I think the 1950s and 1960s were the best times at the ranch. Many people knew about the ranch, especially the locals, and any one I ask about that time remembers the ranch fondly. The locals would buy corn and fresh produce in the summer and Christmas trees in the winter. The Lopez's were a big family and popular as well. My father was a Venice High alumni and loved his high school.

I worked at the ranch when I was 18 one Christmas. We were selling Christmas trees and the open store adjacent to the tree lot we had ornaments and made decorations out of tree branches and sold them. I would go into our house and sit with my grandmother, who was quite old, and she would hold my hand and cry. I always wondered why she cried, but now, many years later, I understand that I look exactly like my father, if ever there really was a mini me it is my dad and me, and my grandmother missed my dad. At that time there was arguing about the ranch and what my uncle Cressy would later do.

I loved being at the ranch, and every customer seemed joyfully happy to be at our ranch. It was a feeling I could never replicate through my life and now I am in my 50s. My family happily working and my aunts and uncles. It was a place that we all came together. It was a place that my father and his siblings made with their hands. A place that grew of hard work and love combined. A place that later disappeared and after my dad died I could not find anything when I googled the ranch. Only a few articles about the sell of land.