Is that a crack in the BELL?

"So where you all from?"

"Bell, California!"

"Oh, you mean Bell Gardens?"

"No, Bell!"

"Was that Bellflower?"

"No, Bell!"

"Oh, now I get it. You all are from Belair?"

"NO, Bell!"

"Belmont Shore?"

"LOOK, PAL, remember the little town where the city manager, mayor, some council people and a few others employees were caught making fortunes, at the cost of poor local taxpayers? Some of them, we are told, were making more than the President of the United States!"

"OOOH, THAT BELL!"

This is going to be all about the town I grew up in, ( 9 miles south of Downtown Los Angeles) and I'm not going to put a lot in this first posting. I don't want to risk boring you.

Let me just say to you, me and my classmates just held the 50 year anniversary celebration of our graduation from Bell High School. It took place in Huntington Beach this past week. What a hoot! The highlight for most of us was a bus trip to and through Bell. We got to look at our old houses, then a student led tour of our high school.

There was the anticipation, the tour, and then some really wonderful flips of our expectations at the high school.

Just as a starter, that is not the City Manager up there cutting a deal with another city employee. That is me and my former classmate Loretta. We are PRETENDING we are cutting a deal.

The reason we had time to take this picture? We had a picnic on park benches right next to city hall. It was an arrangement made long before the scandal broke.

I'm not going to say much more at this point. But I'll attempt to tease you a bit by repeating my own revelation as a career journalist. "The STORY you think you have is NEVER the SAME STORY after you get there.

I won't promise a new posting every day. But I'm going to try. SO? Hope to see you soon.