BALLOON FESTIVAL CACHET SALESHISTORICAL SOCIETY
OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT
Vol. 12 No. 9 November 18, 1997
NOVEMBER PROGRAM
A REVIEW OF THE NWCCFCU HISTORY WITH ANECDOTES
Our program this month will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the NWC Community Federal Credit Union with a panel of long-term credit union volunteers reminiscing about the early days of the local credit union, as well as briefly discussing the history of credit unions in general.
Lee Lakin, George Silberberg, Fred Weals and Bruce Wertenberger are all veteran volunteers of the NWCCFCU, each having been a member for 20 years or more.
The meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 18, in the Sylvia Winslow Gallery of the Maturango Museum. Have you been a long-standing member of the credit union? Then maybe you'll win the special door prize, being offered to the person in the audience who has the lowest credit union member number.
In honor of this special anniversary, Fred has prepared a booklet detailing the credit union's history. The booklet isn't ready quite yet, but the credit union will be making it widely available
My own historical notes show that the credit union began through the work of the Employee Welfare Association (EWA, predecessor to the China Lake Community Council) and was chartered as the NOTS Employees' Federal Credit Union on Nov. 26, 1947. Each of the charter members kicked in $5, so that the fledgling organization had total assets of a mere $45. The first loan, made a few days later, was for $10, an amount a member needed to tide him over until payday.
Assets grew rapidly -- to more than a million dollars by the credit union's tenth anniversary. And of course the credit union of today scarcely resembles that early small endeavor, as I know our panelists will tell us.
As always, admission to the meeting is free, and refreshments will be served.
Liz Babcock
BALLOON FESTIVAL CACHET SALES
Sales of the special postal cachet at the recent Ridgecrest Balloon Festival were brisk. By the end of Sunday, 337 cachets had been sold. The HSUMD expects to realize well over $100.00 in proceeds from this effort on behalf of the Festival.
JOAN BROOKS TO SPEAK AT MUSEUM
Historical Society member, Joan Brooks, of Desert Hot Springs, CA, will be speaking at the Museum at 7:30, Wednesday, December 10. She will talk about Father John Crowley, the Desert Padre. After the talk, she will autograph copies of her new book on Father Crowley, which is available at the Museum Bookstore.
WACOM GRANT
We are pleased to announce that the Women's Auxiliary of the Commissioned Officers' Mess (WACOM) Thrift Shop has made a $250.00 grant to the Historical Society as part of their Fall distribution of grants back into the community. We will use this to help defray the cost of the custom cabinetry for Society displays in the vestibule of the Museum.
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Our newsletter editor (Chet) keeps after me to get him some copy for each issue and I manage to put off complying until almost printing time. Well, I am once again near deadline and hope you readers won't mind if I keep it short and provide a historical related observation. I find it interesting that a television advertisement about beef has put together a charming and seamless transition of a mother and child shopping for food. In the opening scene the location and period appears to be in a large city of some hundred or so years ago. In the next two of the continuous scenes they are in the early 20th century and then walk on into the present. What is really impressive about this ad is how much detail and preparation was put into each flowing scene so as to leave no doubt in the viewer's mind that you are watching an historically correct panorama and a lot of history in less time than it takes to write this. Another ad I caught the other day was from the Hotel Westbury saying their place had "old world charm." A toothbrush manufacturer cited the following: "Toothpaste was invented in 1892." So watch the ads on TV folks, and get a history lesson to boot.
Lou Pracchia
SOCIETY WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS
The Society takes pleasure in welcoming the following new members: Derek and Tracy Cooper, Tracy Dettling, Barbara Harrington and Raymond Kelso, Ronald Pryor, Dorene Taylor, Mitchell Tims and Priscilla Wheatley. Special mention should be made of the efforts of Lois Carr in signing up many of our new members. We appreciate all this energy and all these new members!
WAS LAST YEAR'S CHRISTMAS PARTY FUN, OR WHAT?
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." This year's party should evoke that famous editorial's warm spirit of giving and all good-things, as did our gathering of last year. It offers the perfect antidote to the attempted co-opting of the Holiday Season by the big C & C (commercialism and consumerism).
Everyone "performed" so deliciously in Dec. '96 that we're having a Christmas Potluck Dinner again! Bring yourself, your appetite, and a dish of good food to the Maturango Museum Tuesday, December 16 at 6:30 p.m. There will be music, surprise gifts, and a special guest, Gladys Merrick, telling winter stories. Add all that to friends gathered in good talk and laughter, and we're sure to have a memorable evening. More details will be in the next newsletter.
Charlotte Goodson
MATURANGO JUNCTION REVISITED, Etc.
The fates were kind to us this year. Beautiful sunny skies and no wind brought crowds of people out for Junction fun. In their browsing throughout the Park, many stopped to enjoy Cookies and Conversation at the Historical Society site. Hank Schuette and Lois Carr were joined by Larry and Bette Fox in supplying local history to intrigued listeners, as they all can do so well.
The "fuel" to keep going came from fifty-five of our members who baked the best cookies imaginable. Keebler's elves have nothing over them when it comes to mouth watering treats. The volunteers busily serving customers were Edna Easterling, Anna McDuff, Pat and George Silberberg, Dot Gould, Laura Ule, Joan McKernan, Karen Fielder, Mary Ann Henry, Hazel Nilsen, Mary and Bill Ward, Jenny Miller, Eileen Dietz, Barbara Hall, Charlotte Goodson, Vivian VanDevender, Eleanor Rockdale, Richard and Linda Hackney, Dale Lane, Gerry Pracchia, Joan Woodman, and Ellie Snyder. Helping to start the Junction ball rolling was the intrepid Telephone Committee of Mary Ann Burke, Eileen Dietz, Pat Hazen, Arlee Lakin, Dale Lane, Jenny Miller,Gerry Pracchia, Joan Woodman, and Ellie Snyder. Millie Riggin, Eleanor Rockdale, Cindy Strutz, Vivian VanDevender.
To all of the above, your willing efforts made in the usual outstanding good cheer were greatly appreciated. A special thank you this year goes to Barbara Hall, who kindly and efficiently helped to coordinate all the cookie doings. This work has resulted in proceeds of over $600.00 to the Society's treasury.
The "Etc." is our thanks to Bruce Wertenberger for taking charge of the October meeting's refreshments. His punch was delicious, and he along with us all appreciated the remaining cookies from the Junction.
Charlotte Goodson
A SEEP NOTE
The Sand Canyon Environmental Education Program is gearing up for reaching out to the Indian Wells Valley fifth graders. The Spring 1998 schedule of field trips and classroom sessions is complete. Copies will be available at our January and February meetings. Our History Walk in the Canyon last year was a great success and fun, as well. We hope more of you will join us to lend a helping hand (walking feet, actually) this upcoming SEEP season. It is one of those kinds of activities where in the students' and parents' responses you get back much more than you give.
The Historical Society's video preparation is well underway by Mark Pahuta. Interviewing and filming were carried out over the spring and summer. An important aspect in the video's production was the transcription from audio tapes of every word spoken by the principals. This was an immense task that resulted in a huge stack of typed pages! Many pats on the back are well deserved by our member, Richard Hackney, for generously undertaking this task.
Charlotte Goodson
CHARLOTTE BRAITMAN LEAVING
It is with sadness, but with our very best wishes, that we note Charlotte Braitman is leaving our area. She has served our community well and will be missed.
EXHIBIT CHANGES
Within the next several weeks, two of the HSUMD exhibits in the Museum will be changed out. Jeannie Echeberry's nut cracker collection will go into the vestibule cases replacing the Chapman Eastern Sierra bottle collection.
An exhibit on Father John J. Crowley will replace the Cerro Gordo exhibit in the Main Gallery.
WILBUR STARK PASSES AWAY
A pioneer Ridgecrest real estate developer and visionary died recently at the age of 88. Wilbur Howard "Pinkie" Stark began the Valley's first sanitation district and founded the predecessor to the IWV Water District among his many other activities.
FROM OUR PAST
The following article is taken from a book of interviews conducted and written by a group of sixth graders under the direction of Ms. Gaylin Cloonan, a teacher at Los Flores School in 1982. They wrote the book because they were interested in the history of Indian Wells Valley.
KAREN MANATT'S MEMORIES
by Linda Wilkins Katie Capps
Karen Manatt was very happy as a child living in the Indian Wells Valley. "I always felt very safe and very secure," she said. Karen was born in Ridgecrest in the Drummond Medical Clinic. As a young child she lived in Johannesburg, attending school there until she was ten years old. After the fourth grade, her family moved to Ridgecrest and they have lived here ever since. She left the area briefly through her college years and her marriage. She has very warm memories about the area and told us, "I have very, very fond memories of my childhood here."
When she lived in Johannesburg, people left their keys in their cars and their doors unlocked. There was no fear of robberies or break-ins. Karen remembers that she was excited about moving from Johannesburg to Ridgecrest. She said, "I thought, wow, I'm moving to a big city thirty miles away!" She also thought that the school here would be a two- or three-story brick building. When she got to Ridgecrest, she decided that it was not very much different from Johannesburg.
The school in Johannesburg had the first through fourth grades in one room and the fifth through eighth grades in another. Karen told us, "It was different having as many fifth graders in one class as my first-through-fourth-grade class in Johannesburg."
In Ridgecrest, Karen went to Vieweg in fifth and sixth grades. She then went to James Monroe in seventh and eighth grades and on to Burroughs for ninth through twelfth grades. Her high school class was the first to go through Burroughs for all four years. Burroughs is where Murray is now. "The number of students on the Burroughs campus is tremendous - a much larger number than when I went there," Karen said. She does think the caliber of students has changed somewhat. She said that she feels there were a lot of bright and ambitious students then. She seessome students now that are not as eager to get ahead as some of the children with whom she went to school.
Karen remembers when her school in Johannesburg got new playground equipment. She said, "We were just so excited when that came, and everybody rode on the merry-go-round until we got sick."
When Karen was young, there were no buildings where the library and the Kern Country (sic) Buildings are now; it was all Navy land. She remembers Tiny Bower's Burgers where you could get a hamburger, french fries, and a coke for fifty cents.
(To be continued)
11/12/97 JW