Stores in Downtown Lodi kicked off the holiday shopping season in style. Shop owners decorated their windows and storefronts in Christmas greens and holiday ribbons. Several offered treats and discounts in honor of the Downtown Holiday Open House, organized by the Downtown Lodi Business Partnership.

 The calls came out from the announcer’s box.

In 1859, L. M. and Eva Morse were a young married couple with a toddler and a dream.

The Lodi Community Band's annual Christmas Concert was a wonderful lesson in musical styles. They played jazz, orchestral, pop and traditional hymns, just to name a few.

1. Festival of Trees

Lodi officials and the public will celebrate the city's relationship with Kofu, Japan this weekend with a baseball game, a fishing trip at Lodi Lake, a large concert with Japanese band students and a meal at YUME Japanese Restaurant.

Free tickets will be available starting on Monday for an upcoming concert in August that will celebrate Lodi's 50-year relationship with Kofu, Japan.

If graduating top of her class with a 4.51 grade-point average and being Galt High School’s Class of 2011 valedictorian wasn’t enough to celebrate, Hailey MacLeod is the school’s first student ever to be appointed to the U.S. Air Force Academy.

President Barack Obama's official announcement that he will seek re-election came as no surprise on Capitol Hill.

Nick Vegas picked up the bass a mere three years ago and has already earned a spot on the Sacramento Youth Symphony. He has his eye set on touring Europe in 2012.

Wednesday, 6 p.m. — Clements-Lockeford Chamber of Commerce tree lighting ceremony. Will also include a cowboy Christmas craft fair from 5 to 9 p.m., pictures with Santa, rural fire department bike raffle of two bikes (one boys, one girls), hot dogs from Clements-Lockeford Lions, Hospice of San Joaquin butterfly auxiliary cookies. To dedicate a light or for more information, call 957-3888.

Patrick Simmons grew up in San Jose, and for most of his young life, his music was influenced by his Bay Area upbringing.

Ever since Kristy Zane was diagnosed with cancer in 2004, her life has changed. She says it has been for the better. She has had the opportunity to see how kind people can be. She has witnessed the depth of her husband's love. And she has had the chance to share her experience with others to provide support and encouragement. She's not sorry, because she has learned so many life lessons, she said.

The month of May meant picnic time for Lodi-area pioneers when large groups gathered for huge planned events.

In mid-June, the fresh smell of green grass and horses will greet visitors to the track during the San Joaquin Fair in Stockton. Scores of people will wager their hard-earned money, which helps subsidize jugglers, clowns and big-time recording artists elsewhere on the Stockton fairgrounds.

Ten months after World War I ended, a fallen Lodi area veteran was honored.

The young server at Dreamland BBQ looked down at my plate scrubbed clean by a piece of white bread.

Charles Howell has been settling into his new principal position for more than a month now, but the real test will come Tuesday on Galt High School's first day. He replaces former principal Bernie Olmos, who left the district after being offered a teaching position for this school year.

Although the band program has been canceled for elementary students in Lodi Unified School District due to budget cuts, students fourththrough sixth-grade will soon have another option for learning musical instruments.

• The first festival, held from April 22 to 26, 1970, was attended by only 350 people.

Cell Block Seven - a California jazz band favoring the West Coast traditional jazz sound of Lu Waters, Turk Murphy and the Bay City Jazz Band of the '50s - will be performing in Lodi on Jan. 22.

Music is a family business for Jerry Lewis. He remembers his grandfather playing music to entertain those in the town where he grew up in Missouri. His parents play the fiddle and guitar. He himself plays 12 instruments, and can't remember a time when he didn't play.

American Legion Post 22 is planning an international kind of weekend on Aug. 8 and 9 at the Legion Hall.

I want to say thank you to the Lodi News-Sentinel along with the Lodi Arts for sponsoring the Brass Air Force Band from Colorado Springs.