Adobe Days

by Sarah Bixby Smith

In this rollicking reminiscence Sarah Bixby Smith tells of Los Angeles when it was “a little frontier town” and “Bunker Hill Avenue was the end of the settlement, a row of scattered houses along the ridge.” She came there in 1878 at the age of seven from the San Justo Rancho in Monterey County. Sarah recalls daily life in town and at San Justo and neighboring ranches in the bygone era of the adobes. Exerting a strong pull on her imagination, as it will on the reader’s, is the story of how her family drove sheep and cattle from Illinois to the Pacific Coast in the 1850s. The daughter of a pioneering woolgrower, Sarah Bixby Smith became a leading citizen of California.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction

128 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1987

Reviews

[Susan Liston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice little book I read as a selection by the Phineas Banning Literary Society. Sarah was the daughter of a rancher in what is now Long Beach, their house, Rancho Los Cerritos,originally built in 1844 is still standing and open to the public. While it's an incredible window into Los Angeles and the south bay (where I live) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and therefore fascinating; at the same time I hate reading local history and thinking about what was here that has now been destroyed forever. Between Los Cerritos, and the Banning house, where I'm a docent, there was, at the time, nothing. Now there are probably 400 red lights and who knows HOW many Taco Bells.

[Corrine Ardoin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adobe Days by Sarah Bixby Smith is her memoir of having been raised on a rancho in the early days of California, particularly Los Angeles. Not your typical history book. She tells about shenanigans between the children of the adobe, games they played, ways they passed the time, plus a very fond remembrance of events and day-to-day activities. The ranchos were huge, many thousands of acres and the one on which she was raised, Rancho Los Cerritos, is now all city. I highly recommend this small book to anyone who loves to hear stories of the old, old days in California.

[Holly Quinn Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a great quick read for people who love history, but have a hard time reading dense memoirs. I enjoyed learning of this period of California history, but I think it is important to note that this is definitely a romanticized version of rancho history.