Meet Your New Neighbors

It was while visiting her cousin in Tehachapi that Gina Keeler knew she wanted to live here. When the opportunity finally arose, she and Hoss Melton decided to make the move from Ventura with their five daughters. The beauty and affordability of the area were also contributing factors. They had not planned to move in the middle of the school year, but they found what they thought would be the perfect house for such a large family. Now they are busy settling in a little bit at a time.

Hoss is Western Regional Sales Manager for Ottobock Orthopedics, a German company and the world’s number one manufacturer of orthopedics and prosthetics. He mostly works from home but travels quite a bit. He has worked in the field for nine years and really enjoys the freedom it allows. Gina is an herbalist and is planning on turning her hobby into a business that deals with natural remedies such as teas, ointments and, to a lesser extent, tinctures.

Hoss was born in western Iowa in an area called Loess Hills. Loess Hills were formed from a geologic phenomenon during Ice Age, which created the area’s 200 foot rolling hills. He has three brothers and one sister. Two of his brothers are still in Iowa and the third is in Canada. His sister lives in Tennessee. Hoss loves fish and was working on his 250 gallon fresh water aquarium when I arrived. Some of his fish are as much as fifteen years old and are very large. Gina, on the other hand, is a Californian girl; born in Santa Barbara and raised in Ventura. She has two sisters in Arkansas and Ventura and three brothers in Japan, Montana and Pennsylvania. She likes to paint, bake and host parties. Hoss told me he was a friend of Gina’s grandparents. In fact, her grandfather had always called him “son”. It was no surprise that they got together.

Between them they have five daughters. Alexis (age 13), Blanca (age 9), Sasha (age 7), Tayona (age 7) and Kaylin (age 5) and are all settling into their new schools. All the girls love art and the outdoors, although they were busy making lemon bars during my visit. Hoss calls all the girls “drama queens,” but he told me that Alexis is a very talented singer and expects to see her name in lights someday. Her biggest disappointment was the cancellation of “X Factor” as she had planned to audition for the show.

In all the commotion, I almost missed the smallest members for the family. Dartagnon is a little white fluff of Pom/Yorkie who tries very hard to stay out of the way and then there is Zach, a hummingbird with a broken wing that the family rescued and seems to be slowly recovering.

A big Tehachapi welcome to Gina and Hoss and their big family.

Lois Bailey has lived many places. She has loved some and hated others. Last year she made the move to Tehachapi from West Covina with the help of her son who lives here. She is looking forward to loving it in Tehachapi.

She was born in the town of Bastrop in northeast Louisiana and moved to California with her family in 1941. Her parents had a moving company called Tracy’s Transfer. She lived near Monrovia through high school and remembers the sweet smell of all the orange and lemon trees. Music is one of her loves. She learned to play the piano at thirteen and has continued to play ever since. Over the years she worked as a nurse’s aide and sales clerk but her two sons are the pride of her life. Her son, Sean, was born in Fullerton and currently lives in Tehachapi. He was a Marine guard for President Carter and also worked for Boeing. Robby lives in Pendleton, Oregon and works as a computer technician and teaching postal employees. Lois also lived in Oregon for a while. She says she loved Eugene but didn’t care for her time in Bend due to the extreme temperatures.

Lois loves poetry and has been writing almost continuously since moving to Tehachapi. She says that sometimes she has trouble sleeping and will write poetry through the night. She is hoping that, with the help of new friends here, she may be able to publish her seventy to eighty poems.

Welcome to Tehachapi Lois and we look forward to seeing you in print.

If you have moved to the Greater Tehachapi Area within the last six months and would like to know more about your new community, call 661-822-8188. We will be happy to make an appointment for a hostess to come by and give you lots of helpful information, some valuable coupons, gifts and much more. Many families and individuals who come to the area are pleasantly surprised with the amount of knowledge they gather about their new home. Publishing your welcome article is completely voluntary and is not a requirement of being welcomed.