut down trees that could fall on some unsuspecting camper, or top trees that are unsafe. This program is so new that it only had its beginnings Sept. 10, when the first man arrived in Sacramento to form a crew of three others to begin this type of work.

Jedediah Smith is the fourth park that they have worked in, having previously been in Tahoe, Jack London and Sugar Loaf state parks.

Civil Defense in action

I remember entering high school and attending my first pep assembly. There were only three cheerleaders that had been elected by the student body. They led all the assembly activities.

I remember how impressed I was that these three could generate the type of enthusiasm that they did.

The three, Marylin Myers, Millicant McVay and Joan Jamison were really great. As time went on I learned that the main responsibility of a cheerleader was to promote crowd support and good sportsmanship at athletic events. During my four years as a Warrior every group did a very good job of doing this.

The kitchen project succeeded beyond my wildest dreams! Being an outdoor person who considers housekeeping cruel and unusual punishment, my housework has been kept to necessary repairs, the purchases for which were made in the hardware department.

Now it’s a joy to walk into the bright, clean space the kitchen has become. Gone are the stacks of junk mail and the decades of clutter that had gravitated to the counter. She actually managed to turn that horrid 1950s red counter and metal cupboards into assets, pulled together by the artful application of a border around the top of the wall, a few decals and Persian-looking area rugs.

Judi has a gift for transforming a mess into a decorator’s dream. Counter clutter weeded to its essentials isn’t clutter at all if you put it in a nice basket. There are matching towel racks on either side of the stove — and all these years I thought towel racks were bent nails. Were you aware that stores have whole kitchen sections of potholders, kitchen towels and matching goodies? I have beautiful canisters instead of old jerky jars. Altogether, the operation was wildly successful.

Many years ago, a roaring fire swept over the forested area a few miles north and west of Crescent City.

The furious blaze leaped through dry underbrush and topped out in the giant redwood trees. For days, the fire burned, wiping out centuries-old forest monarchs, driving animals from their once green domain.

Each redwood became a gigantic torch. In a holocaust of sparks, the forest regents crashed to the blackened earth as the fire consumed them. Their ashes turned to charred dust and then disappeared as the fire ebbed and died.

For a long time, the dead hills and valleys lay waste. Then, slowly, green shoots burst through the ground and in a few short years, the forest began the long task of self-restoration.

Great snaggy stumps point tortured fingers toward the sky as if to call man’s attention to their silent agony. Twisted and gnarled redwood, now silvery white with dead age, became the skeletal spires of forgotten cathedrals.

These are Del Norte’s Wonder Stumps, grim in death, yet still bearing a stoic majesty. Each Wonder Stump stands alone, a desolate, but still proud monument to the grandeur of the redwoods.

Burglar helps himself

A short time ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with Scott Alexander and got to know this classy young man that now leads the Warrior boys varsity basketball program. Alexander is starting his second season as head coach.

Scott is a 1992 graduate of Redding Christian High School in Redding. He played basketball and baseball for four years. After high school graduation he  attended Baptist College in Missouri, where he continued his basketball career.

After leaving college he returned to Redding, where he coached basketball at his old high school as a varsity assistant for two years. In 1999, Scott moved to Crescent City, where he became youth pastor of the Smith River Baptist Church.

 Scott’s sister was a senior at Del Norte at the time and  introduced Scott to Kurt Burrows, who was the Warriors varsity head coach at the time.

He let coach Burrows know he was interested in coaching and Kurt took him on as a varsity assistant for the next three years.