In 1955, the playground at Edison Elementary School, in Alameda, California, would have been a rollicking place. One of the moms just knew how to get a laugh, she always had the ladies rolling. She was the housewife from Ohio, the one with five

The History of a House in Four Mishaps

Nov 16th, 2020 1h 11m

We walk past dozens of houses, every day, and never realize that the people who have occupied them over the years were chock full of hopes, dreams, tragedies, dramas. That the people who occupy them, now and then, are each the center of their o

The Sign Series: Flowers

Aug 24th, 2020 1h 12m

The story of a Japanese American family, and a little something called vitreous marble (with a million flowers, a baby-judging contest, and some 1930s cops who learned yawara-jitsu on the off-chance they would stop beating people upside the hea

That Time JFK Came to Town

Jul 17th, 2020 1h 4m

People tend to remember that time John F. Kennedy paid a visit to Dallas in 1963. But that quick visit, the speeches he gave (and didn't give), the crowds, even the convertible shared with a state governor - all of that was par for the course f

The Flu: Conclusion (Part 4 of 4)

Jun 24th, 2020 35m 19s

Not all stories have happy endings. People die, people split up, kids don’t go to college after all, women’s social clubs come to a quiet end. The good news is that the flu pandemic ended, never to return…Oh wait. Nevermind. At least I met s

The Flu: The Doctor (Part 3 of 4)

Jun 24th, 2020 35m 4s

We like our heroes to be straight out of the comic books: flawless, noble, and generally great. But sometimes really good things are accomplished by people who are kind of jerks. Alameda was lucky enough to have one such jerk, at just the right