Don't get Jim Leyva wrong. He's a happily married man, has been for 57 years.

But the retired Napa plumber and plumbing supply guy let his eye wander just a little recently, when he stumbled across the above photo of Napa beauties.

Leyva was helping family members clear out a storage unit when he came across what some might consider trash, but which we consider treasures: An edition of the St. Helena Star from 1901; pages from a 1950s Vallejo Times-Herald depicting "the cut" into the hillside as I-80 descends toward the Carquinez Strait; and a spread from a San Francisco newspaper commemorating the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge.

What brought Leyva into the Register office -- a building that he helped plumb some 30-odd years ago -- was a copy of the then-Napa Daily Register from July 27, 1938.

The only photo on page one ran under the headline "'Fair' Inspection,' and it depicts five contestants for Queen of the Napa County Fair and Horse Show. In the running that year, clockwise from the top, were: Arnie Wilkins, Dorothy Eisan, Geraldine Castagnoli, Billie Finnegan and, in the driver's seat, Wilma Meyer.

Leyva has an interest, purely historical we are sure, in knowing if any of these gals or their families are still in Napa County. If you can answer that question, you'll find Leyva's number in the phone book and his wife standing by the phone.

Being in the newpaper business -- and a happily married man myself -- my eye wandered elsewhere on the page.

That day's edition had a remarkable 21 articles on page one, about 15 more than readers will find on the front page of a typical newspaper today.

A Chico slaying led the paper, and seven other morbid tales -- a fatal tunnel collapse in Cleveland, a Marysville domestic quarrel that ended badly, a New York suicide, a Fresno kidnap-murder, a Shingle Springs slashing, a Coalinga suicide, and the obitury for a Napa man -- made the front page. Thus the old saying in the news business, "If it bleeds, it leads."

The fair photo was one of five local items on the page. The others were the obit for John Claussen Sr., a brief item in which fair manager George Imrie promised to keep dust from bothering fair-goers, another fair item describing bunting and banners downtown, plus a brief story about Napa County Clerk Ralph Dollarhide changing two polling places.

The 1938 primary was a month away, with eight Democrats and four Republicans seeking their parties' nomination for governor. The election rundown on page four included a few still-notable Napa names. Theodore Treadway wanted another term as coroner, and Ralph Minahen was seeking re-election to the Napa County Board of Supervisors.

Mervin Lernhart -- who once owned the property where the Register now sits and who also called on Leyva to be his plumber -- was seeking re-election as district attorney. If Mr. Lernhart were here today, he might have the same questions we have for Leyva: Hey, Jim, the sink seems to stopped up here, and there's a leak back there ...