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GILROY

The salaries and benefits of firefighters, housing inspectors,

Two Gilroy mistakes gave Notre Dame two goals when the teams

GILROY

Gilroy - A new report by the Santa Clara County Grand Jury slams

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I've never really given much concern to where my branch is on the "social status tree" but nine years ago, at the age of 30, I wanted to experience the pride of owning a new car. I didn't go nuts and buy something I couldn't afford. I bought a Dodge Neon. I didn't even go for the fully loaded package. It does have air conditioning but that's the biggest perk. It's a four cylinder, manual transmission with no electric anything. I've loved that car and kept it in top shape. In fact it's almost 10 years old and it only has 55,000 miles on it. After driving it for six years and accumulating two more kids through marriage, we decided to upgrade to an SUV, a gas guzzling V-8 mom car for a family of five. My dependable little Neon was demoted. It sat and collected dust while the tires went low. I thought about selling it but I didn't, knowing it had been paid off years ago and that I couldn't replace it as a "spare car" for what I could sell it for. Once in a while I'd hose it down and take it for a spin just to keep the battery charged. I just couldn't let it go because it was still in such fine condition, until a few weeks ago, when coincidently the price of gas went way up again.