03/16/08
Where do you live now? Placerville, CA
How many years were you in the desert? Basically from 0 to 15 yrs of age, left in 1974
Are you willing to help with pictures? I doubt I have much of interest
Are you willing to help with stories? No, but I bet my sister Theresa would
Comments:
I lived in China Lake and Ridgecrest from infancy to the middle of high school ( with a two-year hiatus late 60's). My family moved there when my father (George Bork) hired on at the base.
I was the last of six kids (Skip, Gerry, Theresa, Joseph, Mary, and me). My father passed away in 2003. My mother (Dolores Irene) returned to the area and now lives in Inyokern. Theresa also returned and lives in Ridgecrest with her husband Dale Goldstrand. Joe has land in Inyokern and a house in Bakersfield. Skip and his wife live in Bakersfield. Gerry lives in Virginia, Mary in Oklahoma.
I married Guinivere Scow nearly 24 years ago. Guin's mother moved her family to Ridgecrest in the mid-1960's. Guin graduated (early) from Burroughs in 1974.
When Guin and I used to visit Ridgecrest in the late 1980's and 1990's, we always expected to see people we went to school with. Other than my friends Doug Taylor and Mike Hinds, we never did. I guess most people tend to move away, and the town has grown since we were kids. It is always a journey into rarely visited memory when we drive through the streets. The old down town area is especially rich with images; Balsam Street (?) with Sprouse Ritz store and Frisbee's bike shop. John's Pizza where Doug and I would plug quarters into Pong, the first video game I'd ever seen. I'm very fond of those hills south of town too. Lots of memories.
03/08/08
Where do you live now? Washington State
How many years were you in the desert? 30 great years; 1942-1972
Are you willing to help with pictures? yes; as I find them
Are you willing to help with stories? yes
Comments:
To Pat Jones, creator of this website: I greatly appreciate the time and hard work you have put in; as do most of the others who have viewed it. Inyokern, Ridgecrest, and China Lake, were great communities to grow up in. I have many friends who still live in Kern County. The memories they all have of the area are good ones. Recently, you have had to tolerate some discouraged individuals like Steve Printy (his letter of 2-21-08); who I greatly disagree with, but who at least had the guts to use his full name.
Then, there was John, who recently wrote; letting his anger and hatred show through. He says he lives in Kernville, however, I can tell you that he doesn't speak for many other people there.The decendents of the Ranchers, Miners, Business people, and other townfolk who live there (and I know many of them) do not feel as he does. John has a right to his opinion, just like I do.
To Frank Breitenstein; I'm glad to know you are still alive and kicking. My best to your brothers; Richard and Eugene. God Bless those who have fought and are still fighting for our country. RJG
03/04/08
Where do you live now? Mimbres, NM work in Morenci, AZ
How many years were you in the desert? 18
Are you willing to help with pictures? If I can find some
Are you willing to help with stories? I'll see if I can come up with some.
Comments:
This site is great...I spent hours going through all the pages and many emotions. Thanks so much for creating it.
I am working in Arizona but my home is in New Mexico so I do not have access to all my photos right now. But when I make a trip home I'll see if I can find some good ones for you.
03/03/08
Where do you live now? california
How many years were you in the desert? 15
Are you willing to help with pictures? n/a
Are you willing to help with stories? n/a
Comments:
funny , I always wanted to ask that same question to people from kernville.
03/01/08
Where do you live now? Eagle Point, Oregon
How many years were you in the desert? 13
Are you willing to help with pictures? I have already done all I can for that
Are you willing to help with stories? I have already put together many of them
Comments:
I am the webmaster for High Desert Memories. I am writing this entry in answer to John who says
"The Navy and United States government stole all the land that is China Lake from Miners and Ranchers, and put it to use for things to Kill People, how can anyone be proud to be from Ridgecrest."
To the best of my knowledge the land used by the Navy for this base was mostly government land. If there were any farmers or miners involved I would bet that they were given something for releasing their land holdings. Also it was started during war time. We were fighting war on two fronts. I doubt there was much argument over land in that case.
I don't know how old you are so I can't tell when you were brought up but I do know that at the time we were trying to bring our military up to a level to discourage further attacks like Japan made on Hawii. The Germans already had started on Jet engines, rocketry, missile tech and other science of war hardware. Because of our poor relations with Russia and a lot of intelligence which was coming forth at that time we knew it was necessary to defend ourselves from what may become better armed forces.
You make another mistake when you say that everything developed on the base was to kill others. There were a lot of life saving devices engineered and tested there also.
I spent 21 years in the Marine Corps and I will tell you that I am glad that there were places like China Lake and the people who were employed there to rapidly build, test and deploy weapons of mass destruction. These weapons saved my life and the lives of thousands of military and civilian personnel when under attack by the enemy.
Ridgecrest was a great place to grow up and be educated. It was safe, pretty much crime free and you could walk anywhere without fear of being accosted. About the only trouble we stirred up was when the sheriff tried to catch us when we were conducting some grudge races on the hill over looking Ridgecrest.
So as far as your comments are concerned I say
you don't really know what your talking about.
|