Did You Miss Jack Innis?

As my journey continues with the San Dieguito Heritage Museum I keep finding out about things I had no idea about or that I only knew about in passing. Tonight Jack Innes shared stories about the San Dieguito Heritage Area that I had never heard before.

Lately I’ve been chest-deep in our crowdfunding efforts, so I was fortunate to get a heads-up several days ago from our Museum Director, Barbara (Bobbi) Grice. Thanks, Bobbi!

Did you know that there used to be a hermit that lived in a cave on the Torrey Pines State Reserve for about 20 years? What about a smuggler’s cave somewhere in San Diego County that might have been from the prohibition era or possibly a century before that? Or why Moonlight Beach is named Moonlight Beach? Bomber parts being manufactured at the Del Mar Racetrack during World War II?

I highly recommend seeing Jack Innes speak. In many cases he’s gone to great lengths to find out if local legends are true or myths. Sometimes he’s even been in danger during his adventures. It’s a good bet that you’ll also enjoy his writing.

For you members, his talk was free tonight – one of the perks of museum membership. Here’s some of the info I got from JackInnis.com:

March 10, 2015 (Tuesday, 7 p.m.)
Talk Title: Special San Dieguito Edition
San Dieguito Heritage Museum (free to Museum members and $5 to the general public)
Encinitas Community Center
1140 Oakcrest Park Drive, Encinitas, CA 92024
(760) 943-2260

You don’t want to miss him next time he comes!

If you would like to see Jack speak elsewhere, his schedule is here.

When Every Hour Was Earth Hour In The San Dieguito River Area

Today I got up a little after five and as I start this post it’s still dark out. I’m reminded of my dad getting up before everyone during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. That’s part of MY heritage.

(He used to smoke and he claimed that it didn’t help his cough to live so close to the ocean in Leucadia. Maybe the chemicals he used on the flowers didn’t help and I suspect gluten might have played a role as well. We moved to Valley Center in 1976 and he claimed that it was a little better inland, but I still remember hearing his loud hacking early in the morning before he started his day.)

Another part of my (future?) heritage is Earth Hour. Most people have heard of Earth Day by now, but Earth Hour is one hour that acts as a reminder that Earth Day is coming. I confess that this year my wife and I forgot, but maybe by posting this now it will help us remember on March 28, 2015 at 8:30 pm. Below is an extra reminder from my Twitter account (@ACrowdFunder).

Use #YourPower for #EarthHour http://t.co/nuTxGxuo2Z http://t.co/WHFKON648T

— Charles Hicks-Moore (@ACrowdFunder) October 15, 2014

For those of us who grew up in the 20th century it’s interesting to realize that we can cause confusion when we say something like, “Before the turn of the century…” because we usually mean before 1900. Sometimes it seems pretty amazing that we are now living in this 21st century as it was in the future for a good portion of our lives. SO…before the turn of the PREVIOUS century it was common to have no electric lights, no indoor plumbing(!), no automobile, and certainly no radio, television or refrigeration.

During Earth Hour we approximate living back then as we turn off nonessential power which includes lights. You may even find yourself going to bed earlier with the lights turned off. You can find out more by clicking on this link – EarthHour.org/Join-The-Hour.

When we participated in Earth Hour in previous years I sometimes contemplated what it would have been like 100 or more years ago. (One year I even unplugged the television after turning it off. Have you ever done that?)

When we were living near La Costa Meadows and turning off our lights for Earth Hour I considered our 1000 square feet of condo to be very small, but it was huge compared to a little one room cabin 100 years or so ago.

We have a tiny room like that inside the San Dieguito Heritage Museum and you’re welcome to come to our volunteer/docent meeting this Friday at 9:30 am and take a peek inside that tiny bit of history.

Contact the museum to let us know you’re coming. I think we’ll have coffee and doughnuts or something like that. Click on the San Dieguito Heritage Museum link above to find the phone number. I’m sure we’ll have the lights on!

An Unanswered Question from the Museum

Here are two memory stories from yesterday’s session that I learned while training to become a Docent at the San Dieguito Heritage Museum.  I have been involved with the Museum for a number of years and never taken a docent training class until yesterday. We have one going on now and will have another sometime this fall. All sorts of odd and interesting facts come along. Here is just one of them: the story behind the exhibit.

There’s an old German cash register in the General Store that came from an old German Restaurant in Carmel Valley. The name will come next time I post about this. This cash register was designed for the German Pfennig and Marks. It sits on the counter of an old meat case from Millers Meat Market, an early store in Encinitas.

Question? If the cash register was designed for German money how did they use it with American money? It is very old. Make a trip to the San Dieguito Heritage Museum on your next outing and see for yourself. The Museum is at 450 Quail Gardens Dr. in Encinitas and is open Thursday through Sunday from 12 to 4.

It’s an eye opener to see the Brands that are still here today. I have special memories of Payday Candy bars. When I was 8 or 9 years old my parents had a tiny native plant nursery in Three Rivers up near the Sequoia National Park. Those were depression days and we sold anything we could to make a little money. Payday was the candy bar we had for sale. Payday was one of the earliest candy bars made and is still being sold today. They named it Payday because it happened to be payday in their little company on the day they picked a name for their new candy bar.

What is your earliest Candy Bar memory from your childhood and how long ago? How old were you? Is the candy bar still being sold today? Did you get an allowance and if you did how much went for candy?

Visit the old General Store at the San Dieguito Museum and enjoy all those old time memories.

-Evelyn Weidner, Loves the stories behind the History