May 29, 2018
Pat
and her family were looking for a weekend getaway from Los Angeles.
A newspaper ad for an adobe home on 22 acres with a well and
chickens put them on the road to 29Palms. Shortly after
settling in, in the 1970's, the adobe house needed repairs. This
took Pat to the local library for some information where she was
referred to Ted
Hayes, the first teacher and principal in 29
Palms. There began Pat's immersion into the repair of adobe and the
history of 29 Palms.
In this episode, Pat
talks about her first desert trips to Las Vegas and Palm Springs
and about the formula for adobe. As Pat spent more time in the
desert, enjoying the clear air and wide open spaces, she became a
tour guide at Keys
Ranch in Joshua Tree National Park and eventually
transcribing some oral history that had been recorded and archived
at the local library. From these experiences, Pat wrote her book,
"The Adobes of Twentynine
Palms". She and her husband, Sid, made
their life in the desert permanent in 1988.
Pat
shares that while listening to the accounts of the homesteaders,
one thing that stood out was their pragmatism and humbleness - they
didn't complain about how hard things were, how little they had or
how far they had to go to get anything. They seemed to just accept
life as it was and found enjoyment in what was; it seems Pat was
cut from similar cloth.