Due to my Mother's recurrent bouts with bronchial
pneumonia each winter, my Father. Walter "Stub" Lydston, was
advised by our family doctor to move us to a higher, dryer climate. Dad
knew of the Owens Valley, as friends of his had settled in Manzanar
earlier, so after a quick trip north, he returned to our home in Whittier
with news that we were to move there too.
He rented a truck and driver and went ahead with our
possessions. Later he told us of the poorly marked dirt roads causing them
to go by way of Johannesburg. While he was getting settled, my mother,
Nellie Lydston, with my sisters Tillie and Nellie and I stayed with
relatives in Hollywood, then we left by train for the Owens Valley.
What a thrill that train trip was for us! We slept on the
broad guage, then changed to the narrow guage at Owenyo, where we had
breakfast. Dad was at the Manzanar station to meet us. Mr. Hawthorn, the
driver of the mail truck, carried passengers when there were any. We
crossed the Owens River, and the Los Angeles Aquaduct, which at that point
was a wide dirt canal, there were ranches along the way and then we
arrived at the little town of Manzanar, with its general store, its Post
Office and town hall, and little two-roomed school house. When we reached
the place where we were to live for a year, we found that Dad had the
furniture all arranged and a large bowl of shiny red apples, picked from
our trees, on the table. This was in October l9l9.
Very shortly we were absorbed in school. It was quite a
change from the one in East Whittier where we had been going. Here there
were only two rooms, two outside conveniences, plus a shed for horses. All
gatherings, such as programs, dances, and chicken pie suppers were held in
the town hall. On Sunday mornings the minister from Independence would
hold services there, then go on to Lone Pine.
It was on July 4th 1920 that we saw our County Seat for
the first time. We went by wagon for the all day festivities. It was a
real old-time Fourth, with foot races for the young and old, plenty of
fire crackers and best of all that lucious old time cream soda.
In Manzanar, summer picnics were held in the grove south
of town. A feast would be spread on long tables, with two five gallon
freezers of ice cream to top it. Huge swings were hung for the younger set
and baseball for the older ones. Camping in George's Creek Canyon and on
Shepherd's Creek was great fun. Summers seemed cooler and winters more
severe.
The town's water supply came from Shepherds Creek, in an
open wooden flume, across the desert where it was piped into the town.
Many times during the winters this would freeze, which meant carrying
water from an artesian well close to the old Shepherds ranch, the soil in
this area was wonderfully fertile and grew marvelous apples, pears,
potatoes and all kinds of garden produce.
This is the Manzanar I remember, and for me, but for brief
visits. it came to an end in 1927 when I married Harold "Skinny"
Gates, and moved elsewhere.
{*Copied without permission from Saga of Inyo County
©1977 by Chapter 183, Southern Inyo American Association of Retired
Persons.}
