Tracy Ranch is family Eden in Buttonwillow
| Friday, Feb 10 2006 01:30 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Mar 28 2009 11:35 AM
The joy of getting muddy. The joy of sliding down into a slough filled with water and mud. The joy of having it be OK.
That's growing up on the Tracy Ranch near Buttonwillow, something the Tracy family has been doing since 1862. Six generations of Tracys have lived on the ranch with a don't-fence-me-in kind of attitude.
"We still consider it paradise," said 57-year-old John Tracy. "It's nice and quiet. We're happiest when we're here."
The occasion to reminisce about one of the oldest family farms in California comes with the publication of "Portrait of a Western Family," a new book by Martha Frey, a Tracy by birth who married Jack Frey in 1938.
Jack Frey, who died two years ago, took over in 1942 and was described as the glue that held the ranch together. That ranch now has 10,000 acres of almonds, cotton, pistachios, carrots and potatoes and is about 30 miles from town, close to the Frito-Lay Plant.
Sure the history is fascinating, the family raised ostriches at one time, but even more than that, these people actually like each other.
They keep coming back to the farm to live and work. Being a family member, however, does not make it an automatic. If a young Tracy, Selvidge or Frey -- three of the blood lines of the ranch -- want to work, they're looking at a five-year apprenticeship on the farm. Apprenticeship is a polite word for boot camp.
If they survive the "apprenticeship," they are voted nay or yea into the partnership.
For those who have moved to town, or out of town, a trip home to the ranch is still a treat. College students bring friends and show them where they grew up. Fathers and mothers bring children so they can catch frogs, ride the zip line strung between the eucalyptus trees and, of course, play in the mud.
"Portrait of a Western Family" is available at Russo's Books.
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We probably shouldn't be surprised that there is an affinity between East High School and Bakersfield High School. Both are old -- East opened in 1938 and BHS in 1893 -- and back when the town was smaller everybody knew each other. They cruised Chester together, fought each other and made it right over hamburgers and shakes at Stan's, Michener's or Andres.
In that spirit, the East and BHS classes of 1964 are planning a joint reunion July 31 at the DoubleTree.
"Like a lot of people, I went to Washington Junior High and half my class went to East and half to BHS," said Bob Moses, one of the event's organizers. "If this reunion works, we're going to go for a universal one (all Bakersfield high schools) for our 50th."
If you are a member of either East's or Bakersfield's class of 1964, call Winette Wilson at 589-8249.
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She was sick when she came to class, but her eyes weren't and neither was her spirit.
Mimi Deeths was a fine writer and when I read her essay I experienced the whipsaw effect that sometimes teachers do when they realize the roles are about to be reversed and the hunter is about to become the hunted.
If cancer has a cleansing side, at least in Mimi's case, it swept aside the subterfuge and revealed the world as it was. Mimi was close to the truth in that way and it showed in her writing.
Mimi was a good mother. She had four adult children and she knew how to handle them all.
The day before she died, a few members of the choir from St. Philip the Apostle came over to the house and sang "Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled" in her bedroom. Then her children crawled in bed with her.
Mimi was the kind of person who sticks in your mind years after meeting her. She was a good student, but a better teacher.
"The Bible speaks of 'Faith, Hope, and Love,'" wrote a friend, Brad Webb. "Mimi did more than speak of them, she lived them."
