La Habra Historian Takes Pleasure in Tales and Relics of Pioneering Past

By Herbert J. Vida

July 26, 1989 12 AM PT

Esther Cramer, 62, remembers listening to her mother talk about milking the cows before walking to school, sometimes through the snow, in Highland, Ill.

And she recalls her parents taking her to meetings of the La Habra Old Settlers Historical Society, where the older folks in the community would recount their lives as La Habra pioneers.

“I loved to listen to them,” said Cramer, a La Habra historian who helped resurrect the society in 1960 and now is among many members who keep it going. “There’s good information from the past, and we’re eager to make sure it’s preserved for the next generation.”

One of the examples of yesteryear is the society’s caboose, which is parked next to the La Habra Children’s Museum. It is packed with items from the past, and its exhibit is changed four times a year.

Among the prized items are Indian artifacts, tools, kitchen gadgets, toys and pictures of pioneer life.

“We try to show children how things used to be,” said Cramer. “I’m sure they can’t get the feel of life at that time, but nevertheless it provides the thought process about such things as getting up at 3 a.m. and walking through the snow to school. Things like that give pause about how things have changed.

“There is no way in the world I would let a 5-year-old travel that way today,” she added.

The most recent exhibit by members was their early-day, home-made toys, such as blocks, dolls, teddy bears, kaleidoscopes, carts, blackboards and a spring-loaded racing car made for $4 in 1916. The car still works.

Cramer noted that children from an earlier day had to be more imaginative than their counterparts of today. Youths of past generations were lucky to get one toy at Christmas.

“I have grandchildren, and they enjoy seeing things that used to be,” said Cramer, who retired recently from the Alpha Beta Co. as a vice president, director of consumer affairs and company historian.

She added, however, that not all children have the same interest in things of the past. “Some are very interested and have brilliant minds, and some children couldn’t care less.” But she said a rich family history is meaningful.

“I guess that’s what roots are all about. We try to establish some sort of continuity from the way things used to be to the way things are now,” said Cramer, who once headed the girls’ physical education program in the Fullerton Elementary School District.

One of her own roots still stands in her La Habra home.

“The first recollection of my own youth is a wicker rocker, which we rescued from a fire that burned down our house,” she said. “We later made it into a chair, and it’s a prized remembrance for me.”

She has a picture of herself sitting in the rocker in her front yard when she was 3 years old.

“That’s a fond memory,” she said.

Don’t talk to Dorothy Titus, 62, about the fuss generated by the Supreme Court’s decision about burning the American flag.

“I get so irate,” said the San Juan Capistrano woman who flies the American flag on a 24-foot pole in front of her mobile home. “No one should burn Old Glory.”

But just to make things right for herself, she sometimes flies a flag that says “Hi” and another that has playing cards on it for when she plays bridge.

In fact, she flies a different 3-by-5-foot, homemade flag each month.

The flag lineup includes:

January--Top hat, champagne glass and horn for New Year’s Day.

February--Three white Valentines on a red background for Valentine’s Day.

March--Green shamrock for St. Patrick’s Day.

April--Three eggs on a yellow background for Easter.

May--Pink and white “I Love Mom” for Mother’s Day.

June--A red “I Love Dad” on blue for Father’s Day.

July--Old Glory.

August--Family birthday flag.

September--”There’s not much, so we fly the American flag.”

October--Witch on an orange background for Halloween.