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OPINIONOPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, February 10, 2024 

RICH JOHNSON 

NOW THAT’S RICH

STUART TOLCHIN

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

PRODUCTION

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION

Peter Lamendola

CONTRIBUTORS

Stuart Tolchin 

Harvey Hyde

Audrey Swanson

Meghan Malooley

Mary Lou Caldwell

Kevin McGuire

Chris Leclerc

Dinah Chong Watkins

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Rich Johnson

Lori Ann Harris

Rev. James Snyder

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Jeff Brown

Marc Garlett

Keely Toten

Dan Golden

Rebecca Wright

Hail Hamilton

Joan Schmidt

LaQuetta ShambleE

PUT THE LIGHTS ON


MY FAMILY

CATS AND, OH YEAH, DOGS

 Last week I began my article by celebrating the 
fact that I had survived my medical procedures. Well, 
while this was not exactly a lie it was let us say a bit 
premature. Last night I was very nauseous and threw 
up about four times. Concurrent with throwing up I 
felt as if there was a huge basketball stuck in my chest. 
Really, I was in great pain and the pain lasted all night. 
I thought I did not sleep at all but in the morning, I recalled a dream 
wherein I was being interviewed and was asked what was the most painful 
sound I ever heard? 

I thought about this question all day while I was suffering still feeling the 
basketball stuck in my chest. This has been a difficult day, but I am feeling 
better now and doing my best to formulate an article that will be of some 
interest to someone. I felt so bad that during the day I cancelled my regular 
Wednesday night dinner with my son, daughter, and granddaughter. My 
wife, who these days refuses to drive with me, provides the transportation 
and we pick up my son who lives about twenty minutes away and then we 
drive for another 10 minutes and meet at our regular Wednesday night 
restaurant. We have been going there for years and have even celebrated 
birthdays there. My granddaughter is only four and a few months old, so 
we really have not been going there that long. Watching my granddaughter 
just moving around and dancing in front of the television is about the 
most exciting and wonderful thing in my life. I am certain that many 
other grandparents experience a similar feeling. 

For several reasons I was a single parent, custodian of my two children 
from the time they were about six years old. Their birthday is the same date 
and I had custody of my son, who is two years older, for about two years 
before my daughter also came to live with me. They both are wonderful 
people but sad to say I did not appreciate them in the same way that I 
appreciate my granddaughter, my wife, who is not their birth mother, but 
is a wonderful influence on them both. Still my wife is responsible for 
obtaining the cushion presently lying on our couch that says, “Be smart 
have the grandchildren first.”

There is a sad truth to that statement. For me being a parent, a single 
parent, was more than a full-time job. Getting the kids dressed and fed 
and off to school is a responsibility many of us share that barely leaves 
time to earn a living. I was a practicing lawyer for over fifty years and 
when I think back on it, I remember the incidents with my kids much 
more than any of the hundreds of cases I handled. That is a description of 
what kind of lawyer I was. I did my job, represented my clients, and then 
raced off to pick up my kids on time, or almost on time.

My point is that parenting and grandparenting are quite different 
experiences. I admit that prior to this time in my life I never appreciated 
the absolute beauty of little children. Really today every kid I see almost 
brings me to tears with their individual beauty. The way they jump and 
run and dance each kid seems to be invested in doing the best they can 
do at whatever they are doing. I need not compare one kid with another. 
They are all wonderful. Of course, within a few years everything changes. 
We all know that teenagers are hard to talk to and have the tendency to 
feel judged and competitive and when talking to adults seem indifferent. 
In the future wonderful technological progress will take place which will 
allow the beauty of children to always remain a part of the beauty of adults 
Well, I just looked in the mirror and it seems doubtful.

Anyhow, my stomach hurts less now, and I want to thank you, my 
imaginary readers for taking the time to ponder along with me. That 
connection is also very important to me; not as important as my wife, 
kids, and granddaughter but important, nevertheless.

Thank you.

Since it’s been raining cats and dogs, I thought I would devote this 
column to cats and dogs. I do have a secret motive. Problem is the 
motive is so secret I can’t remember it. I’m hoping it comes back to 
me. So…in the meantime…

 “Meow” means “woof” in cat” George Carlin

“I wish that my writing was as mysterious as a cat” Edgar Allan Poe

“If called by a panther…don’t anther” Ogden Nash

“Nature abhors a vacuum, but not as much as a cat does” Nelson A. Crawford

“Cats are smarter than dogs. Try getting eight cats to pull a sled through snow” Jeff Valdez

“Dogs believe they are human. Cats believe they are God” Anonymous

“If cats could talk, they wouldn’t” Nan Porter

Cats can work out mathematically the exact place to sit that will cause the most 
inconvenience” Pam Brown

“My dear, I’m a cat. Everything I see is mine” Richard Riordan

“Dogs…known for loyalty, and the importance of turning around three times before lying 
down” Robert Benchley

“As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat” Ellen Perry Berkeley

“A cat is far more inclined to watch TV over a dog. If televisions put out a smell, dogs 
would be more interested”

“Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function” 

Garrison Keillor

I chose to devote this column to cats and dogs as both my daughter and I love “critters” 
having had the privilege of living with several four-legged family “members” over the 
years. Recently I discovered a section on Facebook highlighting wonderful videos of 
regular folk rescuing animals in peril. These short 2-3 minute videos are so heartwarming 
and hit home as my daughter and I rescued a young female cat recently and now have two 
wonderful young cats named Mabel and Gizmo.

I also recently had the privilege of attending the Awards Banquet where my fearless leader, 
Editor/Publisher Susan Henderson was awarded the “2023 Best Business of the Year 
Award” by the city of Sierra Madre. As fate would have it, at the dinner I was seated next 
to a local hooligan named Sam Bernardo who is, among other things, an attorney.

He and I share the same passion for four legged critters. In fact, Sam, got bit by 
the compassionate bug so significantly, he helped create a nonprofit called www.
freeanimaldoctor.org. Sam told me nearly 30% of all pet owners cannot afford to pay for 
their pet’s emergency medical care. So, the pets either continue to suffer or worse. 

Sam raises money to help pay for necessary medical care and the organization has paid 
out over $1.6 million to date providing essential medical care to over 1,100 pets. They 
also sponsor a low/no cost spay & neuter clinic in Arcadia. Because I know my money 
will improve the lives of our four-legged friends, I am personally choosing to support this 
wonderful, wonderful philanthropic nonprofit. Visit their website freeanimaldoctor.org 
and you can see how you can donate to very specific medical needs. To me, it is nice to 
know my donations are going right to where the need is.

Mountain Views News 
has been adjudicated as 
a newspaper of General 
Circulation for the County 
of Los Angeles in Court 
Case number GS004724: 
for the City of Sierra 
Madre; in Court Case 
GS005940 and for the 
City of Monrovia in Court 
Case No. GS006989 and 
is published every Saturday 
at 80 W. Sierra Madre 
Blvd., No. 327, Sierra 
Madre, California, 91024. 
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Views News and may 
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40S 50S 60S

Don’t know if anyone has seen this before, but If you were born in the 40s 50s 
60s you should read this, It’s very long but God how it hits home.

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank sherry 
while they carried us and lived in houses made of Asbestos. They took aspirin, 
ate blue cheese, bread and dripping, raw egg products, loads of bacon and 
processed meat and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then, after that trauma, our cots were covered with lead-based paints. We had 
no childproof lids on medicine bottles or locks on doors or cabinets and when 
we rode bikes we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention the risks we took 
hitchhiking. We would ride in cars with no seatbelts or airbags.

We drank water from the garden hose, not a bottle. Takeaway food was limited 
to fish and chips, there were no pizza shops, or McDonald's, KFC, Subway or 
Nando's.

Even though all the shops closed at 6pm and didn't open on a Sunday, somehow 
we didn't starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one died 
from this. We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner 
store and buy toffees, gobstoppers and bubble gum.

We ate white bread and real butter, drank cow's milk and soft drinks with 
sugar, but we weren't overweight because we were always outside playing!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back 
when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day but we were OK. We would spend hours 
building go-karts out of old prams then ride down the hill, only to find out we 
forgot the brakes.

We built tree houses and dens and played in riverbeds with Matchbox cars. We 
did not have PlayStation, Nintendo Wii and Xbox or video games, DVDs or 
colour TV. There were no mobiles, computers, internet or chat rooms.

We had friends and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got 
cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. 

We ate worms and mud pies, too. You could buy Easter eggs and hot-cross 
buns only at Easter time. We were given airguns and catapults for our tenth 
birthdays, we rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the 
door or just yelled for them.

Not everyone made the school rugby, football, cricket or netball teams. Those 
who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that. Getting 
into the team was based on merit.

Our teachers hit us with canes and gym shoes and threw the blackboard 
rubber at us if they thought we weren't concentrating. We can string sentences 
together, spell and have proper conversations now because of a solid three Rs 
education.

Our parents would tell us to ask a stranger to help us cross the road.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They 
actually sided with the law!

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility and learned to deal with 
it all. 

And while you are at it, forward it to your children, so they know how brave 
their parents were.

....And we're still here to talk about it! 

(Excerpts from a social media post)


Mountain 
Views News

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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com