Looking Back, Loomis: 1948 - The origin of 'California'

25 years ago Feb. 25, 1999 Services were conducted for Isami Matsuda, 99, a native of Hiroshima, Japan, and a resident of the Penryn area for 88 years. She was a homemaker and also worked with her husband as fruit ranchers for over 56 years. Isami was a member of the Placer Buddhist Church and Placer Funjin Kai. Funeral services were held for Pastor James Gardiner, 57, a native of St. Maries, Idaho. He came to Loomis 18 years ago as pastor of the First Assembly of God Church and was also one of the founders of the Sutter Roseville Chaplaincy. Andrew Bonner, a 1998 Del Oro High School graduate, submitted 47 championship sports banner to complete a task he had undertaken as his senior project. The school opened in 1959 but there were not any banners for championship teams for the first two decades, which Andrew provided. The senior project also allowed him to honor his own family. His grandfather, the late Bob Bonner, was the school's first football coach. Andrew's father, Sheriff Ed Bonner, was an excellent athlete at Del Oro, particularly in track. Featured at the Placer County Museum was the history of the local ice industry. The Pacific Fruit Express Company, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad, was opened in 1909 for the purpose to manufacture the ice needed in the railroad's refrigerator cars. A huge ice plant was located in Roseville near the tracks. That allowed the local fruit growers to ship their products and become one of the primary fruit production areas in the country. Del Oro High School senior Andy Hill was the winner of the Loomis Lions Club Student Speaker contest. The topic was "Cloning: How Far Should Science Go?" Also competing were Dustin Simmons, Amy Rhodes, Julia Dunning and Sara Howell. Chairing the event was Lion Jim Makimoto. "Standing Among Great Women," was a special Women's History Month program sponsored by the Agape group at the Loomis Basin UCC Church. Special honorees were Pat Rathbone-Activities Director of the Loomis L.I.F.E. Center, Maxine Sunada-Loomis Blood Drive and WEAVE Project, Vivian Adams-Eden Project and meals at St. Vincent's, and Mildred Naylor-Roseville Auxiliary and Loomis UCC. 50 years ago Feb. 21, 1974 A Memorial service was held for Steven Douglas Klauck, 18, who was tragically killed in an auto accident. A native of Painsville, Ohio, he was a former student at Del Oro High School and lived in Loomis for 7 years. Funeral services were held for Fujie Tomita, 77, a native of Japan and a resident of Placer County for 56 years. Coach Rich Kageta's 8th-grade boys' basketball team at Placer Elementary School defeated the Loomis School team 28-23 with Rodney Page leading the scoring. Mrs. Blanche Stark wanted her red and green iron gate returned as it was important to her. Made of old hay rake wheels, it was a reminder of when she ran that hay rake in her younger days. Blanche lived in Loomis since 1919. Two Del Oro High School seniors earning a "grand slam," all A's report card were Sally Hamasaki and Mary Oliviera. "What's in a name?" Shakespeare once said. That was also the question regarding the local Aero Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber chose that name because of the defense industry. Aerojet was booming back in 1957 and the name just seemed to fit. Maxine Sunada, publicity chairman, served a plate to Sue Cagle and Linda Chaney, co-chairmen for Loomis Grammar School's "Dime-a-Dip Dinner." Round 2 of a fight ended with a KO and arrest. A 22-year-old Loomis man was scuffling with a woman at his residence and then again later with the same woman in Roseville. She phoned three male friends who were in the process of beating the man up when the Roseville police arrived. Connie Cowperthwaite, a realtor, felt her fellow Loomis Basin Planning Committee members were not giving a fair shake to commercial developers along I-80. Del Oro junior Gail Kozaiku won the Loomis Lions Club Speech Contest on the topic "Ecology-It's Price." Gail emphasized "You and I" will bear the cost if the environment continues to be abused. The runner-up was Martin Gaenssle. The students were chosen by Saul Wiseman, public speaking teacher at Del Oro. 75 years ago August 1948 Boy Scouts had a successful week during the Camp Pahatsi summer camp. Earning awards included Don Bare, Troop 14, Roseville; Lyle Wyatt, Troop 18, Lincoln; Jay Townsend, Jim Court, and Robert Rasmussen, Troop 12, Loomis. Playing in the theaters was "Fort Apache" starring Shirley Temple, Henry Fonda, Pedro Armendariz, and John Wayne. From the time of discovery of the present Lower California by Ortuno Ximenez in 1533 until 1862, the name of California was a topic of vast speculations. English explorer Capt. William Beechey, who visited San Francisco in 1826, was the first to record the belief that the name came from Latin words calida and fornax, signifying heat and furnace. But Mariano Vallejo and Juan Alvarado maintained it stemmed from the Native American term kali forno, translated both as "high hill" and "native land." The American antiquarian Edward Everett Hale believed he solved the origin of the name. The first known use of the actual word "California" was in a passage contained in a romantic novel, Las Sergas de Esplandian (the deed of Esplandian. Hale reported the fact at the American Antiquarian Society in April of 1862. (Standing guard-oral histories, continued) Masao Sugiyama was 18 years old and a senior at Placer High School when his family was evacuated to the Tule Lake Internment Camp in Northern California. While his family was in the camp, his older brother, George, was serving in the U.S. Army in the South Pacific. After hearing of the atmosphere in Auburn as not being very friendly, Mas left camp in September of 1945 to travel to Buffalo. "I worked inside at Continental Bakery, which I was happy to do because that winter was real cold." In April 1946, Mas returned to Auburn to work at the Musso Brothers' farm. Then in 1948 the family established a fruit farm in Newcastle.