In 1956 my father, Jack , made a 16mm movie of the family asparagus operations in Newhall/Saugus. In the late 1980's the movie was transferred to VHS tape. The narration and people on the audio of this video are my Dad , my late Uncle Guy, Auntie Estelle, and cousins Michael and Eric , and my Mom as they watched the movie during the transfer to VHS tape . Recently my Dad transferred the video to DVD format and I was able to capture it and convert it into a You tube video in 2 parts.
Here are some notes on the video courtesy of my father : Mexican contract farm labor was used for seasonal harvesting while the women working in the packing house were directly hired by the Jue family. Asparagus farming was mostly a hand harvesting affair and was a very labor intensive operation, "stoop labor" . San Tong Jue was an inventor and was always trying to make machines to help with the efficiency of the farm operations. A couple of examples of his inventions are described in the film . My dad after his graduation from UC Davis , joined my grandfather in his farming operations . At one point in part 2 the workers are celebrating some baby's birthday . My dad says that was a celebration the workers had for my birthday!
San Tong Jue , my father Jack and the many workers on the farming operation are the stars of this movie . This is a priceless movie that I am so happy to be able to share with everyone ! Thanks so much , Dad , for doing the hard work over the years to preserve this movie. Ps. My mom's late brother in law , Uncle Harry, helped to film this movie.
Earlier in this blog , I shared some photos of the packing house . My cousin Michael rediscovered the actual site of this movie earlier this year as well as the old packing house which can be seen in this movie and which is still standing.
ps . your computer needs to allow embedded html links to work to display the videos directly
if the videos do not display on the blog try clicking on the direct links below each video.
direct you tube link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-okMHveqOtg
direct you tube link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6bCo68aF6g
Here is an edited version of the video,
direct you tube link https://youtu.be/8hqqYGgopJk
Fantastic footage!!! I have not seen this before. It brings back wonderful memories I have of asparagus farming: The people I recognize, how harvest is done from A-Z, and a lifestyle captured in this film that is timeless. Thanks for sharing it with us. Auntie Soo-Yin.
ReplyDeleteIn the film Jesus (pronounced "Haysoos") and Shorty worked for 3 generations of Jue: Jew Joe, San Tong, and Jack. But Jesus was our favorite "Uncle Remus." As a child I loved to follow him around because he was so artistic. He made beautiful things on the ranches when blacksmithing and pinatas for our harvest festivals. Wild coyotes loved him, too. He raised 2 of them in Saugus where he lived on the ranch. I was amazed to see that those wild coyotes took to Guy and Jack as well. But Pingileen and I were not aloud to go near them because they sensed our vulnerability. The coyotes would only take to certain men. Whenever Jesus saw us he would whistle then sing on a very high note, "Twee twee caboose caboose, twee twee haysoos haysoos." Auntie Soo-Yin.
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