Born in 1951, Wilfred Albers Jr. learned to fend for himself at the dinner table as one of nine children. Then, as a Yurok tribal member growing up in Eureka, he had to be tough and prove himself, sometimes with his fists. In high school in the 1960s there was a tradition where teenagers would […]
Rod Kausen
Posted inEat + Drink
Crab Cioppino
My mom’s recipe for crab cioppino became well known at the Ivanhoe in Ferndale when my dad owned it in the late 1940s. They were raising my two older sisters before the rest of us were born. Maybe my mom was raising them, as my dad was a bar owner. Her recipe was locally famous […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Pitchers — Past and Future
Recently I spoke with the best pitcher in baseball, this year’s American League Cy Young award winner Shane Bieber, who was in town visiting his girlfriend’s family. He is a nice-looking kid but blends in without an overpowering look. As a college walk-on, he just kept getting better and produced an extensive repertoire of great […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
The Scoop
As a 15-year-old student at Eureka High School in the roaring ’20s, Laurence Beal got a job with the Humboldt Times newspaper as a part-time high school sports reporter and sports cartoonist, his passion at the time. He also answered phones, stuffed inserts and sold newspapers on the streets. By the age of 17, he […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Cinder Elta
After breakfast at the Blue Room on the outskirts of Ferndale, my dad was taking me to see a group of turtles his friend Menard Hendrickson had found in a ditch off Frog Alley. I was a little kid but I remember the story my dad told me on the way about Menard’s wife, Elta. […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
The Death of Leo Gallagher
These three headlines tell a story: “Ferndale Invades Fortuna,” Humboldt Times, Nov. 3, 1928. “Fortuna High Student Dies after Football Accident,” Humboldt Times, Nov. 5, 1928. “Leo Gallagher Funeral Held,” Humboldt Times, Nov 7, 1928. I’d heard of a period when there was no football at Fortuna High School due to the death of a […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
The Brothers Iorg
The most famous swing of a baseball bat by anyone Humboldt grown was at a pitch slung by Todd Worrell of the St. Louis Cardinals in the ninth inning of the sixth game of the 1985 World Series against the Kansas City Royals. With the bases loaded and a 1-0 lead, the perfect pitch would […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
The Eel River Jockey Club
In my last column I mentioned Rohnerville was once a hub of Southern Humboldt. I did not mean to imply that it still was in the 1960s but certainly it was 100 years earlier. Rohnerville is currently an unincorporated area about 2 miles southwest of Fortuna. The town was originally called Eel River. The Eel […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Born Too Soon
When I was a kid, boys rode their Schwinns around Humboldt County neighborhoods, sneaked through the alleys and climbed on Main Street rooftops at night; they played pickup baseball games at the park in the summer. Each town had a sliding hill for cardboard on the dry grass, basketball courts and open gyms in Samoa […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Game Plans
The Humboldt Del Norte League (HDNL) successfully petitioned the North Coast Section (NCS) on Oct. 2 to allow our HDNL schools to have our own model for athletics this year. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, most California high schools are attempting a two-season model for sports, where the HDNL will follow the more traditional three […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
The Red Streak
Born in Eureka in 1946, Bob Talmadge moved to Willow Creek with his family at the age of 3. He moved through the local school system as a regular kid and a gifted student. Judy Skidmore, a classmate, wrote, “even as a child he had a commanding presence. He could transform from a serious thoughtful […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Teens These Days
In 1982, I was in my second week speaking from the intimidating side of the podium at Fortuna High School when an unknown high school senior named Barry Mendenhall — who has since become a very good friend — walked up to the front of the class shaking a coffee can. “Mr. Clausen (which isn’t […]