A Tale of Two Parades
Through the best of times and the worst of times, I have been Santa Claus at the Organ Pavilion for San Diego’s “December Nights in the Park.” I have watched many babies grow up...
Where is Bay Park?
Where is Bay Park? Waldo won’t be much help for you on this one.
An 1887 map filed with the San Diego County Recorder by the Morena Company shows numerous blocks, lots and streets east...
Floyd Smith shares P.B. Point Surfing History
When Christopher Columbus invaded the Western Hemisphere, the natives were not pleased to greet him as previously reported. Was it Machiavelli or Winston Churchill... or Nazi war criminal Hermann Göring who said, "History is...
Who’s Who in Clairemont: 2020
It’s 2020! How did this happen so fast? Before you know it, it will be 2100.
Thanks to the following readers who sent e-mails to “Squaremont" during 2019. In a tradition dating back to 2016, you have been selected...
How did Clairemont streets get their names?
By Bill Swank
In my January 2016 column, I mistakenly wrote that Burgener Boulevard was named after former U.S. Representative Clair Burgener. Thanks to eagle-eyed readers Adam Chimowicz and Jim Richardson, who each caught the...
Clairemont Little League Jock-and-Cup Stories
In the 1960s, my neighbor's 10-year-old son, Joey Schickler, was a catcher for one of the Balboa Little League teams. He was a nice kid, but not much of a ballplayer. His younger brother,...
Why rename Lindbergh Schweitzer Elementary School?
The Clairemont Town Council recently forwarded a message about plans for a 2020 ground breaking to modernize the Lindbergh Schweitzer Elementary School site. There is also a movement to rename the school:
The site governance...
Quarantine in Clairemont (2020)
Clairemont has been under quarantine for two months. How are residents dealing with “the new normal?” The following comments and observations are from a broad, cross-section of people who call Squaremont home.
Longtime Clairemont resident Diane...
Tecolote Canyon – Part 1
By Bill Swank
The Kumeyaay people lived at the mouth of Tecolote Canyon for over 2,500 years. The name Tecolote Canyon appeared in 1845 on the first pueblo map of San Diego. By 1872, the San...
Keeping Big Band Music Alive
Before there was Elvis, Bobbysoxers in the early 1940s were screaming for Frank Sinatra. World War II was raging, but on the Homefront, it was the era of Big Band music and ration books.
On January 19, 2020,...