Historical and Cultural Landmark Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village in Simi Valley

Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village in Simi Valley is a California Historical Landmark, Ventura County Cultural Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bottle Village is a .3 acre lot located at 4595 Cochran Street that contains shrines, walkways, sculptures and buildings made from recycled items and discards from local landfills. All of these structures were built by hand over a 25 year old period by Tressa "Grandma" Prisbrey, beginning at age 60 in 1956 until 1972. Thirteen buildings and 22 sculptures in total.

A non-profit organization, Preserve Bottle Village (PBV), was formed in 1979. The 1994 Northridge Earthquake caused extensive damage to the Bottle Village site. PBV has embarked on a campaign to develop a master plan for the restoration of significant site components. Learn how you can help at bottlevillage.weebly.com.

Grandma Prisbrey sold the property in 1972 to care for an ailing son, but came back several years later to continue building and to give tours.  She died in 1988 at the age of 92.

Facts and Figures About the Ventura County Call Box Program

2023 UPDATE: This was originally posted in 2013 and updated in 2016. The Ventura County Transportation Commission (VCTC) provided an update of the Ventura County Call Box program at its April 7, 2023 meeting. There are currently 429 emergency call boxes in Ventura County, averaging 1,200 calls for motorist assistance per year, down from 3,000 calls per year in 2016. There were 1,131 call box calls in 2022, down from 1,179 in 2020. In 2022, the call boxes were upgraded from 3G to 4G/LTE cellular technology.

---

Ever wonder about the call boxes on the side of the highways around town? Currently, 29 of the state's 58 counties have call box programs.  Statewide, there are 15,000 call boxes, lining some 6,300 miles of California highways. Call boxes throughout California generate more than 100,000 calls per month.

Costs associated with the call box program are paid for by a $1 annual fee included in the County/District Fees shown on your DMV vehicle registration notice.

Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol and regional "SAFE" ("Service Authority for Freeways and Expressways") agencies jointly operate the program. In Ventura County, the Ventura County Transportation Commission (VCTC) oversees the call box program.

Since 1985, the goal of SAFE is to quickly identify and respond to freeway incidents such as breakdowns and accidents in order to minimize their impacts in terms of congestion, public safety and air quality, and to increase the reliability of the freeway system and better manage traffic flow.

There are currently (as of September 2016) 560 active call boxes in Ventura County, roughly 40% on Highway 101, 20% on Highway 126, 15% on Highway 118 and the remainder on PCH, SR 23 and Highways 33, 34 and 150.

So the question most of you may have is, does anyone actually use call boxes given the proliferation of cell phones? The answer is...yes...but the numbers have dropped dramatically over the years.

Over the last five years, an average of roughly 3,000 calls for assistance have been made from call boxes in Ventura County each year. While this is down dramatically from the 17,000 calls made in the year 2000, they are still being used.

In recent years, 420 call boxes have been upgraded from 2G to 3G service. The remaining 141 call boxes will be removed in 2016-2017, with an anticipated cost savings of $380,000 over the next five years. This is based on a review of the SAFE program presented to the Ventura County Transportation Commission in its September 9, 2016 meeting.

Visit the VCTC website at www.goventura.org to learn more about transportation options in Ventura County.

Note: Originally posted in 2013. Updated in 2016.

1983 Was the Last Year You Could Watch Drive-In Movies in the Conejo Valley

The Thousand Oaks Drive-In, located behind the current site of the Kohl's Department Store in Newbury Park at 1960 Newbury Road, was closed in 1983. This picture, courtesy of the Thousand Oaks Library Special Collections, was taken by local photographer Scott Harrison on October 11, 1983, shortly after the Drive-In was closed that year.

Thousand Oaks Library Special Collections, News Chronicle Collection. Photo by Scott Harrison.

As you can tell from the sign in the picture, the last two films shown at the Drive-In were "Risky Business" and "Private School." The theater was torn down and eventually Kohl's opened in March 2004.

According to an August 4, 1997 Ventura County Star article, the Thousand Oaks Drive-In opened the first week of August 1967.  Seeing this picture certainly brings back childhood memories for me. There are over 150 other movie screens in the Conejo Valley and Ventura County today, but nothing compares to watching a movie while sitting in the comfort (arguably) of your own car!

Grand opening of the Thousand Oaks Drive-In Theatre in August 1967

California Minimum Wages Increased to $15.50 Per Hour on January 1, 2023

Effective January 1, 2023, the minimum wage for all California hourly employees is $15.50 per hour, up from $15 per hour for employers of 26 or more and $14 per hour for employers of 25 or less in 2022.

The federal minimum wage for 2023 is still $7.25, a rate unchanged since it became effective on July 24, 2009.

California minimum wage rates apply to Ventura County residents.

The City of Los Angeles minimum wage rate has been $16.04 per hour since July 1, 2022. Each year, the minimum wage is adjusted for inflation; the adjusted rate is announced on February 1st of each year and becomes effective on July 1st of each year. The city’s 2023 minimum wage rate increases to $16.78 effective July 1, 2023. See wagesla.lacity.org.

The County of Los Angeles minimum wage rate became $15.96 per hour effective July 1, 2022 and increases to $16.90 per hour starting July 1, 2023. See dcba.lacounty.gov/minimum-wage-for-businesses.

Why the City of Los Angeles and County of Los Angeles can’t align their rates to be the same is beyond me.

Looking for a higher minimum wage? Move to San Francisco, where the rate has been $16.99 per hour since July 1, 2022 and will be adjusted for inflation again on July 1, 2023 to $18.07 per hour. See sf.gov/information/understanding-minimum-wage-ordinance.

Or better yet, the City of Emeryville, CA minimum wage effective July 1, 2022 became $17.68 and increases to $18.67 on July 1, 2023. See www.ci.emeryville.ca.us/1024/Minimum-Wage-Ordinance.

The highest city minimum wage rate in the country in 2023 is $18.69 per hour for employers in Seattle, Washington. www.seattle.gov/laborstandards/ordinances/minimum-wage

Looking for states with minimum wages set at the federal rate of $7.25/hour? That would be Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

California’s minimum wage rate in 2022 was the third highest in the country. Washington D.C. is at $16.50 per hour, increasing to $17 per hour on July 1, 2023. The state of Washington is at $15.74 per hour for workers 16 and older. Massachusetts is currently at $15 per hour effective January 1, 2023. www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-law-about-minimum-wage

Dos Vientos Ranch Twenty Five Years Ago Compared to Today in Newbury Park

Dos Vientos Ranch in August 1997

Dennis Bronk of Newbury Park sent over this old photo of the Dos Vientos Ranch (or Two Winds Ranch) development in its early stages in August 1997. That's Cypress Elementary near the bottom right side of the photo. The body of water east of the school is Conejo Mountain Creek Detention Basin No. 1. The photo below is the view today.

Keep in mind that in the late 1800s/early 1900s there was almost no residential development throughout the Conejo Valley. The Dos Vientos development was the last of the large developments we will ever see in the Conejo Valley.

A view of Dos Vientos Ranch looking towards the Oxnard Plain in the 1950s.

Daylight Saving Time is Back Again on the 2nd Sunday of March

Daylight Saving** Time is coming back again! Yes, this will take place on Sunday, March 12, 2023. When the clock strikes 2 a.m. that morning, you will lose one hour of beauty sleep. Daylight Saving Time begins in most of the U.S. on the 2nd Sunday of March.

So try to get to bed early that night or you may feel grumpy on Monday! Especially when you realize it feels a lot darker that morning. But the good thing is, it'll be a lot lighter out at dinnertime!

** Contrary to what many of us think, it is called Daylight Saving Time, not Savings Time. Make sure to correct anyone who says it wrong if you really want to get on their nerves. But the reality of it is that we're not saving any daylight, we're just shifting it around.

MY VENTING SESSION ON DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME

Before the adoption of standard time zones in the United States, cities, towns, and communities set their own local times based on the sun’s position. In 1883, railroad companies adopted a system of standard time to synchronize movement and trade across the nation. The U.S. adopted an official system of standard time in 1918.

The Standard Time Act of 1918 incorporated a DST mandate from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. Congress repealed the DST mandate in 1919. President Woodrow Wilson vetoed the repeal. Congress overrode his veto.

Beginning in 1920, DST was a local state/city option. Here’s the history of DST legislation in California:

1930: Prop 7 was but on the ballot to implement DST at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in April until 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in September. The initiative failed.

1940: Prop 5 was put on the ballot to implement DST. The initiative failed again.

1949: Third time’s a charm. This time it passed.

1962: Prop 6 was passed, which extended DST from the last Sunday in September to the last Sunday in October.

2018: Californians voted in favor of Proposition 7 by a margin of 59.75% to 40.25%. Voting in favor of the proposition allowed the California State Legislature to change the DST period by a 2/3rds vote and to establish permanent, year-round DST in California by a 2/3rds vote if federal law is changed to allow for permanent DST.

Why the holdup?

The holdup is at the federal level, not the state level: Voting yes on Prop 7 was just the first step in the process. California is one of 14 states that introduced legislation in 2019 to shift to permanent daylight saving time. States cannot move forward with permanent daylight saving time without authorization from the federal government. As of November 2019, there were 4 bills awaiting action in Congress that would allow California to be on permanent DST. These were:

H.R. 1556 “Sunshine Protection Act of 2019,” introduced to the House 3/6/19. The bill makes DST the new, permanent standard time. States with areas exempt from DST may choose the standard time for those areas. The bill was pending a hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. S.670 is an identical bill in the Senate, pending a hearing in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. These have gone nowhere.

H.R. 1601 “Daylight Act” and H.R. 2389 “To allow states to elect to observe year-round DST” both authorize states to shift to permanent daylight saving time and are pending hearings in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. These have also gone nowhere.

The Story of Jungleland in Thousand Oaks

The Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza is located on historic land in many respects. The land was originally part of "Rancho El Conejo," a Spanish land grant. Egbert Starr Newbury purchased 2,259 acres of this land in 1874 and built a home here (more on Newbury and his local legacy at THIS LINK).

After a drought in 1876-1877 bankrupted the Newbury family, the land was foreclosed and sold to the Crowley family in 1887, who built a successful ranch on the land. In 1910, Frank Crowley's parents built him a five bedroom, two story home on the land that is located at 2522 Pleasant Way. The Crowley family lived on the ranch until 1922.

The "Crowley House" went through several ownership changes through the years but is now maintained by the Conejo Recreation and Park District and is considered a Ventura County Historical Landmark.

One of the subsequent owners of the Crowley House was Louis and Kathleen Goebel. In 1925, Goebel purchased former Newbury/Crowley land where the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza currently stands.  It cost him $50. Louis Goebel soon opened Goebel's Lion Farm, where he trained lions and rented them to movie studios.

"Home of Goebel's African Lions" circa 1929 (Courtesy of Conejo Through the Lens, Thousand Oaks Library)

As travelers passed through town, they wanted to see the animals. Goebel capitalized on this in 1929, when the site became "Goebel's Wild Animal Farm," a theme park that became very popular in the 1940s and 1950s. The 170 acre site housed all sorts of animals...elephants, tigers, giraffes, hippos, chimpanzees and more. Additionally, many TV shows and movies were filmed there, such as Tarzan, The Adventures of Robin Hood and Birth of a Nation.

Goebel's Wild Animal Farm was home to Leo the Lion, of MGM Pictures fame. Over the years, other animal celebrity residents included Mr. Ed, the talking horse, Bimbo, the elephant from Circus Boy and Tamba, the chimpanzee in Tarzan films and "Bedtime with Bonzo" starring Ronald Reagan and Diana Lynn.

Goebel sold Jungleland in 1946 and the park was renamed the "World Jungle Compound." Ten years later it was sold again to executives from 20th Century Fox and was renamed "Jungleland." After five years, the business slid and Goebel was able to purchase it back in 1961. 

In between Goebel's Lion Farm and Jungleland, from 1946 to 1955 the tourist destination was called the "World Jungle Compound" (Courtesy of CONEJO THROUGH THE LENS, THOUSAND OAKS LIBRARY.)

Five elephants at Goebel's Lion Farm (from the Ethel Nixon Collection (via Conejo Through the Lens, Thousand Oaks Library.)

At its peak popularity, the 170 acre Jungleland compound had all sorts of activities - shows by tiger trainer Mabel Stark, and others, elephant rides, tortoise rides, ducky boat rides, train rides, safari tram buses and even a sky tram. Animals included elephants, lions, tigers, hippos, camels, llamas, giraffes, orangutans, chimpanzees and a variety of others.

Jungleland closed in October 1969 after its popularity continued to drop - a combination of increased competition (Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, Universal Studios, etc.) and the fact that Highway 101 diverted drivers around the theme park. The park operated for 43 years and its 1,800 animal occupants were sold at auction. 

So...when you stroll through the grounds of the Civic Arts Plaza and The Lakes at Thousand Oaks, close your eyes and see if you can envision all the animal excitement that took place here just a few generations ago in the heart of Thousand Oaks.

Jungleland sign after the theme park closed in 1969. (Image courtesy of Conejo Through the Lens, Thousand Oaks Library.)

Louis Goebel and Jungleland plaque outside the Civic Arts Plaza.

More on Jungleland on the Stagecoach Inn Museum website at stagecoachinnmuseum.com/jungleland.

Some photos from around 1965 (from a private collection):