Marg-Ins - Present, Past And Future

Kind of a strange thing happened the other day - there was this bright thing, an orb-shaped object, in the sky. It emanated a little warmth and I thought it looked familiar … oh, yes! The sun.

Marg-Ins - Turning The Page

So the calendar has turned, 2010 has given way to 2011 and time marches inexorably onward. But what a fantastic finish to the year.

Paul, Council Sworn In Monday

There will be a swearing in ceremony for Oakdale's newly elected mayor and two council members during the regularly scheduled Dec. 6 city council meeting.

Marg-Ins - Counting Down The Year

Stop me if you have heard this before. I love my job.

Season Of Giving

We want your 'feel good' stories. The ones about people - or organizations - in the community that are working hard already to make the upcoming holidays a bit brighter. And we want to promote the efforts designed to aid those in need in our area.

Marg-Ins - Seasons Change

Winter arrived the other day, just in case you weren't paying attention. It really seems like we went straight from our 90-degree weather to pouring rain and wind from one day to the next, with no time to prepare.

Marg-ins - The Way It Was

Years ago, in another lifetime, October would be a month when I would be pounding a keyboard, getting pages and pages of copy ready … not for publication in a newspaper, but writing the annual Halloween production at the radio station I worked for at the time. For those of you who keep up with my life outside the newspaper walls through my column, last month I dealt with my family's move to a new (to us) house and some 'finds' unearthed through that event have prompted this month's topic.

Insanity Girls Battle Past Competition In Roseville Invitational

Coming home with the first place trophy for the second time in as many tournaments, the Oakdale United Insanity U16 girls played their way to a 4-0 mark in the Roseville Invitational over the Labor Day weekend.

Marg-Ins - Of Moves And Shoes

So much happens in a month. Regular readers are familiar by now with our column rotation, with a submission each week for the 'Perspective' page, myself the first week of the month, Dawn M. Henley the second week, Craig Macho the third week and Kim Van Meter the fourth week. If there happens to a fifth Wednesday, we let John Branch sneak in a column on this page as well.Typically there's a specific topic or event I comment on but this past month has been so busy that there are several issues to address.A big one is ...

Marg-Ins - Summer What?

Welcome to August and the resumption of school and a somewhat normal routine. Summer, or what months pass for summer vacation here in California, are just about over and like it or not, alarm clocks will soon be back in use.

The unusually mild summer weather (trust me, I'm not complaining at all) has made it seem like we are still waiting for the real summer to hit and it's a little difficult to fathom that classes are about to start. We'll probably get slammed with a week of 110-degree weather sometime in September, just to make ...

Soccer Squads Prepare For Competition With Special Clinics

Riding the wave of World Cup popularity and preparing for its own upcoming competitive season, the Oakdale Youth Soccer League has brought in some topnotch coaching for special clinics.

Marg-Ins - May I Ask You A Question?

If you have been a regular reader of the paper for any length of time, you are probably familiar with our feature that has been called a number of things, from 'Street Beat' to 'Question of the Week' to our latest moniker 'People Poll.' It typically occupies a space here on the 'Perspective' page but that, too, has changed over the years, from the bottom of the page a decade ago to the more recent right side of the page.

With this week's issue, we suspend the 'People Poll' column as a regular feature. It will appear occasionally, most ...

Marg-Ins - Through The Raindrops

May has given way to June and junior high has given way to - yes, that noise was me gasping - having a high school freshman daughter. Of course, she won't actually be considered a freshman until school starts in August but the simple fact of the matter is my daughter is now an eighth grade graduate, has completed her elementary and junior high school years and, I am afraid, the next four years are going to be even more of a blur than the ones since she was sitting on the couch all smiles with her Sesame Street lunch box ...

Marg-Ins - It’s A Wrap

One of the luxuries of being the editor - at least on some days - is that since I am the last one that reads stories, captions and columns before they go to press, I can tinker with my own deadlines. For instance, reporters have to turn their columns in by mid afternoon Friday before the Wednesday it is published, since the 'Perspective' page is laid out over the weekend. But here I am, about 3:45 p.m. Saturday, just getting it started. Time has once again gotten away from me and the week, like the entire month of April, has ...

Editor’s Notebook - Time To Get Involved

Amazingly, it's that time of year again: Relay for Life is here.

Train Sparks Series Of Brush, Grass Fires

A series of fires along the railroad tracks between Oakdale and Riverbank on Monday morning, July 17 saw a coordinated response from multiple units, with ...

Fires Along Tracks Keep Crews Busy

Fire believed to have been sparked by a passing train ignited in several spots along the tracks running parallel to Patterson Road and Highway 108 ...

Happy To Follow The ‘Write’ Path

The first of July is sort of my anniversary. It was many, many years ago and in a place far, far away (no, not the ...

River Drowning, Rescues Highlight Continued Danger

The Sunday rescue of nine people thrown out of rafts along the Stanislaus River east of Oakdale ended well, with no serious injuries.