Pops and Stakas

One summer day at the Simons Brickyard in the late 1940s my Pops and our next door neighbor Joe Levya, who was known far and wide as Stakas, were sitting on a little dirt hill about 50 yards or less from our house drinking wine and probably some beer too. 

After drinking most of the afternoon they got into an argument. I was outside the house, don't remember what I was doing but I remember hearing them yelling at each other, remember Mom calling me inside and telling me "go see what your dad and Stakas are arguing about" I remember running towards the little hill and as I got closer I could hear Stakas yelling at Pops "no Connie does" and Pops yelling back at him "No Eulalia does" I walked up to Pops and told him that Mom needed him at home, he agreed to go home and as he started walking away he turned around and yelled at Stakas "Eulalia's legs are more beautiful than Connie's" Damn! They were arguing as to whom wife had the greater looking legs!...I have to admit that my Mom had gorgeous legs but, I don't want to argue about it!

Old Ladies Gossiping

I remember when I was a kid and seeing the old ladies gossiping over the fence before sunup: "did you know Concha is sleep with Chuy?" "si and just wait till Chuy's wife, Rosa, finds out, there is going to be bloody hell to pay" Those were the days of a kid growing up in the Simons Brickyard.

Immigration Raid

One summer morning circa 1948 the La Migra (immigration) threw a raid on the Simons Brickyard. They drove up with several migra buses. They proceeded to round up the workers, all of them, since every worker that worked in the yard was Latino/Mexican. I with several of my friends stood watching as the workers were lined up to get into the buses. As I watched I spotted my dad in line to get into one of the buses. Not knowing any better at age twelve I run to my dad and said to him: “pops, they can’t take you, you have papers” I said that because I had overheard some migra agent asked some of the workers something about “your papers” I didn’t know anything about “papers” I just assumed my pops had them.

“Hijo (son) let me get in the bus. La migra will be passing out sandwiches, after I get some I’ll get off” my pops said to me. Not long after my pops walked off the bus eating a sandwich and holding another one. Later at home he was telling us how when la migra agent was passing out the sandwiches my pops asked him in very good English if he could have two sandwiches since he had not had breakfast yet. Pops said the agent told him “you speak very good English for a Mexican” pops replied to the agent: “I should, I've been here all my life and went to the local schools” My pops said the agent threw two sandwiches at him and told him to get his ass of the bus. I wondered how pops knew about the sandwiches, I asked him and he told me that this was not the first time he gone through this routine.

I later learned that there were many illegals working at the brickyard since about 30% of the workers were taken away. By the next summer most of them were back working at the brickyard.

Christmas in the Simons Brickyard

I vividly remember the holiday seasons in the brickyard in the mid to late 1940s. I remember that the guys from Mt. Carmel Catholic Church Men’s Club would get two horse drawn hay-wagons for us kids and young adults to ride and pass out fruit baskets to the families living in the brickyard as we sang Christmas carols on those cold 1940s Christmas Eves. The brickyard owner, Mr. Walt Simons, would provide the hay-wagons and fruit baskets.

Premiere of the Simons Brickyard Documentary-10-2-12

Simons Brickyard Documentary-10-2-12

With my distant cousins Ernie and Joe Lemus at the premiere of the Simons Brickyard documentary

Simons Brickyard Documentary-10-2-12

Dora Beltran-Garcia and her daughter-in-law Patricia Peralta walking the Red Carpet at the premiere of the Simons Brickyard documentary