My Sept. 4 column in these pages (“A lesson, a warning, and a proposal for the Nipomo Mesa”) contained some inaccurate information about the Nipomo Men’s Club buildings on West Tefft Street in Nipomo. Let’s correct the record.
My research for this column had led me to believe—mistakenly—that the building occupied by the Men’s Club had been built in 1936 for a public school to serve the children of the migrant laborers in a nearby encampment. I’ve since learned that this building was originally built for the U.S. Army at Camp Roberts during WWII. When the war ended 80 years ago, the Nipomo Men’s Club purchased this Army surplus building and moved it to its current site for their clubhouse.
Still unknown: Was the school for migrant laborers situated on the same site as the Men’s Club? In 1948, Nipomo Union Elementary leased this building (and others) for temporary classrooms while Nipomo and Dana elementary schools were under construction.
My thanks to Tom and Deb Geaslen and their colleagues who helped me with these corrections. I hope to learn more of the unique history of Nipomo—especially about that earlier, Depression-era school on the Mesa that served the “Okies” struggling to maintain their families.
Our public schools represent who we are as a nation. In the troubled times of the ’30s, and even today, our schools manifest the best spirit of a caring community—like Nipomo. ∆
This article appears in Student Guide 2025.
Be careful, John. You’ll let the cat out of the bag, not all of America’s field workers were of Hispanic extraction. They were primarily Caucasian and yes, during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, they came to California and the west Coast to pick fruit and vegetables in the Central Valley. Shortly their after, many put on a military uniform or worked in the factories producing arms during WWII. Hispanic folks filled that void when they left. Are Caucasians the arrogant, lazy, and entitled people the media likes to portray us as? Like most ethnicities, it’s a mixed bag. But when the economy collapses, as it now has, and higher end jobs disappear, AND we don’t have to compete with MILLIONS of illegal immigrants, wages will rise for jobs in agriculture.
As someone who has lived in Oklahoma at Ft.Sill for three years and can proudly claim generations of family from Miami, Ok, these facts need to be broadcast loudly.
The interesting thing about the Great Depression was the advent of basic, public housing for field workers. There has been a war against public housing AND all aspects of FDR’s social safety net ever since and judging by the national squalor we can see and feel the minute we step outside or when the items our grocery basket gets smaller and smaller, it would appear the same forces that created the Great Depression (Wall Street speculators and bankers) have won.
Laughing! But happy to see the Comments section back to normal.
In the midst of our rapid economic meltdown, I can’t help but think of that movie, “The Deer Hunter.” It took place on a Pennsylvania steel town, complete with a giant steel or coking plant. During that same era, Judas Priest produced a record (1980) titled, “British Steel.” The west had heavy industry and relative stability. Between now and then, a duplicitous Boomer liberal class packed up and shipped out our jobs to developing countries and an unbeatable juggernaut of 1.5 BILLION jealous people, who now have all our heavy industry and high tech jobs at the same time they have cornered the market on global commodities.
It’s time to build walls and rebuild our own industry and trade amongst ourselves. We have iron ore and an unemployed educated class. As a nation, we have no choice but to welch on our 37 trillion dollar debt. This will entail building a robust social safety net to include food stamps and public housing for all, because we will all be impacted by national bankruptcy. It is clear the rich refuse to do their part, that’s fine, they can either surrender their obscene wealth to the state, or they can get on their yachts and sail away.
“Welch on our 37 trillion dollar debt”? This writer seems to have the notion that the national debt is just a loan owned to a few rich guys which can easily be discharged by bankruptcy, but it is money owed to almost all of us in the form of the treasury securities which banks use to hold our money. It is everyone’s bank account, and much of our retirement accounts. If it vanishes, so do our checking and savings accounts. Unless you hold a lot of gold, or tangible assets, you will be wiped out.
“This writer seems to have the notion that the national debt is just a loan owned to a few rich guys which can easily be discharged by bankruptcy, but it is money owed to almost all of us in the form of the treasury securities which banks use to hold our money.”
I’m quite aware how our economy works, sir. You seem to think the powers that be hold our interests sacrosanct. I’m referring to our social safety net and the purchasing power of the dollar. It’s already happening, the bet is already being “welched” on, the dollar has lost roughly 11 percent of its purchasing power in the last 8 months. This is a result of bank bailouts, money printing, debt offerings. Consequently, we are seeing decades of austerity and runaway inflation. Sure, the dollar may continue to exist, but you’ll need a wheelbarrow of dollars just to buy a loaf of bread. Don’t insult my intelligence, John and wise up, the common man means nothing to politicians, banks, and our oligarchic overlords.
A rising tide lifts all yachts.
With so much attention being placed on Charlie Kirk, liberals, possessed with a type of envy and anxiety (as Freud noted), are again, unable to move on to a level of maturity which might actually force them to focus on external conditions such as national poverty and unemployment, rather than their own lack of a penis. Liberals as well a conservatives, shake their fingers at the murder of Charlie Kirk but say things about the mass mass murder of Americans through deaths of despair or a broken medical system. This is the real tragedy, not the passing of a talk show host that mimicked Jerry Springer.