80's & 90's

   I lived in Ridgecrest from 1983 to 1994. Since you are looking for stories, here is some of what I remember...   ______________________________
     1983 - When I first moved to Ridgecrest, there was only one stop light in the whole town. The theater wasn't built, so it was either the drive-in or the base theater (where we all had to stand for the national anthem before a movie).
   There wasn't a Walmart or Mervyns
either. The "big" shopping was done at the miniature sized JC Penney store on Ridgecrest and China Lake, the Sears Catalog store, which they later closed, or the KMart up on Norma Avenue.
      There was a 5-and-dime next to JCP (Spritz or something) that I frequented alot. I remember how fascinated my kids always were with the dust devils that would blow and twirl in the corner of that shopping center.   ___________________________________________
     1984 - I lived in Ridgecrest Heights (also called "Rocket town" because, as legend had it, some of the first homes there were built
out of the crates they shipped rocket parts in to the base) in the early to mid 80's, when the water was provided by the "Wilbur Stark water company". The pressure was so bad that it couldn't even support fire hydrants, so there was a building moratorium on the whole area for at least 10 years. One summer, when I was 8 months pregnant, I had to climb up onto my roof and poor buckets of water into the swamp cooler to keep the house from spontaneously combusting.

       Remember the great "50-year" flood, when it rained 6" in one day and night? I worked at Bank of America then, and to my knowledge,   that was the only time they ever closed the bank early.
      A co-worker of mine put a bunch of us into her 4-wheel drive truck to take us home. One woman lived in the southwest part of town
(towards County Line Road)...we couldn't drive any closer than 3 blocks away from her home. When she jumped out of the truck, the water was up to her knees. She said later that she had walked as far as she could but when the water got to her waist, she turned around and went back. I never could get home that day and had to stay in town with friends.   Later, when the water drained, we had to drive
around whole chunks of asphalt that had come apart from the streets, which had literally washed away! ___________________________________________

     1985 - There were some really great little restaurants that came and went in Ridgecrest. I worked as a waitress at the Golden Frog    supper   club, which was really nice at the time (it later became a Sizzler).    I also remember when Farris' had their restaurant down on   Ridgecrest Blvd and then China Lake Blvd - I used to love to go to breakfast there.        ___________________________________________

     1986 - I remember that, until Clancy's and the White Star Mining Company came (and went), the only real place to go in Ridgecrest
was JD's. Everyone was a "regular" there. One of the most popular bands to play there had a lead guitarist who was also one of the local UPS drivers - that's a small town for you! Afterwards, we'd all tramp over to Dennys for a 2 a.m. breakfast. Their Ultimate Omelettes never tasted so good!

     Maturango Junction Days was my favorite festival. We'd go down to "Rocket Park" (we called it that since they had a rocket-like
ladder/slide there) in time to start with the pancake breakfast. We'd browse through all the arts and craft booths, pay to have the
"sheriff" put a few people into "jail", then start in on the chili cook-off samples.

     Linda Watkins
     now of Dayton, Ohio
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I came to the Inyokern/Ridgecrest area in 1981 from a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri after graduating college to join my fiance' who was working for Vought Areospace at China Lake. I immediately became employed at the "sawmill in the desert" Louisiana-Pacific and was there for 4 1/2 terrific years until I had to return home to Kansas City due to my mother's illness.

You can imagine what a change of environment it was for me being a "city" girl and landing in the high desert. I can honestly say that the native residents right along with the sawmill workers made me feel totally at home. I still fondly remember the gas station/grocery store in Inyokern with the old wooden floors, Two Sisters restaurant (I did not cook much so this was truly a favorite spot), the feed supply store of which I still use the cat coffee mug I bought there, and line dance lessons at the local tavern (a real experience coming from the disco era!). The beautiful sunrises and sunsets, prickly pear cactus blooms and yes, even the sandstorms are cherished memories. My beloved companion "Outlaw", a big, beautiful, black cat that I got from a nice woman there as a kitten traveled many miles with me and only three years ago passed away here at my residence in Florida. I remember many times Outlaw bringing me gifts of baby rattlers (still alive) and calling the snake society to pick them up. It amazed me that he was never bitten!

I am thankful that I am still in contact with my friend Teri Bell and still get news from Ridgcrest and Inyokern. Living in Florida now, I don't really have occasion to get to the West Coast but would someday like to visit again.

Thank you for your efforts in pulling this site together. I cannot tell you how many memories it brings back and what a treat it is!!

Tamara (Blauvelt) Pendleton

   Wow, what a trip. I'm sure that's not the first time you've heard that. One of my best friends from my days in Ridgecrest, Andy McMullen, sent me the link, and I've been having a nostalgia party all by myself all morning. I'm particular pleased to see a shot of Hobo Joes, something I don't have despite that strange little restaurant (just ask anyone who worked there!) being the business
where I did 80% of my "time" in R/c--either as a customer or employee. What memories. I still haven't gotten it!

   I had a love/hate relationship with Ridgecrest growing up. I was born in Trona in 1960 because my parents didn't trust the medical care in town (now THAT'S saying something--choosing Trona over R/c), but I recognize now, as I did then, that R/c was a very safe place to grow up, and I appreciate it for that.   But as the great Florence Green, a town elder for so many years, once said to me, Ridgecrest was a "little town that loved to hate itself." Twenty-two bars and twenty-one churches then; there was always a struggle just under the surface to maintain some sort of balance between the two mindsets. There was a sort of dark, Blue Velvet-like (referring to the David Lynch movie) underside to the city and its people, an ongoing fight between good and evil, right and
wrong, light and dark. Hard to explain, but the people there know what I mean by it.

   Me, I couldn't wait to get out. I don't recall a time where I didn't feel constrained in some way--it was hard living in a place where everyone knew your business. On the other hand, everyone knew your name, too, and if you found yourself in trouble you didn't have to look hard for friend to help you out. The pluses and minuses of small town life.

   I left R/c in 1981 and never looked back. My folks are still there, caught in the economic downturn the one or two times they thought about leaving. Hard to believe they've been there 50 years. I don't see much of the town anymore on the rare visit back--I hear things are looking up again, economically, and it's very strange to me that there's now a building (Home Depot) in the patch
of desert along China Lake Blvd. that remained empty for decades, which true old-timers will reemember as the place the Desert Empire Fair used to set up in the '60s.

   Strangely enough, I have a picture of Cathy Connelly, who has a couple of posts on your site that I've read this morning, on my wall from her days as an actress with the legendary BHS Drama Club. I directed her in a children's theater production of Tom Sawyer in 1978! She was one of the people we tried to find four years ago when some of us executed a very successful drama club reunion
out at the fair grounds--about 100 people who played and performed under Alan Kubik met up to party once more. A fun night.

Rus Steadman
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My mom and I moved to Ridgecrest from Oregon right before my fourth birthday in 1983. My first memory is of the flood. I was at a babysitter's house and we were supposed to go to McDonald's that day. I remember staring out the sliding glass window waiting for the rain to stop so we could go. My mom came to get me, worried about getting home. I didn't understand what the big deal was then, but now that I'm older I realize that being a single mom with a four year old in an old Fiot with water coming up to the doors had to be frightening. I remember hearing her urging the car to make it through the water. We made it home but I still didn't understand why we couldn't go to McDonald's!
In 1985 we lived on Church street right across from James Monroe Jr. High. I remember thinking those kids were so old and waving to all of them as they walked home from school. Mrs. Dial was my kindegarten teacher at Las Flores that year. I remember my mom driving me to school one morning and saying, "Oh no - it's snowing." I had never heard of snow but I thought it was the neatest thing. Our school Christmas Program was cancelled that night and the next day was speant using socks for mittens and making snow angels.

I saw Ghostbusters at the drive in theater. I was scared to put my feet down passed the seat because I thought there were ghosts there. I know my mom took me to other movies there but I don't remember much more then having to move a few times to find a speaker that worked correctly. I think I usually slept through the movies.

I didn't mind the heat at that age. I thought it was cool that I could melt cheese on mom's car - although she didn't enjoy it quite as much. I also made decorative mud pies with glitter and baked them in the sun.

I used to take my allowance each week and ride my bike to the Neighborhood Market, which was owned by my great grandmother, Lois Peterson. Is that little store still there?

My mom worked at John's Pizza and the owner used to give me free rice crispy treats, stickers and put real vanilla into my coke after school.

I learned to ride my bike in the parking lot of Penny Pool. I learned to skate in the old Laundry Mat.

We used to go out to Black Mountain (as we called it) and bring chalk to write on the inside of the tunnel that went under the railroad tracks. There is still writing there from when I was a little girl. We used to write on the tracks too. We'd write "bird poop" with an arrow next to white splotches on the tracks. A few times we rescued tortoises who had tried to make it over the tracks and landed on their backs. I was sad to see the tracks are gone now.

As I got older I began hating the days when I awoke to see the clouds hanging over the mountains because I knew it would be windy all day.

In fifth grade we had a read-a-thon in Mrs. Beason's class at Las Flores. We brought pillows and blankets to school and some worried parent called the cops thinking we were running away. I suppose the person meant well, but who runs away to school?

My best friend and I were the first people to sign the inside of the Dare van in 6th grade. I still can't remember why we got to go first...

I used to love to go to the Rocket Park with friends and write my name in the very top of the rocket - or at least read who had been there recently.

When I was 12 we moved to Inyokern. My sisters and I would burry cans into the ground to see what we could catch. We caught lots of stink bugs and lizards, along with the occasional scorpian that would make us all run squealing into the house.

As a teenager, I sang with the Seeds of God - the youth choir made up of the youth from all the churches in town that sang each Sunday at a different church.

I was determined to escape that little town. I moved to Texas a few days after I turned 18. But, looking back, Ridgecrest wasn't so bad. Many of the people in my kindergarten class were right next to me on graduation day...and there is something comforting knowing someone everywhere you go and having memories everywhere. Living in a big city now, many of my friends here think that is amazing and can't relate.

Now, when I go back to visit my family, I love the fact that I can get across town in 10 minutes - I get through traffic lights on the first green light and people actually STOP when the light turns red (unlike Houstonian's who seem to think that it is perfectly acceptable to run a red light three seconds after it has turned red....) I miss laying out on lawn chairs all night staring at the stars - and the summer breeze at night in August. I miss being able to walk anywhere I wanted to go and actually having bike lanes to rollerblade in. (Texan's apparently don't believe in sidewalks or bike lanes) Most of all, I miss the lazy summers with my best friend when we'd play pool in her backyard on the crooked pool table or sing ourselves silly at night. She passed away a few years ago from cancer, and now my visits there don't seem as meaningful. However, it is always refreshing to be surround by mountains again when I make it out tha! t far West.

There is something addictive about that little town, and no matter how far away I am or how long I'm gone, I'll always get excited when I see commercials or parts of movies that have been filmed out there and it will be the only place I ever refer to as "home."

Lena LeBlanc