Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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People tell me that they like to hear some of my husband’s old Marine Corps tales. I always enjoyed this one. My husband’s MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) was LVTs. Those letters stand for Landing Vehicle Tracked. I always wondered why they didn’t term it Tracked Landing Vehicle but ours is not to correct Uncle Sam in the naming of his machines of war. There are several models of the 30 ton monsters. This story refers to the LVTH-6 and LVTP-5. It is interesting how the word “Stra...
There used to be a radio program whose host gave news as it was supposed to have happened. After telling the tale, he would then say, "...and now, for the rest of the story." He would then give some interesting facts that completed the tale. His name was Paul Harvey. I'm no Paul Harvey but it seems that when I hear someone telling a story about an experience of a local or long past happening, I often remember a little tidbit that was left out of the tale and I want to add it. Usually, I try to...
Arriving in Tehachapi in mid-December for his duties as pastor of Saint Malachy Catholic Church, Father Gregory Beaumont was greeted by snow and frigid temperatures from winter weather but with a "warm" welcome from parishioners. Father Beaumont comes to Tehachapi from Holy Family Church in Kingsburg, California where he served its members for 17 years as their pastor. A true Californian (having come to the "Golden State" as a babe in arms), he grew up in the beautiful San Fernando Valley with...
Isabel Cortez Cervantes was a well known and respected citizen of this community until her death in 1991 at age 87. In 1914 when she was only 11 her father, Odilon Cortez, immigrated his family from the small Mexican village of Cosio in Aguascalientes, to Tehachapi. Much lumber was being taken from the Cummings Mountain area and sent to Los Angeles and the work was good. Another vital reason for the move was the regular raids on villages in their area by the notorious bandit, Pancho Villa; a...
A trip down hill from the Tehachapi Mountains, in the early days by wagon or buggy, was something to be thought out carefully for it meant camping out overnight. Grandma Lucinda "Callie" Brite once told my mother that they camped overnight at Three Peaks, near Keene, when they went to Bakersfield. In 1875, P.D. Greene founded a community, Greenwich, in a sheltered, wooded grove full of ancient oak trees, near water and located a few miles northwest of the present city of Tehachapi. There was a...
While doing some research at Beale Library back in 1987, a mere 27 years ago, I could not resist copying some events listed in the old 1920 Tehachapi News. The temperatures occasionally skip a day. I searched ahead for February and March. Often people say, "We've never had weather like this in January before." Note the 79 degrees on Jan. 18, 1920. Maybe it's not global warming, after all? We could just say, "Yes, we have." Mostly though, I read of citizens' lives 94 years ago. Fortunately I...
In 1933, during one of the worst periods of the great depression, my parents found themselves lacking money to continue paying rent on a small house on K Street, in Mojave. In the attitude of "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade" they decided to build a house. It was easier in those days before building permits, regulations and inspections were required. My father, Chauncey Davis, traded local businessman, Cy Townsend, a piece of mining property for a vacant lot in town - just across the...
One always wonders how mountains get their names. As a child we called Black Mountain the "Indian Head." Black Mountain looks like a sleeping Indian. Some people cannot see it but most can. Still, I never knew it was called Black Mountain until my husband I moved the family here to my hometown, after he retired from his 30 years in the Marine Corps. We bought a home in Golden Hills and from our living room window we could see that sleepy Indian. That was when I realized that at twilight time...
Once in a while I like to include one of my husband’s “Tales of the Old Corps.” This one is just a few months after World War II ended. He was shipped from Okinawa to China in 1945. They were called China Marines. Artillery Diplomacy by CWO-4 Doyle D. Gracey, Jr. USMC, Ret. To gain proficiency in any field of endeavor requires practice and lots of it. I recall being invited to view a night artillery exercise by a Major Brown at 16 Area Impact Zone, Cone Hill, Camp Pendleton. The Major was an ar...
I have often written about My Pet Tree in the backyard of my home. I had grown it from a tiny little green spear that appeared in a bed of pansies. It turned out to be a tree that is now taller than my house. About 41 years ago, my granddaughter, Jacque, brought me a small cut off milk carton with a very little baby pine tree no taller than perhaps 8 inches high. Mr. Wright, her sixth grade teacher at Wells Elementary, had given each of the class a little pine tree to take home. Jacque had...
On January 15, 1918, a cold, winter day in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Kathryn Pointek (Chwaz) first opened her eyes to view the world to which she had been born. The year, 1918, found Woodrow Wilson as President of the United States. Not only that, the U.S. was in the midst of World War I which was called, "The war to end all wars." This happy little girl was the daughter of Catherine and Jacob Pointek, both arriving to this country from Austria. She and her siblings grew up in a loving,...
When I was about 5 and 6 years old (in 1933 and 1934) I was learning to read and could figure out printed words. On Sunday morning, about 10 a.m., a man came on the radio and read the comics to me. Oh, how good he was. He made it sound so real. Later on, as I read better, I'd say to my brother, "He left out a line!" My brother told me he had gone over his time and was hurrying before the program was over. I remember "The Captain and the Kids" by Rudolph Dirks. We just called it, The...
Last year at this time I wrote about the old Christmas hymn, "Silent Night." Not long ago I read in one of my music magazines about the World War I Battlefield Truce in 1914. It was spoken of as, "The War To End All Wars.'' It is told that the British, Belgian and French soldiers in the trenches could hear the German soldiers singing "Silent Night" in their native language so they joined in singing in English. My father, being a World War I veteran, had heard men speak of the truce and told us,...
Father Joseph Mohr had journeyed to Oberndorf, a small town in Austria. It was his new assignment at St. Nicholas Church. He was a quiet, meditative man and a deep thinker. He could better put his thoughts down on paper than to express them orally. Still his sermons, carefully given and simply spoken, always had been quite acceptable by the congregation. As he walked over a recently fallen snow, he prayed his new parish would be a good one and he would serve the people well. He entered the...
My mother used to like the song, "Smiles." It described how smiles can make you happy and even make you blue. Also, smiles that drive away the tear drops as the sunshine drives away the dew. Then, there are smiles that have a tender meaning that the eyes of love alone can see. Then it says, and I quote: "But the smile that fills my heart with gladness is the smile that you give to me." Looking at The Loop newspaper I enjoyed reading Scott Ware's article about local folk smiling and speaking to...
I knew Mary Watts because she was a student at Tehachapi High School and was a classmate of my sister, Evelyn Davis, both graduates of the Class of 1940. They were six years older than I so it was not until many years later that Mary and I actually became friends. The older one becomes, the more the age barriers are erased. I recall that Mary, during World War II, enlisted in the newly formed naval organization for women known as the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). She...
Continued from our Sept. 17, 2022 issue. (I wrote an account of the 1932 flood over 30 years ago for the Tehachapi News. I was lucky to find someone who had been in Keene when the waters washed away people, houses and even buried a Santa Fe Engine, as well as washed a Southern Pacific engine off the tracks . I carefully kept notes after talking to Walter Hicks, who was in Keene during the whole thing. I have not added anything to enhance the story; only the facts told me at that time, by Walter...
In the early months of 2022 Liam Alsbury, a ninth grader in Steve Hansen's English class at Tehachapi High, won a first place prize in a local competition with the American Legion Auxiliary Americanism Essay Contest. A few weeks later, he also placed first in the district competition. School was out before the Auxliliary was notified, during their State Convention, that he had indeed become a State Winner for his essay, "What is the Cost of Freedom?" The provocative subject was handled in a...
(I wrote an account of the 1932 flood over 30 years ago for the Tehachapi News. I was lucky to find someone who had been in Keene when the waters washed away people, houses and even buried a Santa Fe Engine, as well as washed a Southern Pacific engine off the tracks . I carefully kept notes after talking to Walter Hicks, who was in Keene during the whole thing. I have not added anything to enhance the story; only the facts told me at that time, by Walter Hicks, Laura Ramos, Bob Freeman, Bud...
Charlotte Wilson, a recent graduate of Heritage Oak School, was notified in June that she was the winner of a $2,500 scholarship in the American Legion Auxiliary Americanism Essay Competition for the 2021-22 period. Her efforts included winning in local, district and finally the state competition. The subject of her essay, "What is Democracy?," was handled well and showed a great deal of research. Charlotte is taking a gap year and will take online classes to be able to enter college next fall....
I was talking to a gentleman the other day who said he'd like to read another one of my husband's USMC stories. Here is one from 1951-52 when he spent a year in Korea. Korean Memories by CWO-4 Doyle D Gracey, Jr. USMC, Ret. In August 1951, when I was a Gunnery Sergeant, I visited Korea at Uncle Sam's insistence, and was part of what was called a Police Action over there. I was transported to a land of rice paddies, rugged mountains, poor transportation and harsh climate conditions. We did not...
If I had not read Jon Hammond's article about King snakes, I probably would not have thought about our long ago family dog, Brownie. Brownie was older than I was, having come along about two years before I showed up. He was brown and black and someone told us he was probably part Airedale. I would not know an Airedale if I met one on the street so I'll just assume they were right. Brownie loved us and was a good companion. Brownie did not like snakes. Maybe he did like to find them for he...
When I was 17 and fresh out of high school, I was hired as an operator at the local telephone office. I earned 65 cents an hour. Six days a weeks, eight hour days on a split shift of four hours on four hours off and four hours on again. It broke up one's day to where you really could not plan to go anywhere far from town. We had a vocabulary that we used and each word emerged as the soul of kind, polite conversation. No matter how rude or irate some people were, we were the soul of tact. People...
After checking my article in the last issue of The Loop newspaper I realized I had left out everyone in Mojave. I had mentioned how nice it is to look at the scenery from the passenger side of the car in which I was riding, but find I'm still looking at the scenery and also still recalling really interesting bits of history right there in Mojave. The Golden Queen mine brought many people to work in the mines. The local paper said they would hire local men first. Guess they did but there must...
I miss driving but being a passenger has its perks, also. For myself, on recent trips, I could really examine the panorama. Even leaving Tehachapi, I notice a lot of things that have changed or disappeared completely. At any rate, it certainly helps awaken old memories. As one leaves the Tehachapi Mountains and gazes out on the Mojave Desert looking south, I see sights that are not new but still changed, forever. One change, sort of heartbreaking, is the loss of Mount Soledad to the strip...
