After about fifteen years working in a highly complex and secret gov't job, I was finally able to buy a place of my own in 1996 less than a half mile from Santa Claus Lane. I’d been in Carpinteria since the early 1990’s, living on the ranches in the foothills. I was thrilled to find a place so close to them. I certainly started to appreciate the history of Carpinteria listening to some of the stories from the ranch owners. I lived on the Young Ranch where John and June Young had a beautiful rustic spread and a colorful party every Christmas for the tenants..June was big and coool, but tough as nails! She had a loyal following among the ranch dwellers! and I found out later that she was the same June who invented Santa Claus Lane!! duh...I didn't even know that when I met her....she also invented the Big Yellow House...talk about a Renaissance woman!!I also lived on the huge Rancho Monte Alegre in an old pink house with a bunch of cats to keep the rats at bay. The rats dined on the big, fat, tasty avocados and had taken up residence in the attic of the pink house. I heard them at night crawling around and scratching and they unnerved me. Well, one day I noticed a Tabby cat hanging around the house and living underneath it. She’d pop her head out when I went outside to do some gardening (the owners dropped the rent if I did some chores). The rats were too clever for my attempts to get rid if them, so I started leaving food out for the cat to try to enlist her help. I called her Big Mama....She ate the cat food-in- a- bowl and started to trust me and we became fast friends. In no time she was in the house monitoring the rat situation. After a week, I had no rat issue..just the ones she brought in from the orchards to show me. Sometimes she’d bring one in alive, let it go and then go off somewhere leaving me to fend for myself!
Her offspring added to the merriment...Five or six cats coming and going, some would disappear. I figured they ran away or maybe the coyotes got them. I’d hear the coyotes yapping at night with the sound of the highway in the distance..I was enchanted by the music! But, cats are independent and I had zero control over them. I did learn a lot from them, however. As I watched them, I realized they were fearless. They’d stand up to any ranch dog, raccoon, or possum. Mainly, they’d just watch with detached bemusement the raccoons wander around at night. I remember warm summer evenings under a full moon, watching the cats and raccoons cast long spooky shadows as they foraged in the avocado orchards. I’d go out to get as close as I could, and they barely noticed me! It was wonderful! Big Mama and her sons and daughters taught me more about nature that anyone before or since. I had her for three years and then she died of a heart condition..I cried like a baby..over a cat! Spooky was hers and was my favorite cat of all time..what a character he was!!!
Music from Big Pinkthe the old pink house was previously inhabited by Ollie Carey until she died right in it. She was the wife of Harry Carey, Sr. and they both showed up a lot in the old TV westerns, of which I am a big fan. I heard great stories of parties on the ranch in the 1950’s with Robert Mitchum and John Wayne..and Ollie serving drinks from her little cottage. Rumor had it a former Playboy centerfold lived on one of the ranches. I may have seen her. I may have given her a ride in my truck, too. I may have..☺
I felt the ghosts moving thru those old houses most every night. (or maybe that was the rats before I snagged a ranch cat). The owners of Rancho Monte Alegre were a little nutty. After a few years living there, one of the ladies kept banging on my door at about three o’clock in the morning, telling me to turn my lights on outside, like Olive Carey used to do!!
Finally, I left Rancho Monte Alegre or was kicked out when they got bored with me! Nevertheless, this was the essence of Carpinteria, rustic and rugged, and I wanted to protect it...
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