| Heather (Van Skike) Long | Email |
03/08/09
Where do you live now? Hollywood, Maryland
How many years were you in the desert? about 15
Are you willing to help with pictures? I can do some digging
Are you willing to help with stories? sure
Comments:
I was one of those kids hell bent on getting out of Ridgecrest and never looking back. Thankfully, though, now I can look back with this site.
I get a little giddy seeing familiar names and places.
I get a little sad learning what is no longer there.
Cathy Padgett Schmeer is a long time friend of my family, and Cathy, if you see this, Julie's daughter (me!) wants to hear from you!!
I hope to be able to take my kids to Ridgecrest one of these days and show them some of the places I loved growing up, although I didn't realize how much until I had left them.
03/06/09
Where do you live now? Marina, CA
How many years were you in the desert? 27 years total (1958-1976, 1982-1991)
Are you willing to help with pictures? Already have - my BHS '76 yearbook was scanned to the site
Are you willing to help with stories? Already have and will continue to do so.
Comments:
Dear Pat,
I trust you are at peace - your many friends and acquaintances miss you. You did a great thing by establishing this web site as a place where we could all cherish our memories.
I hope High Desert Memories remains as a tribute to your legacy.
Farewell,
Bob
03/04/09
Where do you live now? Carmichael, California ( Sacramento area )
How many years were you in the desert? 1951 to 1994 off and on
Are you willing to help with pictures? If I can turn something up.
Are you willing to help with stories? I've got a few
Comments:
My father Frank Grober Sr. and my mother Carol Grober came to China Lake in 1949. My father taught at the high school and the junior college and taught in the Apprentice Program on the base. He died in 1973. My mother worked as a sceretary at Burroughs the first couple of years and then worked for the Navy as a secretary for the Navy from the 70s to the early 90s after she raised me and my brother Max and sister Carla.
I always remember how nice almost everyone I knew from the valley was. It was also a really different place to grow up. Not everyone gets to go to a grade school named for the head of the Manhattan Project or watch rocket launches at recess. The family cats would sleep through sonic booms and distant bomb explosions
I always thought it was interesting to see what outsiders thought of our hometown. Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World, wrote a hillarious description of China Lake after a visit in the early 50s. Bob Hope did a USO show at China Lake in the late 40s. One of his jokes was about how he had to visit because he was a golfer and always wanted to see 12,000 people stuck in a sand trap. ABC News did a special in 1970 about how the valley was the drug abuse capital of America.
I remember what a blast it was racing around China Lake as part of an army of kids on Halloween. The socializing at summer night softball games was great and I loved to hang out with my dad at the bowling alley. I loved going to the movies for a dime ( later a quarter ). We had a great library with an incredible science fiction collection. There were lots of great clubs. I loved the astronomy club. We got to use a 20 inch telescope the navy bought so the geothermal program could look for volcanoes on the Moon so they could provide geothermal power for future Moon bases.
There was the 1967 "Be In" in Ridgecrest park where we had a thousand people looking for a hippy to observe. That was around the time dozens of girls got busted at Burroughs for wearing pants to school instead of dresses on an incredibly cold winter day. We had President Kennedy's visit to China Lake.
I was amused when as an adult I ran across old science fiction stories where space ships were built and launched from China Lake. As a kid I loved the 50s science fiction movie Invaders From Mars which was set near a base being used to build space ships. At the time I thought that getting ready to fight World War III was o.k., but I wished China Lake was getting ready to send a spaceship to Mars. Later I learned that China Lake had come close to launching the first American satellite. At the astronomy club we got to use the neat, wide field telescopesthat were used for the first satellite tracking program.
I loved going to see the old mining stuff at Randsberg ( sorry to hear about the arsenic in the tailings ) and boy were the Pinacles neat. We must have had a million car commercials shot at the Inyokern airport and it's neat so much of the nearby scenery in movies and tv shows.
I never could understand why they trashed all the base housing. It was a huge waste of the taxpayer's money and it sure did a number on my childhood memories. How many of you have tried to figure out where your home used to be?
Oh yeah and I loved discovering that maybe the scientists I worshipped when I was a kid weren't always up to the job. I loved the fuss about the local groundwater where I discovered how many scientists couldn't analyzed the issue in any terms beyond which of the principals had done more to cross them in office politics.
Anyway, it was a great place to grow up and I'm sure people are still forming happy memories there today.
02/28/09
Where do you live now? See previous post
How many years were you in the desert? See previous post
Are you willing to help with pictures? See previous post
Are you willing to help with stories? See previous post
Comments:
I forgot to leave a way to contact me if anyone so desires.
02/28/09
Where do you live now? Dunkirk, NY
How many years were you in the desert? 1973-1978
Are you willing to help with pictures? I don't think I have many
Are you willing to help with stories? Not sure I have much that's interesting
Comments:
It was amazing to see this site. Wow, what a bunch of memories came flooding back. I graduated 1974 from BHS, and then moved from the area in 1978-79. I don't think I've been back since then. My dad worked for Comarco Engineering. Mom worked at Grants for awhile. While at BHS my name was Kim Paxton. You've put a lot of work into this site.
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