From Book 3
The war in Korea was declared ended last year and the last of our men had returned by February. We certainly were glad to see the last of them come home, some of them had suffered mentally and it took them several months to stop cringing at every loud noise. A number of them had suffered terrible illnesses and they would never be as strong as they had been when they left. We found places for all of them; they were part of our family. We had expanded Family Housing and every house was occupied, I told Todd to make arrangements to construct a dozen new houses, there were guys who wanted to get married.
By harvest time, everything had pretty much settled down, it was such a pleasure to have crops to harvest, nobody even complained about the howling corn shucker/huskers! The rice was a boom crop and the folks from Anchor Beer were anxious to take possession of it. The wheat and corn did well and the feeder calves and swine were ready for market in September. We were well pleased with the prices, everyone had started to panic during the drought and buyers were standing at the door to bid on the grains. It looked like it was going to be a good year, at last!
Chapter 1 - BOOM TIMES
We ended 1954 with a surprise profit. I announced to the Board that we had cleared $39,076,900!
After the applause died down, I said, "There are some projects we need to do, Blount House is, at last, unoccupied. It is time we tore it down and built a new center, a center for children. I think it ought to be a recreation center as well as a refuge for children who are lost, are alone and are hurt. It should have a small medical center, classrooms, individual rooms, maybe two-person apartments, and a central media center. What do you all say to that?"
Roberta spoke up, "Let's make it big enough that it can serve as a Community Teen Center. We have lots of children right here among our employees and there are more over at Shady Grove. I say, LET'S DO IT!"
It was a unanimous vote and Albert Ito asked to head up the project and wanted to know if it could be named in honor of his brother, who had been killed in the Korean War. The Board had no problem naming the center The Carl Ito Community Teen Center.
Yoshi Ito was sitting in the background, at the mention of her dead son, her eyes became shiny and when the new center was named, it was the first time I had ever seen that strong woman with tears running down her face. Not even when Danny passed away did she cry publically.
A number of other projects were approved; The Marysville Hospital needed upgrading and a new Emergency Room was desperately needed. Blount's Bluff School needed additional classrooms and the gymnasium needed a new floor.
There were the usual needs of the farm, new tractors and harvesters, trucks - both light duty and flatbed trucks and we voted to purchase a fire truck to protect the farm, school and the new teen center.
The last item was funding a pension plan for our employees. While everyone was cautious about committing large sums of money to the plan, they all thought it was a good idea.
We appointed Josiah, Albert and Todd to look into the matter.
The last item on the agenda was the purchase of Cale Moody's farm on Spring Branch and Felton Davis' place on Studemyer Road.
The back ends of both properties abutted each other and the south boundary of Moody Farm adjoined our upper pasture. It would add another 28,000 acres to Blount Farm and it was all good farming land. Only Felton Davis's house was worth saving, but both places had excellent wells.
Everyone was in agreement and I made a note to myself to notify our attorneys to conclude the deal.
Tommie Ito, Albert's son was turning 17 and, despite his unconventional upbringing, the boy was downright scary, it was almost as if he were reading my mind, I would ask him a question and he could pop off the answer at the blink of an eye!
Albert had asked me if there was a place Tommie could start, the boy had been asking his Dad if he could begin pulling his own weight. Tommie was a senior in high school and I felt a couple of years at Heald's College, down in San Francisco would do him some good. When I asked Albert, he agreed and told me he would send Tommie up to see me the next day.
Tommie was waiting for me at the door to my office the next morning; I invited him in and asked him to have a seat.
I outlined the job I had in mind for him and he asked, "Is that the same job my Poppa had?"
I said, "Yes, it is and I have another offer I would like you to consider."
Tommie looked at me with a question on his face, so I continued, "After you graduate from High School, I want to send you down to San Francisco and you take classes at Heald's College. How do you feel about that?"
The young man looked at me as said just one word, "WOW!"
I started him off as my assistant; he would work after school each weekday and Saturday during harvest. I told him to begin tomorrow and he went on his way, almost skipping down the hall.
The next morning, he was standing at my doorway again, he handed me a list of items needing attention and then told me he was on his way to school. I looked at the list he had made, it was a Hot List, I thought of his predecessors in that position, Josiah and his own father had been pretty good, but Tommie's Hot List outdid their efforts by several orders of magnitude!
I was going to be hard-pressed to get all the work done that 17-year-old Tommie Ito had laid out for me! I told Albert about what Tommie had done and he laughed, "Beware the next generation!"
One of Tommie's items on his list was to explore putting in a paved road that would connect all the local properties, including the two new parcels we had just purchased.
I had never considered that, but the more I thought about it, the better the idea seemed. I talked to Todd about it and he thought it was a darned good idea, so I gave him the "go-ahead" to have a road surveyed and get some contractor pricing for grading and paving. It was to prove very beneficial in the near future.
We contracted with Lane Construction out of Stockton to tear down the old Blount House and construct a new teen center and home. Their architects came up with a three-story building that had twenty-five 2 person rooms, each with a private toilet and shower. There would be a common sitting room to serve all the residents and a study room, where homework or small meetings could take place.
Those were all on the top floor, on the second floor there was to be a large television room where there were cubicles for a TV in each and seating for about a dozen young people. That way, those living or visiting there could choose what programs to watch and not bother others who were watching something else.
At one end of the floor, there was to be an auditorium where meetings could be held.
On the ground floor, there was to be a medical center, complete with a small surgical suite, two treatment rooms and a nursing station. I added a doctor's office, I wanted a doctor or, at the very least, a Physician Assistant to be available.
The dining hall was also to be on the ground floor and it was to be set up like a restaurant rather than a cafeteria.
The building coordinator was also to have an office there and a small room set up with couches and chairs, where visitors could meet with a teen who was living there.
The price came in well below what I had expected and, after I had spoken with family members about it, I gave Lane Construction the "go-ahead" to begin construction on the Carl Ito Memorial Teen Center.
Little did we know that the building would be barely completed when a tragic event would fill it up.
As winter gave way to spring, we began our yearly ritual of planting. With the two new parcels of land, we would have slightly more than 128,000 acres under cultivation.
We had scrambled a bit in purchasing additional tractors and harvesters to accommodate the new acreage and we found we had to enlarge both the equipment shed and the maintenance shop to handle the extra machinery.
Otto Behm was now head of the Maintenance Shop. He was Heinz's cousin and had taken over when Heinz retired. Of course, that did not keep Heinz out of the shop and nosing around, but Otto was an easygoing man and he just worked around his cousin. The two men had a good relationship for many years and Heinz was careful that he did not step on Otto's toes.
We had hardly begun planting the rice when Uncle Kelly's boys came running over to tell us that they had found their Poppa dead, he had died in his sleep during the night. Uncle Kelly was the last of his generation, he was 87 years old.
Gordon and Paul Blount both worked for us, Gordon was a salesman selling frozen foods and Paul managed the freezer plant in Rio Vista. They had been visiting their father and had been preparing to leave when they discovered his body. Both young men were completely unmanned and I told them to have a seat in my office while I went to notify the Family.
Tommie was in the office and he started making all the arrangements, even before I could call anyone. Roberta gathered up Gordon and Paul and took them into our parlor, where she parked them, telling them to just relax, and that the Family would take care of everything.
We kept them with us in the main house until after the funeral, they asked me if I wanted them to vacate the house and I replied, "Whatever for, that was Uncle Kelly's house and I am sure his will states that it goes to you boys now. Why would you want to move out?"
They both hugged me and wet my shoulders with their tears.
After a pause for Uncle Kelly's funeral, we resumed planting. Part of the Moody Farm had to have the pan buster go through it, but we put two D-12s to work and it took only three days to get it busted up.
We planted the entire Moody acreage in corn and part of Davis Farm was planted in red wheat. The other part was ideal for peaches, so the orchard crew spent several weeks preparing the land and setting out peach saplings.
The Utilities Department had connected the wells on both the new properties to the irrigation system and had run underground piping to both. The saplings would need irrigating regularly for at least two years and the corn would need water throughout the growing season.
With the additional peach acreage, we were going to need additional processing equipment by the time they came into production. We had planted Elberta peaches and the "frozen pie folks" were already counting on them. They proposed yet another freezer plant in Redding, however, I objected to that location, so they came up with an alternative in Walnut Grove.
The "Farm Gold" line of products was very popular, so we didn't have any problems funding the new plant and construction was begun that summer.
I was still uneasy about the idea of a vineyard and winery, but everyone else thought it was a good idea, so I agreed and we purchased acreage and a vineyard down in Ripon. Josiah and I drove over to Davis to speak with the folks at the State University and to get an idea about hiring people to build and operate the winery. We spoke at length with Professor David Jones and he was excited about the project, so excited that he offered to take a leave of absence from the University to manage the project. It was to be a good fit and he never returned to teaching.
We had purchased 700 acres of vineyard land and a spot for the winery along the river where huge old oak trees shaded the land. David latched onto some of his former students and, soon, we had an artist's conception drawing of a stone winery, tasting room, warehouse and business complex. He asked to have a small cheese-tasting room and sales office to go along with the wine-tasting room and that sounded like a good idea to us, so we again contacted Lane Construction and turned them loose on David and his new staff.
There was already a small vineyard on the property of cabernet grapes and David set crews busy to plant several more varieties on the acreage. He said that they could start making wine with the cabernet grapes while the others were growing into production.
Lane Construction promised the first of the winery buildings to be completed by September, so David began making preparations to harvest the cabernet grapes and turn them into wine that same year. I didn't realize that it would be several years before the wine was ready to be sold, but I went along with his plans. He was a remarkable man and his enthusiasm was contagious. He would remain with us for the rest of his life.
Chapter 2 - WILD GROWTH
The years, immediately after the Korean War, were wild, our markets enlarged and we were hard-pressed to fill all the orders. Our Safe Foods Markets expanded, we had stores throughout California and had begun to open new stores in Oregon, Nevada and Arizona.
We ended 1955 with a net profit of $35 million and over 200 Safe Food Stores, 16 Emporiums as well as 5 freezer plants, 2 ice cream and milk product plants and 8 cheese making facilities.
We had over 1,800 employees and had sales offices in Chicago, Atlanta and Memphis. It was scary, I felt like I was still a farm boy trying to be someone I was not! Billy and Jonathon were just becoming 17 years old and were "hot to trot" in becoming my assistants. Tommie had gone to San Francisco to attend Heald's College, so I put my two red-heads to work as my assistants. They were everywhere, sticking their noses into every part of Blount Farms.
Neither had any hesitation to getting dirty, their Mommas were constantly scolding them for coming home covered with some kind of filth, mostly smelly, oily or they had stained their clothes beyond redemption. When their scolding did no good, they turned to scolding me for sending the boys out to do the "dirty jobs!"
Each youngster would hand me a Hot List before they trouped off to school every morning, I was going to have to hire an assistant to help me keep up with my assistants!
At the annual meeting, Josiah suggested that I reorganize my office and get a private secretary, and some more help. I didn't think that was necessary, but they insisted and Roberta agreed. It seemed that I didn't have any say in the matter. They built me a new office building out by the front gate and installed all sorts of people in it. A watchman at the front door, two secretaries, a big private office, a smaller office each for Billy and Jonathon, plus a third office for Tommie when he came back from college.
The telephone switchboard was moved into the building and there were several accountants and schedulers upstairs on the second floor. I was sure I would never be able to utilize all those folks, but it was not long that I was hiring a few more! Whatever would Poppa have said about all this?
We had not been in the new office very long when we received word that there was a terrible explosion and fire in Marysville. The Chevron Oil Fuels and Lubricants storage yard had caught fire and the whole town was endangered. I sent our fire truck and a full crew to help. When the Fire Crew Supervisor, Dale Givens, radioed back that folks were dying and homes were being burned up, I gathered up the entire Maintenance Crew and we rushed to Marysville to help.
It was awful, people had terrible burns and the medics were laying out dead bodies like cordwood. Little children were wandering around in a daze, trying to locate their parents. I got on the radio and called Roberta to gather up the women and come help these children.
She came with nearly every automobile we had, filled with wives and mothers of our crews. We had just completed the new Blount House and we had hired a young medic, Jerry McDonald who was just out of the Navy, to run the Medical Center, along with an experienced Pediatric Nurse, Nora Kensie.
Roberta started sending the children by car over to Blount House, where more mothers were waiting to care for them. Jerry took one look at the incoming children, horrible burns and broken bones, he called his backup physician, Dr. Styres in Redding.
Bill Styres came roaring in from Redding with a Sheriff Escort and flashing red lights and siren. Bill Styres and Jerry worked all day and far into the night repairing damaged children.
When we finally got the fire out, more than half the town was gone and the Hospital was overloaded with burn patients. We had taken in 48 hurt children at Blount House and, although we did not know it at the time, most of them had lost their parents to the fire.
The House staff was frantically rounding up bed sheets and blankets, bath towels and clothing for the children. They wiped out the children's department, at Sears in Redding, of boys and girls underwear, socks and slippers. Cook started running cooked food over from the Cook House and the Retired guys pitched in to stay with the children and comfort them.
The cowboys and orchard crews did everything they could to help; they emptied bedpans, mopped floors and dried tears. Otto Behm dressed up as a goofy clown to entertain the children and take their minds off their hurts and worries. Billy and Jonathon went back and forth from the hospital and Blount House, trying to connect parents with their children. Both boys were in tears themselves, there were so many children whose parents, one or both, were dead.
The next day, Marysville looked like the victim of a war, there were shattered people wandering around in a daze, finding their homes nothing but a pile of ashes.
The Red Cross came, but they were not much help and, when I heard they were charging for a cup of coffee and a donut, I asked Don Beavers, the town constable, to run them off. I radioed up to the Utilities Department for them to have Cook give them a big coffee urn and some bags of coffee and bring them and a portable generator down to Marysville. I said, "If Cook has any donuts or pastries, bring them, also."
Thirty minutes later, they brought the electric urn, a generator, a dozen boxes of assorted fresh pastries and cups, napkins and COOK, himself. He set the urn on the tailgate of the truck and, while the crew was hooking up the generator, he carried pails of water from the fire hydrant and filled the urn.
While the urn was bubbling, the crew went through the folks wandering around the streets telling them there were pastries and hot coffee available in front of the town library. Another truck came down from Blount Farm, loaded with eggs, bacon, bread, milk and biscuits, along with boxes of paper plates and plastic dinnerware.
Cook set up a portable grill and the smell of cooking bacon and eggs soon drew a crowd of forlorn townspeople. There was a steady stream of trucks from Blount Farm, bringing foodstuffs, blankets and a list of the names of the children at Blount House. A Crew Member would stand on the tailgate of the truck and call out the names of the children who were safe up at Blount House; unfortunately, there were only a few parents who answered up. Most of the children had lost their parents.
The days after the awful fire were filled with anxious children, wondering what was to become of them. We contacted the County Social Services and offered Blount House as a refuge for the children. They were so overwhelmed by the tragedy themselves, they welcomed any assistance. Blount House had long been known as a refuge for children and they had heard about the new building we had put up. They were thankful for any assistance we could provide.
The days rolled by and the children began to recover from their burns and injuries, it would take longer for their emotional hurts to heal. The few parents who had survived came to get their children, those who remained behind looked with longing in their eyes, they felt abandoned and betrayed. Fortunately, children are resilient and it was but a short time that we began to hear laughter and see children playing on the swings and playground toys.
Mothers and older sisters of our crew spent time each day with the children. Summer vacation was about to begin, so the children were not missing any school. The valley is hot in the summer, but Blount House was air-conditioned. The children still in bandages and confined to their beds were not in any discomfort from the heat outdoors. As they healed, there were games and activities indoor to keep them occupied and I saw several folks from Blount Farm watching the children intently.
I noticed that one of those was Albert, I didn't say anything, but I suspected I would be writing another letter very soon. I was right, Albert came to me and asked if I would help getting permission for him to take a 12-year-old boy, Glenn Davis, and raise him like he did Tommie. I asked him, "Do you want to foster him or adopt him?"
Albert replied, "I would prefer to adopt him like I did Tommie, but if fostering is the only way, then I will do that, I just want him to have a place in this world, where he is safe and loved."
It took some doing and I had to bend some arms, but Glenn became Glenn Davis Ito and Yoshi had yet another grandson to love. By the time school started, about half the children had found homes and families.
Chapter 3 - WILD HARVEST
The crops came in heavy; it was likely going to be an all-time record. We started cutting the winter wheat and we simply did not have enough trucks to haul the grain to the elevators fast enough. The harvesters had to wait for the trucks to catch up. We placed an emergency order with Dodge and they promised us six new trucks in three weeks, but we needed them now! They were not to be had.
We finally got through the winter wheat, just as the rice was fully ripe. Anchor contracted with a trucking firm to haul the rice to their own silos, which was a big help and, before the rice was in, the promised six trucks were delivered on rail cars.
I knew we were going to be short silo space and I bummed three silos from the Co-op. The early peaches ripened and we started picking. Those peaches were going to the cannery in Antioch and all we had to do was chill them before trucking them down to their receiving dock. We had special slatted bins made that would admit cool air between the slats, the new chillers we had installed could chill down 40 tons of fruit overnight. So, we loaded up the chill box at quitting time and then shipped the next morning. It worked out well; the cannery told us the fruit was coming in with almost no culls.
The corn was next, we had a bumper crop and, even with the six new trucks, there were times when the harvesters had to stop while the trucks caught up! By the time we were ready to harvest the red wheat, all but one of our silos were filled. Rainbow Mills helped by sending their own trucks to haul some of their purchase directly to their own silos and I talked the Co-op out of a third silo, by the time all the wheat was in, there were 30 rail cars on the siding full of wheat in storage!
Surprisingly, the price held up, despite the surplus and we were still shipping grain at Christmas. All the fruits performed well, the price held for the fancy peaches, so we sold the entire crop on the Chicago Fruit Exchange. The Elbertas produced well, even the newer trees had to be propped.
With our new cold storage systems, we can hold the fruit longer and maintain the quality, thus we can maximize production of the Farm Gold Peach Pies and Farm Gold Fresh Frozen Peaches. Both products will make a major impact on profits this year.
The boys over at the dairy had been very quiet all year, so none of us were concerned about them, kind of, "out of sight, out of mind". When Tommie brought over their data for the Annual Report, I nearly hit the floor! Weekly Cheese production had exceeded 100 tons for the entire year and milk products, such as ice cream, butter, yogurt and dairy cream was off the charts!
What they had done with the feeder beeves and swine was equally remarkable, they had shipped 13,000 feeder beeves and 12,000 swine! The Annual Meeting was going to be a riot!
Christmas was a happy time, we held a party for the children at Blount House. Otto Behm dressed up as Father Christmas and had all the children rolling in laughter with his fake Bavarian accent, as he handed out their presents. The boys got new bicycles and they had to go search for them from the clues that Otto handed them on a card. The younger girls got talking dollies and tea sets, while the older girls got fancy party dresses and pocketbooks that contained $25. It was fortunate that it was a fairly nice day, because those new bicycles needed testing out and those party dresses absolutely had to be worn!
Not to be outdone, the little girls marched around showing off their new dollies to everyone. By the end of the day, we were all tired, but we also had a pleasant glow from the enjoyment the children had in their presents.
We had our own Family Christmas that night and I sat contented as my own children opened their presents, three boys found envelopes with their names on them, inside was a key and a note to look outside the front door.
There were three, bright red, brand new Ford Pickups parked there and three boys racing to see which one their key fit.
One girl had a certificate to go with her Mother to San Francisco on a shopping spree. She snuggled up in my lap and kissed my cheeks, I was a happy man!
My wonderful wife had an envelope that contained tickets on the SS Lurline to Honolulu and return next February! I can see her planning her wardrobe already! I was surely blessed with a wonderful family, what more could any man wish for?
I decided, in light of what I had to report, to hold the annual meeting two days after Christmas, the news was just too good to keep from everyone. We sat down in the Board Room and I stood to add a little dramatic air to my announcement. Tommie already knew what I was going to say, he was almost bursting in laughter. I had threatened him with awful torments if he leaked any information, and he swore he had not said a word to anyone, not even his dog!
I looked around with a huge smile on my face and Josiah said, "Come on Bro, out with it!" I laughed and said, "Due to all your hard work, I am happy to report a Corporate profit for this year of $51 million!" There was not a sound in the room; a dropped pin would have sounded like an explosion! Then everyone started talking at once, "How, Who, When, What ......"I put a chart up on the easel that showed how it had happened, everyone was amazed.
We voted bonuses' for all the employees and funded the retirement account. We then got down to business and voted to build an additional four-grain silos, add to the truck fleet and order two more harvesters. I asked for an additional fire truck and the addition of several men on the security forces. We put new televisions in the Retirement Home and agreed to sponsor a Junior ROTC unit at the Junior High School. We also added another flash chiller at the peach packing shed as the new peach trees will begin to produce this next year and we agreed to add a new sales office in Dallas, Texas.
I announced the promotion of Tommie Ito to Executive Vice President. That got his attention; it was something he had NOT known was coming. I had discussed it with his Poppa, Albert, and he agreed with me. The boy was going places, as were his two young sons. We ended the meeting and everyone headed for their homes, it had been an exciting year and we all felt good about what we had accomplished.
TBC
The story of this Family will continue and there are good times ahead for them. There are no wars on the horizon and, hopefully, California weather will settle down and let them grow their products in the rich soil of Blount Farms.