Although I am now a resident of Montana I was born and raised in California. The California I grew up in was much different than the one you see today. Much of it was rural, agricultural and a very real part of the Old West.
My great grandfather, Austin Denny Barnard, came to San Buena Ventura in the mid-eighteen hundreds and my grandfather, Charles Ventura Barnard was born there in 1869. Ventura County is where I grew up on a citrus & avocado ranch. Ironically, I am only third generation even though the first generation was born there nearly 140 years ago.
When I was a little girl, everyday after school, I would run to the barn, saddle up my horse and ride away. I loved to pretend I was Annie Oakley. I would go into the hills and pretend to track rustlers. I was really tracking cowboys herding cattle.
Fields and orchards were never fenced. I was welcome to ride across any neighbor’s property. We treated each other’s property with respect in those days. Oh, yes, we misbehaved now and again. But, it was usually things like swiping a watermelon out of a neighbor’s patch. Course, nobody really cared but if you got caught you got in big trouble just the same. It was the principle of the thing.
Those fields and orchards I used to race across on my horse are no longer. Clapboard houses crammed together like sardines in a tin now cover that beautiful, fertile land. Also gone are the trust, respect and consideration people once had for each other. Just too many people competing for too little space I reckon.
I have often been asked if I miss California and I quite honestly answered no, not really. And, it seemed to me I really didn’t miss anything about California the way it is today. But, I was wrong. I recently visited California and I realized there is something and it is the rolling hills and majestic oaks. The California oaks are the most beautiful trees in the world in my opinion. Somehow I had forgotten what an impact they have on me. There aren’t as many as there once were but where they still exist they reign supreme.
I shall soon be returning to my beloved Montana mountains but I will never again forget what I will always love about California.
©Kinsey Barnard Photography
