Ojai Valley News Blog

Darlene Mansfield with old rotary phone and cover of the 1954 Ojai Valley Directory.

Reprinted phone book puts nostalgia on speed dial

By Nancy Gross
Did someone say they were headed up Highway 399 to stop by the Deer Lodge for a drink, a game of shuffleboard and to pick up some ice and groceries? It is likely someone did, in 1954.

Darlene Mansfield, whose husband was “the whistling telephone man in this valley” has put out a reprint of the 1954 Ojai Valley Directory, published by the Ojai Publishing Company, its original publisher. Ojai Publishing had already been in business for 63 years in 1954. Some things change, and some don’t change as much, and anyone with an interest in Ojai history or general nostalgia will enjoy being able to compare the present to the time capsule provided by this reprint.

The Deer Lodge’s advertisement in the back of the book is under the heading “Taverns,” and reads, “Deer Lodge, Tavern, Dancing-Shuffleboard, Grocery, Open 7 days a week, Ice-Chevron gasoline, Maricopa Hwy., Ph. Ojai 464.” A map in the back of the directory shows that Maricopa Highway had the designation of Highway 399 in those days.

The Deer Lodge floor doesn’t retain any remnants of the shuffleboard courts, as far as employee Susie Augustsson knows though she remarks that owners Jerry and Lisa Kenton have their own stash of memorabilia on the establishment. “We have customers who come in here now who say, ‘Oh my gosh, my parents brought me here when I was little. They gave me a penny or a nickel to go into the little store while they would get a drink.’ There was something called the ice house,” Augustsson said.

Conversations like this are likely to be heard all over the valley and beyond, as residents purchase the 1954 directory both for themselves, and as gifts for family and friends who have moved away. It is available at Ben Franklin, True Value, and on ebay. “Many people are buying two copies,” Mansfield said.

“This book is really about the people who lived here — they were the nucleus of this community,” Mansfield said. “It shows who we were, what we did, where we went.”

“1954. That doesn’t seem old to me,” Mansfield said, who is brimming with memories related to the valley, augmented by the fact that her husband was more or less “the only telephone installer up here.” She has dedicated the reprint to his memory. “He met everyone who came here. After he retired, he would still get calls. He would go over in his old VW, fix the phone and come back with a plate of cookies.”

She points out the foldout map, where one can find Henderson Airstrip. “It was small, but it was a status symbol, we had our own airfield, mind you.” The sister of a friend of the Mansfields once landed a plane there that was in no sense “an itty bitty private plane.” When told she couldn’t do it, the woman had replied, “You don’t know my pilot,” and indeed, she did it.

Another feature that appears on the map at Woodland and Highway 399 (now 33) is long-gone Mirror Lake, where Mansfield’s mother’s 11-year-old brother used to ride on his bicycle to collect frogs and pollywogs. “He once saw a rowboat sitting there with its oars, and took it out on the lake and it capsized, terrifying him. But he wasn’t hurt, as the lake was only 2.5 feet deep.”

Mansfield grew up in Ojai and only left briefly when she was a young woman. “I went and worked for U.S. Steel in San Francisco.” Her boyfriend at the time was a quarterback for San Francisco State University, and he lost his balance and then lost his life in a serious fall.

Mansfield’s parents wanted her to return to Ojai, so she packed up so that her father could come pick her up: “It was the ‘50s. You didn’t leave home without your ironing board and your lipstick.” She hasn’t left Ojai since, and she married Don shortly after that.

Mansfield points out the three and four digit phone numbers in the 1954 directory. She also says, “We didn’t have a phone. We’d have to go to my grandma’s house. She had a 10-party line.”

The reissued 1954 Ojai Valley Directory is not altered from the original, and begins with an essay about the valley. “Entering the picturesque valley on State Highway 150 from Santa Paula, thousands of travelers pause each year at the summit of Dennison Grade to enjoy the beauty of this rolling citrus valley spread out far below them and surrounded by the nearly continuous range of mountain peaks which give it the appearance of an American ‘Shangri-La.’”

The page after the essay offers a glimpse into the 1950s style of describing families and professions: “Your Ojai Valley directory lists the head of the family, the wife’s given name in parenthesis, occupation, address, mailing address, phone number and the names of minor children.” Apparently, if the wife had an occupation, that went into her parentheses as well, though most listings are without this.

A sample listing reads: “Bowie Wm (Hattie, dep cty clk) Ojai orng assn Grand av Rt 1 Box 17A ph 598-Mina, Bill.” And another: “Bjornstedt Arthur (Lerie, welcome wagon) survyr Cal Prep PO Box 678 Foothill rd ph 2438-Christina Erik.”