Holtville: Back to the Good Old Days #1

WORDS BY LUKE PHILLIPS

Hello friends and neighbors and welcome to the first entry in our new feature Holtville: Back to the Good Old Days. One of the reasons I wanted to start this Web site was to preserve all of the pieces of Holtville history that I come across in the form of old news clippings, photos, stories from old-timers etc. so that they will be available to future generations in a format that's easily accessible to everyone. So let's get to it:

This photo, taken Sunday, February 16, 1958 shows a group of drag racing fans looking over one of the cars being entered in a drag racing event at the Holtville Air Strip as part of the festivities for the 11th Annual Carrot Carnival celebration. The event was sponsored by the Holtville Lions Club and the Imperial Valley Timing Association (not quite sure what the I.V.T.A is, but I gather that it was the organization in charge of the time trials). I wish we could still have things like drag racing and tractor pulls at the Carrot Festival, but I think the insurance costs involved would probably be prohibitive. Insurance and lawyers are ruining our world. 

This photo, also from 1958, shows Roy Dillon who was the owner-operator of the Holtville Hobby Shop on Holt Ave. The shop closed sometime in the 1970s, but in it's heyday the store supplied Holtville with a huge variety of different hobby supplies including model airplane and car kits, beads, paint sets, woodburning sets, leather kits, and photography supplies, but they also sold a variety of other goods including magazines, toys, candy and cigarettes. It's a shame that Holtville doesn't still have any shops selling this kind of stuff. Now all that money goes to Walmart.  

This photo shows one of the first Carrot Parades rolling down Main Street. I'm not entirely sure which year this is from, but I know it's from one of the first 10 Carrot Festivals, sometime in the late 1940s or early 50s. The Chamber of Commerce Building (at right) hasn't really changed much over the years.