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Darlo Murray’s great grandmother, Ola McDowell, moved to the Valley and settled in a home on Norman Road. Murray says that she raised her 13 children in the area and opened a restaurant with his grandfather called McDowell’s cafe. He fondly remembers his great grandmother’s family reunions, her amazing spaghetti, and her large garden of cabbage, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, and more, which Murray’s family used for groceries. Murray says he was the last person to live in his great grandmother’s property around the year 2000 before it was sold, and he remarks on the changes he saw in the community over time. Murray moved around a lot as a kid, but remembers coming back to the community to see no kids playing in the streets and less local businesses, like there once were. He ends by saying that the Valley was the hub of the Black community in San Bernardino, and reminisces on church barbecues and events growing up where his cool pastor would show off basketball skills.
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Pauline Aciero discusses growing up in the Valley and attending Saint Mark’s church for 40 years. Her dad had moved to California from Mississippi in 1940 when he was 14 years old, following his brother. Her family later moved from Barstow into a house in the Valley on Waterman Avenue when she was just 2 years old. She says that her dad tore down a gas station to build their, which was still standing at the time she was interviewed. She reminisces about the produce and animals that people would grow and raise in the Valley, and how nice the people in the community were. Aciero discusses being drawn to Saint Mark’s by its friendly people, including pastor Freeman Williams, who she says was great. Her son attended Mill School, although she did not. Now living three and a half miles from the church and still attending it, Aciero says she has seen a great deal of change and many properties being sold in San Bernardino. She thinks the Valley should be remembered for the way community members shared with and trusted in one another.
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George Overstreet describes being born in Los Angeles, but moving to the Valley Truck Farms in the 1940s. Overstreet says that the Valley was better for his family than L.A., since his dad could buy property. His family opened a small cafe in the business development they built on the corner of Central and Waterman which he says became a space for the community to hang out. His grandmother ran the cafe, and he estimates that the business lasted for about a decade. At the time of the interview, Overstreet still lived in the Valley Truck Farms, and describes his experience of living through the community’s changes. He mentions witnessing more and more cement buildings being constructed, and houses being sold, and less and less people coming to visit him. He describes his porch as a once lively gathering place, but many of his friends had passed away in recent years. He ends by saying that the Valley Truck Farms was a good place to grow up, where neighbors were united in community.
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The Valley Truck Farms Scrapbook was edited by Alice Eby Hall and Roger Hall, completing a project begun by Valley resident Herbert Sims, to document the rich history of the Valley Truck Farms community. The Halls, who were from a rural white community went to school with Sims and many other Valley residents in the late 40s and early 50s at Sturgis Junior High School where they became friends. Alice and Roger Hall began helping Herbert Sims on the Valley Truck Farms book in the early 2000s after Roger Hall retired. There are chapters, photos and maps documenting the early history of the community, the causes of its recent transformation, the history of water, community churches, and schools in the Valley, including selected pictures of Valley residents who went to Mill school, Sturgis junior high school and San bernardino high school in the 1950s. The last half of the scrapbook features stories written by families of the Valley Truck Farms as well as compiled lists of families that lived on different streets in the Valley including the following families Saville, Bland, Jackson, the McDowell and McDaniels, Polee, McMurray, Green, Overstreet, Lockert, Harris, Harper, Curran, and Davis. The book juxtaposes images of the past and present to show the displacement of the rural community and traces some of the causes of the transformations that have hit the Valley over the last 50 years.
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A photo of Grace Greene and Mayor Halcomb walking away from the ribbon cutting ceremony at the opening of the Valley Truck Farms Recreation Center that the community campaigned to open at the old Mill School in the 1970s.
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A black and white photo of Grace & Eddie Green with children. Left to right Rosetta, Eddie, Grace, Wanda, Edmund & Greta. They lived at 1015 Foisy around the corner from grandparents, and uncles who lived on Norman Road.
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A photo of a Wanda Greene in Grace Green's kitchen on Foisy. Has the description "Snap Shots, Inc. A subsidiary of Realist inc" at the top and "duo snap shots" at the bottom.
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In Grace Greene's backyard, with Wanda (left), Rosie (middle) and Greta (right).
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A black and white photo of Uncle Herbert Green, Grace Greene & son Travis Greene in front of home at 9411 Foisy, now 1015 Foisy, located at Valley Truck Farms.
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A black and white photograph of a dune buggy car that Eddie Greene built and his kids enjoyed driving in the Valley in the 1960s. At some point it crashed into a ditch and was damaged, but before that they had fun driving around the dirt roads and the wash in this vehicle. Though they were kids, growing up in farm country, driving young was normal and there was no police presence. With the description "Sep 64" for the date September 1964.
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Signmund Greene smiling for the camera in Grace Greene's backyard on Foisy.
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Edmund Greene, Wanda, and mom Grace Greene playing cards in the kitchen on Foisy in the Valley.
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Grace Greene dancing in her kitchen on Foisy Road.
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Edmund Greene's family playing with dominos at the kitchen table.
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A black and white photo of Eddie Greene with his horse and cousin Samuel at the Santa Anita Racetrack. With a description "Apr 62" for the date April 1962. An additional accompanying photo shows Eddie Green alone with the horse.
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A black and white photo of Eddie Greene with a rescued thoroughbred from Santa Anita race track. With a description "Apr 62" for the date April 1962. An additionally accompanying photo shows an additional family member helping with handling the horse.
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A candid photograph of Greta Blanchee Green Mixon in the backyard beside white car with her two sons (Isaac and Andre) and husband Durell in the background.
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Edmund Greene posing in a suit in his family's flower garden on Foisy Road in Valley Truck Farm, with a description "Jun 70" for the date June 1970. The back of the photograph says To: Ms. Grace Greene and lovely family.
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An extended Greene family photo including left to Right Aunt Alice Agee, Greta Mixon, Grace Greene (mom), Rosie Beltan, Edmund Greene, kids at feet include Desmund, Tasonya and Sigmond. All children and grandchildren of Grace Greene.
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Unknown young girl dressed in white standing in the orchard in Valley Truck Farms, probably on Norman Road where most of the Greene extended family lived. With a description "Jun 57" for the date June 1957.
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A black and white photo of the extended Greene family relatives of Eddie Greene and Grace Williams Greene. Their names from left to right: Aunt Addie, Grace Greene, Uncle Jack, Grand Mother Williams, Eddie Greene, and Aunt Josephine. The Greene family were cousins of the Green family in the Valley, with Eddie Greene son of Ernest Green changed his last name by adding an e at the end. There were at least 4 generations of Green/Greenes who lived in the Valley from the 1940s through the 1990s.
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Ola McDowell and Betty Jennings Betty loved to fish
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Ola McDowell in Valley Truck Farms on her property
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Gerothom Watkins Jr. December 1950
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Norman Street