General Delivery

By kiki

The people living in the Simons Brickyard didn't have home mail service. They had to have their mail addressed to "General Delivery, Montebello, Ca." - I remember riding my bike from the late 1940's and up until the brickyard closed in 1952 to the Montebello Post Office on 5th street (picture) to pick up our mail (bills) - I shot this picture this morning when I was in Montebello for a haircut, and it was the first time I've seen this post office since 1952....The building has changed somewhat. Back then the main entrance was on 5th street, now it's on a side street - Ah memories! Just can't escape them!

Marisol Celeste Madrigal Uribe

Had a very interesting interview with Marisol Celeste Madrigal Uribe. Marisol, who is a CSULA student working on her masters in Chicano Studies is doing a term paper (I think that's what it is) focusing on the Simons Brickyard and Vail Elementary, now Vail High School. A very interesting morning to say the least

Papa Francisco with my dad, Aurelio

Early 1980's Simons reunion

Bobby Diaz with back to camera. Don't know who the other guy is...Early 1980's Simons reunion .. Taylor Ranch House, Montebello, CA.

Simons, California

                                    My home town

   An excerpt from ‘The Brick People’ by Alejandro Morales

“Mr. Simons made it happen. Everything is his. The store, pool hall, post office, movie show, bachelor’s cabins, Vail School, the library, the church, the water tower, the electricity, the clinic, the trains, the machines, the lots. The houses, unpainted and battered by the weather, the walls of scrap lumber, barely standing together, all the same; two, maybe three bedrooms, a kitchen and small living room, no bath, no toilet. Some had been there for thirty, forty years, but they’re clean on the inside and the outside, pretty garden, lots of plants. It’s not too bad, it’s not too good. It was planned by Mr. Simons and the City.

Simoms was built at just the correct distance from Montebello to discourage the Mexicans from going into town. It was logical to have a separate school, church and other conveniences. The Simons Mexicans were to live, work, play, worship and trade apart, at a safe distance from Montebello. When Simons was established it was never proposed that the company town be a part of Montebello, or for that matter any city. It was understood that the Mexicans were to remind apart in every way”

The Vargas Cow vs the Train

                                       

                                       By kiki

In the Simons Brickyard most people had animals of all kinds, chickens, roosters, pigs, rabbits, goats and cows. Some of the animals were slaughter for food. Pigs who were slaughtered were soon made into tamales and chicharróns. A stolen goat made great birria on a Saturday afternoon when men were drinking, and it didn't matter whom goat was stolen. Some chickens were saved from having their neck twisted because of their ability to lay eggs. Others were not that lucky. The cows were saved from been slaughtered because people needed milk to drink.

The people that lived in El Hoyo (the hole) would take their cows, goats and other animals to a meadow that laid up a hill by the railroad tracks, at times you could see ten or more cows and goats grazing in the tall grass that grew in that beautiful-meadow. In late spring-early summer the grass would grow about 3 feet tall, tall enough for some serious romping by the teenagers (know what I mean?) that were supposed to be keeping an eye on the livestock

One day in a late 1940’s summer one of the Vargas girls, don’t remember which one of the girls it was, had walked the Vargas family only cow up the hill to pasture. Soon after reaching the meadow the Vargas girl met her boyfriend Jess, and within minutes they were romping in the tall grass. The cow with nobody to keep an eye on her made her way to the railroad tracks, I guess she wanted to see how the people on the other side of the tracks lived. As the cow was standing on the tracks a South Pacific Streamliner passenger train came roaring down the tracks, I still remember that it was heading east. The cow didn’t move and the train didn’t stop. The stampede of people was on as soon as the word got down in El Hoyo that the Vargas cow had been killed by a train. People by the dozen were running toward the cow, some of the people with knives in both hands were sharpening them against each other as they ran to get their piece of steak for that night dinner…We missed out!

New Year’s in the Simons Brickyard

New Year’s Eve in Simons would find the Brick People eating left-over Christmas tamales, and washing them down with shots of tequila, those that couldn’t afford tequila would do so with cheap wine. As the sun would begin to set over the brickyard the men would light-up fires to gather around and play their lidas (guitars) and sing old Mexican songs. Their ladies in a joyful mood would soon join them. The men usually built the fires in their backyards. And with the promise of better times to come with the new-year the men would sing romantic songs to their wives/girlfriends. Every now and then a guy would be singing too romantic to somebody else’s wife or girlfriend and a fight would break out, only to end up with the two guys hugging each other as only compa’s could. As the clock was nearing the midnight hour the teenage couples would disappeared into the cornfields, and as they were doing so the old people would bring their guns out. As the clock struck 12 with gun shots in the background the dancing, hugging and kissing would start and wouldn’t end till sun-up. The men without TVs to watch the Rose Parade, or the Rose Bowl games in those cold 1940s winters would spend New Year’s Day around the fires and talking about their plans for the new-year, as they talk a bottle or two would be passed around, a drink just to keep warm they would say. In a day or so the festivities would come to an end and it was time to go back to work making bricks.