Talk:Gorda, California

Gorda reminiscences

My dad, Roland Chivers lived in Gorda and added many of the improvements to the area. I don't know if the decorative concrete work is still there but he put that in along the walkway to what is now the WhaleWatcher Cafe. He also converted an old Caterpillar tractor to a generator and built a walk-in refrigerator there. He also used heavy equipment to level and clear the area across the highway from the restaurant and gas station. That was the last place I lived. He and Vina (the lady he worked for) lived in the trailer.

I was only 5 to 8 when this happened (that would have been 1967-1970. I don't remember Vina's last name but I remember hearing from dad that she was a champion archer and they used to enjoy hunting together. I also remember (vaguely) moving from Gorda to Nipomo California where they ran a farm on an old Turkey Ranch. Dad left there sometime between 1973-1975 shortly after my mom finalized their divorce. The last I saw Vina would have been in 1976 or '77 when my Step-Grandfather, Bob Dunlap and I stopped in to see if she was still there. She met us at the door with a shotgun but recognized me saying, "I don't know where your father is. He left me high and dry and tomorrow the sheriff's coming to evict me. She took me up to the place where he stayed and showed me an old piano he destroyed in a rage one night. She told me I could take anything that was his and there were a few things from his time in Alaska, a wetsuit he had made, some assorted jade pieces he had been working on. The day he left was the last time anyone I knew (including his mom, brothers and sisters) would hear from him until I traced him through a cousin that got me an address through the DMV. But that is another story.

I loved staying in Gorda with Dad. The first year I was there, we slept in this old bungalow of a house that was still there when I went through in 1987. I also have a picture of Dad and myself sitting on one of the ponies he roped for me. He later told me that the ponies belonged to one of the local residents who didn't take very good care of them so they would often end up on the highway and he would round them up and feed them. The guy who they belonged to finally gave them to my dad. They were both Shetlands and I named one Popcorn and the other Peanut. Popcorn never did mellow enough to ride but Peanut had a sweet disposition and a fondness for eating Dad's cigarettes. Dad also told me that, from time to time he would let kids who stopped at the restaurant ride Peanut. When Dad and Vina moved to Nipomo, they took Peanut with them. I don't recall what happened to Popcorn.

The last time I stayed with Dad at Gorda, a squatter had moved into the trailer and I remember Dad "evicting" him with extreme prejudice. I remember standing outside with Vina watching while Dad stood over the guy waiting for the Sheriff to come and take him away. Dad was a very gentle guy but no one to cross.

When my dad died in 2003, the family had lots of suggestions on where to scatter his ashes but, to me, no place embodies him more than Gorda. That was the closest we ever came to being "family" until I looked him up in 1989. I spent the night at Gorda on my way back from finding him. I played darts with the guy who ran the store and I could tell he was desperate for company. Dad was at his creative best there. He loved the land and the challenges that running the gas station and restaurant offered. The remote location also let him use the survival/search and rescue skills he acquired in the military. (He told me he even met Jerry Lewis once when Jerry ran his ship aground) He also loved "mining" jade and searching for rocks in the local hills. I haven't been back since 1989 but it may be time.

If you have any memories of that area and time, I'd love to hear from you. My childhood involved a lot of moving around and no one in my family can really trace it for me since I lived with so many different people. Lots of memories but not much continuity.

Mike Chivers sitanka mchivers@tusd.net Sitanka (talk) 03:43, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

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