A People’s History of the Inland Empire Digital Archive

Edmund & Greta Greene Oral History

2024.021.007

Oral History

Siblings Edmund Dale Greene and Greta Greene Mixon describe growing up in the Valley Truck Farms. Their family moved following their grandfather who retired from Bethlehem Steel, and many of their extended family settled on Norman Road. They share stories of a tightly knit community, where kids had freedom to roam the neighborhood, and play and hunt in the Santa Ana wash. Roads weren’t paved and there weren’t a lot of recreation facilities, but they describe how kids played at Mill School and after it closed, how parents organized to get Mill School turned into a recreation center. They reflect fondly the community where everyone knew each other and shared the work and produce from their small farms, where people ran small businesses out of their homes, and older neighbors became close friends and mentors to neighborhood children. They share stories of growing up in St. Mark’s Missionary Baptist Church, and describe how development of the warehouses has made the neighborhood unrecognizable. They end by saying the Valley should be remembered as a great place to be raised.

Community life in San Bernardino

Development

Family

Farming

Kaiser Steel

Mill school

Orange Show

St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church

Warehouses

African American History

Valley Truck Farms, San Bernardino (Calif.)

1950s-2023

Edmund Greene

Greta Greene Mixon

Jennifer Tilton

2023

A People's History of the I.E.

.mp4

English

01:11:35