STORIES FROM THE PAST

50 years ago

Take a tyrannical owner of a crop-dusting outfit who also runs a few nightclubs, mix well with a pretty girlfriend who can’t escape his iron-fisted dominance, and add a couple of motorcycle-riding young heroes.

That’s the makings of a movie. And that is what they have been making, in the region of Niland and Calipatria.

Wally Pankratz’ FarmAir Service in Calipatria has been providing the planes and the pilots.

The film, involving some pretty imaginative chase scenes, is being made by an independent company. The director is Allen Silliphant, whose brother, Stirling, is a well-known television writer. A lot of footage has been shot during the past month — most of it on weekends, when the crew comes down from Los Angeles.

40 years ago

Glamis, 21 miles. That’s the sign you see as you head east out of Brawley into the desert on Highway 78.

It used to be the other way around. Glamis “was” before many of the other Valley towns.

Glamis was where miners in the desert, the Chocolates and the Cargo Muchachos picked up their supplies and a beer. It was a stop for the Yuma stage, and railroaders building the Southern Pacific lived there.

Some families even had Los Angeles Public Library cards and used the train as a bookmobile. One switchman had to have his meals brought in from Yuma because the “widdy” who ran the boarding house was mad at him.

General Patton could have had a beer at the store while he trained his troops in the dunes during World War II.

And “C” rations are still found in the mountains where he hid them in case the Germans won.

Glamis was an interesting place then and it’s a whale of a lot of fun now. It’s the “Dunebuggy Capital of the World.”

30 years ago

HOLTVILLE — The Holtville Vikings positioned themselves right back in the thick of the Desert League baseball race Tuesday, when they defeated the Imperial Tigers, 10-2 here.

The win avenged Holtville’s only previous loss in league play and handed Imperial its first Desert League loss of the season. Both teams are now 3-1.

Holtville pitcher Sergio Valenzuela surrendered two Imperial runs in the first inning, then stopped the Tigers the rest of the way. Valenzuela struck out 11 while surrendering four walks and four hits.

When the Tigers scored in the first, it meant Imperial had scored in 13 of its last 15 league-game innings. Imperial seemed to have the momentum, but in the Holtville half of the third, all that changed.

With two outs, Holtville loaded the bases and Guillermo Guerra doubled in three runs. Mike Hoyt then reached base on an error and Guerra scored. Kevin Kerns doubled to score Hoyt and Imperial had a 5-2 lead.

20 years ago

CALEXICO — An undocumented immigrant who is a convicted rapist is thought to have escaped into Mexico after kidnapping his daughter from Riverside County Friday and leaving her in Calexico. Riverside County Sheriff’s department deputies picked up 8-year-old Rose Marie Sarmiento in Calexico and returned her to her Rubidoux home Saturday, according to Riverside County sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Lohman.