It may not yet have the same pomp and circumstance as the Gilroy High-San Benito Prune Bowl, but don’t tell the Balers that Friday’s game against Christopher High wasn’t a rivalry.
No horror movie is complete without the eerie and spine-tingling hoo-hoo-hoooo and silhouette of an owl perched on an old, gnarly oak tree and staring with huge yellow eyes at wayward trespassers unwarily walking into a haunted house.
It’s next to me, the textured binding is tattered, the stamped, indented cover title “Willie” on the orange background has scribbled black crayon on it courtesy of my younger brother – boy I was mad about that at the time. But now, it’s just added to the history. Inside the jacket cover in my mother’s practically perfect in every way handwriting are my name, 5 Maple Ave. and phone, 325-9211. The book came to me as a birthday or Christmas present in 1966. It’s a first edition, and through the care of my mother who boxed it when I flew from the nest for college and beyond, it survived.
Michael "Mikey" Grant Paidl lost his battle to cancer on October 24th, 2012, at his home in Hollister surrounded my his loving family and the young age of 60. He was born in St. Helena, CA on March 28, 1952.