Disgusted by theft of fireman's grave plaque 

Recently my beloved brother, Harold was laid to rest at our local cemetery.

He served this community his entire life and in doing so, a bronze Fireman’s Medallion was placed on his temporary grave marker plaque. Our family was honored and there was no man ever more deserving to receive it. So you must understand how heartbroken and disgusted we were to find someone has taken it. 

I write this to the person who felt they needed a souvenir!

You did not serve this community! It was not given to you! 

It was given to a great man who had a big smile for everyone and a “hello” or “how you doing?” regardless of who they were! He had the heart of a lion.

The bronze medallion honors him for the great man he was, not you!

As I start this column I would like to correct a mistake in last week’s column about Don Clausen. It was 1958 that Don pitched his last game for the Merchants, not 1951. It was the last game I played with the Merchants as well.

I have said many times the most fun part of writing these columns is writing about former Warriors I have only heard about but never had the privilege of watching compete. A 1980 graduate, Sam Davis, is one of them.

I have been told over and over how much I would have enjoyed observing Sam play, or, even more, how I would have enjoyed coaching him. After having the chance to interview Sam, I know I really would have liked coaching him.

Sam played both football and basketball all four years while a Warrior. When I asked him which sport was his favorite, he must have known he had to say football.

You can create an Oktoberfest all your own with homemade Bavarian-style pretzels. While I use food-grade lye in my home bakery for the color, flavor and texture, I’ve discovered that a simple substitute at home can help give your pretzels more flavor and color without lye.

What you do is take a box of baking soda and layer it an inch thick on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake it in your oven for 1 hour at 250F. Then, let cool and store in a sealed container until ready for use in the recipe.

This recipe is from my first ecookbook, “Pretzel Baker,” which is available on Amazon.com. You can freeze the pretzels once they are cooled down and they will reheat nicely in a hot oven or even a toaster. 

From the pages of the Crescent City American, October of 1927.

A race between a sea duck and a dog on the beach, at the foot of H Street, occurred Sunday morning that attracted more than ordinary attention. The duck had actually been wounded so that it could not fly and had been caught by the dog, who loosened its hold for a second and the duck made its way into the water and straight out to sea with the dog in close pursuit.

When the dog would get close enough to make a grab for the duck, he would lose ground, giving the duck an added few feet. Finally the chase led clear beyond the breakers before the dog gave it up and started for shore, but so exhausted was he from the pursuit of the duck, that it was with difficulty that he made it ashore, and if he had not turned back when he did, it is doubtful whether or not he would have made it. The dog was completely exhausted and had to be pulled from the surf. 

Had a great time at farms’ shindig

This past Sunday, my family and I attended the annual Ocean Air Farms community shindig, as we have every year since it began.

I was impressed that Paul Madeira and Julie Jo Ayer Williams would open this event up to the community at large this year. There were several new faces enjoying all that the farm has to offer.

We always look forward to our annual visit. This year we viewed sheep shearing, enjoyed a scavenger hunt, ate delicious food, listened to a great local band and soaked up the amazing weather.

There are so many things going on at the farm during this event, we didn’t get to enjoy everything we wanted, such as, the hay ride, zucchini sling shot, or the potato harvest.

Klamath River fishing is better than last week, although still relatively hit or miss, but the biggest change has been an exodus of the out-of-town anglers who flocked to the lower Klamath in recent weeks.

As for other bites, the ocean has been mostly too rough for fishing, the Smith River is under a low-flow closure until rains bump the main stem above 400 cubic feet per second, and the Trinity River is very crowded with anglers while producing steelhead.

Gitlin’s thinking like mine; will vote for him 

Regarding the Sept. 29 article “Gitlin seeks local office, but with a global twist,” thank you, Triplicate! You helped me make up my mind!

I am voting for Roger Gitlin for supervisor in District 1. This candidate’s opinions as presented by your front page article represent my thinking.

He wants to help fix Del Norte County. I say, great! We can sure use some fixing!

Dave Egan, Crescent City

They say that there are some folks in this world, because of their kindness and human touch, that you can only be a stranger to but once. But they’re wrong. Or at least they didn’t know Harold Esparza, because he was one of those rare persons who didn’t know the meaning of the word stranger, which was something you could never be in his presence.

I joined hundreds of people Saturday to say goodbye to our friend. I came here seven years ago, starting up a new practice of law, after leaving Orange County and a few miles of bad road behind me. Harold was one of the first people in our courthouse to put out his hand and welcome me and tell me if there was anything I needed to ask him. I can still hear his soft voice and easy smile from that morning in 2005.

You have to know the business we do in our community at 450 H St. to appreciate what Harold Esparza and our bailiffs do. From criminal to dependency to civil to juvenile law and more, we exist daily in a system that seeks to find truth and deliver justice, but is marked as adversarial in nature, which of necessity deals with situations toxic and explosive.

Native Americans in our area should be proud of our mascot

I have been following the controversial issue of those wanting to bring back the image of a warrior head for the mascot at Del Norte High. I have read the letters for and against this issue. I find it very hard to believe that the students at Del Norte High would think of an Indian head as being a symbol portraying the Indian culture as bad or representing something that took part in our nation’s past dark history.

I graduated from a high school in another state, and our mascot was the “Indians.” I was very proud of our mascot! I know that soon after I graduated there was a nationwide push to eliminate all teams with the mascots that had anything associated with the Native American people. I was very pleased when my high school stood firm and continues to this day to have the “Indian” as its mascot.

Every time I go south on 101 and start up over the Don Clausen Highway, special memories always return. Most people remember Don as a longtime member of the U.S. Congress, but I remember  him as an athlete.

While Don was not a Warrior graduate he did wear red and white during his high school days in Ferndale. At that time those were  Del Norte’s colors as well.  Ferndale still wears red and white, and plays the Warriors.

When I first came to Crescent City while still in elementary school I would attend Crescent City Merchants baseball games and Don Clausen was the ace of the Merchants pitching staff.