Arts & Culture

A city bus rolls along Main Street into the Watsonville Transit Square on March 23, 1954. (Sam Vestal/Pajaronian file)

On our one-night journey to San Francisco recently, my wife Sarah and I wrapped up day one with dinner at Mister Jiu’s, 28 Waverly Place in Chinatown.  Our seat at the bar gave us a front-row taste of the goings on at the popular and...

A crowd gathers on the deck of the SS Palo Alto, colloquially known as the “Cement Ship,” on May 31, 1954. Built in 1919 as a 420-foot concrete tanker, it was eventually decommissioned and hauled to Seacliff Beach in 1929. By 1930, it was ...

Twenty short films by area students not only filled the big screen at Green Valley Cinemas Sunday afternoon. The program by the Watsonville Film Festival also filled the theater.  The 14th annual WFF is unfolding across the Central Coast March 12 -21, featuring award-winning films...

Staff at Watsonville Union High School goof off during a “Faculty Rally” in 1954.

Road trips around California—including Sacramento, Atascadero, the desert, San Diego or north to Half Moon Bay and Fort Bragg—have time and again proven worthy of the fuel, hotel costs and drive time for me and my wife Sarah over the past several years.  Whether an...

Contestants for the Cabrillo College football queen line up for a photo on Nov. 21, 1959. Shown here are Beverleigh Jordon (from left), Lacretia Wilson, Cloren Lucini, Mary Avila, Bonnie Freeman and Nancy Jones.

Three Beta Sigma Phi sisters were honored as Valentine Queens at a luncheon which took place on Feb. 21 at IHOP in Capitola. Beta Sigma Phi is an International sorority founded by Walter Ross. There are three active chapters which belong to the Santa Cruz...

I’ve been visiting San Jose since the mid-1970s.  My first stop there was when a friend dropped me off at the airport after we drove from Eugene, Oregon. I was headed to San Diego to see my parents and that drive cut my trip in...

These women prepare for the annual All Saints Bazaar on Dec. 15, 1955.