Blasts from the past

If this newspaper feels heftier than the typical CN&R, it’s because this is our annual jumbo-size Best of Chico issue. At 76 pages, it’s close to double the average. It also happens to be our most-read issue of the year. People love contests, you see. This one, now in its 35th year, is the biggest and … well … best around these parts.

After we put the finishing touches on the list of winners in 146 categories of Readers’ Picks—whew, you read that right—as well as our Editors’ Picks, I began wondering what the contest was like in its beginnings. So, I headed over to our bound volumes and began skimming old issues, including the inaugural edition of Best of Chico in the mid-1980s. Remember, we’re talking pre-internet.

Best of Chico definitely has evolved over the years. For starters, the Editors’ Picks back then were interspersed with the Readers’ Picks. For instance, Best Mexican Food (El Indio) is followed shortly thereafter by Best Political Feud (“gadfly Kelly Meagher and Supervisor Hilda Wheeler,” who “seek any opportunity at the Tuesday Board of Supervisors’ meeting to zap their opponents.”).

I’ve lived around these parts for 20 years—and have visited family here all my life—but I learned a thing or two reading the write-ups. For example, that upside down airplane that used to be on the top of the old Spirits of America gas station at Nord and Glenwood avenues was a real plane, not a prop, as I’d always assumed.

According to a cheeky Best of Chico category, Best Plane in Architecture, which clearly is a staffer’s random blurb, that plane was a 1947 Ercoupe that crashed at the Paradise Airport back in 1979. Evidently, the mini mart’s owner recruited members of the Lambda Pi fraternity to hoist it on the building. “Their payment: two cases of champagne.” Sounds pretty Chico to me.

Another fun one from back in the day: Best Skinny Dipping Spot. Now, the picks written by staffers aren’t bylined, but I can pretty much guarantee that one was penned by retired CN&R Editor Robert Speer. For the record, according to the write-up, it’s Brown’s Hole.

More memory lane Best of Chico:

Best Beer Tavern: Joe’s Place; Best Hamburger Drive-In: Foster’s Old-Fashioned Freeze; Best Basement: La Fonda; Best Closed Punk Bar: Nellie’s; Best Defunct Newspaper: The Butte County Bugle.

We hope you enjoy reading the 2018 version.

Speaking of the best, I have a few more to mention.

First off, this month marks CN&R Art Director Tina Flynn’s 40th year with the company. Tina is pretty much the anchor around here. She not only works meticulously on each page, like the lovely cover of this issue, but is truly indispensable in numerous other ways. Her duties range from—I kid you not—designing the paper to ordering supplies like toilet paper. Happy anniversary to her!

And last, but not least, a heartfelt happy retirement shout-out to longtime CN&R distribution driver Mara Schultz, who, from 2002 until recently, delivered this newspaper to the Paradise Ridge, rain or shine. Before that, she worked in the classified department. Mara is a fellow animal lover and kick in the pants and all of us appreciate her long service. That includes the folks on her route, who I’m told still ask about her.