In Memoriam - Juanita Coronado Gass (1926 - 2022)

 

It is with great sadness that I write about the August 10, 2022, death of my 95-year-old cousin, Juanita Coronado Gass.  She was born September 14, 1926, in Vallejo, California, the eldest daughter of Jim and Juanita Coronado.  Jim was one of 13 children born to Mariano & Louisa Coronado, my grandparents.

She was a lifelong resident of Vallejo, attended St. Vincent Grammar and High School a few blocks from her home, graduating in 1945.  She married Jim Ley and had three children, Diane, Suzanne, and Stephen.  Jim and Juanita divorced in 1968.

Diane Ley remembers her mother as having great perseverance:

After my siblings and I had been in school awhile, Mom decided to get a part-time job.  This was in the early 60s when most women’s job opportunities were limited to how many words they could type per minute.  At her first job interview, she flunked her typing test.  But she did not let that deter her.  She came home and practiced and practiced on an old manual typewriter until she reached the requisite 45 words per minute.  Then she got a job.

A few years later, she decided she needed an additional part-time job.  She saw an ad for an instructor at the old Kentwig Health Club, here in Vallejo.  She had no experience in either teaching a class, or did she know the types of exercises you would do in a gym.  She went to the library, checked out books on fitness, and practiced until she mastered the art of a workout.  She not only got the job, but she became one of their most popular instructors.[1]

Juanita later began full-time work at Mare Island.  She started in the library and then moved to the Recreation Department.  It was at Mare Island that she met Jim Gass.  Jim was the Athletic Director at Mare Island, and this is the way he described meeting Juanita:

Later that month, the Director of the Special Services hired an Assistant Librarian.  Her name was Juanita Ley.  She was introduced to the staff.  When she got to my desk, I was seated. I looked up and saw this beautiful face smiling at me.  I couldn’t stand up because my legs were frozen, and I thought I was having a mild stroke.  I began checking books out of the library at a frenzied pace.  One day she said, “You’re certainly checking out a lot of books.”  I replied, “It’s not the books I’m checking out.” She blushed and our romance began.[2]

Jim and Juanita were married in 1970 and purchased a home in Vallejo on Illinois Street.  Juanita (also known as Nita) worked at Mare Island for 22 years.  She enjoyed reading and traveling especially after they both retired.

Jim & Juanita Gass - on vacation

Juanita was also known for her thoughtfulness and generosity.  Diane Ley, her daughter, relayed an example of her generosity.  A friend of her brother was going to be married, but they didn’t have much money, so Juanita and Jim told them to use a family-owned cabin in Lake County for their honeymoon.  When they arrived there and opened the door, there were flowers, food, and gifts for them inside.[3]

I didn’t know Juanita well when I was young, because there was a great age difference, although our birth dates (month & day) were one day apart.  She probably knew me as a shy young cousin who came along on family gatherings.  But later in life when we visited California from the east coast, we scheduled family lunches together.  She had a great sense of humor, and I was always amazed at how much she knew about the Coronado family and especially the family secrets!  She would help me identify the family and non-family members in the photos we shared.

I last saw Juanita in December 2019 when we visited the Residential Care Home where she and Jim lived.  She was still her perky self and told me more family secrets, which I will continue to share in this blog.  I am certainly missing her.

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[1] Diane Ley, Mom’s Eulogy, Celebration of Life, St. Vincent Ferrer Church, Vallejo, CA, August 23, 2022.

[2] Jim Gass, Juanita and Jim Gass, Our Life Together, Celebration of Life, St. Vincent Ferrer Church, Vallejo, CA, August 23, 2022.

[3] Diane Ley, email to Hal Phipps, September 9, 2022.

Early Coronado Family Life in Vallejo

Mariano Coronado and his future wife, Louisa Madrid, grew up in the Napa area.  Mariano lived with his family in the foothills of Yountville and for a while in the Salvador area just north of Napa City.  Louisa lived in Napa City and then in the Yountville area.

Although Mariano and Louisa were married in Napa in 1884 and their first child, Marianita was born in Napa in 1885, they were to raise their large family in Vallejo, just south of the Napa County line.  An intriguing question is: why did they move?

Mariano’s good friend, and witness at his wedding, Manual Madrid[1], had moved to Vallejo in 1880 where he worked on the 1,000-acre Tobin[2] ranch.  In his third year there, he was promoted to manager of the ranch and remained in charge for twelve more years.

I suspect that shortly after his marriage and birth of his first child, Mariano worked on the Tobin ranch with Manual.  Mariano and his family may also have lived in a home on or near the ranch.  Mariano and Louisa’s next three children were born in Vallejo[3]: Dolph in 1887, Hess in 1888 and Guadalupe in 1890.

In early 1891, first-born 5-year-old Marianita took ill with tuberculosis and died on 26 January 1891.  Her death certificate[4] said that she died at the Tobin Ranch, supporting my premise that the Coronado family lived on the ranch.  Misery in the family continued when Guadalupe, who had just been born in 1890, suddenly died on 11 April 1891.

I can only surmise that Mariano finally decided through the grief of their lost children that his new family needed a home of their own.  He didn’t look very far and found a good piece of land not far from the Tobin ranch – about 1 ½ miles away.  The land was between the main road that led from Vallejo towards Napa - and the Southern Pacific railway.  It was a long stretch of land, trapezoid in shape – about 3 ½ acres.

On 22 August 1891, M. P. Coronado[5] paid Simon Corcoran[6] $300 in gold coin for the land, likely savings from wages earned working on the Tobin ranch.

The map to the left is the area north of Vallejo and just south of the Napa County border.[7]  The blue arrow shows the strip of land that M.P. Coronado purchased – between the Napa-Vallejo Road and the Southern Pacific railroad line.  The first red arrow points toward one of the Tobin ranches (1,000 acres in size) that was likely the farm where Manual Madrid and Mariano Coronado and families lived and worked.  It is located about 1 ½ miles from the newly purchased Coronado property.  Just southwest of the Tobin Ranch is another red arrow showing the Vallejo Sulphur Springs location.  After 1895, Manual Madrid would manage and then own this Sulphur Springs – renaming it Blue Rock Springs, which became a well-known resort.

This is a detail showing the 3 ½ acres that Mariano purchased[8].  The Napa-Vallejo road and the railroad are the vertical lines that surround the property.  Note that there is a road that intersects the Napa-Vallejo road just south of the family property.  It was called the Sulphur Spring Road – and was the main road that led to the Sulphur Spring resort and passed by the Tobin Ranch.  Mariano would later open a restaurant and bar at this important intersection.[9]

I don’t know if there was a house on the property that Mariano bought in 1891, but my guess is that there was not.  That meant that Mariano may have organized friends and neighbors to help him build his new home.  He would eventually plant the area with trees (eucalyptus along the road, fig, quince, apple, peach, pear and grapefruit), vegetables, and raised cattle, pigs and horses on the property.

To the right is a photo of the first Coronado home, a modest one story, which Mariano built on his acquired land.[10]

Below is a close up photo of the family on the porch.  Based on the ages of the children these photos were taken in 1899.

Mother, Louisa Coronado, holding baby John (Doc) (3 months old).  Hess in
the middle row (11).  Dolph (12), Jimmy (2), Dutch (7) & Louise (6) in the
bottom row.

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[1] According to my mother, Cecelia Coronado Phipps, Manuel Madrid and Louisa Madrid were cousins.  I haven’t been able to confirm this, but I know that they lived next door to one another in the 1870 Census.  As further evidence of the close family relationship between Manuel and Mariano, Manual Madrid courted Mariano’s sister, Angelita Coronado, and married her in Napa on 18 July 1886.

[2] James F. Tobin was an Irishman born in 1830.  When nineteen years old he moved to America, and settled initially in New York.  In 1855 he moved to California, first San Francisco and then Vallejo.  His first occupation was as a butcher, but he then moved into farming and stock-raising activities.  By 1880 he owned 3,000 acres in the Vallejo area.  History of Solano County, …, A Full and Particular Biography of Its Early Settlers and Principal Inhabitants, Wood Alley & Co, San Francisco, 1879, page 394.

[3] Church baptism records show the children were born in Vallejo; the records are not specific about the actual location.

[4] Certificate of Death, City of Vallejo Death Records, 1891, page 350, accessed from Solano County Genealogical Society Library.

[5]  Mariano began to use his initials “M.P.” instead of his Spanish first name.

[6]  Simon Corcoran bought land from John Williamson the previous year.  The property he sold to M.P. was part of his larger purchase.  The property purchased by M.P. on 22 August 1891 is recorded in the Solano County, California, land records, Book 112, Page 154.

[7] This map is a portion of the Historical Atlas Map of Solano County, Compiled, Drawn and Published from Personal Examinations and Surveys, By Thompson and West, San Francisco, Cal., 1878, page 46-47, map no. 7.  Current GPS coordinates for the locations on the map: blue arrow (family property): https://tinyurl.com/y2u4gqcu ; north red arrow (Tobin Ranches): https://tinyurl.com/y6qhotlt ; south red arrow (Vallejo Sulphur Springs): https://tinyurl.com/y6hzz6vo  (My son, David, identified these current GPS locations and recommended that I include them.)

[8] Ibid

[9] The Sulphur Spring Road is generally where Lewis Brown Drive exists today along with Highway 37.  What used to be the Napa-Vallejo Highway now follows the alignment of Lincoln Highway or Broadway.  The main highway from Vallejo to Napa is now Sonoma Blvd or Highway 29.

[10] These two photos of the first Coronado home and the family are colorized versions of the original black & white photos in my files.  I used the online My Heritage genealogy website which uses a computer generated method of colorizing photos.  They turn out to be clearer than the original black & white photos.

Marian Coronado Remembers - Part Two

This is a continuation of the September 12^th post where cousin Gary Coronado interviewed our Aunt Toots on April 16, 1984 about her early life in the Coronado family in Vallejo, California.[1]

Q. Where did you kids go to school? What was it like?

A. Frank, Celia and I went to Vallejo High.  We also went to Saint Vincent’s.  I can remember walking along the railroad tracks to school.  Our parents made us walk this route because it was safe.  It would take about two hours.  We would stop to meet classmates at Flosden Acres.  After school we would go to visit Jimmy and Juanita[2] on Kentucky Street.  Sometimes, if it was late we would stay overnight.  Most of the time, however, Papa would pick us up in the afternoon and drive us home.  And sometimes, he would drive us to school in the morning.

Q. What special memories do you have? What did you do for family fun? Vacations?

A. The ordinary things that families do.  I loved Christmas.  Because Dolph[3] was a young and successful businessman, he would make things special for us.  He would dress as Santa Claus, dropping off candy, a stack of bananas, oranges, etc.  In particular, he would take great care to see that Celia and I had a special day.

Since the restaurant and bar was part of our home, there was never any mystery to drinking.  Papa would say, “You can have anything you want to drink.”  Celia and I never liked the taste of liquor.  I did, occasionally like the taste of a Creme de Menthe drink.

Jimmy and Juanita would take Papa, Mama, and us to Monterey for a holiday.  We would stay in a hotel.  I also recall travelling to San Luis Obispo for a vacation.

Q. Was our family poor? Wealthy?

A. Well, Gary, Papa was a very able businessman.  The fact was, however, he had ten kids.  He had to be successful in order to provide for us.  Most of our needs were provided for by our ranch.  We had chickens to provide us with eggs, ducks, a milk cow, peacocks, canaries, and a garden.  He also butchered his own meat.

We always had plenty to eat.  We had beans for breakfast, bean sandwich for lunch and more beans for dinner!  That was all right with me because I liked Mama’s beans!

Q. Any particular event in your young life that comes to mind?

A. When I was about fifteen, we had a tragic fire.  It completely destroyed the Inn.  It was caused by defective wiring.  While the Inn was being rebuilt, we had to live in a tent near an orchard.  The new Inn was smaller.  Later, Papa built a home on our property.  It was north of the Inn.

Q. Did you ever go to the Sulfur Springs Hotel[4] to visit our relatives?

A. Indeed.  It was a glorious place.  There was a stage that transported tenants from town.  Manuel Madrid was the owner.  He was a nice, pleasant Spanish man - quiet, soft spoken.  A perfect host and businessman.  He and his wife had a very good business sense.  They were very successful.

They also bottled and sold mineral water that came from the Blue Rock Springs.  It had medicinal qualities.  They shipped it all over the U.S.  It didn’t have a sulfur taste to it.  It really tasted very good!

All of the Madrid family lived on the resort grounds: Babe, Frank and Manuel.  Also the girls, Angelina and Carmelita.

Many “big shots” gathered and stayed there.  Also prize fighters used the hotel and facilities for training.

As kids we often visited for family gatherings - mostly, picnics.  We always enjoyed the excitement of the resort.

Q. What was your first business venture?

A. I opened a restaurant a short distance from Papa's Inn.  It was south of our home, toward Vallejo and on the opposite side of the Napa Road.  It evolved into a good business in a short time.  I called it “Toot’s Barbecue”.  People enjoyed coming for dinner.  I served good, hearty meals.  Twenty-five cents for breakfast!  It was good experience for my future restaurant venture at Russian River.

O. What was Paul like when he was young? Kay? Johnnie Junior?[5]

Toots' daughter, Kay

None of the cousins wanted their picture taken!
Back row: Juanita & John Jr.
Front row: Jane, Jim, Kay, Paul [6]

A. They were all wonderful kids. Paul was the reliable one.  He was very protective.  He would wind the clock and lock all the doors at night. Sometimes, Kay would come home late and not be able to get in!  I had to chase all the boys away from Kay.  We always had to wash Junior’s hands and face.  He liked to play in the dirt!  Mama would not allow him to have dinner until he washed.  They all got along well together.

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[1] Adapted from The Coronado Newsletter, May 1994

[2] James (Jimmy) Coronado was Toots’ brother.  Juanita was Jimmy’s wife.

[3] Dolph Coronado was Toots’ oldest brother.

[4] The Sulfur Springs Hotel was a few miles from the Coronado family property and was owned and operated by Manual Madrid & his wife Angelita Coronado Madrid.  Angelita was the oldest child of Loretto and Guadalupe Coronado and the sister of Mariano Coronado, my grandfather, and Toots’ “Papa”.

[5] Paul and Kay (Kathleen) are the son and daughter of Marian (Toots) Coronado Orsi.  John Junior was the son of John (Doc) Coronado, Toots’ brother.

[6] Juanita, Jane and Jim are children of James (Jimmy) and Juanita Coronado.  John Jr. was the son of John (Doc) Coronado.  Kay and Paul are the children of Toots.  Photo was taken by James Coronado about 1933.

Remembering My Childhood (Cecelia Coronado) - Part Six

 (This is the sixth in a series of posts based on audio recordings made by my mother, Cecelia Coronado Phipps in 1983.  Here she remembers her brother, Dolph, and his first wife, Etta.)

Dolph and Etta

Dolph was the oldest of the brothers.  He was rather spoiled.  He was very brilliant and handsome and well liked by all the girls, so he had many girl friends.  He had his own thoroughbred horses, the best horses and the best carriages in Vallejo.  He married a beautiful young lady, Loretta (Etta) Kelleher, who was an only child.  She was born and raised in San Francisco.  Right after the earthquake, her mother and father came to Vallejo.  I understand the mother never forgave the father from taking her out of San Francisco – she loved San Francisco.  What a wonderful father she had.  He was maitre d' at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco – a perfect gentleman and very handsome. ... I never knew the mother very well.  She was an expert seamstress.

The only work Etta ever did was at a candy store in Vallejo, where she dipped chocolates.  That was her profession, she dipped chocolates.  Her mother made all of these beautiful dresses for her.  She was the best dressed young lady in Vallejo.  She was Miss Vallejo at one time – a beautiful girl.  But she wanted to learn how to sew.  One day she bought some beautiful material, what she thought was beautiful.  She brought it home and she thought her mother would teach her how to sew.  Well I guess her mother was a little bit offended at this.  She just took that beautiful material and tore it to shreds.  Well Etta lost hope then.  She never learned to sew or cook.

Eventually Dolph married her and they had two girls, Lillian and Dorothy – very special young ladies.  Lillian was beautiful.  She inherited the coloring that my mother had, which none of the rest of us had - high color in the cheeks, which just does not rub off.  My mother would tell us that when she was tiny, the kids would get her on the ground and try to rub the rouge off her face, but it was natural. ...Lillian was plump and Dorothy was dark – had dark hair, olive skin, like her Dad.

The mother, Etta or Loretta was my godmother.  My middle name is Loretta, Cecelia Loretta.  Loretta died before she was fifty, and her daughters, Lillian and Dorothy, also died before they were fifty.

It was a difficult life for Etta.  She was such a good person.  But she only knew happy times.  It was difficult for her to cook and never could sew.  Both the girls became very good at both. ... Frankie was her little chauffeur.  He lived with them for a while and he chauffeured Etta around and the girls.  There was one party after another, picnics, parties, and all good times.  Dolph was busy at work at the garage.  He had the original Coronado Garage in Vallejo.  Later Frank had the Coronado Garage, and brother Paul worked for him.

Dolph Coronado driving his new 1912 Overland on the Old Napa Road bordering the Coronado property in Vallejo.  His father, Mariano Coronado, planted the eucalyptus trees along the road.

Hess & Harry Wedding Photo Explained

My July 31, 2014 web post carried a photo of the McIntosh wedding in 1913 where I misidentified some of the wedding party members, particularly and most importantly where the groom and the bride were standing.

Cousin Catherine McIntosh was kind enough to point out to me in a comment that she thought that her grandfather, Harry McIntosh, was the man on the left in the photo with his bride, Hess, standing next to him and not Dutch Coronado.  She is right.  I did a little more research (with a pronounced red face) and hope to now correctly identify the people in the wedding photo.

The McIntosh wedding party posed for this photo on the steps of St. Vincent’s Church in Vallejo.  It was just after noon on July 14, 1913.  On the steps from left to right is Harry McIntosh; Jesusita (Hess) Coronado McIntosh; Marion (Dutch) Coronado, the best man; and Hallie Osborne, maid of honor.  The flower girls in the front are from left to right: Marian (Toots) Coronado and Cecelia Coronado.  The girl on the fourth step on the right is Alice Anderson.[1]

Hess Coronado was born in 1888 and was the oldest surviving daughter of Mariano and Louisa Coronado.  My mother, Cecelia Coronado, born in 1906, said that Hess helped raised her and her sister, Toots (born 1905), in the large Coronado family.

Harry McIntosh came with his mother, and his sister, Isabella, and brother, Walter, from Quincy Massachusetts around 1910[2].  Harry was a piano tuner[3] and piano player.   He played the piano for Mariano at the Coronado Inn and spent a lot of time with his good friend, Dutch Coronado, at the Coronado property on the rural Napa Vallejo Highway.

“Harry always admired our oldest sister, Hess”, says Cecelia.  “She was tiny.  In fact he found her at the stove most of the time where she was even too small to reach the kettles to stir.  Mama put a little stool there for her.  That’s where Harry discovered his future bride.”[4]

Since Dutch was a good friend of Harry, he was a logical choice for best man at the McIntosh wedding.  The maid of honor, Hallie Osborne, is a mystery to me.  She may have been a good friend of the bride, but I could not find any reference to her in family records or census records.  Any help from family members would be welcome.

Flower girls and sisters, Cecelia and Toots, were born about 15 months apart and look like they could be twins in the wedding photo.

The girl high up on the steps in the photo on the right side is 13 year-old Alice Anderson.  She was the niece of Harry McIntosh.  She came with her mother, Isabella, her grandmother and her Uncle Harry from Massachusetts and settled in Vallejo where Alice and her mother, “Belle” lived.  Her mother ran a rooming house on Georgia Street.[5]

Cecelia says that “since Harry had a job with Papa playing the piano, Alice used to stay with us a lot and I think one time stayed all summer long.  Alice remembers staying with us during the school year too and riding the buggy to school.  Mama used to say to Toots and me, ‘You two girls are fine.  But let Alice come around and she gets you two in mischief’.”[6]

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[1] Coronado Newsletter, Vol 1, No 3, May 1994, page 8.

[2] I don’t think that all members of the McIntosh family came to Vallejo at the same time.  Harry was listed as a boarder living at 332 Georgia Street in Vallejo in April 1910.  According the 1910 Federal Census he was a piano tuner working for a piano manufacturer.  Isabella McIntosh Anderson, her husband, George, and her daughter, Alice, were in Quincy Massachusetts in April 1910 living at 76 Rover Street according to the 1910 Federal Census.  Isabella and her daughter, Alice, probably left soon afterwards for Vallejo because Harry and Alice were closely associated with the Coronado family as Harry was courting Hess.  Isabella remarried in 1916, so either George Anderson died or they were divorced by then.  Ancestry.com database online. 1910 United States Federal Census, California, Solano, Vallejo Ward 2, District 0190, page 3.  1910 United State Federal Census, Massachusetts, Norfolk, Quincy Ward 2, District 1140, page 30.

[3] Ancestry.com database online. 1910 United States Federal Census, California, Solano, Vallejo Ward 2, District 0190, page 3.  By the time of his wedding Harry worked for the Sperry Mill Company in south Vallejo.  Cecelia Coronado Phipps, Coronado Family Memories, Coronado Newsletter, Vol 3, No 3, May – August 1996, page 3.

[4] Cecelia Coronado Phipps, Coronado Family Memories, Coronado Newsletter, Vol 3, No 3, May – August 1996, page 3.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

Remembering My Childhood (Cecelia Coronado) - Part Two

(This is the second in a series of posts based on audio recordings made by my mother, Cecelia Coronado Phipps in 1983.)

Mama and Papa started out very poor, with a very small little place.  When they were first married, they lived at the Blue Rock Springs.  Mrs. Madrid was my father's sister.  Mr. Manual Madrid was my mother's cousin.  Angela and Manual Madrid lived at and owned the Blue Rock Springs, which was farther out toward the hills, which had natural mineral waters.  That's where Mama and Papa lived when they were first married.  I believe that Dolph was born there.  Marianita was also born there.  She later died at the age of 10[1]. ... Mama always said that she was just too perfect to live.  She was such a beautiful child and just perfect in every way.  She never gave her one minute’s problem or worry. ... They never got over the loss of this one little girl even though they lost two little boys. ...

They wanted to get away and live on their own, so they came ... and bought this 3-5 acres of property bordering the road that is now the Napa Highway.  At that time it was just a path from Vallejo to Napa.

They started out on a very small scale, with a little bar where he sold beer – 5 cent beer and Mama made big kettles of chili beans.  You got a 5 cent beer, you got a bowl of chili beans if you wanted. ... They eventually enlarged the house, very gradually, of course, and added other rooms downstairs and enlarged the bar.  They eventually made six bedrooms upstairs.

The Beanery with living quarters on the second floor

Mama was pregnant with Frankie in September[2].  In those days it never did rain in California in September.  But this year it did.  Papa was building the upstairs and the skies opened up and it stormed on poor Mama.  She recalls walking around in water, I don't know how deep, and trying to take care of all the children.  Here she was expecting Frank, expecting the baby.  The next day she gave birth to brother Frank.  The doctor came.  All her babies were born at home.  The doctor came and said that he can't possibly live.  "I'll come by in the morning but he can't possibly live."  Only God knows what Mama did. She prayed over him.  She got her little tiny lamp that I still have.  All her prayers were answered, because in the morning when the doctor arrived, he said, "I can't believe it. It's just like a miracle."  He was premature, a "preemie", and in those days what could they do for a "preemie"?  He was healthy enough, but he just didn't grow.  His little legs were shorter than they might have been otherwise, but he had the build of Papa.  He had good broad shoulders, a good build, but his legs were shorter – not stunted at all, but he was just short. ...

They did get these six bedrooms built upstairs. ... I remember so well, going upstairs where Dolph had his bedroom.  He would go to town the night before.  He went out a lot and had many friends.  He would bring back a whole big sack of bananas.  I knew that I could go up to his bedroom in the morning and knock on the door.  He would say "Come in" and he would have this big sack of bananas for me.  Well, I eventually got the nickname of "Nanas", because I loved them so.  But I was so tiny and I had to go down this great long staircase, about 25 or 30 steps down this long staircase.  My brothers, Doc, Frank and Paul, would be jumping around me and poking holes through the bag. They would have most of the bananas by the time I had gotten down to the main floor.  But I was happy to have whatever I could get.  This hap­pened very often and this is one of the very nice things he always did for me.

Dutch had one of the front bedrooms.  Dutch got his name because when he was little he had curly hair and his hair was brown, instead of black like all the rest of the kids.  So they said that he looks like a little Dutchman.  I don't know who said this, but that nickname stuck with him. ...

Louise had a bedroom.  Louise became a nurse.  Dutch got her a job at the hospital where he also met his future wife, Ione.  Louise met her future husband and left home very early.  So we never saw her very much.  She lived in town but we just did not see too much of her.  She didn't cling to the family like all the rest of us did and didn't come home as often. ...

Now comes Jimmy.  Jimmy was a terrific brother. He was quiet and gentle, but had a good sense of humor too.  He was the photographer in our family.  He was always taking pictures.  If he hadn't done that, we would not have the many pictures that we enjoy to this day – of the old cars, the family reunions, the family get-togethers on Sundays for dinners. ... He met and married the first girl he ever went with.  He worked for one of the bakeries in Vallejo and he ran a delivery truck. ...

Facing the front and all around the corner of our property, Papa had planted a Cyprus hedge, which made it very private, even though it faced the main road at that time.  There was a picket fence right by the garden gate and next to it was our front porch, which led into the parlor.  Inside this little picket fence gate was a huge grapefruit tree, that was very tall and went above the second story bedroom, which my sister Marian, affectionately known as "Tootsie", and I shared.  She had a habit of walking in her sleep.  Sometimes I would awaken and find her going out the window.  Well there was little place that we used to play dolls out there on a little lean-to, but the fact seeing her going out in her sleep was more than I could handle.  However, instead of catering to her, I would scold her and I'd say, "Tootsie! You get right back in here!"  And she would mind.  Normally she wouldn't under normal circumstances, but she would[3].  Those were kind of frightening experiences for me.  We shared this bedroom all through our school years.  We would enjoy getting out there in the daytime to play with our dolls and pick some grapefruit.  They were huge things – very good and juicy. We had lemons too in the yard.

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[1] Actually Marianita died at age 5.

[2] September 1900.

[3] Toots gave her version of this story in a conversation with John Coronado in 1994: “She said that there were times when she would fake the sleep walking.  She would put a sheet over her head and get up and start walking around.  When Cecelia would take her arm and lead her back to bed, she would pull the sheet off and scream at Cecelia to scare the dickens out of her.”

Remembering My Childhood (Cecelia Coronado) - Part One

(This is the first in a series of posts based on audio recordings made by my mother, Cecelia Coronado Phipps in 1983.  She was the youngest daughter of Marion and Louisa Coronado and she describes what is was like being the youngest of 10 children growing up on the Coronado property on the Napa-Vallejo Highway just north of Vallejo, CA.  Since Cecelia was born in 1906, this post covers the period 1906 to 1926.)

It is nice to think of reminiscing, especially since I am the youngest of the Coronado clan of 10.  We had a happy childhood.  I think I learned so many things from my nine brothers and sisters.  So I think it is special in my life that I can enjoy these memories.

Let me start by telling something about my childhood.  I was the youngest and my sister Hess, the oldest, was our second mother.  She told me in later years that "you could have been such a spoiled child, because you received so much attention from all of us.  But you weren't.  You grew up to be thoughtful of everybody."  This is good, I guess. ... It is very different being the youngest of so many.  I think this was a special blessing I received.

 

Teenager Cecelia Coronado in the Coronado garden

Our home was a ranch type home. The family was poor.  Mama and Papa started out on a very small scale.  In those days, they took care of their aunts and uncles, mothers and grandparents. ... There were grandparents in our home, although I never knew them when I came along.  It was a loving family.  And whatever they had they shared. …

I can recall this garden and the whole yard and the house.  When Mama had to do big baskets of mending, mending the boy’s long stockings and making shirts, underpants and under­skirts for the girls and boys, they were made out of Sperry flour sacks.  She would take these big baskets of mending and sit in the garden.  Her garden was lovely – an old fashioned garden, with “Hens and Chickens” all along the borders.  We had a rose garden and a beautiful hot house that Papa had made for her, all glass.  What I learned about gardening started very early, because I would trail her around.  She would tell me that this particular plant liked lots of sun, this one likes the shade, and so forth.  So I learned that way.  I didn't learn from books.  I learned from Mama, and she learned from nature.

There was a huge orchard.  Papa planted every tree that was on the place.  We had all kinds of quinces, apples, plums, peaches, pears.  That was on one side of the garden.  On the other side was an aviary that he had for himself.  He had peacocks, doves, quail and pigeons.  He also made Mama a portable bird cage, which was a huge thing, and could be moved to various parts of the yard when the sun or shade was needed.  She had all her canary birds in there.  She loved birds.

"Prince" - Papa's thoroughbred stallion

The back yard was a huge place.  In the back of the house was the summer kitchen.  On one side was the wash house where all the washing was done on the old fashioned wash boards.  On the other side was a watering trough.  There was also a four-door garage, a great big thing. On the north side of that was where Papa's horses were, a corral for his thoroughbred horses.  He bred thoroughbred horses.  Then there was a huge barn on the east side of the yard.  The barn was tremendous, a hay loft and everything.  Then there was a little area to one side of that, where there was a pig sty.  We had pigs.  So you see that we had all our meat.  Papa planted all our vegetables.  From the pig pens to the south was a long driveway and it was bordered with fig trees.  My memory was getting up in the fig trees after school.  It was just like a big lounging chair up there, the branches were so huge and heavy and strong.  I would have my favorite place to go up there and read books after school.  That led out to the railroad tracks.  The barn and the corral bordered the railroad tracks – the SP tracks.  Whenever we were home, all the conductors knew us.  We would run out there and they would wave to us or we would hang on the fence.  Further outside, just up the back road a ways, Papa had rented some property where he had cows and calves.  We also had that for meat.  There was also a fresh water creek running from Lake Chabot.  I would trail Papa too.  He was just ter­rific, just a terrific father.  I would go up there on weekends with him to pick watercress while he was milking the cows.  That was kind of fun, because it was like a picnic.  If he was repairing the fence, I was holding the nails for him.  I just loved being with him.  No matter what he was doing, I wanted to help.  He always called me his little girl, so I was always there.  It was fun.

In the center of this huge back yard was an immense big eucalyptus tree.  In the yard, the boys played baseball and all kinds of ball.  The older boys brought their motorcycles and their first cars in there.  There was always something going on in that yard.  As the older brothers and sister married, the grandchildren came and they played there.  Plenty of activity going on all the time. ...