World War I started in 1914 and ended in 1918. The United States didn’t enter the battle until 1917, so our involvement was relatively short compared to many of the European countries – but it still caused labor shortages across the United States. In California the lack of laborers hit the fruit growers particularly hard.

Here’s the front page of the report…

And the section about the search to find women and girls willing to work in the Hemet Cannery.

The wages weren’t terrible. According to the Bureau of Labor, the average family income in 1918 was $1,518, or about $126 per month. These women were being offered between $2 and $4 per day – so they most likely averaged between $44 and $88 a month.

But they were expected to work 12-hour-days? And the housing was in a burned out hotel?

Especially interesting is the note that all of the women they found to work in Riverside County “frankly admitted that the motive of their response was financial rather than patriotic.” Yeah, I can imagine that if you were recruited in Los Angeles to leave your family and maybe even your children – to come to Hemet and spend 12-hour-days in a cannery, money might be a motivating factor! And the idea that it was the first chance the women and girls of Riverside had to do their patriotic duty is a little silly. I would say that watching your husband or father or son head off to Europe and go to war was a huge sacrifice. And in fact a far greater display of patriotism than picking and canning fruit.

For the last couple of months the mountains surrounding the San Jacinto Valley have been capped with snow, and there’s something grand about seeing a sunny orange grove, and a bright blue sky, with snow covered mountains in the background!

It’s a question I hear often… Where is Hemet?

Hemet is in Southern California, east of Los Angeles, in Riverside County.

It’s 37 miles from downtown Riverside.

It’s 83 miles from downtown San Diego.

It’s 87 miles from downtown Los Angeles, 95 miles from West Hollywood, and 102 miles from Santa Monica.

It’s 58 miles from Orange County, via the Ortega Highway, but 87 miles if you prefer to stick to freeways.

And it’s 42 miles from Palm Springs.

It’s also 22 miles from Idyllwild, and 68 miles from Big Bear – the two best mountain resort areas in Southern California.

I like to think of Southern California as a big triangle. San Diego is the southern tip, then due north is Riverside and San Bernardino, and then due west, is LA. And if you draw a line from Los Angeles back to San Diego, that’s the coast line. Hemet lies just to the east of that almost perfect right-angled triangle.

Another way to look at it? Hemet is less than 60 miles from the beach, the mountains and snow, and the desert. And it’s less than two hours from two of the biggest cities in California. Pretty sweet!

The mountains surrounding the San Jacinto Valley are so spectacular right now. And if you follow Highway 74 all the way out of town, it turns into a narrow mountain road, and if you keep following it, you’ll end up in Mountain Center. And then if you curve onto Highway 243, you’ll find Idyllwild. If you’ve never been this time of year, get going quick! There’s sledding and hot chocolate and a warm fire waiting at any of the bed and breakfasts in town…

I suspect I’ll keep shooting this view, until the snow melts. It’s too beautiful to resist.

But that was years ago, and I had totally forgotten about Hemet Elementary School. And then I took a wrong turn, and accidently drove past the school on Kimball Avenue, and all my love for that beautiful historic building flooded back, and I couldn’t help wishing, once again, that I’d gotten to attend a school as pretty.

Unfortunately the very pretty main building is sinking, and the school board was forced to first move classes, and then close the school last June. The parents, students, and teachers all protested the closing, and they met with some temporary success, but ultimately budget woes caused the campus to close.

Built in 1927, the building faces an uncertain future. Can it be saved? That’s an expensive question, but if there’s any chance at all, I hope the school district and the community pursue it!

The landscaping in front of the building includes ornamental bushes with different kinds of berries. I’m sure many a kid over the years, spent time picking the berries off, one by one…

For more on the closing of Hemet Elementary School, see http://www.pe.com/localnews/hemet/stories/PE_News_Local_D_ehemet11.25404c9.html
And for more on efforts to save the historic 1927 main building, see http://www.pe.com/localnews/banning/stories/PE_News_Local_W_eschool11.40b81de.html

Aren’t these just the prettiest sheep you’ve ever seen?

A temporary lake, caused by the recent heavy rain, off of Alessandro Boulevard.

And finally, a fabulous yellow tree and little old house, near the San Jacinto River Park, just outside of San Jacinto.

The Hemet/San Jacinto Valley has some spectacular views right now of the snow-capped San Bernardino Mountains. The photo above shows Idyllwild, at sunset.

Here’s to a fabulous 2011 for everyone in the Valley, and up on the Hill, and beyond!

My mother grew up in Hemet in the 1950′s and 60′s, and she remembers the Stock Farm back when the grounds were perfectly manicured – bright white freshly-painted fences, the greenest grass she’d ever seen, and beautiful race horses grazing just beyond the gate. It was the ritziest, most upscale spot in Hemet, a beautiful place where the rich congregated.

The old barns, stables, a grandstand, and the blacksmith shop still exist, and while it’s not as pristine as it was in the past, it’s still one of the prettiest places to drive by in Hemet.

I love big old pepper trees, and the front gate is flanked by two of the largest and oldest pepper trees I’ve ever seen. Easily over 100-years-old, the trunks are so massive it would take several people linking arms, to reach around the trunk circumference. And when you stand under one, and look up? The leaves shimmering in the sun, and the wind gently causing everything to move, like an ocean of green? It’s beyond beautiful!

The Hemet Stock Farm is located at 230 W. Devonshire Ave, Hemet, CA 92543. It’s not open to the public, but hopefully someday I’ll get to go inside, and photograph beyond the gates!

Exactly 100 years ago, in 1910, the city founders took over the operation of a reading room run by the Women’s Club – christening it the Hemet Library. And three years later, in 1913, Andrew Carnegie, the “patron saint of libraries” donated $7500 for the construction of a public building for the Hemet Library, with the City of Hemet putting up the balance for construction. That building served the community until 1969, when it was torn down. The C. B. Covell Memorial Library Building was constructed on the same lot in 1971, and it served the community for over thirty years.

In 2003 the City of Hemet dedicated a new building as the Hemet Library. Located at 300 E. Latham Ave, Hemet, CA 92543, the library is 52,000 square feet, and is open Wednesday through Saturday.

Holy Spirit Catholic Church is a parish within the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, and is located at 26340 Soboba St Hemet, CA 92544-6533. You can find out more at holyspirithemet.org‎.