Rhoda and Adohr Farms

Rhoda - an unusual name for a cow! How about Bessie? Or Elsie?

 Here is a picture of my Great Grandpa Rindge's family.

My grandpa, Frederick, is the little guy on the right!

  My grandfather had a sister, Rhoda, she's the young girl in this family photo.
Naming my cow after her is a tribute to her dairy farm!

 When my great aunt, Rhoda May Rindge, grew up she met this handsome guy -

 Merritt Huntley Adamson Sr., a farmer,  fell in love, and got married.

 In 1916, Merritt and Rhoda founded a state-of-the-art dairy in Tarzana.

 They named it Adohr Farms; Adohr was Rhoda spelled backward!

Now since my cow is a Holstein, a kind of dairy cow, you can see why I felt compelled to name her after my great aunt, the owner of a large dairy.

Their dairy had Holsteins, and these cows, Guernseys.

 In fact, LOTS of Guernseys!  

The Adohr Stock Farms eventually became the Largest Guernsey Herd in the World!

 This monument still stands in tribute to their achievement, on the grounds at Morningstar Farms in Tulare and is the only remaining sculpture of its kind in the United States. 
The Adohr Milkmaid and Cow was a series of statues
commissioned to advertise Adohr Farms Creameries.

Aunt Rhoda was a strong woman, running the dairy even after her husband's death.

I was lucky enough to find this Adohr Milk Bottle on one of my treasure hunts long ago.

 Nostalgia! The milk man delivery to our door is a fond memory growing up!

My search continues to find more Adohr Farms milk bottles in different sizes ...

 At the last Sacramento Antique Fair, 

a milk crate, just like you see in this picture, was my latest find!

These vintage crates with metal edges are getting harder to find 

and this one even had the Adohr name on it!

I will cherish this treasure - the "Adohr" is a bit worn but still easy to make out!

And my bottle fits inside just right!

 This bronze name plate was uncovered at a Loomis Antique store about seven months ago. Even though the clock is new, the rest is vintage - I would love to know what this piece was used for! Perhaps it sat on my great Aunt Rhoda's desk years ago!

With my latest crate find, my Adohr Farms trifecta is complete!

Looking at it, I think of the long days my ancestors must have spent 

making their dairy so successful.  Dairy farming, like all farming, is hard work and long hours. Sometimes we take for granted how easy it is to get our food supply. With harvest starting soon, we need to take the time to thank all our farmers for their hard work, as they continue to produce the best and safest food supply in the world!

Mildred and the Beach House

The beach house pictured above, under my blog title, is a cherished home.  My Grandma and Grandpa Rindge lived there and raised their three sons, Fred, John and Ronald.  And as luck would have it, Ronald brought his family back to the beach house to experience a little of what he did while growing up.  And, as luck would have it, I was Ronald's second born of six, so I was fortunate enough to experience growing up on the beach.

The beach house was one of the five first homes built in Malibu, a small town in Southern California, in 1923.   It was built on a small little road called Latigo Shore Drive.  Over the years, many more homes were built along Malibu's 26 mile coastline including the famous "Movie Colony".  The movie colony was a small cluster of homes built on the beach leased or bought by the movie stars in Hollywood, thus the moniker.  Movies and Malibu seemed to go together and still do to this day. 

Joan Crawford as Mildred

When my father was about ten years old, Hollywood came to Latigo and my father couldn't have been more excited.  The huge movie trucks rolled into the beach house driveway and giant movie lights rolled out.  It was 1945 and a movie called "Mildred Pierce" was being made, starring Joan Crawford, and a beach house was featured prominently in the story plot.

Mildred arrives at beach house

Our house was chosen as the perfect setting, but it still needed one more thing - a big deck.  So the movie crew set about quickly building the "big deck" you can see on the first photo above!  From that point on, our family called it "The Big Deck" and it was the setting for many a birthday party - but that will be another story!

Mildred's Restaurant in 1945 Movie

Joan Crawford won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as "Mildred" in the movie.  The movie is iconic Hollywood at it's finest.  Watching it now, you will love to see vintage fashions, cars, architecture as well as historic footage of Los Angeles, Malibu and surrounding areas.  

HBO is currently running a mini-series entitled "Mildred Pierce" starring Kate Winslet as Mildred - the third installment is playing this Sunday, April 3rd.  If you like period films, this one is for you!  I am a fan of classic black and white Hollywood movies so I love the original version of Mildred Pierce, but I am truly enjoying this version as well!
        As for the beach house - so many people knew and loved that beach house- from the surfers who would stroll by in search of the perfect break off Latigo Point, to the charter fisherman who viewed the "light mint castle" from the deep sea waters, to all of us, the cousins, the PV Rindges, the Malibu Rindges, and extended families.

Our cherished home is lost to the sea!

Sadly, our cherished home was lost to the sea, in a wild storm in 1983, when her feet were knocked out from under her.  But our cherished beach house, once a movie star, will remain forever ours, in our memories which are just too good to forget.