Celebrations: Christmas, Agua Caliente - 1953

That was the year Mother made matching pajamas for me and my doll.

[From my personal collection]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Christmas at Agua Caliente - 1952

When the trailer was new...

[From my personal collection]

I don't remember this awning at all--by next year it had been replaced with a red one.


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: History of Agua Caliente Springs and Ague Caliente Regional Park

Growing up in San Diego with parents who had learned to love the desert long before I arrived in their lives, for me the place named Agua Caliente never was the one in Tijuana. Until I was about 12 we spent almost Christmas and Easter vacations in that county park located in the middle of the vast Anza Borrego State Park.*

Over the years I've written several posts about Agua Caliente Regional Park including one about Mary's Store and earlier this year I got an email from Fred Wills who wanted to know if he could use the pictures from our blog in the history he was writing about the park. I'm sure it was a pleasant surprise when I not only agreed but informed him that I had more pictures to share. My only requirement was that I get photo credit and a copy of his finished book.

[Courtesy of Frederick H. Wills]

Well, I met up with Fred and Stephanie at the Mission Valley Library yesterday for the return of my color slides together with my copy of the final product and I'm happy to report that it's a very attractive and informative history of the area that I'm looking forward to reading.**

If you would like your own copy, you can reach the author at:

Frederick H. Wills
Desierto Relampago Books
2918 Naugatuck Avenue
San Diego, CA 92117




*In fact Mother told me that I took my first steps there.
**And there I am on the cover, waving at the camera.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Agua Caliente, 1950

Dad always wanted us to face into the sun for his photos--even my hat wasn't enough to keep 3-year-old me from squinting.

[From my personal collection]

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Currey

This slide is titled "Easter 1948--Agua Caliente" and Mother and I are standing near an ocotillo in full bloom.

[From my personal collection]

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Christmas 1958 with the Curreys

After that cold wind drove us away from Joshua Tree in 1953, we continued to spend our Christmas vacation at Agua Caliente until 1958, when once again we tried a different location, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona. It was a success! At least we weren't driven away by inclement weather.

But somehow our Christmas tree got left at home that year (not the presents though) so I made my own tiny tree using buttons from Mother's sewing kit) to decorate a small bare branch. Dad took a photo of it which is so badly out of focus* that I won't inflict it on you.

[Probably Twin Peaks Campground, from my personal collection]

[Our truck and trailer on the left side of the park]

*I don't think there's one decent photo of a Christmas tree in the whole Currey collection.


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Christmas 1953 with the Curreys

For a change, in 1953 the decision was made to spend our Christmas vacation in the high desert instead of Agua Caliente so that's how we ended up at Cottonwood Spring in Joshua Tree National Park in late December.

I was six that Christmas and have only vague memories of our stay there. From my attire in the photo below it must have been warm at least one day, but what I chiefly remember (besides all the really cool rock formations) was the cutting wind that started to blow. The days were bright but cold and our coats were inadequate.

So, after a day or two spent huddling in the trailer to keep warm, we left Joshua Tree and returned to our usual holiday destination at Agua Caliente.

[All photos from my personal collection]

Unfortunately the only photo I have of our Christmas tree isn't in focus, but you get the idea. (I still have one of the glass ornaments that was on that tree.)

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Mary's Store

Until the Curreys acquired their first Ocotillo lot in 1960 we always spent Christmas in our trailer at Agua Caliente, a county park completely surrounded by Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.* In fact, Mother and Dad always said that I took my first steps there. 

[Sign at the Park entrance, undated slide from my personal collection]

So last week when I finally began the monumental task of scanning the 35mm color slides, I wasn't surprised to find pictures taken at Agua Caliente, including the ones below of Mary's Store, both the old one and the new.**

[Mary's old store 1952, from my personal collection]

[Mary's new store 1953, from my personal collection]

Of course the Curreys would stop by to chat with Mary when were stayed at the park but they were too frugal to be customers at her store and I didn't realize that she was running county library branch there too until I was doing research for this post.

According to the San Diego Union, Mary Smith's concession at Agua Caliente dated from 1950.

[Date: Sunday, June 25, 1950   Paper: San Diego Union (San Diego, California)   Page: 21  

This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

And Desert Magazine's March 1951 issue had a feature story about Mary and her store.

[Internet Archive, Desert Magazine, March 1951]

I found a report of Mary's death in a letter printed in Desert Magazine's March 1960 issue:

A Desert Lady Passes . . . 

Desert:
I am a friend of Mary Smith, and I want to tell you of her recent passing. I'm sure many of your readers are acquainted with Mary Smith and her "smallest store" at Agua Caliente Hot Springs, Calif. She passed away Dec. 29 at Mallacoats Rest Home at Alpine. 

After Mary sold her store at the springs, she bought five acres in Mason Valley, later selling that, too, and coming to live with my husband and me at Campo. She was bedridden in my home for nearly two years. 

In December. 1958, my husband passed away, and so I had to put Mary in a rest home.
Mary was born in Utah on June 1, 1891. Her maiden name was Mary Elizabeth Lape. 

MRS. PAUL JOHNSON
Campo, Calif

[Desert Magazine online files]

You can read a current story about Agua Caliente here.

*Agua Caliente is about 110 miles south east of San Diego on County S2.
**I think her old store may have burned.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Curreys and Travel Trailer #3

These two photos will have to serve as my Sunday Drive post for today. I promise to search out more images of the 1952 Boles Aero (and explain these two) next week.

[Window Rock, 1953, from my personal collection]

[Agua Caliente County Park, Easter 1954, from my personal collection]

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.