A LOOK BACK AT VENTURA COUNTY; FARMERS JOINED HANDS TO BEAT GREAT DEPRESSION.

Byline: Krystn Shrieve Daily News Staff Writer

Ventura County farmers were used to living through lean times, so the struggle of making ends meet during the Great Depression wasn't that much different from challenges they faced when the harvest was poor.

Everybody knew their neighbors, and it was that close-knit sense of community that helped families in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks pull through tough times. On the other end of the county, the oil boom provided a good living for many of the people fleeing to the West Coast from Oklahoma, Arkansas and other Dust Bowl states.

``They came from everywhere with everything they owned tied to the top of their car,'' said Suzanne Lawrence, part of a traveling group of actors who recount the days of Prohibition for the Ventura County Museum of History & Art. ``It was an exciting time because there was work. People were building wooden oil barracks and doing lots of drilling.''

Phyllis Vaniman, who was born in Simi Valley 79 years ago, said she never experienced the hunger and hardship the Depression brought to most of the nation.

``We had plenty of food,'' Vaniman said. ``I didn't know there was a Depression. I just didn't feel it.''

In fact, the years of the Great Depression seemed to be a time of celebration - or, perhaps, just a way for residents to temporarily set aside some of their troubles.

Simi Valley residents remember the inaugural Pioneer Days in 1932, which has grown into what is now Simi Valley Days. In 1934, Thousand Oaks was the site of a colossal barbecue, where 11 tons of beef were served to about 32,000 hungry people.

Johnny Varble remembers the fun atmosphere that blanketed the town on those occasions.

``It went on all day and all night,'' said Varble, who was born in 1928. ``There were barbecues and a hay wagon and rodeos, and people would dance on the pavement. Everyone bought Cokes, and there was so much food.

Jack Henry's family rolled into the area from North Hollywood on the day of the big Thousand Oaks barbecue and decided never to leave.

``It was quite a barbecue,'' Henry said. ``There were two Ferris wheels and pony rides. About the only thing in the area at the time was a farm called Jungleland where they raised tigers and camels and all kinds of wild animals.''

But like Vaniman, Henry said he never went hungry during the Depression. His father, Edward Henry, was a delivery man with the Franco-American Baking Co.

``My dad was lucky to be in the bread business because he made good money,'' Henry said. ``Everybody was eating bread in those days because it was a cheap staple. People could afford it.''

People in those days were mostly farmers. Fields were covered with citrus groves, walnut and apricot orchards, tomato vines and rows and rows of barley. Those crops filled the bellies of the farmers and their neighbors when most of the nation went to bed hungry.

Frisbie Brown, whose family produced 10,000 boxes of oranges and 30 tons of walnuts in one bumper year, said the farmers learned to depend on one another for survival, selflessly lending a horse or farm equipment. From that cooperation was born farming associations in which farmers pooled resources to pay for marketing on a larger scale.

``My father was the director of the California Walnut Growers,'' said Brown, whose family came to Simi Valley in 1904. ``There was a lot of competition for walnut pickers so we established a pay scale, but mostly it was more of a marketing tool.''

While coping with the problems of the Depression, residents also struggled against Prohibition, which theoretically kept alcohol out of county residents' hands from 1903 until '33. But Lawrence of the county museum said people went to amazing lengths to get alcohol.

She recalled that her father was a volunteer for the Ventura city Fire Department, which shared quarters with the Police Department. Police officers would store alcohol confiscated in raids in a room that firefighters would back their fire trucks up to.

``The policemen were putting it in through the front door, and the firefighters were taking it out through the back door,'' Lawrence said. ``Every firefighter had his own hiding hole, and at night my father would sometimes hear people crawling around stealing liquor from someone else's hiding place.''

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Photo

PHOTO Farmers seed crops on Appleton Farm in Simi in this photo from yesteryear, a time when farmers depended on one another.

John Sparkhawk Appleton, courtesy Bill Appleton Collection