Ark Valley News - Out of the office

Out of the office
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: April 12, 2018

Hidden note comes full circle

I got an interesting call at the office this week.

A woman whose son is remodeling a house in the 400 block of North Ash in Valley Center told me about something her son found when he opened up the walls in the kitchen.

A previous owner left a note inside the wall. It gave the date and some details about life on April 12, 1951.

The writer was Irene Greenbank, whose family was the former owner of the Valley Center Index newspaper.

The caller asked if I had any contact with the Greenbanks and wondered if I could try to connect the note to the family. I talked to Irene Greenbank's granddaughter by email a couple of years ago, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I emailed Cindy and she was thrilled to learn of the note.

She said her dad was raised in the home at 412 N. Ash, and she even lived there in the 1980s. Pete Greenbank, former publisher of the Index, now lives in Lake City, Colo.

"It will be such a treasure to my dad," Cindy said.

We've lived in two homes in Valley Center since 2006. In both, we found things hidden in the walls. This is just a guess, but I'm not so sure the previous owners expected anyone to find them.

I've left things in walls over the years. We remodeled part of an old Victorian in Newton many years ago, and I wrote the date and our names on one of the wall studs. I also left a newspaper inside of a wall.

What are some of the treasures you've found?

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By the time you read this, our dog "problem" may be resolved.

We decided to find a better home for Indy. He just wasn't making any progress in getting along with our other dog, Tina.

Unfortunately, he was going to need a lot more training and attention than we could give him.

Frankly, he was kind of ruling our lives. We had to be on our toes all the time to keep the dogs separated.

You should see our morning routine. We let Indy out of his crate and he goes into the hallway to eat. We close the door and let Tina out of her crate and feed her inside the room. Then we have to rush out of the room before Indy is finished with his food so he won't come back into the room.

That's just the beginning, but I'll spare you more details.

We got mixed up a couple of times and poor Tina paid the price. My daughter let Tina outside and didn't know Indy was out there. He pounced on her as soon as she stepped onto the deck.

Indy tore into the poor little girl at least three times in the past month.

So, we're taking Indy to a dog trainer who works with the animals and then matches them with families. She's not afraid to tell potential adopters no, either. We probably should've been turned down as Indy's adopters in the first place.

Live and learn.

I'll miss Indy. He was kind of growing on us. He just wanted to be the only dog in the house, and that wasn't fair — or kind — to Tina.

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Speaking of fair and kind, is the Valley Center Police Department slowing down?

I've been talking about this since the beginning of the year. It seems like police are writing a large number of speeding tickets these days.

Out of the 115 municipal court cases in March, there were 31 for speeding.

That's a steep drop from the month before when there were 47.

In January, there were 36 speeding cases, and I thought that was a lot.

Chris Strunk is publisher of The Ark Valley News. Reach him at 755-0821 or news@arkvalleynews.com, or find him on Facebook.