La Conchita in the Summertime

In the summer I went to stay with Grandpa and Grandma Westcott at their beach house in La Conchita for a week or two (just me, not the whole family).   We would spend hours collecting shells from the wide beach but then we would hear Grandma yell:  “Come up, the tide is coming in!” and we would walk up the stairs and go inside.  In a short while the ocean would be on all three sides of the house down below where it was perched on a sand berm.

The living room had a loft.  I would climb the ladder and lay in my loft while the surf pounded all around the house during high tide.  Later Grandpa moved  to the other side of the highway and railroad track, before the sand eroded the berm even more.

The new house had a root cellar that was cool and fun to play in and there was a small store that sold candy a couple of blocks away that we were allowed to walk to.  I would buy candy cigarettes and Red Hots.  Maybe a pink bubblegum cigar too.

 

This was the same little town (La Conchita “Little Shell”) that was known to have had previous landslides and later did have a series of terrible landslides.  The soft California hills slowly melt and here in La Conchita, they melt toward the ocean and occasionally block the train and highway and bury the homes along with a few residents. 

The town consisted of twenty-eight acres divided into 200 plots only 850 feet wide along the coast and it was without a water source. The area became settled with founding multicultural families consisting of railroad workers, farmhands, and oil workers who were used to making do with less.  La Conchita became a unique multicultural, working class, coastal neighborhood.

As a child I was happy to be walking in such a small town next to the huge ocean and the wide sky and surrounded by the rolling verdant hills.  The biggest thrill was going to get huge blocks of ice from the ice house in Carpinteria for the ice chest (refrigerator).  And of course, playing marbles or jacks with visiting cousins (while chewing gum) and eating Grandma’s cooking.  Tea was every afternoon at 3.  Sugar and milk.  Scones with jelly, thank you.