* Editor's note: This is the second in an occasional series taking a look at the history and development of the city of Calistoga. This installment considers the similarities and differences between Calistoga and the town from which its misbegotten name is derived, Saratoga Springs, New York. *

I worked my way through high school and college selling soda pop door to door to African-American people living in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park.

I am not a drinker, but since I'm in wine country I got this great idea last week that I was going to try something different. I was going to have a taste of this stuff some poet or other once called "the nectar of the Gods."

When City Councilmember Doug Sterk decided not to file nomination papers for reelection to his seat on the city council, the deadline for filing nomination papers was pushed back a week, giving two more candidates time to decide to join the race to fill the four-year seat.

It didn't take long for a three-member school Board of Trustees to decide it wanted to protect the children of the district who cross local streets to get to school.

One week after Charles Davis, owner of Buster's Original Southern Barbeque & Bakery, reached an agreement with the City of the Calistoga on a number of long-standing issues, the outspoken critic of city hall says he still plans to sue.

Although the St. Helena Unified School District has hired more than twice the number of educators that the Calistoga Joint Unified School District has, students returning to school today in the district will still be missing a few educators, mostly principals, according to Eve Herdell, an executive administrative assistant for personnel and the director of curriculum for St. Helena Unified.

Somewhere on his 10,000-acre ranch in Yountville, George C. Yount planted four acres with Napa Valley's first grapes.

Dottie and Jack Hopkins said they've done business with a real estate agent who has 14 aliases and a criminal record. They're using the civil courts to sue for fraud and misrepresentation in connection with real estate deals near San Luis Obispo.

Napa County voters will decide in November whether a once-popular family delicatessen, on the site of a one-time chicken farm, should be transformed into an upscale restaurant at Highway 29 and the Oakville Grade. Arguments for and against the controversial plan, to go to voters as Measure T, have been submitted to the Napa County Elections Department.

Lumberman Michael DeSimoni has purchased his second downtown Napa landmark, the three-story Alexandria Square complex on Second Street between Brown and Main streets.

American Canyon resident Ray Hill watched the line at the city's lone post office fill the tiny lobby and snake out the front door. He decided it would be more convenient to mail his package from a Petaluma post office 25 miles away, where he was headed on an errand.

Jeremy Jacobsen's third-graders already knew the first-day drill when they showed up Wednesday at 7:55 a.m. They'd been through it all before: Meeting the teacher, finding the nearest bathroom, learning the rules.

The road map to Napa County's future has not been revisited for more than two decades, so planners are embarking on what could be a multi-million dollar update of the county's General Plan.