Letters

MOST VALUABLE PADRE

Thank you for such a great article about the awesome Tony Gwynn [“Hitting the Hall” by Tom Cushman, December 2006]. My husband and I were season ticket holders while living in San Diego, and we came to admire the man and the player.

I had the pleasure of meeting Tony and Alicia when their beautiful daughter, Anisha, was born at Sharp Memorial Hospital. I was one of the nurses who cared for them all. At that time, Anthony was a little guy—a very proud big brother. We also lived in Poway and would see the Gwynns around the neighborhood. Tony was always very friendly and took the time to chat whenever possible. He was a San Diego icon but always a husband, a father and a down-to earth-man.

I was amazed at the picture of the family. Those little “babies” are all grown up. Anisha is singing and making CDs. Anthony is now playing baseball [for the Milwaukee Brewers]. Makes this not-yetretired nurse feel quite old. What a beautiful family.

We miss seeing Tony with the Padres when they come to Seattle to play “our” Mariners. We’ve switched to loving our team in the Northwest, but we’ll always have a soft spot for the Padres of long ago when Tony Gwynn was our favorite player. His picture hangs on the wall in my husband’s office—along with Mickey Mantle’s.

ANN (STEVENS) MACPHERSON
SEATTLE

TIME WARP?

Apparently, author Thomas K. Arnold hasn’t been to Oceanside in 20 years [“The Real Estate Ride,” November 2006]. His depiction of Oceanside as “more rough-and-tumble due to its proximity to the Camp Pendleton Marine Base” may have been true in the early ’80s, but his comments tend to prove that his travel I.Q. is definitely in the 80s.

There are presently seven major development projects ongoing in Oceanside, including a just-recently approved Westin resort complex at the pier’s edge. This project will bring to downtown a 336-room luxury hotel, 48 time-share units, a ballroom and 30,000 square feet of meeting rooms.

Oceanside also has 3.5 miles of pristine beach framing one of the most beautiful coastlines in Southern California. Oceanside Harbor holds moorings for hundreds of marine vessels and provides an assortment of water sports, along with whale-watching excursions during season. Local commercial fishermen bring their catches to Oceanside in a scenario similar to Maine fishermen, as they supply our many bountiful seafood restaurants. Other local attractions include the California Surf Museum, the historic Mission San Luis Rey and the Oceanside Museum of Art.

No, Mr. Arnold, we don’t have Marines storming San Luis Rey, Alamo-style. Submarines don’t surface in the harbor, spilling binocular-strapped tourists and setting off depth charges. Oceanside is near Camp Pendleton, but those bawdy Marine days went out with your polyester disco pants. We consider the Marines an asset, and we remain Semper Fi to Oceanside!

JOHN AND CHERIE JOHNSON
OCEANSIDE

CLOSE TO HOME

Regarding your recent items about the location of a new Chargers stadium: I have been looking for a way to voice my opinion about where it should be built. We North County and Riverside County residents would love for the new stadium to be closer—not all the way down in South County.

I think it would be good for every one of us if they would meet us in the middle.

KRYSTAL BELL
TEMECULA

In addition to considering the South Bay cities of Chula Vista and National City, the Chargers recently began talks about a potential new stadium with the city of Oceanside. —EDITOR

LA JOLLA EAST?

How irritating that Borrego Springs’ Bill Herzog would rise to the defense of his town by verbally slamming El Cajon [“Creosote Stop,” Letters, November]! His comment about your writer was “Did this woman make a wrong turn and end up in El Cajon?”

As much as I love Borrego Springs, I would rather be forced to find a diverse blend of restaurants, shopping and entertainment in El Cajon. I live in a large area of multimillion-dollar homes, with a lifestyle that resembles La Jolla much more than it does Dogpatch. And amazingly enough, it has an El Cajon address!

CONNIE CRUSHA
EL CAJON

TAKING CARE

Thank you for the informative article concerning Flavia Cahoon [I on San Diego by Tom Blair, November]. My sisters and I have always affectionately known her as Bebe. Ten years ago, my mother was stricken with Alzheimer’s, and we were faced with the cruel reality of having to care for her with the respect she deserved. After a couple years of attempting to care for her ourselves, we went searching for outside help. We were introduced to Bebe (Flavia), and she became the blessing we had all hoped for.

She cared for and loved my mother as if she were her own mother. She clothed her, fed her, fussed with her hair to make her look beautiful every morning, talked with her, changed her Depends and embraced her to let her know that she was loved. Toward the end, my mother knew little of what was going on around her, and did not recognize most (if any) of us, although when Bebe entered the room, Mother always smiled as if to express that all was okay.

One morning, just before Christmas 2000, Bebe bathed and pampered my mother, did her hair just right, put on her makeup and gave her a big hug. My mother, with a big smile on her face, took her last breath and passed away. Bebe made a difference in the quality of my mother’s life as well as our lives. There is no greater gift than to be fortunate enough to have a Bebe in your life when dealing with a family tragedy. We still keep in touch with Bebe, as we consider her family to this day, and we are very upset to have found out about her troubles with immigration.

You are so right when you talk about our troubled borders. We are giving people who have blatantly broken the law entrance to the United States without consequence—yet we will spend an excessive amount of time and money to see that a once-misled young woman from the Philippines is sent back so that “justice” is carried out. This is not someone who jumped fences or hid in vans to gain entrance, but a person who believed she had followed the rules and was duped by a dishonest serviceman.

Please continue to bring to light these injustices and let me know if, in your opinion, there is anything we can do to see that Flavia is allowed to continue to live here—and continue to touch lives with her love.

GUY SHANKS
TUCSON, ARIZONA

PHOTO FINISH

The other day, I was sitting in the waiting room at my doctor’s Hillcrest office when a lady next to me, who had been flipping through the pages of a magazine, called out the title of an article to all of us waiting patients: “How San Diegan Are You?” [by Ron Donoho, March 2006]. The article featured a lot of our stock photos from Artistic Visuals.

The woman really got a kick out of the story, and was enthusiastically reading through all the quiz questions (aloud, to us all) to test our knowledge of San Diego. All of us were enjoying the piece, and participated as best we could.

Halfway through her reading, I just had to point out that most of the photos highlighting the article were shot by me. This got some big “Really?”s out of the crowd, which left me beaming as I was led out of the waiting room to see the doctor next.

Thought you might like to know what a hit your article was that day!

BRETT SHOAF
SAN DIEGO

CREDIT DUE

Thank you very much for a very nice and positive article on me and the rest of the Friends of Torrey Pines with respect to our efforts to renovate the South Course and Torrey Pines and to bring the 2008 United States Open to San Diego. I must say that I am a little embarrassed, however, in that the article provides way too much attention to me in what has truly been a team effort in our community.

Despite the nice article, there is one oversight that is quite unfortunate. Evidently, in listing the members of the Friends of Torrey Pines, you accidentally cut off the list at the S’s. As a result, the article fails to mention Dean Spanos, Ron Taylor, Ted Waitt, Brent Wilkes and Dale Ziegler, who are members of the Friends of Torrey Pines and integral parts of both the funding and ongoing support efforts to make the 2008 United States Open the finest in the history of that championship.

I would appreciate it if in your next edition you were able in some appropriate fashion to acknowledge these individuals for their tremendous contributions to our community.

JAY RAINS
SAN DIEGO

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