Last Tuesday evening (August 6, 2019) at 6:00 pm sharp, Jim, Paul and I joined about 30 people gathered at Simpkins Family Swim Center to start our nature walk toward Schwan Lake, headed by Norman Poitevin and members from Live Oak Neighbors (LON).
It is the first time I had seen the hill side, instead of the ocean side of Schwan Lake, named after Jacob Schwan, a German grain farmer and land owner. There are two well-trodden paths leading to the lake. Around the water's edge, it is unusually quiet and green, not unlike some lakes in New York, such as the Teatown Lake.
One LON member presented her talk on the development of Live Oak's Mobile Home Parks. According to her, there were over 50 mobile homes parks then, half of which were constructed in Live Oak then. No wonder the City of Santa Cruz did not want to annex trashy Live Oak.
We stopped at various spots to listen to Norman talking about the Skyview Drive-In, the Antonelli Family Begonia Gardens,
Live Oak Plaza, the
Old Cork Oak, and the county's first Farm Advisor, Henry Washburn, director of the University of California agricultural extension service in Santa Cruz County. Norman could not help but admire at the annual journals and corresponding photo albums Washburn had kept for more than 30 years. As luck has it, Washburn's granddaughter was one of the visitors on site. She told the crowd that she was now struggling with a houseful of Washburn's historical stuff. Accidentally, she demystified his orderly bookkeeping, to meet the requirements of Washington's funding application.
Elizabeth Schilling, president of Live Oak Grange, concentrated sorely on the Santa Cruz Live Oak Grange #503. Chartered on August 5, 1932 with 30 members increasing to 150 members in 1936, the construction of the Grange hall was
completed in March 1957 at a cost of $11,000. After the talk, Paul and I asked her about the community garden across the Grange, especially its water usage. She told us that it once belonged to the Methodist Church for a new church 15 years previously. For some reason, it did not pan out. So the Grange is taking over and leasing out at an annual fee of $30 per lot, including water. She also told us that every 4th Sunday, there is a trade/barter fair in the Grange. On hearing that we grew tomatoes, lemons and limes, She encouraged us to trade our citrus fruits. What a great idea!
The walk ended on time as scheduled. Three of us all felt happily tired and intellectually nourished. We are one step closer to where we live and soon where we work by understanding a little bit more about its past, mute but beckoning at us from time to time.
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