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17 April 2006 -
Monday
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Around 8:00 am cousin
Bill took us out to one of the many orange groves near town where we filled
several bags. It is indeed a rare treat
to eat such fruit fresh right off the tree.
The bounty of this harvest was to be shared by us with others along
the remainder of our journey.
Following this we visited the Vandalia Cemetery where we found the
graves of our 2nd great-grandparents John R. and Mary Ella
(Johnson) McVicker. John, a veteran
of the American Civil War, was born in Ohio and had brought his family to
Tulare County, California around 1890.
We were back at the
house before 9:00 am where we picked up Delores and headed out for
breakfast. As Tom had a habit of
mentioning his pleasure at eating biscuits and gravy to our hosts we were
taken to the best place in town that served this kind of meal. Feeling ready to sample this locales fare
we again ordered them. They were
really great as the platter included two large biscuits each with a sausage
patty with two scrambled eggs placed on top. This was all finally topped with
about a quart of sausage gravy. We
should be ashamed because such food is not the healthiest of meals but we are
indeed weak when it comes to ignoring these types of cuisine. We vowed not to mention such things again
and to maintain a diet of cereals and yogurt for the remainder of the trip. After breakfast we
headed out of town for a visit to the Tulare County Courthouse located in
Visalia. The office containing deed
records was a new experience for us. All land records back to 1987 were on a
computer system any other records and indexes prior to then had been
converted to microfilm housed in several large metal cabinets. As we did not have access to any books or
ledgers we spent much time cranking through hard to read film. We took digital images of our discoveries
with varying success. The images on
one machine gave us so much trouble we had to give up and submit a request
for copies. Our order of a mere three
pages to be copied cost us $7.00! It
seemed that the County of Tulare had a good thing going with their copying
service. We’ll just have to work harder to perfect our ability to take
digital images from antiquated microfilm machines. We were pretty tired and dispirited when we left the courthouse
and headed back to Porterville. Since it was only
mid-afternoon we proceeded back to the Porterville cemeteries. Fortunately for us all the local
cemeteries are in one location. A
very nice person in the cemetery office looked up the surnames we were
interested in on her computer and printed out the location of each ancestor’s
grave. Supplied with the
computerized listings and the appropriate maps we headed out to search. We were armed with cameras, 2-way radios,
and a brush to clean off the stones, many of which lay flat on the
ground. In a short time we had taken
photos of them all. With our success
at this project the frustration we felt earlier in the day had gone
away. |
We arrived back at the
house around 4:30 pm where cousin Bill was waiting to take us out for a visit
to the Porterville Museum. Both Bill
and Delores are active in the museum’s efforts to collect maintain, and
display the many artifacts significant to the history of Porterville. The museum is located in the old railroad
depot built in 1913 in the Spanish style architecture of the day. It was really great to have our own tour
guide as Bill patiently showed us every room and answered our many
questions. We were especially
impressed with the many beautiful wooden cabinets he had constructed over the
years to house the large collection.
Soon after returning to the house we discovered that the day would get
even better where Tom found Bill grilling ribs for our dinner!
Eventually we settled down to a wonderful meal of ribs, rice and
asparagus. Before we began we raised
our glasses to toast Bill and Delores’s 52nd wedding anniversary
for which we were so fortunate to share with them.
Bill and Delores Scruggs The remainder of the
evening was spent sitting on their deck, which overlooked the city. We talked of many things and just relaxed
and enjoyed each other’s company. We
topped the evening off with a piece of Delores’s lemon cake for which Tom
obtained the recipe. |
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