Ming Means Money!

The Ming Family (again) Photo courtesy of sjvls.org

Ming Avenue was named after Yen Ming, one of the first Chinese settlers in Bakersfield. He came here in 1874 with the Central Pacific Railroad. Colonel Baker gave him a parcel of land in exchange for his work, which Ming turned into a very successful farm. The ranch was located on the site of the present day Valley Plaza. Ming and his family were very involved in the community and highly respected. He died in his sleep in 1941.

I’m still working on the China Grade Loop thing.

Bake Bread

I remember when I found out that most people don’t eat Pyrenees French Bread. I was shocked. It never occurred to me that it was just a local thing. It is without a doubt the best bread ever and I have heard many former Fieldians lament its absence. The bakery itself has been operating 117 years!!

Holy cow that’s a lot of bread!

Waiting in Bakersfield

© Patricia Childlaw 2003

I thought this was interesting. Patricia Chidlaw is an artist in Santa Barbara. She painted the artwork above with oil on canvas in 2003 – and somebody bought it! I want to know who bought it and how much it cost!

Have a nice day.

Smile!

Here’s another good example of why Bake Town is a nice place to live. I was checking out at TJ’s yesterday when an elderly woman came in and asked if anyone had found a purse. After a search it was determined the purse was not there. The woman and I exited at about the same time so I began to talk to her. She asked me if I would call her cell phone and see if she could hear it ringing so I obliged but the purse remained missing. She told me she thought she may have left it on the child seat of her shopping cart and that maybe the driver of the one of the nearby trucks had seen it, so she decided to wait. I told her I would drive through the parking lot and look for the security guard that is usually present and send him her way. I didn’t find the security guard, but a short time later my phone rang. It was Bernita and she told me the man in the truck had seen the purse and picked it up and was looking for the owner. Isn’t that nice? She found her purse and Bernita called me to thank me for my help and concern.

Ya just don’t get any nicer than that.

Baken' ain't bad.

I had some time and I’ve been wanting to look up some Bake Town stats so here they are. We all know that Bakersfield is associated with hot weather, but according to cityrating.com, the average annual temperature is only 65.4º. The average high temperature is 84.1º and the low is 47.8º. And of course, there is hardly any humidity. Sounds pretty good to me.

Besides the balmy weather, Bakersfield offers affordable living. These stats change all the time (as do all stats) but the most recent I found is that the average price for a home is $133,000 – making home ownership within reach for the average American family.

However, noting the lack of libraries, museums and other cultural attractions, I thought it was interesting to note that there are 59 bars within a 30-mile radius of downtown Bake Town.

That explains all those drunkards we keep hearing about.

Another one bites the dust

The cops shot another bad guy yesterday, but it wasn’t a good shot – the guy is still alive. This is the sixth time the BPD have shot and/or killed a suspect. You can run & you can hide, but if you commit a crime in Kern County, you will be shot.

You can bet money on it.

Miss Bakersfield Reigns

photo courtsey of The American Camellia Society

Remember those bushes of flowers all over Bakersfield that you could never quite figure out? They sorta looked like roses, or maybe Gardenia’s - but not quite. Well, I have discovered (in my never ending quest to provide you with useless bits of Bake Town trivia) that that flower is called a Camellia and the official Bakersfield City flower is the “Miss Bakersfield Camellia.”

I’m sure you all will sleep better tonight knowing that.

Beale Bits

Marie Beale Photo courtesy of sjvls.org

This is the daughter of Truxtun Beale, who was the son of General Edward Beale, who built Fort Tejon to “protect” the Indians and used camels to pull his buggy.

Apparently she ran away and joined the circus.

Another day...

I’m starting to think I may be too boring to be the voice of Bake Town. I don’t do anything. Thursday night Social D was in town & everybody went. Not me. Last night I was supposed to go see a local band with some friends, but instead I stayed home and watched reruns of American Justice. Oh well, I guess somebody needs to provide useless bits of Bakersfield trivia.

I really don’t have much to report today (so far). The paper continues to run reports about the now homeless sex offender. One very big-hearted man wrote a letter to the editor and said “What the police and the media did to this poor man is sinful and stinks.” Hello!!! He raped, sodomized and beat up a 49 year old lady!! If that dude feels so sorry for him maybe he should let Kamanoto bunk with him for a while.

Here’s a funny story… some guy in Taft stole a bike and when a sheriff came to get him he “punched the deputy in the head” then ran away and climbed up a big tree. “He stayed there for the rest of the morning, staring down at the eight law enforcement officers that eventually gathered below him.”

I could report on the big Shafter vs. Bakersfield stand off, but it’s really not that interesting. I think I’ll just go back to bed.

Eye See

They forgot to review this club.

Like most cities, Bakersfield has Alphabet streets & Number streets. A, B, C, 1,2,3 and so on. However, apparently city planners were worried that Bakersfieldians would get confused, which is why we have “Eye St” instead of “I St” I always thought that was funny.

Anyway, The Californian has an “Eye St” section that features entertainment and stuff. Today’s “Eye St” special feature is a review of the local bar scene. The journalist used 19 different criteria to judge the bars, including “cheap drinks”, “fights”, “smokers”, “drag queen sighting” and “pretty ladies.” The article was very informative.

Now whenever I’m looking for a place to eat, a beer, and a good fight, I’ll know exactly where to go.

Who are you calling backward?

As I predicted, today’s paper is full of letters arguing both sides of the Gay Pride Day issue. Best quote, “What else would one expect of the people of ‘deah’ old Backwardsfield anyway?” Ouch – that is a low blow.

And, as if worrying about one sex offender living near by wasn’t bad enough, The Californian is reporting that I actually closer to a hundred in my neighborhood alone. Great. Thanks for the info. I didn’t really need my sleep anyhow. Geez. Enough already!! I do not care to know all the dirty details of all the individuals in my community. I’m sure there are some real sickos, but I would rather not look at everyone that passes with a suspicious eye. Stop messing with my head Californian!!

That’s all for now – Have a great day!

Future site of Jerry's Pizza

photo courtsey of The San Joaquin Valley Digitization Project

Chester Ave. between 18th and 19th, 1880.

The first house in Bake Town

Copyright © 2004, Kern County Superintendent of Schools

Colonel Baker was not the first to live in this house. He bought it from Christian Bohna, who built the first house in Bakersfield on what would now be corner of 24th and P Street. Baker lived there for 2 years while he built a new home on the corner of present day 19th and N Street.

It’s funny, I always pictured Baker living out in a field somewhere – not downtown.

Check this out!

photo courtesy of The San Joaquin Valley Digitization Project

Okay, since I’ve been getting some positive feedback regarding the History tid-bits, here’s another one. Again I don’t have much information, but I thought this photo was really interesting because you can clearly see the Chinese dragon. The photo was taken in downtown Bakersfield circa 1896-1907.

Guess those rumors of a China Town in Bakersfield were real after all.

Pants on fire, Scott?

I think he needs to drop the 'son' from his name.

I have to admit I have been obsessed with the whole Scott & Laci Peterson case for some time now. I honestly did not believe he did it at first. I’m sure of it now. What a scumbag. So, I thought it was funny when I heard recently that he claimed he was in Bakersfield at one point – lying like a rug as usual. Waist High asked, “In a serious attempt to cover your ass (murder), why would you say you were in Bakersfield or Buttonwillow of all places?” I think its because nobody would claim to be here unless they really were. Bake Town is the perfect alibi.

At least Court TV got the name right. The article I was just reading says, “He later told his father he was in Bakersfield and two friends he was in the town of Buttonwood.”

Wood, willow – whatever.

Head of the Pride

Mayor Harvey Hall

Robert Price said it best in his column yesterday, “Three jeers for everyone involved in the latest only in Bakersfield fiasco.” I wonder how long the war will rage in the paper over this one. (People are still writing letters and arguing about the Ashley Castle street name thing!) A headline on front page of the Californian today reads, “Mayor no stranger to honoring gay pride.” According to city records Hall declared June 30, 2001 to be Pride Fest Day. He’s keeping quiet now that there’s a controversy swarming, but he did offer a prepared statement saying the “opposition to the proclamation disappointed him and he had a hard time deciding to reverse the proclamation.” That’s a little hard to believe when he claims that the 60 complaints he received where the voice of the majority.

Bakersfield may be a small town, but we ain’t that small.

Fecal Fetish

There’s another article in the paper today about poop. An onion farmer is suing a dairy farmer claiming “fecal dust, flies and odor” from the cows made the onions go bad. According to the article, “The suit alleges that manure dust floated into the packing shed & flies laid eggs on onions, leaving them maggot-laden.” That’s just nasty. The article goes on to quote a farmer, who's last name just happens to be McDonald. Too funny.

Favorite quote “Did floating cow-pie particles…ruin Kophamer Farms’ onions…?”

Ming means...?

The Ming Family
photo courtesy of The San Joaquin Valley Digitization Project

Okay… one last historical tid-bit and then I’ll lay off. I found this photo today and I was amazed. I never considered where the name for Ming Avenue came from. After finding the photo I began researching Chinese history in Bakersfield. There is very little on the internet, and I found no answers to my Ming family questions. So... now I have two projects ahead of me; 1) find out about the Ming family and 2) find out about the origin of the name China Grade Loop. (Although I'm certain it has something to do with the Tehachapi Loop.)

Is there any one out there with any knowledge to share?

More Bake-n-Bits

Photo courtesy of The San Joaquin Valley Digitization Project

Did you know that had it not been for Colonel Thomas Baker’s reputation of providing feed to traveler's animals, Bakersfield would have been called by its original name - Kern Island? And… Colonel Baker was more involved with the city than just growing alfalfa. He began the basic design of the city in 1866. After traveling all over the U.S., Baker concluded that the usual 66 feet was too narrow for city streets, so he decided our streets would be 82 ½ feet wide and the avenues would be 115 feet wide.

Only 600 people lived in the city at the time

Full circle

The beginning of the end for many.
Photo courtesy of The San Joaquin Valley Digitization Project

Look what I found! Bakersfield city planners actually made the Garces circle on purpose. I always imagined there was a good reason for the circle – like an old cow trail or something. Turns out it was somebody’s bright idea. Of course, it doesn’t look so bad in this picture, without all the trees & freeway pillars, you can actually see across the circle.

Personally, I’d like it better if it still looked this way.

Kernals Pop!

There’s a new column in the Californian I really enjoy. It’s called “County Kernels” and it features “fun odds & ends that recently crossed county supervisor’s desks.” (I don't think you can get it online.) Today it describes a man who wants to sue “The Bakersfield Californian Slanderous Newspaper.” He wants all the journalists to go to jail & threatens to tell the truth to the entire world if this wrong is not righted. He even claims to have stood before God and seen the guilty journalists thrown into the Lake of Fire. Then there’s a “claim” a woman made complaining about an encounter with a police officer. “I want them out of my Rump. If they are splitting or slitting or either stealing, in my tails, Rumps, lifts, butts or hinnies, SO BE IT.” What the…?? That is too funny.

Good stuff…keep the Kernels coming!

Here Kitty Kitty...

I think the California Department of Fish and Game need to update their info. For the third time this summer a Mountain Lion was spotted in Bakersfield! According to this map, there shouldn’t be any. The latest sighting was at Truxtun Lake! Yikes! It appears our feline friends are fond of the bike path.

Watching all those yummy morsels go whizzing by must be fun.

The Real Town

Photo © Felix Adamo (You may not be able to see it, but the sign
reads "Bakersfield Sucks."

I think MTV needs to do a reality show in Bakersfield. All these “Real World” shows in big cities are getting old and frankly, they’re soooo not real. Pick seven people from big cities to live in a house in Rosedale. Don’t fix it up – leave it like every other suburban white bread home with a pool and RV parking. Have them live here in summer and show how they put up with the sweltering heat. OR have them move in during the winter and see how they deal with the cold, dingy tule fog. Give them jobs at Rock-n-Rodeo or a Texaco StarMart in Oildale. Show them searching for ‘good times’ at the downtown bar scene. Send them on a ‘vacation’ to the Canyon.

Now that would be some television worth watching.

No Pride in this County!

A Kern County Pride event is planned for September 4th.

It’s not what you think. It’s a Gay Pride event. Bake Town Mayor Harvey Hall was scheduled to speak in support of the event. But then the locals got wind of the plans and threw a fit. After learning about the affair, one Bakersfieldian had this to say. “There is absolutely no reason to have a ‘celebration’ of gay pride in this community. A pox on all of you.” Always mindful of the next election, Mayor Hall (not so graciously) bowed out.

I think it’s going to take more than a “marketing tool kit” to change the image around here.

Till the cows (and the pigs) come home.

Dairy farmers are hoping to make Kern County their new home. We currently have 55 facilities with about 290,000 cows. If all the new facilities are approved we could end up with more than 500,000 cows. Residents are not pleased. We already have some of the worst air in the U.S. and tons of piles of manure would not help. Then there’s the city image to think of. If we really want to escape the picture of a cowboy hicktown, does it make sense to allow another 200,000 cows to move in?

The cows aren’t the only animals having trouble finding a home. The sexual predator recently located here has already been moved twice (in about 3 days.) Seems nobody is really willing to welcome this guy to the neighborhood.

I have an idea. Why don’t we allow about ½ of the proposed dairies to move in on the condition that they provide housing for the undesirable parolees we have to find places for? Shoveling shit for a living seems like an appropriate job for a convicted sex offender to me.

I’d feel sorry for the cows, but at least the pervs would be out of the way!

Moving on Out

Time to go


I guess I wasn’t the only one not thrilled with the new “sex offender” neighbor. He was moved on Monday. Police say the area was a particularly bad one given its proximity to an elementary school. I don’t get it – he raped a 49 year old woman – he didn’t molest a little kid. And where are they going to put this guy now? On the moon? If he’s living in Bake Town, there will be women & children somewhere in the vicinity. I kinda feel bad for the guy. No wait, it passed.

Here’s your hat, there’s the door, don’t hit your head on the way out.

How sad.

A 37 year old Bakersfield mother of two was killed early Sunday morning in a car accident. First thing that comes to mind is – drunk driver? You got it. But get this… the man has two prior DUI convictions, he’d been drinking all night at a party, it’s 4am and everyone is going to bed. What does this guy say? ‘Hey! Let’s steal my girlfriend’s car and go for a joy ride.’

What an idiot!! It’s too bad he’s not the one in the morgue right now.

A photo tour of Bake Town.

The Californian building.


The famous Wall Street Alley.


This used to be the city morgue -

now it's a place for kids to play.


Trying to spruce things up, workers on Chester

install a new "old fashioned" street light.


The Decatur - the place where the sex offender lives.


The Padre is looking good since its make-over.


This is where I take my recycling.

There is a man in the dumpster taking out all the bottles.