Laura Cattani and Jack Thomson

00:00 My name is Laura cattani. I'm 38 years old. Today is Friday, March 13th 2024 in Bakersfield, California, and I'm interviewing my grandfather Jack Thompson.

00:18 Yeah, I was born out here if you can. My name is Jack Gordon Thompson, and I was how old are you?

00:33 Won't be 98 for another 3 weeks. I'm 97.

00:40 And as I say, I was born out here in the oil fields, you can say Friday March 13th is the rest of the card Oreo. Today's date is Friday, March 13th 2020, but I was born on April 2nd 1922 lot has changed since then.

01:08 Why is out of work for Associated oil and no I'll send her to the town the time and see if you can get up there on the Bluffs and look North all you see are oil fields out there and that was where the town of oil Center and there was only school and I think now we lived in a area called Dutch Flat and it was a level area there. I think now it's all big tanks. There was quite a lot of houses. There was a couple of dozen houses there and wow and then there was two other rows of houses. There was one they called.

01:55 Poverty rolling one they called Prosperity, right? And where did you guys live when we lived on the north side of Dutch Flat? Okay, and there were two houses up there our house and next door to us was the company doctor. Okay, so I was born in the house there because the doctor was right there is family and then from there.

02:33 They pretty much shut down really got a new oil wells or doing any more work, you know, and I remember my dad telling my mother said I think I'm going to have for transfer. They don't have any work for me here. Haha. He was an accountant and bookkeeper. Haha. And so they anyway we got transferred. He got transferred to it down to Santa Fe Springs and we when we move down there we lived in Whittier for a while. Okay before I come in the house out of the window became available and that was all Farmland back then down there. Yeah. No, I don't think that was far more now, okay.

03:21 And

03:25 But then when he was there I Memering saying this is much different they much work. He got a call from button and the Houghton Brothers Cottonton asked him if he would come up and be manager. Haha. So that's why he left the oil company and we went up and move to Buttonwillow. I think that was probably about thirty five or six. Ok, and at that point, where is your grandfather Crawford farming in the 1880s? And my mother course was raised out there.

04:12 But my father

04:14 Didn't he was born in Dundee Scotland? That's right when he was about 22 or something.

04:26 I understand that he has his oldest brother went to.

04:33 Self

04:35 Africa four of their uncle had a trading post the next one was a daughter and she went to London the next three were girls and they all went to Canada and they have my

04:56 What is mother had a ticket for my dad to go to Canada to and friend came back from here, California? And he said Joelle he doesn't told his mother said he doesn't want to go to Canada California is where the action is Francisco arrive there and

05:26 He's been to keeping books for the fairies there in Dundee and he got a job immediately in San Francisco for the

05:38 Working for the fairies as a bookkeeper.

05:41 And then after a

05:44 A little while

05:48 Are you got?

05:50 Hired by Miller and Lux their office was in main office was in San Francisco and then a couple years later. They sent him to Buttonwillow to be the heads timekeeper and paymaster and so on.

06:08 And of course, that's where he met my mother.

06:13 They got married. Okay, but he went into World War 1 and when he came back, that's when he got the job of the associated oil. Okay, other than going back to Modern Lux. Okay, and

06:31 So, but anyway, we we move there and think it was about 35 or 6. But in 1937, the farmers are in Buttonwillow warm to co-op. Haha for cotton cotton and I'm built the Farmers Co-op. Gin by I add my dad to be the manager of it. Okay, and that's why I remember I

06:57 Graduated from grammar school there in Buttonwillow. And where you working. Would you work on the farm during the Summers on my grandfather's Farm there? I remember we is one of the jobs we always had either my brother I do when I stack the loose. Hay they had a horse where they all know.

07:31 Cable what went over and

07:35 But Bigfork that took it off of the wagon and moved it over and made the Haystack Drive that horse up and then backing up when you wanted to bring the thing down to fill it again the four.

07:59 Course, we did some other work. I member weed.

08:04 Zelda how is the Boy Scouts and the Boy Scouts?

08:11 The housings gave them five acres of cotton and the Scout Troops we go out and hoe the weeds and thin the cotton and irrigated and so on and so are most people growing cotton at that time, but was big cotton and sugar beets alfalfa.

08:39 Lennon So when we had that 5 Acres of cotton in 1937, they came up with the

08:51 Boy Scout Jamboree in Washington DC with a big adventure Scouts that make the most advancement and scouting and so my brother and I happen to be the two that got to go to Jamboree in Washington DC and we were scam for a month on the island there and you guys got there on a bus or did you take a train a train all the way to Washington D C o l

09:36 Turn Johnny Union High School was a bus from Buttonwillow. Haha for 4 years and

09:47 Then I went to JC for two years and I got a job driving that bus that's right. So you were taking kids from Buttonwillow into Bakersfield standard oil pump.

10:10 Station up between Buttonwillow McKittrick. Okay and the bus started there. So when I drove it I had to get a car to drive up there every morning and pick up the bus allow.

10:27 Remember, I got that Chevrolet Coupe that was about I don't know how old about a

10:37 30 model or something that for $20 I drove that up there and parked and then drove the bus in and

10:50 Then came back in after 4 when the school got out of dry we home how old were you when you were driving the bus say I was

11:04 I'm about 18 or so. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Did you have any scary anymore? But I'm back then where you heard you talk about the artesian wells.

11:28 Over my grandfather's

11:32 Property there north of Buttonwillow was on the Slough between Buena Vista Lake and Tulare Lake. Okay, and love flood waters went up through there whenever there was a lot of water in a river.

11:55 I remember the first time that the the floodwaters came down when I drove the bus I got in right it.

12:08 Ford Flex the name of the roads are selfish after about 2 miles and then turns into 24th Street and the Bakersfield going through that water for about a half a mile or more out there was several inches deep across the highway y

12:43 I got up to that where you make a sharp right corner to go on Enos Lane. I think nothing happened. I was right beside you. About halfway to corner and dry them out so that it's slow down because I thought there was a little late is a little building across there that has been hit once and stop. So after that whenever I should come through the water or the first thing I do is ease down on that break until it dries it out. So back then were there a lot of there must have been a lot of wildlife in Buttonwillow with the

13:40 Lots of Jackrabbits we had a lot of rabbit drives. Haha. And I remember last time we kill 30 or 40 jackrabbits fences made into

13:58 Go into a how to true then a circle not a very big pain everybody we get in an hour after we got to the club like what up?

14:16 Course there was a lot of ducks.

14:23 My uncle Randolph Meadowbrook Gun Club. Okay, and these are all

14:31 People from Los Angeles at fairly wealthy people on that club and they had nothing there. Okay. Go to go on some days for when Ranger something on the Ridge Route and they couldn't get up there. Why my Uncle Al Garis my brother and I and a couple of friends that go over to Dachshund and they'd shipment of these the members down in La. LOL.

15:10 Wow.

15:12 So back then were there many regulations on Hunting duck hunting season, but my my grandfather was about

15:31 Who is about 3 miles from the Meadowbrook Gun Club, but I bet he had a pretty bow to see those artesian wells flow like with a foreign stream. OK 4 hours a day. Wow, 65 days a year and you wouldn't have to pump and I know you don't have to be so so he had about a half a mile long one of the old flu so, you know course they were doing this with horses and scraper and they built the banks up on that and put a couple of outlets with

16:19 5 through the gate down there with a handle that you could open it up and let the water out into a ditch derogate. He had to have that.

16:34 Big Reservoir, so that that water when they work.

16:41 Using it for irrigation and would you guys get I know I've heard you talk about going up to the Sierras with some cousins in Belmont.

16:56 I forget that was my grandmother's.

16:59 Brother something that he ate white that had start of the development there.

17:09 Available Sierra and green are they had a pretty large house up there folks never did build a house on their lot, but they had one up there and if we if the White House was filled while we could camp on that lot but he is a way to say with the white chy, yeah.

17:43 Okay. Now that was pretty nice to get up there in the summer on it was because we didn't have thought the best thing I had was a fan.

18:01 And I wanted to ask you also about kind of your college life and afterwards I know you you went into Davis starting as in veterinary medicine at then I agriculture. Okay after I went two years to

18:22 Bakersfield College transfer to Davis. Okay and went

18:30 Another year and then Davis closed in the Army signal Corps took the whole campus over. That was when World War I or World War and

18:45 So

18:46 The out at Meadows field they had a

18:51 Program they called.

18:54 Water draining service WTS and it was Valium pilot training and you got a private license. And so I took that and then when Davis close eye.

19:12 Transfer down to Berkeley and a semester and then I will join the Navy and and the flight and was sent.

19:24 First to Livermore California for primary Flight Training and not was in the steering which is a

19:34 You know, I single engine okay by playing open cockpit then from there. They sent us to there were two places. They had the Navy had flight schools. When was in Florida and one was it Corpus Christi, Texas, and I got sent to Corpus Christi, Texas. Okay, I ended up

20:03 Most of them were stayed in single-engine, but I got transferred into mow the engines and Corpus Christi. The first job I had in the Navy was in Banana River Florida flying a pby 5A, which is the heaviest flying boat with an instructor and four or five students in the back with the first radar bombsights. The Navy had when we were training bombardier's haha and it was kind of tedious flying you had to fly exactly.

20:46 1000 feet and exactly

20:50 155 miles an hour and

20:57 The scope out of the knob on the top of it and when they turned out we had a little needle out in front of us that and when they turn to the right of the needle went right when they turn left and they had to get the Target coming exactly down the center of that bomb site, so they had to

21:21 That's not until I guess they just turned a little bit. We just turned a little if they turned it quite a bit while we

21:32 And so after that is that then you came home and met or we met Nana.

21:44 Factors. I met a fella from Bakersfield. It was a friend of my brother's name was Bill Henry and he was in charge of

21:59 Navy

22:03 Amadeus in Flight fighter training and in Vero Beach, Florida, and he I don't know I am a couple other guys. I think I met him one weekend on Sunday in someplace and

22:24 He said we're getting this new twin-engine night fighter and he said we're having trouble with these single-engine Pilot's and we said well aware. We're already more than in the middle of the floor. So he said well, I don't know if anything will happen. But anyway, you took all our names and everything in in about a week or so. We got called up into the Admiral's office in Jacksonville, and he said,

22:53 Well, you guys have the best job in the Navy but he said you volunteered for night fighter Duty and somebody said you had met any fighter cutting so you got to go back and go all the way through single engine.

23:10 Water training and that was a joke.

23:16 They're in Florida to

23:20 I remember we

23:23 What am I even?

23:26 When we were finishing up one of the things they did they marked carrier deck on.

23:35 Lost my air strap, and then they had a

23:39 Guy out there with a Y Excel Direct us the same way. They would on a air aircraft carrier. We had to come in and land on that. Yeah.

23:58 We

24:00 Finally went out and

24:02 Got one days checking out on my carrier self, but that's all we got. Okay, and

24:12 So by the time that time why the war was over and I pretty much shut everything down and I know I was

24:27 Go from flying some planes. They called we called him War where he's from there.

24:41 I think that was it.

24:44 What was in Florida had a big Landing field there that they could these planes we call them War where is but they were either the engines were about run out or the they were shot up pretty good and they wanted to get him there. That's where they're wrecking yard was I could take them apart and keep parks that we're good. I was wondering maybe we could talk a little bit about when you know, you and Nana started dating and we'll see after the war so then I came I got out. Okay because the war was over in went to back to Davis for one more semester and then graduated and what did you get? What was your degree in agriculture? Okay.

25:39 So I got home and I member I met my RC Frank my wife's brother one day and he said they're they're having that big party for the returning veterans at the Bakersfield Inn. He said my sister she was a

26:00 Control tower operator in the Navy during the war. She was never the same feels where I was right thing, but I never did land there but she was a most of the time out in Hawaii.

26:15 And he said she doesn't have anybody to go with and I said well all

26:20 I'll go further, but you knew her from high school, but so we will have to say hello. Yeah, but after that.

26:41 She went down to Beverly Hills because she her degree was she's graduated from Berkeley and it was in political science and I weren't jobs. So she went down to Beverly Hills to secretarial school for a while. Okay. Are you guys keeping in touch up in touch and Road and I got down there a time or two and see

27:14 Came home a few weekends and about a year after that first time.

27:25 Taking her to the party party there at the Lincoln field in for the veterans about a year later. We were married. Okay, and we finished.

27:38 Secretarial school secretary of school on got a job in Bakersfield. And where did you guys first live after you got married?

27:52 I think

27:55 Fat in Bakersfield or in Buttonwillow know we lived in Bakersfield Bakersfield, okay.

28:05 And when did you start farming in Buttonwillow? Because when I graduated from Davis the lease was my grandfather out of his farm least. Okay at least wasn't up. So I don't know. I'm quite a few months later. So that's why I couldn't start I did work there Davis for a while after I graduated animal husbandry Department. Okay, and why did you start farming your grandfather's land and not one of the Crawford cousins?

28:41 Well

28:43 Save my other the Crawford cousins at the uncle that had

28:49 The managers at Meadowbrook Gun Club move to tulelake and he had a son my age. Okay, but they were up there in tulelake. Okay, so he didn't want to send.

29:15 So I started farming that and where you farming mostly cotton at that point.

29:23 Hi.

29:25 Quit that we have developed a lot more of the sagebrush around there. Okay, and how would you develop that? Well, we started out with the cattle planning irrigated pasture. Okay, but we found out after a year or two that we could grow rice Duvall put in a year that would take us there for a while with variegated Pastor how cuz you had to Lisa the salt out of the top several feet of the land good for farming co-op in Buttonwillow rice growers association Isle and started growing rice.

30:20 It was actually better when they made us a little more money in and develop the ground quicker time. I left there because

30:37 My wife folks decided they wanted to retire. Okay and their Lands End of Bakersfield on their Farm was there just out of our between Auburn and weedpatch. Haha corner of Buena Vista.

30:57 And

31:00 Vineland, okay. So we'll then you started farming both in Buttonwillow and doesn't want airplane. Wow. Yeah. I also Farm 260 acres and down with a ridge Homesteader than 18.

31:27 88. Okay, when I first came up from Orange County and but it hadn't been farmed and then during the war someone lease that he wanted me he had about four or five almond trees around the ranch out there by the mall and they knew how they

31:54 Purdue so he asked me to plant some Mama's on there. So I planted 40 acres almonds, and I remember to get a Shaker if it's on the back of a tractor I had to go up to

32:10 Set up the North End of the Sacramento Valley to reading and to find one cuz nobody else is a long time and so when my

32:31 Grandfather's that Ryan so I only got those trees into production, but then

32:40 Not the uncle that have the

32:44 Meadowbrook but another

32:48 Brother of my mother

32:53 What is a

32:55 I know he was working in town but heading why he inherited that okay. So why I'm down Wheeler Ridge he saw a little while later. Yeah, and I was wondering what do you think about the fact that all almost all of your grandchildren are still in farming? I think that's fine.

33:27 Custopharm knows places from Buttonwillow to Wheeler red stuff or even with but I had a crop dusters that taken out.

33:44 It was a single-engine by play. No single-engine monoplane and they had taken me I think I got about a 75 horsepower engine and put about a hundred and fifty on it and made it.

34:06 Tank around the fuselage and they were putting that was when we had the Alfalfa Weevil, and we were having the irrigated Alfalfa about twice a month.

34:19 So they put the material directly into the

34:24 The exhaust and lay down a smokescreen a little breeze came up and blew that smoke over about two miles and I was still killing ever it takes so they they never could get it licensed and that's why I was able to buy. Okay, and that's a used to go on a big airport like out at Meadows filled with that big engine. If you held the brakes and opens the throttle it released from you can just about take off Crossways on the runway cuz it was really get off the ground.

35:13 That was a nice one, and I had it until

35:18 On the big dust storm came out there.

35:23 All right, 1974 was a big dust storm.

35:35 I had it tied down and I had great big this way. It's buried a couple of feet and a chain, but I had two snaps on end of the wing and then to the tail and that.

35:52 When texts are playing out and broke those snaps and rolled it across the corner of the reservoir. The only thing I sold was I saved the engine and it was still good. I sold it, but the airplane was wreck so he couldn't well Granddad. I really appreciate you coming in and telling our stories. It's always great to hear about all of

36:28 All of your adventures

36:34 Yeah.

36:36 We live there in.

36:39 Will Dobby house? You know, that's right.

36:44 Fluffy weather finally when I decided it was time for me to

36:52 Stop & Shop

36:54 Boys were taking over Jeff took over the

37:00 Branch out there at tell me one in Buttonwillow to Sons.

37:08 By that time I'd had about a thousand acres of cotton on each one. Wow.

37:14 But now they're growing mostly vegetables and melons and yeah. Yeah and you had grapes at some point they were already there when I took over yeah and wine grapes.

37:41 The other were both wine and table grapes inside Vinings. Yeah.

37:48 Okay.

37:50 Okay.

37:52 Unless there's anything else you want to do.

37:57 Have

38:01 Good.

38:03 Thank you.

38:09 No.