Phil Dirkx
Memories of Pop
Ads for almost everything continually remind us that Sunday is Father’s Day. On that day dads will enjoy an exemption usually reserved for the dead: We won’t speak ill of them. We might even exaggerate their virtues.
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About Phil Dirkx
Phil Dirkx writes the Over the Hill column for The Tribune. He has lived in Paso Robles for more than four decades. Reach him at 805-238-2372 or phild2008@sbcglobal.net .
Phil Dirkx
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PHIL DIRKX
Confessions of an accidental bully
I read Emma Holt’s letter to the editor in Wednesday’s Tribune. She’s a sixth-grader at Shell Beach Elementary School. She said, “Everyone needs to play a part in stopping bullies.”
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PHIL DIRKX
PG&E should pay for San Bruno blast
The 2010 gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno killed eight people, injured dozens more and destroyed 38 homes. We mustn’t allow PG&E stockholders to evade paying the fine for it.
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PHIL DIRKX
Camp Roberts set bar high for Korean War-era trainees
This Memorial Day we’ll again recall members of our Armed Forces who died in our wars. I’ll also remember some Korean War veterans whose fate I don’t know, but often wonder about. They and I were in the same basic training company in 1951 at Ft. Dix, N.J.
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PHIL DIRKX
Signs of warming are growing
I was watering my tomato plants Wednesday when I noticed blossoms. One plant had two, and the other had two and a bud. It seemed early for tomato blossoms. “Aha’’ I thought, “It must be global warming.”
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PHIL DIRKX
Gun safety is important for boys to learn
A headline in the May 2 Tribune said, “5-year-old shoots sister to death.” A boy had killed his two-year old baby sister in rural, southern Kentucky. It reminded me of the shooting in 1984 west of Paso Robles where a 14-year-old boy shot and killed a 13-year-old boy.
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PHIL DIRKX
Citizenship should be requirement to serve on juries
Last week the California Assembly voted 45-25 to allow noncitizen immigrants to serve on juries. That surprised me. I hadn’t seen any marching crowds of noncitizen immigrants demanding to be jurors.
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PHIL DIRKX
We must act now on Paso Robles groundwater basin
Let’s form a Paso Robles Groundwater Basin Management District now. Let’s do it while the basin still has enough water to manage. Forming the district was recommended unanimously last week by the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin Blue Ribbon Steering Committee.
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PHIL DIRKX
Don't let vandals take over Salinas River Trail
Last week I became a windbag. I wrote about the monument for the three workers killed during the construction of the Nacimiento Pipeline. I told of looking for their monument in the little park near Paso Robles’ 13th Street Bridge. I wrote, “It still wasn’t there.”
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PHIL DIRKX
On the Nacimiento pipeline construction accident
Two workers were killed Oct. 2, 2008, in Paso Robles during the Nacimiento Lake water pipeline construction. Last Friday a man was sentenced in this case. His sentence seems overly lenient.
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PHIL DIRKX
A toast to the Toastmasters
The Toastmasters Club launched my career, and it’s about time I acknowledged that. “What career?” you may ask. That question is justified. I’m just a small-town news guy who made a career out of telling North County people, particularly Paso Roblans, what they’...


