Column 1: There's Nothing to Do in Hanford

In the summer of 1995, I started writing a column for the local newspaper in the relatively small town where I grew up.  The paper was the Hanford Sentinel, the town was Hanford, California - population 30,000.  At the time, there were by far more cows than people.  I was 15 years old and about to start my senior year of high school.  For the next several months I will be posting the columns I wrote for the Sentinel and later the the Fresno Bee.  Some of the columns are pretty bad, like this one, my first.  But they get better, I swear.  They also clearly reflect a 15-year-old me.  I was cocky, and clearly thought myself both more intelligent and cosmopolitan than I actually was (oh yeah, and I also loved parenthesis). But that's what it's like to be a 15 year old writer with limited editing.

There's Nothing to Do in Hanford by Tamara Keith, June 1995

We are constantly complaining that there is nothing to do in Hanford and as far as I can see these complaints are valid. Right now there just isn’t anything to do. Though the future is looking promising in terms of recreation centers, it would be nice if the community could produce some places for us to hang out right now.

A few years ago everyone was excited about Hanford getting a new mall. Mall rats from miles around swarmed to the newly built “hang-out” spot. However the novelty has since worn off and even the most loyal mall lovers can only spend a few hours there before being overcome by the stark white walls and “muzak.” There are three forms of entertainment in the mall other than shopping (and I consider that more like torture than fun); the movies, the food court, and Aladdin’s Castle. The movies and food are great, but out of the question if you are low on funds (which most teenagers are) and the arcade is another challenge. Overrun by sticky fingered, dirty faced, glassy eyed 9 year old Mortal Kombat fiends, that jingle when they walk (their pockets are full of “get out of the house quarters”). That’s just not my idea of a fun time, especially since I have the home version of Aladdin’s Castle in the room next to mine with my little brother and his friends.

Log Canoes - Boats on Steroids

Back in 2009, when I was marginally employed, I got to do a story about some goofy, tippy wooden boats.  It was an awesome experience, despite the risk of soaking my recording gear. These boats, called log canoes can be found on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Racing them is a tradition unique to the Chesapeake Bay. They are are historic boats...on steroids. Their masts are so tall, their sails so large that they have a tendency to tip. My story about them and the interesting bunch of folks who race them every summer aired on Metro Connection on WAMU.