Grand Prize Writing: Remembering Wally Berger
At one point of the interview, I asked Wally if he had any memorabilia from his playing days? He then turned to his wife and said, “Martha, would you please bring me those bats.” Moments later, I was holding Wally’s old 36-inch, 38 ounce bat — and The Babe’s bat from 1935. I was in Baseball Heaven.
Easy Reader 44th Anniversary Writing and Photography Contest
Easy Reader was founded in 1970 by Hermosa Beach residents concerned about city hall cronyism, proposals for high rise hotels on The Strand and conflicts between the establishment and bohemian cultures. Stories and photos were solicited from the community through the pre-digital equivalent of crowdsourcing.
Writing Honorable Mention: Education of a civil rights worker
I was arrested three times that summer, once with Congressman John Lewis, and shot at twice.
Writing Honorable Mention: The Lady in the Water
I could tell that my mother wanted to cool off in the water and an immediate feeling of terror enveloped me. I had never once thought that we would actually “get in” the water. I gazed out at what seemed like monstrous waves and shrieked, “I don’t wanna get in the water!”
Writing honorable mention: Fantasy at 28th Street
This legendary surf day happened sometime in Hermosa’s marine-layered past.
It was mid-December. Word had circulated through the surfing community, ‘big surf tomorrow.’
The next morning at dawn, it was on at 28th Street.
Writing honorable mention: 1968 through a different lens
The year offered no rest for the weary. It began with the Tet Offensive followed by a massive walkout by East Los Angeles high school students. Then a sitting president decided not to seek reelection and MLK’s assassination. And just two days earlier Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed just 20 miles away.
Honorable Mention Writing: Class Clown
I’m not quite sure when I developed my habitual desire to “pop off” in classrooms and release cynical, comical or provocative observations and commentary designed to disrupt my teachers and fellow students
Honorable Mention Writing: Stickman
Porter walked along the Redondo Beach Pier. He was headed towards the International Boardwalk to a little waterfront bar where his friend Edison was waiting for him.
Manhattan Beach to lift temporary fishing ban at pier early, prohibit snag fishing, heavy fishing lines
Amid warnings from state agencies that a city lacks the authority to regulate fishing on its pier, Manhattan Beach adopted a new set of fishing regulations Tuesday that will limit the use of certain gears when the ban on pier fishing lifts in two weeks.