It was just before 5pm on October 17, 1989 when a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the bay area and rumbled all the way into Merced County. Two year old Tommy froze in the living room as his mother grabbed him and headed under a table. In less than a minute the shaking stopped. Mother and son then headed outside to recover from the shock. Tommy began screaming “Fireplace Man”, “Fireplace Man”, “Fireplace Man”!

His mother and the neighbors looked at the chimneys on the surrounding homes, but nothing was wrong. Only the sounds of Sirens all over town could be heard. And then his mother figured it out. He was saying Fire and Policeman because he heard sirens and was saying it too fast to be understood. How sad it would be to have an emergency and hear nothing.

the best mayor we have ever had and all you people can do is slam him think about our last mayor

As the Mayor hugs and thanks people for voting for him I overheard one voter ask how long of a term he won. The Mayor replied two years, but he is going to get it changed to 4 years. I thought that was an odd statement and I am not sure what to think about it. I also laughed when the person sitting across from the person who got hugged by the Mayor said “but you didn’t vote for”. The sentence wasn’t finished because a non-verbal communication technique was employed to end the statement.

The Mayor should be thinking about the economic problems of the city. Unfortunately the Mayor has stated that he has no control of what happened at the national level and therefore should not be held accountable for it.

The citizenry of Gooberville were up in arms again with their school board. This was often the case. Goobers were rarely happy with their school board members.

For years, Gooberville grew at a phenomenal rate. Due to a state law, the schools were not allowed to be considered as part of the equation when approving more development. The Gooberville School District filled with kids it had no place for. The schools became overcrowded. The citizens became angry that their children attended schools that were so crowded, students were using desks on a timeshare basis, half the class standing, while the other half sat. A bell would ring, and they all switched places.

Mr. White sat uneasily in the chair as the interview began. It had been a while since his last foray into the job market. He was uneasy about this whole process.

“At a time when we are letting people go, I was told to talk to you about a possibility of bringing you on board. I’m not exactly sure why,” said Mr. Broadend, as he leaned his large executive chair back and studied Mr. White.

“Let’s face it, sir. Your company is in trouble. Mammoth Automobiles has been in deep doo-doo for a while. All of Detroit is in trouble. You’re going hat-in-hand to the government to get bailed out, aren’t you?” Mr. White began. “I can help you. I have ideas.”

I find it ironic that the one person who spoke loudly in favor of the mayor and for all of us to just "Get Along" has now come out and attacked a council member for carefully considering the need for a Bypass. He also says without the bypass that traffic will come to a stand-still. Or as the Mayor would say "...deadly, deadly, deadly, deadly consequences".

I laugh at this issue because we have heard these lines for over 30 years and yet the traffic still flows. I would like to have a Bypass, but the citizens of Los Banos should not have to pay to make the traffic woes for the commuters through our town easier. If they want to breeze by Los Banos and pretend we don't exist, let them pay for it. Look at the city of Livingston. They were the last stop light on Highway 99. They did not have to raise taxes in their little town to pay for that huge project so why do we have to do it?

A grumpy former city worker, an emotional, gabby, English challenged school teacher, and a young, popular, and very inexperienced student have the votes to control the future of Los Banos. The election night party at Me-n-Ed's had the Mayor dancing for joy after they had collected the numbers from each polling station prior to the official county posting on the internet. Unfortunately, the city is still divided.

Stone's inexperience will mean she will need to rely on someone else for historical perspective and guidance. Her father (Good friend of Tommy Jones) can join forces with the Mayor to help influence her voting. But a young heart just might rebel against her handlers and time will reveal if she is an independent thinker or another sheep in the Mayor's flock.

The surprising results of the Los Banos city elections has divided the city into two groups. One group wants to make our city just like San Jose, and the other group wants to stop large annexations of land for new homes. School connections combined with developer's money and the combined force of two incumbents could not be overcome.

The occupation of our town continues and I am now forced to go underground to preserve my position within the city but still shed light on the agenda that is not in the best interest of all.

Some will tell you that with this election we can now "Make Los Banos a great place to live" To those people I say, Los Banos is and has been a great place to live. I pray we can keep it that way.

The Mayor liked big projects. The People saw that the Mayor was doing something when they saw big projects. It meant he cared about the People, all these big projects. However, big projects meant big money. The Mayor didn’t always have big money for his big projects.

Developer Dan liked big projects, also. But Developer Dan’s big projects were not of the same nature as The Mayor’s. Developer Dan liked to build houses. Lots of houses. Lots of inexpensive houses. He had already built a lot of houses, which made Dan a happy man. Oh, and dare I say? It made Dan a fairly wealthy man.

Dan ran into a problem one day. Building lots of houses requires land. Lots of land. Lots as in parcels and lots as in a large number. Dan had lots of lots, but Dan’s lots of lots were not next to the city. There were some inconvenient farms in between Dan’s lots of lots and the city. They were inconvenient, because Farmers Joe and Bill did not make money from building houses. They made their money by farming. Dan hated farming. He had tried it, but found building lots of houses more rewarding.

I admit that, at first, I didn’t get it. One of the presidential candidates had supporters holding up signs that read “Country First.” What the heck did that have to do with anything? So, I’m on the phone with my Dad and I mention it.

“Don’t keep up on the news, do ya?” Dad asked. I thought I did, I told him. “Not good enough, ‘parently. You’d know that ‘Country First’ is the result of all them Hollywood rock ‘n roll types that ain’t lettin’ ‘em use their songs. They wanted to use that 'Barracuda' song, but them gals that done it didn’t want them usin’ it.”