John Deere, Barley and Friendship

Bob Chesebrough has spent most of his life farming in the Santa Clarita Valley. Although large fields of crops have been replaced by housing developments, he finds room to farm 37 fields of barley. Chesebrough lives in Santa Clarita.

I was born in San Francisco in 1922, and I came down here when I was 6 months old. My father was a superintendent of Newhall Land. My mother was a Newhall.

I lived down here ‘til my mother died when I was 7 years old. Emily Post said that you had to be raised by another lady, so I went to live with my aunt in Burlingame, California. I stayed there eight years, then I came down here in the summertime to stay with my dad when school was out.

As I got older I eventually moved back down here and lived in the Newhall Hotel and I worked for different people on the tractors. In the late ‘40s I started farming myself and I’ve been farming ever since, strictly barley.

I started with oat hay, and I used to sell all my oat hay to the race tracks. Then they went to timothy hay, because it has more protein than oat hay. So I changed over to barley. My son, who works for Newhall Water Company, takes his vacation every year and runs the combine, and I run the truck. It’s a two-man operation. I farm 750 acres. It’s more or less a beautification thing for Newhall Land, rather than let the weeds grow I put barley in there.

The quality of my barley has been very poor the last few years, because of the rain. I don’t irrigate, and the rain has been so short that this year I don’t intend to harvest one acre. This will be my worst year unless something drastic happens.

We all take water too much for granted. You take Bob’s Big Boy, they don’t serve water unless you ask for it. There’s about four or five of us get together at Bob’s every morning at 6 o’clock, tell a bunch of stories, lies and stuff and drink coffee. We get in some heated arguments, but there’s never any fisticuffs.

A guy told me today that back in Colorado you can be refused water at a restaurant but they can’t refuse giving water to your horse. I don’t know if he knew what he was talking about, but that’s what he said. And he didn’t do it as a joke, you know, it was serious conversation.

People don’t visit like they used to, it interferes with television. People have changed considerably. We had a place we called the French Village down here on San Fernando Road and every Saturday night, they had live music and people visited. There was no television or anything.

I had a friend, years ago, turned his television in the living room to face the wall. He said he was really surprised how the family went on picnics together and did things together. He said the family stuck together a lot better without television.

My dad kept his friends for 50, 60 years, but today you don’t do that. It’s hurray for me and to hell with you, today. People move on and they don’t keep in contact with you.

I’ve been married four times, too many times. I’ve lost two wives that passed away, and then two divorces. Some people learn to live alone. It doesn’t bother me. I’d rather buy John Deeres than get married again. You don’t have to pay any alimony.

I was born with spastic paralysis. It comes from an injury at birth, so I’ve been crippled all my life. Then about 15 years ago I lost the use of my left hand. If my legs get worse, which they’re going downhill, I’ve figured out a way I can make myself a hydraulic lift to get onto the tractor.

I’m very fortunate. I enjoy what I’m doing and I’m going to continue it as long as I’m able. I feel that farming keeps me active. I’m 67, and I’m crippled, but I can get on and off that John Deere quicker than you can. They say the expression on my face changes when I get in that cab.