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Local history
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My bus route followed Highway 58 from Buttonwillow to Enos Lane and north on Enos Lane to Beech Street into Shafter.
Frito Lay had leveled the area where their plant sits now.
It must have been at least a mile or more long on the...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:53:02 PST
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The Dust Storm of 1977 always brings back special memories for me and I can remember it like it was yesterday. You see I was 9 months pregnant and due at any time. At approximately 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon (the day before the dust...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:52:58 PST
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December 20, 1977, I was working in Wasco, California for an attorney, awaiting to be sworn in to the California Bar the following day in Los Angeles.
When the dust store hit and did not subside I knew I would have problems making it...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:52:15 PST
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Our Christmas tradition is this old weather beaten Santa Clause tree top ornament. It has adorned our tree top since Etta and I were married 55 years ago. Our children and grand children have handled it year after year. Each year...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Mon Dec 10, 2007 14:22:56 PST
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The dust storm of December 20 1977 started very early. That morning on my way from Tehachapi to Foothill High School where I taught, the dust clouds and winds were already treacherous. School didn’t last long that day. We sent the...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Mon Dec 10, 2007 14:09:26 PST
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During the dust storm of 1977, a huge pine tree that was uprooted and fell across our steel beams of our carport and we were left with a branch hanging into our ktichen. Since we had invited 40 family and friends for dinner, I just...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Wed Dec 5, 2007 11:53:30 PST
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The Windstorm of 12-20-77. “Oh, I remember it well!” I was a young, twenty-four year old, married mother of two small children. My husband, who worked for PG&E, as a meter reader, had already left for work. I was...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Wed Dec 5, 2007 10:18:56 PST
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I was 10 years old attending Seibert Elementary School on that dusty, dry day in December 1977. My class was scheduled to put on a Christmas show. I remember my parents discussing if I should stay home, but I couldn’t miss the...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Thu Nov 29, 2007 17:35:30 PST
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Henry Harold Wagner was born in Bakersfield in 1930. He happens to be the father of an adopted child - this was recently discovered. He passed away a few months ago and now attempts are being made to find any surviving family...
Posted by DAYTONITE
- Thu Nov 29, 2007 17:34:56 PST
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Bakersfield's Wind Storm
I was a freshman at South High School in 1977. My Mother on seeing the dark sky, all the dust and hearing the wind decided to keep my brother Bob and me home from school that day. Power was out at our...
Posted by markspencer
- Thu Nov 29, 2007 17:33:43 PST
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THE KERN COUNTY DUST STORM OF DECEMBER 20, 1977
BY LORETTA PATTERSON OF BAKERSFIELD, CA
I woke up that morning with a loud roaring of wind blowing around the house. Two of my sons were students at South High and when I saw all the...
Posted by LorettaPatterson
- Thu Nov 29, 2007 17:27:12 PST
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We well remember the Dec. 20, 1977, dust storm. It was my daughter’s 16th birthday so we had special plans to celebrate — then the 100 mph winds “blew” in. No power, of course, but fortunately in my...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Wed Nov 28, 2007 09:21:47 PST
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The article by Leonel Martinez about the great wind and dust storm of 1977, with its 100+ MPH winds and 5-foot visibility brought back memories. Early that same morning, my friend Jim Hartman and I met at Kern City for our weekly round...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Mon Nov 26, 2007 16:35:16 PST
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I was teaching a class at Lakeside School. I had battled my way from Bakersfield that morning, only to find that Lakeside classes were canceled and the Kern County special ed classes probably would be. I couldn’t find out because...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Mon Nov 26, 2007 16:35:05 PST
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The day began like any other day. The alarm went off, I got up and started my daily routine: make breakfast, wake up the boys and get ready for school and work. I dropped my boys off at South High School and went on to my job as a...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Mon Nov 26, 2007 16:34:48 PST
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This photo is of the huge pine tree that was uprooted and fell across our steel beams of our carport and we were left with a branch hanging into our ktichen. Since we had invited 40 family and friends for dinner, I just decorated the...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Mon Nov 26, 2007 16:33:50 PST
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Being a Bakersfield native I remember dust storms, but nothing like that day. I got up before dawn that morning to go duck hunting with my good friend Dr. Stephen Newbrough. The wind was just howling as we left town and headed for the...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Mon Nov 26, 2007 16:33:37 PST
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I was 9 years old when the dust storm hit. School was called off, and the kids sent home early. I spent the first hour peeling tumble weeds off our house and sending them down the street, laughing as they piled up in Tiffany...
Posted by swerd1
- Mon Nov 26, 2007 11:10:29 PST
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A few days after the 1977 ‘Dust Storm’ I wrote this story of how our family survived that horrible day and the events that happened to us. We lived in Lamont and my husband and I worked in Arvin, he at the Arvin School...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Wed Nov 21, 2007 09:29:11 PST
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Remember the dust storm of December 1977? I don’t believe that anyone who lived through that could ever forget it. I was living in Taft then and the storm began on December 17th. Our neighbors and friends commented that we were in...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Wed Nov 21, 2007 09:21:51 PST
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The power was off at our house, in the Hillcrest area, for four days. Our 6 ft. wooden fence, on one side of the property, blew down and lay flat on the ground. A neighbor’s asphalt shingle roof blew off piece by piece in long...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Wed Nov 21, 2007 09:15:26 PST
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The first Thanksgiving holiday actually stems from the feast held in the fall of the year 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Native Americans to celebrate the colony's first successful harvest in the new country they had inhabited....
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:16:35 PST
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No photos to share but vivid memories as if December 20,1977 was yesterday.
The density of blowing dirt and dust turned morning to dusk and our street lights came on at 9AM. Calls came from children’s schools telling...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Mon Nov 19, 2007 16:53:19 PST
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I'll never forget it. I was 22. A few of my friends were at my apartment because Bakersfield was virtually shut down and we were getting extremely bored. We had the bright idea of going for a drive to see all the...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Thu Nov 15, 2007 16:53:40 PST
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In 1977 I was a deputy probation officer for Kern County. My assignment at that time was in residence at the Arvin Police Department administering the Project Arvin Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Program. The program...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Thu Nov 15, 2007 16:04:11 PST
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I was five years old when the storm hit Bakersfield. We lived on the east side of town off of College and Oswell. I remember there was a sense of something not right from my dad. He took me, mom , and my sister to my...
Posted by marcus29fan
- Thu Nov 15, 2007 14:21:53 PST
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I remember driving to work in my yellow 1974 Volkswagen with my three year old daughter, Erin in the back seat. I would drop her off at day care then head to work at a local collection agency on 18th street. The wind was blowing...
Posted by spoe
- Thu Nov 15, 2007 14:19:51 PST
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I remember the day so clearly and I was just 9 years old. My mom had called my sister and I to make sure that we were getting ready for school. Just as we were about to walk out of the house to walk our 2 blocks to school she...
Posted by tfromcal
- Thu Nov 15, 2007 14:08:49 PST
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During the dust storm of 1977 I was 7 years old and in 2nd grade—the same age my oldest daughter is now. I remember it was the week before Christmas break and we had all brought our gifts to school for the gift exchange but hadn't...
Posted by twogirlsmama
- Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:56:32 PST
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I was a Sophmore at Foothill High School on that windy day in 1977. The wind began to blow and we were simply told to go home. No calling parents etc. The phone lines were down and there was no way to call anyone...
Posted by IDianna2
- Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:48:37 PST
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"You are NOT taking my camera out in that!" My mother was adamant as she glared at me holding her top of the line Canon camera as the whirling dusty crap blew outside her home on Renegade Avenue in Bakersfield. Hence, I...
Posted by GizaCat
- Tue Nov 13, 2007 17:10:51 PST
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I remember the Dec 20 1977 quite well. The wind and dust blew hard all day and visibility was down. The power went off in my office downtown and we had no windows in my room, so we had to sit in pitch darkness doing...
Posted by elena62
- Tue Nov 13, 2007 08:32:25 PST
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On December 20, 1977, I was a 9 year-old newspaper delivery boy. My dad felt it was important the subscribers in our neighborhood received their Californian before 6:00 a.m. each day. Despite the powerful winds, blinding...
Posted by pelzfamily
- Mon Nov 12, 2007 11:13:37 PST
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The dust storm of 1977 will be forever etched in my childhood memories. I was 10 years old at the time, and in 5th grade at Eissler Elementary. I remember waking up that morning and not really noticing much on our way to school,...
Posted by kellycasper
- Mon Nov 12, 2007 09:22:26 PST
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Thursday, March 31, 2005
The weather was exceptionally beautiful today. The wind and the rain have cleared the normally grayish-brown air out of the valley and there was clear view of all three mountain ranges surrounding the city....
Posted by baketown
- Thu Nov 8, 2007 09:09:52 PST
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Do you have any info to share about this photo?
I'm guessing the photo was taken at an old timer's day because there are about two dozen people posing for the photo in a bar, and everyone is dressed in old fashioned attire. The main...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:27:18 PDT
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I am looking for people who may have known the Taffolla Family of Delano, Ca.They lived there during the 40's and early 50's.My parents, Alfonso and Eva Taffolla are celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary and we are making a Scrap...
Posted by GloriaTaffolla
- Thu Oct 25, 2007 09:13:39 PDT
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Posted by sawoodman
- Fri Oct 19, 2007 09:28:37 PDT
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Around 1915, the remains of Rosemond R. Emery were laid to rest in Union Cemetery. It is thought that Rosemond is the daughter of of Jonathan Roberts who enlisted Feb 12, 1776 in the 2nd PA Battalion and served until March 31,...
Posted by LindaA
- Wed Oct 17, 2007 17:22:17 PDT
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In the 1850s, a small band of about 20 Yokut Indians lived on a hill that would have been now located between the Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail yards and Mercy Hospital. After the flood of 1862, the Indian's food supply had been...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:16:13 PDT
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Eugene R. Yeager, 84, was a master sergeant in the U.S Army Corps of Engineers and laid pipeline for soldiers to traverse during the war. He served all over, including in England, France and Japan, according to his wife, Ruby, to whom...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Mon Oct 15, 2007 09:29:24 PDT
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Lt. Enoch P. Burley of the Army Air Forces never made it home to his wife, Yvonne. He was shot down over New Guinea, along with 15 of his flying brothers while piloting a Red Cross plane transporting wounded in August 1943.
Mrs....
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Fri Oct 5, 2007 16:52:43 PDT
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GARCES MARKS A MILESTONE
Prominent School Celebrates
Sixty Years of Catholic Education
By
Lisa Kimble
It has been sixty years since Garces Memorial...
Posted by lisaedmonston
- Tue Oct 2, 2007 08:57:28 PDT
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Army Sgt. Jack McCall fought at Guadalcanal, the Philippines and Okinawa. The letter was addressed to his wife, Helen, and toddler Dennis. Mrs. McCall was pregnant with Jim McCall, who submitted his dad’s letter.
Sgt. McCall...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Mon Oct 1, 2007 12:38:15 PDT
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Robert Grenville Millar was a B-24 pilot who flew 35 sorties during 50 missions, according to his son, Todd Millar, who submitted this letter.
After the war, Millar attended c
After the war, Millar attended college and ended up in...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Mon Oct 1, 2007 12:37:57 PDT
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The two letters at left are from 1st Lt. Ivan Osborne and Senior Chief Petty Officer John Kolstad, friends from Bakersfield.
Osborne died in action on Majuro Atoll in December 1943, nearly two years after this letter was sent home.
...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:43:38 PDT
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Ernest C. Mooney was in the Army and served in the South Pacific, including in the Philippines and New Guinea. He died in 1988 in the San Joaquin Valley.
The letter was addressed to his mother, Mrs. Ollie Mooney, and submitted by his...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Fri Sep 28, 2007 09:00:57 PDT
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Pfc. Torao Hayashi, uncle of Bakersfield resident Sandy (Hayashi) Minner, fought in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army, a unit composed of mostly Japanese-Americans who fought in Europe during World War II.
...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Fri Sep 28, 2007 09:00:09 PDT
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As a history junkie, I was excited to learn that Ken Burns, the filmmaker who brought the past to life in his classic documentary “The Civil War,” was planning a similar project on World War II.
I knew we would publish a...
Posted by citizenjournalist
- Fri Sep 28, 2007 08:59:39 PDT
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1903 Bakersfield High School Football Team
Back Row: Erast Alsteen, Harry West, Lawrence Weill, Virgil Chittendon, John Shannon House, Clarence Faster
Far Left: Mr. Lindsey (Referee)
Far Right: Fayette Birch (Coach)
Center:...
Posted by sawoodman
- Thu Sep 27, 2007 09:10:07 PDT
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