Uncle Oscar and the Sacramento State Fair
Following the end of WW II, September 2, 1945, the home front joyfully greeted their returning sons and daughters. Oscar returned to Stockton, having served as a Master Sgt. responsible for the final approval of   military airplanes leaving to Europe were in perfect condition.

His record must of been impressive, because Oscar was recommended, and offered a job to be the Head Mechanic for the very popular California Governor, Earl Warren.
 
For the 1946 California gubernatorial election,  Earl Warren, incumbent Governor, was being nominated by both the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as the Progressive Party. Warren won re-election effectively unopposed, receiving more than 90% of the vote.

However, instead of taking that job, Oscar went into business with his sisters, Estella Ratto and Elia Valdez.  With the help of his younger sister Alba's husband, Charles Schultz,  they built the Mexico Cafe, the frame, electricity, plumbing, kitchen stoves and ovens, etc. His sister Estella and Elia already had the experience of running a bar which served food.   Very soon the Mexico Cafe  became a popular, a very successful restaurant.  The Mexico Cafe was located off of a main highway on the south side of Stockton.   It was the location that may have opened the doors to developing contacts and skills as a Fair concessionaire.  It also made it possible for me to fill in as waitress, when needed.  The Greyhound bus driver would pick me up in Stockton at the side of the road, and drop me off almost at my door in Manteca.

One day a man from the State Fair Board came by.   The Mexico Cafe had been recommended to him by another Fair Board member.  Unknown to Oscar, the State Fair Board member was dining there, checking out the restaurant for possible inclusion in the California State Fair.  The gentleman returned in a couple of weeks and offered Oscar the opportunity of participating in the upcoming 1948 State Fair in Sacramento.

Each July, for over 150 years, the California State Fair, was held at the CalExpo in Sacramento for a multi-week event. However, from 1942 to 1947, the fair was discontinued while the expo was used for military purposes during  World War II.  The Mexico Cafe was accepted.

The whole family got involved in preparation for the July Fair.  We kids were expected to help.  The Menus was beans, rice, tacos, tostadas, and tamales. We made tamales in the building behind the restaurant, which had been built as a warehouse for supplies and food preparation. The tamales froze well.  I really enjoyed working side by side with my aunts and uncles.

All Sacramento was excited.  It was in the air, the United States returning to normalcy, flags and banners. The city was packed with the diversity which the ending of the war brought to the state capitol.  Accommodations close to the fairgrounds visitors were difficult to find.  The motels and hotels were so crowded, some home owners were renting out rooms during the Fair.  All those out-of-towners involved with the Fair needed sleeping facilities:  concessionaires of food booths, exhibitors of all forms of art (flowers and flower arrangement, photography, knitting, sewing, furniture, sculpture, etc. plus  new products on market, demonstrated use, livestock competitors, the  cowboys, the horse races, the evening entertainers, and the HUGE carnival rides with their hard-working crew.
Oscar was able to find a couple of accommodations, but they were in two different motels. The first evening when the crowds were diminishing, we kids,  cousin Val (12 yr), my sister Tania (16 yr) and me  (14 yr)  asked for per mission to go to the Carnival.  We didn't plan to go on any of the rides, just to see the set-up.  When we returned, the booth was dark and empty. Everyone was gone.  They all left.  It was not the time of cell-phones, and we didn't even know the names of the motels were we were going to stay. 
Oscar was assigned a large booth in a very good location, the first booth when entering through one of  the main entrances.  The booth was open on three sides, very inviting with Mexican decoration.  Mexico Cafe was a huge success.  Its visibility was very helpful.  As we stood there at that moment wondering what to do, a Fair Guard came over to us and asked why we were there at that late hour.  We told him the circumstance.  He listened carefully and e went over to the entry booth, opened it up and made some calls.   He returned to us, opened our booth, and said he would be standing watch over us all night.  He stood under a light which had been turned off earlier, but now was on.  
The kitchen was very clean, with little to munch on.  We snacked and made ourselves comfortable, sleeping on the itchy 50-lb sacks of dried beans. The July nights were always very warm in Sacramento. Our angel Fair Guard watched over us the entire night.  The next morning one group of  the Chapa family arrived.  Surprised, they asked us who had brought us. We explained what had happened.  They quietly took it in.   They, didn't say anything.  When the other group came, they assumed we had been with the other Chapa family group.  We didn't say anything, but eventually the whole story came out.  I thoroughly enjoyed being around the family.  Two of the teen cousins were sent home, one for not wearing her hair net, and the other for handing two beers to a customer.  Uncle Oscar followed all the health and booth rules meticulously, a continuation of his military service training.

Thank goodness Oscar did not get into trouble. The Fair Office could have told their Guard  to call the police. We three could have ended up in some protected-care situation.  Maybe including court involvement.  Val and I decided, if the incident had been  made public in any way, it would have been really bad publicity for the Fair.  It could have finished Oscar's career as a concessionaire.  Gratefully and perhaps because Oscar was a returning veteran, it was his first experience at the State fair, and we were all family, it turned out to be an adventure and not 
a sad memory.

Since 1948, I had been working fairs with the Chapa family, up and down California.  In addition to Sacramento, there was,  San Diego, Los Angeles, Fresno, Sonora, Pleasanton, Napa, Mark Twain,  Lodi, and Stockton.  I had been earning my UCLA tuition, books, and incidentals by working for Oscar.  Win and I met during the 1955 UCLA summer session. Win who had just gotten out of the service, instead of returning home to Brooklyn, NY wanted to stay in California to see if  I might consider marrying him.  

The July 1955 Sacramento Fair was coming up.  Oscar agreed to let Win work it. I was actually curious to see how Win would interact with my family. He did very well, both fitting in and working. He surely stood out, blond hair and tall, with all my brunettes tias y tios. In fact, Aunt Estella commented on what a good worker Win was in the kitchen.   She said he  didn't waste any movements.  I remember his voice yelling from the kitchen, "lechuga," "carne". . . .
One evening, Win and I helped Oscar close the booth.  Needing to get some gas, Oscar pulled into a small gas station behind a car.  Another car pulled in behind us.  There was some kind of  a commotion going on. The gas attendant was running around very agitated.  Suddenly there was an explosion.  The attendant and the man in the pay booth both ran into the street screaming.  "Get out. Get out."

The driver of the car in front of us, a woman just sat there, looking around. Oscar started honking for her to move. She didn't, she just sat there, obviously very confused and panicked by the circumstances, she just froze. 

Oscar continued honking and then started bumping into her bumper gently at first, pushing her forward. Finally she put her hands on the stirring wheel, as Oscar pushed her out from between the gas pumps. Oscar kept forcing her to go forward. She did not want to go, over the curb into the street. He kept bumping her, shoving her forward, because we could not get out from behind her. Finally, he pushed her over the curb, and gave us room to get away from her. Oscar went off the curb and went in the opposite direction of her. He said to us, "we have to get away from the gas station. "It is going to blow up. We don't know how much gasoline is in stored in their tank. We have got to get as far away, as we can." We did.  

There was a small mention in the newspaper the next day, but for Win and me, it is a shared memory of how Oscar handled the situation.  Oscar was always a hero to me. 

 

04/19/2022