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V/R, Co-site Administrators Joan Lucchesi ('60) and Gary Wegener ('66)

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Stan Schroeder (1965)

Worked there summer of '65 and '66.  Went back after I got out of the Navy in '71.  Bench Chemist, Shift Chemist and finally Instrument Tech.  Left in '80 for AeroJet in Rancho Cordova.  Always hot, always sticky, and mostly broken.  Worked for Les Ulriksen for several years

Paul Lieberum (1968)

My father worked at Spreckels for years as the payroll officer under Clyde Bridewell so any of you that worked there peobably got your paycheck from him. I worked there one summer ('68, I think) assigned to the "hummer room"- cleaning sugar dust off the machines that powered the packing station spewing dust constantly. Also had to put gunny sacks over our legs and get in the silos full of sugar and break up the clumps! I also worked on the tomator harvestor and hand picked the year before. ALL DIRTY, NASTY JOBS but made me the man I am today! Gave me a healthy respect for all the mexicans that would out-work me every day....

Theresa Eve (1964)

Woodland Agriculture History

Frances Handley (Jones) (1964)

My mom Sue Handley worked there for 22 years , a couple years in the lab admin., and them as the executive secretary for the rest of the time . Remember the great Spreckals picnics every year for employees & families held at the Yolo county fairgrounds? Always fun for the kids ! Good BBQing too!

Eldon Larson (1964)

I too spent some time during the summers of 64 and 65 working at Spreckels Sugar just down the road from where I lived.  This job encouraged me to get an education.  I didn't like working the shift from 4 to 12. I worked in the silos some of the time.  I rode to the top of the silo on an elevator that looked like a conveyer belt with a shelf that you would step on and  hold onto a handle.  The elevator never stopped and was a little scary, I'm sure OSHA had something to say about this in later years.  I then sat on a swing that lowered me to the bottom of silo to dig the sugar away from the walls with a shovel.  My favorite job was driving a tractor with a scoop on the front to pick up wet beet pulp and put it in a hopper.  Another OSHA violation in latter years, I just got on and started driving, I taught myself what to do without any safety instructions that I remember. The highlight of my work was dropping by my girlfriend's (Shelly Hawk) house on the way home to give her a kiss goodnight.  She remembers me coated in white sugar.  I was a sweet guy!!! 

Donald Daily (1961)

I remember a field trip to Sprekles when we were in grade school at Cacheville, i  always enjoyed the smells, except for the beet pulp

JoAnn Kergel (Wirth) (1965)

Eldon, I can identify with the conveyor belt "elevator.  I grew up on Rd. 97 and what was hiway 99 next to the SP tracks.  Tom Meztger had a grain elevator there that operated during the summer harvest.  I used to ride my bike or horse down there and hang out with Dan M.  Lots of down time waiting for trucks to come in to be weighed & dump their loads.  So we used to go up the belt and sit on top of the silos.  I swear you could see Sacramento from there.  Going up wasn't bad but coming down was terrible for me.  Dan would help me on and then I would close my eyes for the trip down.  Dan would yell, "hop off now" when I reached the bottom.  My dad, as well as his would have scalped us alive if we had been caught.  It is a wonder some of us, including me, survived our childhood with haystake climbing, barn roof adventures and riding at breakneck speed bareback.  Good days, good memories.  I can still smell the fresh cut alfalfa.  Best to you and Shelly.  Jo Ann

Theresa Eve (1964)

Gregg, thanks for starting the history on Spreckles Sugar, all so interesting.  Don, JoAnn, and Eldon; great storys.  It is a wonder Eldon and Joann are alive to tell those childhood adventures.  At least Eldon had sugar all over him, I had dirt from the fields.  Spreckles offered many jobs to people in Woodland.  Loved hearing about those people who worked there, Julie's father, Fran's mother, and more.  Everything was home grown in Woodland. 

Greg Kareofelas (1962)

Hey Bernard  Thanks for reminding about the "Beet Knife". I've managed to keep the one I got from Spreckels all those yearsago.  I got to use it also. One of my "jobs" when I first started was "fill-in" - if someone did not show up to work, I would get assigned to that job, so I got to do a bunch of different things. Anything dealing with beets as they came into the factory ws especially dirty and nasty :-)

Greg Kareofelas (1962)

And "yes" Eldon, I got to ride the conveyor to the top of the silos and then be lowered into "Hell below", we had to use brass picks and shovels (Steel could have made a spark and the sugar dust could explode). Remember, we had to be tethered with cables to the top in case the sugar collapsed and we had to be prevented from falling. This was all necessary if they guys in the Sugar Dryers did not dry the sugar completely and it was put in the silo still damp, it turned into a huge Lump Of Sugar and had to be broken up. We would come out of the silo Sweaty and Sticky :-) 

Richard Zobel (1960)

Theresa,  Thanks for posting the obituary for Steve Sluka.  His name was familiar around our house in the late 50's.  I got to meet him while helping test a couple of the tomato harvesters (I was one of those who got to count clods vs tomatoes) at UCD.  I also got to see the development of the tomatoes that could survive the rigors (I was a weeder for the experimental plots) of harvest.  My final piece with the mechanical harvester scene was to do an investigative study on the root systems of a number of hopeful varieties vs the standard types in the early 70's.  This actually got published in several scientific articles.  The harvesters really changed agriculture in the Yolo County area.  For the better, I think.

Greg Kareofelas (1962)

Hi Julie

For all the time I worked at Spreckels, I never took one single pic :-( Definitely post any pix your father had. Old negatives can be scanned to end up with nice positive photo.

& thanks to everyone for posting the memories they had -Definitely keep posting and especailly, if you have any pix. I found something that said the Woodland Plant was built ca 1938, so it was a part of Woodland history for a long time

Julie Eis (Millstein) (1962)

Greg -- My Dad started working at the Woodland Spreckels as a tare laboratory helper in 1938.  I wonder if he ever used that knife you posted the picture of!   I haven't seen one of those before.   It turns out that the factory pictures I have were taken at the Salinas plant, during the year we lived in the company town of Spreckels.  

Bernard Rocksvold (1965)

Greg,

I haven't seen one of those in 57 years. Almost cost me an index finger on my right hand. Doc Nichols fixed it up with 8 stiches. Looks like your knife could use a little sharpening.

On another note. I remember walking up to your house, on 5th street, for one of Sue's birthday parties. Great birthday cake!

Miguel Michel (1966)

I didn't work at Spreckles, but my ex-father-in-law, Daniel Saragoza did. My sister, Celia worked there for a summer weighing the trucks loaded with sugar beets.     In 1971 I worked for Lloyd Eveland on a tomato harvester and ended up driving one of a tractor pulling a long trailer that the tomatoes would fall into. Af the end of the day I would power wash the harvester.  Now that was a real dirty job. It certainly made me continue my education. 

 

Jim Benedict (1969)

Yes I worked on a tomato harvestor for one summer in 1969. 10 hour days, 6 days a week. Hot, dusty and tomato stains all over hands and clothes. I remember the belt went one speed and the harvestor another and I actually saw some pass out as they were "hypnotized " by the movements!  Never was so glad to go to college in the fall.

Larry Michalak (1960)

In response to the post asking about Spreckels, I too worked at Spreckels in Woodland during the summers while I was in college, and it was a real education.  I changed shifts every two weeks, from day shift to swing shift (4-12) to graveyard shift (midnight to 8 am), working mainly in the warehouse.  I bagged sugar, baled bags of sugar, loaded boxcars, and sometimes worked in the silos with picks to break up the sugar when it got hard.  I also worked in the flumes that carried the beets from the boxcars to the refinery.  My dad worked at Spreckels for most of his working life, from the 1930s when the Woodland mill opened, until he retired in, I think, the 1970s.  He was a sugar boiler, working in a part of the mill that was very hot, especially in summer.  Spreckels taught me to value a college education and to respect people who didn't have that opportunity.  I was sad to hear that the sugar mill closed.  Was it in the 1990s?  

Vern Larson (1960)

I worked as a sugar cutter for several seasons at Spreckles in the early 60's with Tom Bowers. It was hot, steamy, and at times swarming with bees. The bees were so thick one season they came in and sprayed them.  It was sad to see bees swept up in piles  several feet high along the walls. I never once got stung. 

Pam Wohlfrom (Johnson) (1969)

     Good morning, All.  It's been interesting reading about the "sweet" summer jobs. I never worked at Spreckels but I did work one summer on a tomato beast. It was funny to watch the older ladies try to jump the railing of the machine when a mouse or snake shook out with the tomatoes onto the belt. Later, when I was interviewing for jobs, of the items on my resumé that one entry always seemed to impress.  Guess because I was willing to get down and dirty? Long hot hours... so glad it was only one summer!  
     For those interested in Spreckels, go to:

"spreckelssugar.com"    Hit the history button.  Woodland is only mentioned in the first and last paragraph but interesting read nonetheless.   
 

And for those no longer in the area,  Clark Pacific Corp bought the site and refitted it.  They do concrete.  "Clark Pacific is a leading building systems manufacturer of prefabricated building systems." 

They helped build the new 49er stadium. Manufactured sections here and transported them there.

Don't forget your mask today!

Joan Richter (Lucchesi) (1960)

For those of you interested in Spreckles, you may be interested in reading the book Lost Kingdom, Hawaii's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America's First Imperial Adventure, by Julia Flynn Siler.  A Hawaiian friend sent it to me and it's hard to put down. It reads like a novel. 

Vern Larson (1960)

While working night shift at Spreckles running the centrifugal machines as sugar cutters,Tom Bowers and I came up with an idea. As I mentioned in my previous  post, it was very hot and steamy and we would get a 12 minute break every 48 minutes. We decided to keep some cold ones in the refrigerator down stairs and on our breaks we would run down stairs and tip one up. The plan was working great, but as you would suppose, it caught the attention of others.  On one of my trips down stairs, I was tipping one up and at the top of the stairs was the superintendent looking down at me. I was busted! I just smiled and offered him one. He curled his pointy finger and said, "Follow me!" I followed him into his office and he sent me home that night. I lived at the little store just before Cache Creek. Well, what to my surprise, but in the morning was the superintendent in my bedroom, saying, "I hope you have learned your lesson...you can come back to work tonight if you promise to behave!"  I thanked him and appologized and said I would not do that any more! He was a great man! I wished I could remember his name... circa 1962.

Gary Tibbals (1965)

The only thing I can remember about Spreckles was it was dirty, nasty, dusty, and full of varmints, the suger mound in the middle of the foor was not white, it was speckled with every kind of insect, rat, and anything that liked suger.  ground up and loaded in to bags for shipment. I though then I would never eat suger again.
 

Julie Eis (Millstein) (1962)

Thanks to Joan Richter  for recommending Lost Kingdom -- Amazon lets you download a preview to your kindle.

Monte McCray (1966)

Anyone loose property to a fire? I just got word that my property in Berry Creek above Oroville was burnt yesterday after the wind came up and the bear fire jumped the mountain and went down the canyon towards Oroville.

Judy Nusz (Andrade) (1964)

C&H Sugar in Crocket