Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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I often hear people say, "It's never been this hot before!" Later, "It's never been this cold before!" Don't forget to mention, "We've never had such a dry year before!" or "We've never had this much rain before." Actually, the only answer to that is, "Yes, we have." This past year, however, has been a real pain to those who mourn the lack of moisture of any kind. A couple of rains and a spitting of snow and we're back to "sunny days ahead" Sunny California is certainly earning its name. January...
I am a vintage Victorian style house on the corner of F and Curry Streets and have stood observing the residents of Tehachapi since the 1880s. Only three families have owned me through my 137 year life. I will mention them from time to time. Sometimes people even think that a house has a personality of its own having had so many folk living there who have laughed and cried and lived and died within the walls. I mostly just observe and provide shelter. I have always felt that I was a comfortable...
My memories of a white Christmas in Tehachapi are scarce although last year our diaries may have listed, "snow on Christmas Eve." Usually the weather is cold, crisp and clear. That was always a plus for me as traveling to Midnight Mass in a snow storm is not something I look forward to. Each Christmas we listen to Bing Crosby's vibrant tones wafting through most store intercoms about his dreaming of a white Christmas, but one cannot fail to notice that he was a California resident and Southern...
The Opera House, an early Tehachapi building, was located on F Street where the College Community Health Clinic building now stands (113 East F St.), next to the little yogurt shop. It was a focal point for dances, local entertainment, meetings and silent movie films. A 1915 Tehachapi newspaper announced a Charlie Chaplain movie, The Little Tramp, being shown at the local Opera House. Margaret Erbel, a young Tehachapi resident still in her teens, was known to play the piano for the silent...
When I occasionally travel Willow Springs Road towards Rosamond and Lancaster, I pass Truman Road and Hamilton Road. For years I have told anyone who would listen that the two roads do not stand for an early American statesman, Alexander Hamilton, or former President Harry Truman. The two roads are a reminder of Truman Hamilton, former lawman and Constable of the 11th Judicial Township. Beginning his job in 1922, residents saw a man of substantial size; both in height and weight. His size alone...
My brother, just four years older than I, considered himself an "information, please" person from which I could gain facts and bits of history. One day when I was about nine, I asked him what made the scar on the timbered Tehachapi Mountain Range south of town. He told me it was an old lime kiln which once was used to take lime ore to the cement plant east of town. That was good enough for me, I just wanted to know why the scar was on the mountain. Some years later, my eldest brother, nine...
I just ran onto a photo of our community water tank from years past; the caption at the bottom says, circa 1914. Circa is a way of saying "about" or "approximately" or "darned if I know!" Close enough. It's from the Ed Wiggins collection and were it not for Ed's saved photos Tehachapi's pictorial history would be sadly lacking. He was the ancestor of Tehachapi's pioneer Wiggins family. He took many, many pictures but did not take this picture of the water tower for Ed was born around 1918! The...
Years ago U.S. Highway 466 came directly through Tehachapi. Trucks rumbled by and auto traffic on the way to Bakersfield and parts north passed through town. Many stopped to stretch their legs and have coffee at the local cafes. The highway did not continue west through town as it does now, for Main Street dead ended as it came to Curry Street. Travelers had to make a sharp left to continue down Curry before heading northwest again. A portion of the road that is now Route 202 was once called...
The Tehachapi, Brite's and Cummings Valleys are all sheltered with surrounding mountains which seem to protect us from the sweltering desert on one side and the heat from the great San Joaquin Valley on the other. In past years when someone would say to me, "Oh it has never been this hot !" or "It has never ever been this cold before!" I always answer, "Yes it has." It's true. There's not too much new in weather around here that hasn't happened before. This past summer with its consistent hot...
As children, my sister and I used to have tea parties. It was usually just the two of us but occasionally my brother, Buster Davis, four years my senior, would sometimes join us. His real name is Thomas but we called him Buster. A little Japanese- made tea set would be on our small table and my mother would fill our little tea pot with hot water from her teakettle. We put cream and sugar in our cups and then added the hot water. Voila! Teakettle Tea! Of course the one ingredient missing was...
Quite often I encounter someone who greets me with, "Hello there, young lady!" They're just being kind for, unless their eyesight is nearly gone, they can see the wrinkles that disqualify me as a young lady. Never once, though, does anyone address the attendees at the local Old Timer's Picnic, as young. We all know that to qualify one has to have been around the block a couple of times. I enjoy being on the committee for the local Old Timer's Picnic. When sitting behind a table greeting folk,...
Some stories begin with "Once upon a time" and that's as good a place to begin as I speak of long time Tehachapi citizen, Adalay Elva Johnson Bassler, who celebrated her 94th birthday on July 23. A host of friends were there to wish her well. It was time, I thought, to get acquainted with the vintage lady and find out what kept her busy these many years. I might as well begin at the beginning. Traveling back four score plus fourteen years ago, we find that she is one of the twelve children born...
Continuing the 85 year history of the American Legion Auxiliary: The 1930s began slipping by and it seemed that each of Roosevelt's New Deal programs all had three initials by which they were labeled. So it was that the American Legion Auxiliary, Unit 221, gave a dance for the CCC workers, who were young, unemployed single men. CCC can be interpreted as, Civilian Conservation Corps but it would be few who bothered to remember. The CCC camp was northwest of Tehachapi near Keene. The Legion Hall...
Four Score and Five years ago the American Legion Auxiliary, Unit 221 was founded in the small city of Tehachapi. To set the scene I take you back to the spring of 1932. Herbert Hoover was still President but would be soundly defeated by Franklin Roosevelt in November of that year. The depression was in full swing – money was tight-- and one of the songs of that period was, "Brother, can you spare a dime?" There were soup kitchens to feed the homeless and men, many of them being veterans of W...
On June 13, of this year, 2017, St. Malachy Church will be celebrating one hundred thirty years as a parish. Long years ago on that date in 1887, a Bishop from the Monterey-Los Angeles Diocese trekked to the small mountain community to designate the small church as a parish. The little white frame building had been constructed by members of the community, of all denominations, who were anxious to help by "pounding a few nails" with the Catholics; their neighbors and friends. St. Malachy Parish...
Last Sunday, in church, our Pastor announced that Mother’s Day was soon to be upon us. That same day I watched a little girl with a blonde pony tail, walking in holding her mom’s hand. It naturally brought me back to another time when I, too, held a little girl’s hand coming into church. This would have been in the late fifties and she knew that one had to be very quiet in church. One of my five sons sort of broke the mold when it came to church behavior and this little daughter of mine felt...
The Fifty-eighth Annual Old Timers' Reunion date, August 6, is already being planned by the members of the Reunion Committee along with Ashley Krempien, Recreation Coordinator for Tehachapi Recreation and Parks District. The historic, century old city park, now known as Philip Marx Central Park, is the favorite meeting place for those attending to renew old acquaintances. One important factor of the coming event is to make any necessary address changes of guests who will be attending. This will...
In 2003 I wrote an article about a certain road, originally an old mining road in the area, and its history. Not ancient history but recent history. I chose a road that is straight as an arrow, well paved, lots of dips and mighty dangerous. That road, in years past, after the high voltage power lines were installed, was called The Pole Line Road. When I got married in 1950 I left it with its original name. Suddenly it became High Line Road. Don't know who changed it but it seems "the minute my b...
A couple of weeks back the monthly Honor Flight/ Veterans’ Breakfast was held at St Malachy Church’s McMullan Hall. Some 130 veterans, family and friends spent three hours or more greeting one another and reminiscing while volunteers from the community and veterans organizations served the meal. There were vintage vets from World War II, Korea and Vietnam plus more recent veterans of our present War on Terror overseas. These seasoned vets were able to greet one another in the language par...
Plans for the annual Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony in Philip Marx Central Park are being finalized by the local veterans organizations along with the Recreation and Parks District. The parade will begin at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 29 and upon reaching Philip Marx Park, the Memorial Day Services will begin. This year’s Parade Chairman, Michael Johnson, is anxious to receive entries from anyone wishing to take part in the event. He may be contacted at (661) 577-6712. The Posting of the Colors w...
Some of my earlier memories from the 1930s was Tehachapi's 4th of July FREE Barbecue! It was taken for granted that everyone would be in the City Park and have a wonderful meal that included beef prepared in deep pit style cooking where the meat is slow cooked for 24 hours in an underground pit. Word spreads fast when the term "free" is included and people from near and far came; some as far as Los Angeles. Our small community, in the 1930s, had a population of a scant one thousand souls...
I travel to the Post Office mostly every day as I rent a box there. I am always greeted by wonderfully kind and courteous employees. If you are a “regular”, you are welcomed and called by name. Until 1958 all Tehachapi residents had to call for their mail. No door to door mail delivery in the small town. It was a place to meet one’s neighbors and the town’s businessmen would greet one another and usually end up having coffee at a local restaurant. My husband and I happened to be visitin...
I grew up hearing the name, Cuddeback; that of an old Tehachapi pioneer family. As a child I knew only one person by that name. Recently, the local Museum assembled a historical display of the Cuddeback family. Information was put together by Laura Weltin who is a direct descendant of those early pioneers; more specifically, Grant Price Cuddeback. I now realize that many people I have known all of my life have a place on a branch of the Cuddeback Family Tree. They were there all along and I...
There was a question asked of me, recently, during one of our First Friday evenings at the local Museum. The question: "When did Tehachapi first install electric lights?" The answer, of course, is 1915. I didn't elaborate as the conversation turned in another direction. The best part was not given and the person who inquired left with only the date and no more interesting facts. I was given that information from Grace Errea, herself, who had lived in the Errea House with her parents and...
“ The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization focusing on service to veterans, service members and communities. They evolved from a group of war-weary veterans of World War I into an influential non-profit organization in the United States.” I copied that from the Internet. But, what does it really mean? I grew up knowing that my father, a World War I veteran, was a member of the American Legion. He had served and was proud of his country and wou...
