Palmdale
and should NOT be used for any reason other than reading enjoyment |
| Palmdale Nexus | ||
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A Personal Note from Robin
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What follows is a narrative history of my time in Palmdale. I have been able to verify most of the information with my mother to ensure historical accuracy.
Palmdale
Just before moving to Palmdale, my father was working at Northrop (of Jack Northrop fame) in Hawthorne, CA. He headed up the Inspection Department for Northrop-Hawthorne. He was given a promotion and became the Facilities Inspector for Northrop-Palmdale.
The Roberts family packed up and moved to Palmdale a few months later. At that time, Palmdale had a total population of 596 souls. Our family of six moved to Palmdale and raised the population by over one percent. This move was the harbinger of things to come, and within a very few months, Palmdale's population exceeded fifteen thousand - today, it has a population of 157,000.
The infrastructure was stretched beyond breaking. We "camped out" for a few days in a converted chicken coop. The local grocery stores weren't big enough to hold enough food for all the new emigres, so we often drove into Bakersfield to shop. The Roberts family kids went to school in churches, an old movie theater, and a converted closed furniture store.
Air Force Plant 42
My father worked at North American Aviation as the Facilities Inspector and later as a "Radar Observer Test Pilot" for Northrop's 'F-89 Scorpion' aircraft. I have included several "funny stories" about his experiences on the Northrop page.
"The Fort"
Our house on Sweetbriar Street was "the last house before the real desert." The field across the street was destined to have houses built on it the following year or two, but for now, it was open desert. I asked my dad if building a "fort" in the field across the street from the house would be all right.
My dad saw a workman creating a fire break with a road grader in the field and asked him if his kids could build a fort. He said he saw no problem with it. That winter, many of the kids in the neighborhood got busy. We would dig holes, place lumber over the opening, and then backfill over the lumber to provide camouflage in case we were invaded by 'space aliens.' (Editor's note: You must remember that this was the mid-50s, and we were sure the aliens were just outside Earth-orbit, looking for the ideal landing site.) We even carried the excavated earth away from the fort and distributed it around the desert to hide any evidence of our fort's existence.
The following year, our friend with the road grader returned. Our fort 'swallowed' a D-10 caterpillar tractor so well that a derrick had to be built to help extricate it from its earthly tomb.
When the owners of the D-10 threatened to sue, my dad defused the problem by asking the driver, 'Did you, or did you not, give them permission to build a fort?'
Another win for our side!
The desert around Palmdale was strange. It could grow almost anything IF you had enough water. There was plenty of water IF you wanted to drill a fifty-foot well.
Many of the farmers grew livestock and/or melons. Every mile or so, there was a man-made reservoir a couple of hundred feet or a side and anywhere from five to twenty feet of water in it. We, kids, would ride our bikes out into the desert, looking for reservoirs. They were effortless to spot: tall, green trees were growing around them. We would strip to our underwear and swim in our own private lakes. Sometimes, it would be just "us guys." At other times, it would be "coed."
On one occasion, one of the guys "left the pool" to urinate. He went to the fence line, where he "started" to relieve himself. I say started because as the urine hit the electric fence, he would spasm (stopping the flow) and yell. Nature would kick in, and he would start, and then stop, and then start ---- Well, you get the picture.
Two Shay Ranch
Mr. and Mrs. Shay had a little "guest ranch" about fifteen to twenty miles to the west of Palmdale on Bouquet Canyon Road. With Palmdale temperatures regularly reaching a hundred degrees or more during the summer, many residents sought cool places to visit. My folks, along with a lot of Northrop employees (and test pilots), visited Two Shay Ranch every weekend. We would leave Palmdale early on Fridays (usually right after lunch), hop into the wood-covered station wagon, and head west. Arriving at the ranch, we changed to "uniform of the day,", swimsuits and sneakers. Friday evening, there were BBQ steaks, hamburgers, and hot dogs served with potato salad, a green salad, and my Mom's barbecued lima beans. After dinner, all the parents would sit around the pool and/or campfires, talking about their work and the "hairy escape" they had made: another type of Monday morning quarterbacking. By dark, almost everyone had drunk enough of "whatever they were drinking" that they were in no shape to drive back down the mountain roads and into Palmdale. Two Shay was probably equipped to handle about thirty or so people, but (as I remember it) we must have had nearly a hundred people there. We had people sleeping on sofas, in hammocks, in sleeping bags, and occasionally on a blanket in the back of the station wagon.
Chuck Yeager, his wife Glennis, and their four kids were among the people who visited Two Shay. Amongst others, Johnny Whitehead and scores of other pilots were regulars.
These days, Two Shay Ranch is a California State Park. (2007)
Pancho Barnes
The Happy Bottom Riding Club
Rancho Oro Verde
- From http://www.panchobarnes.com/ website
Florence "Pancho" Lowe Barnes (1901 - 1975) was born to a wealthy and prominent Pasadena family. Her mentor and paternal grandfather, Thaddeus Lowe, was a famed balloonist who developed aerial reconnaissance techniques for Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and is considered the Founding Father of the United States Air Force. He was also a brilliant entrepreneur who accumulated immense wealth from inventing the artificial ice machine (which was the first form of refrigeration that allowed cross-continental shipment of perishables), a coke oven, and an incandescent gas system for lighting cities. Her maternal grandfather, Richard Dobbins, was a famed architect and engineer, designing and building hotels and public buildings in several East Coast cities, including designing and building the official structures for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Through the years, Grandfather Dobbins invested his money wisely in real estate, including purchasing significant hotels in New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia. The Dobbin side of the family was even more wealthy than the Lowes. Granddaughter Florence would eventually inherit the bulk of these combined estates.
Pancho regularly went off by herself on long trips to South America and traveled extensively within the USA. One adventure had her jumping what she thought was a banana boat to South America, only to find when it was out of the port that it was actually running guns to Mexican revolutionaries. Of course, this only delighted her, and she took up the cause. On this trip, her traveling companion, Roger Chute, christened her "Pancho." Throughout her life, Pancho traveled extensively in Mexico and had an especially fond place in her heart for the Mexican people and culture.
The Happy Bottom Riding Club was Pancho Barnes' most famous and successful creation. Club members could fly into Pancho's FAA-approved airport, attend rodeos at her championship rodeo stadium, ride horses from her well-stocked horse corral, dance in her dance hall, have drinks at her bar, eat the best steak of their lives in her restaurant, swim in her large circular pool, and then decide to do it all again the next day by checking into her hotel. Additionally, on her 380-acre ranch, she had a thriving dairy, cattle, and hog business. During the height of the Happy Bottom Riding Club's success, there were over 9,000 members worldwide. You never knew who would show up at the Club for a steak dinner, sit in with the jazz combo, or sing with the other customers at the piano bar. It was not unusual to find heads of state, high-ranking military, actors, actresses, famous writers and artists, and perhaps even your next-door neighbor at Pancho's bar and restaurant. At Pancho's, everyone who liked to enjoy life, laugh, and want a good time was welcomed. Pancho was fond of saying, "When you have a choice - choose happily!" Well, when you went through the door of her club, it was quite clear that you had chosen the happy path for the evening!
With these changes in place, Rancho Oro Verde became known worldwide as the 'Happy Bottom Riding Club' and was the clubhouse for the test pilots, military personnel, designers, mechanics, and engineers responsible for advancing aircraft design and breaking the sound barrier. It is amazing to imagine now, but before Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time, it was widely believed that this achievement would be impossible. But as Pancho used to tell the naysayers, "Impossible is NOT a fact. It is an opinion." She was proved correct one afternoon in October 1947.
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The 'Happy Bottom Riding Club' was home to General Jimmy Doolittle, Chuck Yeager, A. Scott Crossfield, Henry H. Arnold, Frank Kendall Everest, Jr., Bob Hoover, Jack Ridley, Kirk Kirkorian, and all the pilots with "The Right Stuff' . In a few short years, Pancho's Ranch Oro Verde had been transformed from a barren flat parcel of desert land into a verdant oasis in the desert and the site of a lifestyle as outrageous as its host. The ranch started to be referred to as 'The Happy Bottom Riding Club' after her old friend, General Jimmy Doolittle, went on a long ride on a new horse and was asked by Pancho if he liked the animal. General Doolittle replied, "Oh yes, it gave me a happy bottom."
During the 1940s and 1950s, the glow from Pancho's sizeable circular swimming pool at her 'Happy Bottom Riding Club' became the unmistakable landmark and beacon for pilots flying over the Muroc Lake bed. Pilots landed on Pancho's private airstrip to pay tribute to the famous aviatrix, swap stories and partake of her generous hospitality, and relax at what had become the watering hole for the most famous pilots of the day. Pancho's 'Happy Bottom Riding Club' had become center stage for the superstar pilots of the supersonic age.
Most people don't remember much about Pancho, but when you say, "In the movie "The Right Stuff," there was a bar run by a crusty old broad who had a sign, "There are old pilots, there are bold pilots, there are no old, bold pilots" hanging behind the bar. That "crusty old broad" was Pancho. A legend in the aviation community, Pancho was one of the first female pilots to be licensed in the United States and one of the most respected pilots of the Golden Age of Flight.
The entire Roberts family regularly visited Pancho's for a grilled steak dinner and a swim.
Muroc
The Corum family owned a huge chunk of land, mostly a dried-up lake, to the northeast. When the Corums tried to get a Post Office built there, the name "Corum, CA" was already used. With typical "California" aplomb, they registered their name spelled backward, and hence "Muroc, California" The nearby dry lake was later renamed Rogers Lake and became part of Edwards Air Force Base when the country entered World War II.
Wagon Wheel Lake
On the south side of Palmdale, just east of the old Sierra Highway, is Wagon Wheel Lake, which was one of my favorite places. I would ride my bike down to the lake and spend the entire day fishing. Quite often, several other kids and I would spend our time exploring "areas of the Earth that had yet to be explored by Modern Man," playing "Cowboys and Indians," or recreating movie plots. Many Saturday mornings included a trip to the local theater to watch "the next chapter" of one of the movie serials playing at the time. (see Perils of Nyoka)
Needless to say, Palmdale became a pivotal moment in my life and my interest in BDSM.
Lancaster & AVJUHS
The "Antelope Valley Joint Union High School" was located in Lancaster, about eight miles north of Palmdale. When we lived in Palmdale, AVJUHS was one of the largest school districts in the USA. Students were being bused from as far away as Gorham, CA, about fifty miles away. Several friends banded together to convert the Gorham school bus. They ripped the old plastic seats out and replaced them with airline-style seats, complete with tables that folded down from the seat in front and overhead lights so the students could do their homework or tilt the chairs back and sleep.
While attending AVJUHS, I joined ROTC. I traveled to Fort Ord in Monterey, CA, for a two-week training class, learning how to march, fire a carbine, stand in line, and wash clothes just like a real soldier| <g>.
Read Snake bite kits - a funny but true story
Ted Elder
My grandfather, Ted Elder, was a trick horseback rider and one of the original "horse whisperers". Ted was one of the original stunt riders and stood in for many Hollywood stars.
Ted was one of the "stand-in" chariot drivers in the movie, Ben-Hur and was one of the first riders to develop (and be filmed) riding "Roman Style" (Two horses, side by side, with one foot on each horse.) He later made a living by appearing at rodeos and exhibitions, jumping his horse over a flaming automobile. (Yes, I still have the photos!)
- Pictures from Ben Hur
He also had a ranch "just East of Palmdale" where we lived. The ground was fertile but dry and he decided it needed irrigation to grow alfalfa. Ted and his Mormon buddies got together some seed money, and Ted began welding couplers onto pieces of aluminum pipe. The pipe sections were light enough for one man to carry, and he could string them together to put water where he wanted it. Later, he welded larger diameter pipes and mounted them on wheels. He could connect these leviathan lawn sprinklers to a central water supply in the middle of a field, and they would "walk" in circles daily, dispensing much-needed water to the farmer's fields. His company name was "Rain For Rent."
If you use Google Earth, call up Palmdale, California. You can see quarter-mile and half-mile radius circles throughout the area. Those "crop circles" are one of my grandfather's legacies.
Press Releases
- Sun Valley Flashbacks
- Cowboy Ted Elder and his daredevil jumping act at the Sun Valley Rodeo. Ted rides two horses at once while jumping over his flaming automobile. His assistant stands ready with a hose should things get out of hand.
- May 13, 1931 The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune (Chillicothe, Missouri)
- "Suicide" Ted Elder presents one of the incredible thrills of the 20th century, standing on the backs of two thoroughbred horses while they jump over an automobile. Many have tried to duplicate this dangerous feat but lost their nerve, and Elder is the only man today who has successfully attempted this feat.
- From The Cowgirl Hall of Fame website
- One of Connie Griffiths's favorite tricks was the Ted Elder Suicide Drag. She hung behind the horse with her head completely disappearing between the horse's hind legs while her pointed toes danced in the arena dirt. Connie was one of a handful of women to incorporate this trick into her performance.
"The Westerns"
This section quickly became so large that I have moved the entire article to Westerns
See also [ Four Aces ] Movie Ranch
| Palmdale Nexus | ||
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A Personal Note from Robin
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External Links
Article about Pancho on the Chuck Yeager website
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