continuing from part 2

I don't remember my Grandfather, (Burton John Simar) as he died in 1938, when I was one year old. The Simar family lived on what everybody called the BIG PLACE , it took a big place, to raise a big family, Burton John and Abbie Jane (Uptagrafft) Simar, had raised 11 children, my Dad (ALFRED J SIMAR) being the oldest of this family, and when he married, in 1936, he too ended up on this BIG PLACE, for a couple years, as this was right in the middle of the great depression, and times were very unsettled.

In 1940 he was able to buy his own farm, just a half mile from the BIG PLACE, and with-in a couple years, the rest of this big family, all went their seperate ways, many stayed close by, and bought there own farms, but the BIG PLACE was no longer the Simar Farm.

I'm only going to follow my Dads family, as I write this journal, each of my Dads siblings, have families, and I'll leave it up to them to write there own journal or diary.

I was only 3 years old, when my Dad bought his farm, it was called STAR VIEW FARM , he said that the buildings sat on the highest hill in the neighborhood. It was a great place for raising a family, 80 acres, when he first purchased it, and he later bought another 40 acres, so it was 120 acre farm, about half of it under cultivation, and the rest was timber and in pasture land.

My Mom and Dad were both active in the neighborhood, and in their church, I remember Dad being on the school board, and on the church board, my Mom was secretary / treasury of the local Farm Bureau, and active in the local 4-H club, and quite often a sunday school teacher.

I had two brothers and three sisters, so we had a fairly large family, and lots of family togetherness, which carries on over to this day.

We lived on this farm till 1952, when my Dad sold all his farm machinery, and the cattle, but did not sell the farm till several years later, and moved to California. After arriving in Modesto Ca. he took a job on a turkey farm, and my Mom got a job in town, at an egg candling and packaging firm. I think it was the second summer, that Dad got a job on a local dairy. But his real desire was to work the land, to be out in the field plowing, and discing etc. , and that job came along a few years later, when he was hired by the Island Dairy, to be their field man, and he loved that job, and at the same time he dabbled in raising a few beef cattle, and sometimes a few hogs, and always a good sized garden.

In 1970 he bought a small acreage place close to Turlock, where he planned to retire, and again raise a few livestock, and his garden, just enough to keep busy.

My Mom retired from the nursing profession in 1983 or 1984, and a couple years later she became bedridden from the complication of diabetes, she passed away in 1990. -- My Dad, even though very healthy, and quite active up until that time, soon started going down hill, and he passed away in 1991, they are both burried in a rather small cemetery, just east of the little ranchette he bought in 1970, between Turlock and Denair, on East Zeering Rd.

I'll resume, with the next generation, in part 4 .