The People Segment III

Russell and Adele Easter lived on Orcutt Road about a quarter of a mile East of where Orcutt Road crosses the railroad tracks. A barn on the Easter property served multiple purposes including construction of wire chicken cages. At some point Russell assembled Ozone generators for an Adventist man with a Russian-sounding last name who lived in the San Joaquin Valley. The ozone generator had a box-like base with a removable set of 5 or 6 glass tubes resting on top.  When the machine was turned on, the tubes produced a buzz and a flickering blue light filled the tubes. The smell of ozone wafted about the machine and through the room.  A gentle touch on the tubes gave one what felt like a mild electrical shock. Claims were made the gadget could cure all manner of ailments, including cancer. The inventor, more than once, brought the machine to the Soquel camp meeting where many fellow believers were suckered into purchasing the miracle cure-all.   

The FDA took a dim view of the product-claims and its promotion as a curative contraption. Charges were filed against the inventor with the result that he was sentenced to spend time in a federal prison.  I have one of the machines that was left in a house on Crystal Springs property.  I have not turned it on. 

The Easters eventually developed the land east of their house into a trailer park that, upon their death, became the property of the Central California Conference. The Easters had no children.

One of the unique individuals who attended church was the Blue Man.  I do not recall his name. My mother explained that he had ingested colloidal silver and it had turned him blue, which colloidal silver will do.   

Red-headed Inella Cornwall, as was Doc Freeman, was married to a non-Adventist. This did not deter her from becoming very active in the church.  She made a positive influence on many people’s lives.

Mr. Gray was a large man who walked with a cane.  He and my mother were talking and the subject of food and food purchases came up.  He told her that since he became an Adventist he found it tiresome and troublesome to pick the pork out of the pork and beans can.  My mother explained to him that it is possible to buy plain beans in a can.  This information was a bolt from blue and most have made life a bit less complicated.

Churches attract all manner of people.  One man who attended church built what he intended to be a knock-off “Noah’s” ark, only a smaller edition.  It stayed in the back yard of the house, the house where Judy Hiat later lived, long after the guy left town.  I do not know the good ships eventual fate.  Water was not part of the exit process, although he did work for a time at Crystal Springs Water, as did numerous other church members.

Miss Bartlett, the church treasurer, had a house on Buchon Street two or three blocks east of the  church.  I made it a practice that whenever I eceived money, I put 10% of the amount in a tithe envelope and deposited the envelope in the offering plate.  Miss Bartlett would write a receipt and give it to me the next Sabbath. The amount was small, 2, 4, 8 or perhaps 10 cents.  Dad suggested I wait until more funds had accumulated.  Miss Bartlett responded that I should not change my habit. She did not mind making out a receipt for small amounts.  Paying tithe, she opined, was a good practice for a young donor.

—Larry Downing