Weedpatch Camp
(Arvin Federal government Camp)
Personal Reminiscences
of the
Hampton Family

Written by Don Hampton (February 2, 2002):

     My father James C (Charlie) Hampton left Oklahoma with very little money and not much else. He hopped freight trains all the way to Northern California.   He told me that he was told to get off the train several times before he finally made it to California.   Back them days he said if you were caught riding the rails the railroad men called ( Bulls) would throw you off.    He said he saw them use billie clubs on men and then throw them off the trains.   He said he was lucky and a couple times he just jumped before they could get to him.    He said not all of the railroad men were like that but there were some, and it was better to be safe than sorry.    

  He would work along the tracks in small towns to get something to eat; there were also people that would just give you a little food to help you out.   But there were a lot of men out of work and a lot of men riding the rails to California so it was rare to find someone who had enough.   Back then men would do a good bit of work for just something to eat.   So many men so little work.   

  He worked for the CCC ( California Conservation Corp) for a while then started working at whatever he could find, mostly picking fruit around Gridley, Marysville/ Yuba City and other small towns around that area.   He eventually came to the Lamont/ Weedpatch area and went to work for Di Georgio farms. 

  He met my mother not long after that but the war started and like many young men he joined the army.   We lived in and around Indio after I was born for about 3 years.   My dad and uncles built our house and the one next to us which was my Grandma Hampton's her name was Telitha in 1948. We were the first 2 houses built on Alden St. our address was 7720.   My dad had 2 sisters that lived around the area.   Deana who lived in Lamont and Florence who lived in Buttonwillow.   Three brothers, Ray who lived in Modesto and Lloyd who lived in San Bernardino and Lee who moved away when I was about 6 or 8 years old.    Two sisters who stayed in Oklahoma. 

   My grandpa and grandma Lassiter (Robert and Nellie) left their home not to far from Cassville, Missouri in 1936 like many others that had lost all they had.   Headed for the golden state to start over and feed their family.   They had the usual problems like flats, car overheating etc.   Along were my mom Dorothy, Juanita, Rosalee, Thelma and Robert.   My uncle Charles was born after they moved here.   They worked all up and down the San Joaquin valley for a while but couldn't find anything permanent until they came to Weedpatch.   My grandpa went to work for one of the farmers here and he said that my grandpa could put up his tent on the property. 

  That’s the way a lot of people lived then, they had a tent that they carried with them from place to place.   When the crops were picked the farmer said he could find a little something for my grandpa to do around the farm if he wanted to stay on.   So that is how they came to settle in Weedpatch.   I wish I could remember the name of the farmer but I can't.   Seems like I remember the name Blomady or something like that.   He owned the property that bordered what are now Max Lane and Weedpatch Hwy. because my grandparents bought a lot from him and it was the last house on Max Lane.  Seems like that road used to be Campbell Street or Lane then. 

  My mother worked at Di Georgio all during the war like a lot of women when the men were gone off to war.   She worked out in the fields and done pretty much what men would do, picked grapes, plums off ladders and so on.   My grandma worked at Di Georgio in the packing shed up until she was about 79 or so.   

  After the war my dad went back to work for Di Georgio, he ran a crew for years and worked up until about 1966 or 67.   During the summer when I was growing up both my parents worked for Di Georgio.   

   When I was about 10 or 11,  I would watch my 2 younger brothers and I was paid $1 a day. My mom would always make something and leave it for us to eat at lunchtime but I would still buy us a half-gallon of  Ice Cream just about every day.   I thought we were living high on the hog.  

   Along the way my parents had 4 boys, my older brother Richard my 2 younger brothers Wayne and Bobby and me Don (Donnie).   I thought I had the best childhood there could possible be growing up in Weedpatch.   I remember catching Horned Toads to play with, going down to the crawdad hole and catching crawdads with my uncle, 2 cousins and my older brother.   Hitch hiking there and then back with a large toe sack full of them, going to my grandma's house to clean them and fry them up. 

  I worked a couple years at Weedpatch Market, mostly for Red and Doc in the meat department.   I also sorted pop bottles, unloaded trucks, stamped cans( priced) or whatever I could find to do.   I remember one time my friend Johnny Mills and I unloaded a truck of watermelons for 1 cent apiece. I think watermelons sold for about 1to 3 cents a pound then.   I picked cotton, peas, carrots, potatoes or whatever there was to work at.   I remember riding Marshal Robinson's bus out to the field for a dime to pick peas and bringing home a bushel with me for my mom to can for the winter.   A lot of people done that then and the farmer didn't mind.  

  I remember running around barefoot all summer, and having to run from shade tree to shade tree to cool my feet until they got toughened up enough.   I remember playing baseball on the lot on the corner of Buena Vista and Parish avenue.   Drinking RC cola with peanuts poured in it in the summertime at Pope Wilshire's Hancock station.   Swimming in the reservoirs and in the canal in Lamont we called "Combs Weir".   Frog gigging in the canal at the crawdad hole at night, riding my bike all the way to Lamont just to get a "Chili Burger" at the little stand on the corner of Kearney and Main Street.   Going to the show in Lamont for 25 cents, swimming in the pool at Sunset School for 10 cents.   

   Yah! I think I was blessed to have grown up in Weedpatch.   My grandparents passed away in the 70's, my mom in 1981 and dad in 1990.   My brothers live over on the coast and are building contractors, and I live in North Carolina with my three children, 6 grandchildren (and counting).  

Personal reminiscences
The Arvin Tiller/Lamont Reporter
9717 Main, P.O. Box 548, Lamont, CA 93241, (661) 845-3704