One of the joys of working in the newspaper field – the small, hometown local newspaper field – is the types of stories we get to tell. One of the drawbacks is trying to find the time to get to them all.
My list of ‘going to do’ stories is growing and time seems to be getting away from me faster.
Take, for example, the Frisk sisters. This story literally was something I was going to do about two years ago, when the ‘walking Frisk sisters’ could be seen around our section of town here in Oakdale. Both 90-plus, they would walk a roughly mile-long route together every morning. Not only that, the younger of the two, Fern, would first walk from her home to her older sister Geneva’s home. That included crossing the always busy West F Street in Oakdale. Once, I accompanied them for a short distance on their walk and Geneva had a bag of dog treats she would keep handy, with several furry friends along their route waiting patiently behind fences for the sisters to arrive.
The idea for the story came from Ute Obermeyer, Geneva’s daughter-in-law, and I also interviewed both sisters at Geneva’s home, as they detailed their childhood growing up locally. Fern has since moved to an assisted living home in Napa; Geneva can still be seen walking and though Ute said she doesn’t go quite as far anymore, you have to admire anyone that is out exercising regularly even in her mid-90s.
Another story still waiting to get into print is the story of John Smith; son of Don and Sue Smith, longtime residents of Escalon. John, along with his three brothers, graduated from Escalon High School, he went on to become a decorated police officer serving with the Los Angeles Police Department. He was among those that inspired the police crime drama Southland, which was set in LA. After John passed, I spent an afternoon visiting with mom Sue and brother Matt at the Smith home in Escalon, as they shared stories of John’s career and family memories over the years. I just saw Sue – she was inducted into the Escalon High School Wrestling Hall of Fame for her support of that program over the years – and it once again reminded me of John’s story. Years ago, the late Sheila Arellano, my longtime friend and colleague at the office in Escalon, did one of her “Whatever Happened To…” pieces on John and his accomplishments within the LAPD.
More recently, I sat down with the organizers of the first ‘Once Upon A Tomb – Tales From Beyond’ fundraising program that benefited the Oakdale Citizens Cemetery with the intent to do a follow up. We did lots of pre-event features on the actors and revealed a little about the characters they would be portraying and the early October, 2024 event was both spooky and successful. Hard not to be a little spooky when you are wandering around a graveyard at night, listening to historic figures detailing their lives.
Finally, though this is not an exhaustive list by any means, I have wanted to go do a story at the Stuyt Dairy Farmstead Cheese ever since visiting with the Stuyts at Escalon’s Farmers Market during the summer of 2023.
They were recently featured on Good Day Sacramento – reminding me that I had promised them I would be doing a feature. Yes, they’re still on my list. Just think of their story as one of those cheeses that gets better with age.
Marg Jackson is editor of The Oakdale Leader, The Escalon Times and The Riverbank News. She may be reached at mjackson@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 209-847-3021.
