Book Reviews
Kedma's
Paradise
edited
by
Lynn
Hartsell,
Mona
Locke,
Lois
McDonald
Compilations
of
Kedma
Dupont
Utt's
"Paradise
Postings"
column
from
the
Paradise
Post,
June
1949
-
December
1959.
"Did you ever with you had a crystal ball, but a crystal ball that would let you look back in time rather than into the future?
"Well, thanks to several women of the Butte County Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, Paradisians can do just that. Now everyone can take a look back at how life really was here in Paradise a few decades ago through the eyes of longtime Paradise Post editor and columnist, the late Kedma Utt.
"Local historian Lois McDonald along with Lynn Hartsell and Mona Locke, have compiled and edited excerpts from the hundreds of columns written by Utt over nearly three decades.
"They have had them published in a book, Kedma's Paradise. The book provides a humorous and insightful look at everyday life on the Ridge not so many years ago. ... Through here eyes the reader can get an actual picture of what life was like here from 1949 to 1977.
Her humor comes through in the first column, dated June 5, 1949, which reads: 'Anyone who catches an extra large trout can bring it to the Post and have his and its picture in the paper. The trout, of course, will remain the property of the editor. ... "--Jack Jemison, Paradise Post
" 'The community Christmas tree is destined to blaze in all its glory next Friday night,' former Paradise Post co-owner Kedma Utt wrote on Dec. 17, 1951. 'Our spies report that Elmer Martin, recreation director, is working like mad on the Christmas tree ornaments. He is making them himself out of whatever material are lying loose around town.
" 'Corrugate aluminum roofing is being chopped up into ornaments. The copper rings made to attach to pigs' noses to keep them from rooting are being strung together and made into dingle-dangles ...'
"From Dec. 31, 1954: 'Reports have come to us that our Rocky celebrated Christmas while we were visiting out of town over the holiday. It seems he spent Christmas Eve at the Shamrock Club, where he was fed pepperoni by an old friend, Eddie Northcote. Christmas Day Rocky returned home and spent the day as a guest of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Wilcox next door. He must have had a good time; he forgot to be mad at us when we got back.' " --Dan Barnett, Chico Enterprise-Record
