The kidnapper’s name was Saperstein Holloway. When he was in junior high school, he was known as “Stain.” He eventually became a field technician for a phone company that specialized in digital networking and the conversion of analog to digital communication systems. Stain and the head custodian at Benjamin Harrison Elementary School were lifelong friends. … Continue reading Post number 20: The Kidnapping of Chad Barrington, Part 2

November 12, 1998 A sixth-grade teacher returned to the school where he worked at about 8:00 PM. He went to his classroom to get a set of papers that he had to correct before the start of the next school day.  As he stood fumbling with the keys to his classroom, he turned around and … Continue reading Post number 19: The Kidnapping of Chad Barrington, Part 1

Monday, June 15, 2015 In the customer lounge at a Modesto automobile dealership, the television played a seemingly endless story about the National Basketball Association championship series between the Golden State Warriors of the San Francisco Bay Area and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Based on the coverage, Stephen Curry of the Warriors and LeBron James of … Continue reading Post number 18: The Lounge at the Auto Dealership

Remember Phillip “Scratchy” Sorenson from post number 2? This is how he ended up in Modesto. On yet another warm Saturday afternoon in the small tourist town of Kapaa on the island of Kauai in the state of Hawaii, Phillip “Scratchy” Sorenson drank two large glasses of lemonade. He could see the ocean from his … Continue reading Post number 17: Notes on a Hawaiian Scandal

January 10, 2023, early afternoon, a neighborhood in eastern Modesto not far from Enochs High School I drove to the store in my old station wagon and bought some potato chips and ice cream because I wanted to celebrate my birthday even though two weeks passed since that momentous occasion.  While driving home, I suddenly couldn’t … Continue reading Post number 16: Project Confusion

The science fiction television series Star Trek inspired scientists and engineers to attempt to develop transporter technology in which something could be transmitted to another location by disassembling an object’s molecules and transmitting them to a specialized receiver where they would be reassembled.  The principles of molecular disassembly and reassembly happened to be the subject of an … Continue reading Post number 15: The Transporter Gun

Tuesday, February 5, 2019, a couple of years before the completion of the State Route 132 bypass. On the way to work passing through the north side of the downtown area, I stopped at the corner of 13th and L Streets and waited for the light to change to green. A yellow delivery truck passed through … Continue reading Post number 14: The Modesto Truck Bomb

In the local supermarket one day, I rolled my shopping cart to what appeared to be the shortest line of customers. I was surprised to see a cart full of groceries waiting to be loaded onto the conveyor belt. The customer was not there. I simply moved ahead and put the five or six things … Continue reading Post number 13: Rude Woman at the Supermarket

Blingopolis In the town of BlingopolisConsumption is conspicuousAnd all the rump-shakingIs super-twerkulicious. The sign above the city gateThough you might have missed it,Says, “Abandon all restraintAnd be thou hedonistic.” The mantra of the peopleIs, “You only live once.”Although it’s short-sightedIt can be lots of fun.. Pride and dignity and self-respectSeem in short supplyReplaced with bravado … Continue reading Post number 12: Blingopolis and the Future of the Culture

There is a bar on a corner of Oakdale Road that is part of a somewhat rundown strip mall out in the eastern part of Modesto. I never noticed the place until the day I decided to go there for a drink. I expected it to be an interesting experience since the last time I … Continue reading Post number 11: The Magic Bar