Ralphs Family Wants to Sell Town of Gorman

This little town that travelers and truckers know as a place to grab a bite to eat or let overheated motors cool off while going over the Grapevine on the Golden State Freeway is going on the block.

The family that has owned the town--which includes a motel, fast-food restaurant, coffee shop, bar, grocery store and gas station, not to mention a ranch of over 3,000 acres--for six generations wants to give it all up.

The price: a mere $13.6 million.

The sellers: the Ralphs family, of supermarket fame.

The properties have been grouped into five packages, which can be sold separately. Or all of them can be snapped up all at once by a single, very high roller.

“This is a lovely community,” said Cecilia De Fazio, 61, a member of the Ralphs family who grew up there. “This is a beautiful place to raise children. I raised two of my own here.”

Three generations of the family still live at the ranch, where they raise cattle and horses and tend peach orchards.

De Fazio, who was interviewed by telephone at the family’s Gorman Coffee Shop, said when the property is sold she would miss her friends in the community and “all the nice people who come through here” while traveling.

Asked why the family wants to sell the property, her voice cracked and she said only: “The time has come when most of us begin to realize that there might be other options. It is all for personal reasons.”