Grandstay Residential Suites - Oxnard

Oxnard Fire Department-- Finest Kind

by keida84

The men and women OFD are the best at what they do. Recently the fire department was bestowed the honor of being one of the "most creative and innovative agencies in the United States", according to Harvard University's John F. Kennedy school of Government.

For example, any new residential unit with more than 500 ft.² must have fire sprinklers and latest smoke detection technology. At the department's urging some developers and businesses have installed strobe light fire detectors that can pinpoint the location of a blaze using a computer. The electronic device also unlocks certain doors so firefighters can enter a burning structure more quickly.

There are 6 stations in our city and a great group of people. I have enjoyed working with the department and extend my love and thanks to each and everyone of them for all their love and support.

So I hope you never have the need to call OFD when visiting the Oxnard area, but if you do, you've called the right place.

IT WAS DURING WORLD WAR II....................

by Rich62

"OXNARD, CALIFORNIA"

On these steps sat a young woman in May of 1944. She was pregnant and about to give birth, but had been refused admission to the hospital behind her until her husband could arrive with his checkbook and pay for her admission! Fortunately he made it in time, and she gave birth to a little boy. I am that boy, now 62 years old and living half a continent away. My mother died in 1999, my father in 2000.

It was called the "Lying-In Hospital and Sanitorium" in those days. Today, barely saved from the bulldozers, it is now the "Casa Merced" senior housing complex in Oxnard, California. It is located at 838 West 5th Street.

"F STREET"

Modest frame or stucco houses line the street near the former hospital. When I was born, my parents were living in the house now painted pink.

My father was a civilian instructor for the Air Force in Oxnard during part of World War II. We were actually from Colorado. After Oxnard we moved to Seattle where he continued as an instructor at the Boeing B-29 bomber plant, then we moved back to Colorado, where I grew up.

Oxnard is located about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles along the coast. Today it has about 170,000 residents.

"MIRA LOMA"

This curved street is known as Mira Loma Circle. Today it is low-cost housing. During World War II it was the Mira Loma Flight Academy. Here my father taught young pilots in the subject of "ground school aeronautics", one of the first steps in their piloting education.

Mira Loma is located on West 5th Street, just south of the Oxnard Airport.

AGBAT's new Oxnard Page

by AGBAT

"Down on the farm"

Oxnard is the strawberry capitol and has a festival each spring. They actually pick 2-3 crops a year from the fields but the "best" crop is the spring one--supposedly. If you like sweet baseball size strawberries come in May or June. The town is turning into a bed room community for LA . At present there is still more farm than city in the valley between Ventura and Thousand Oaks, but the developers are moving fast. Oxnard surrounds Port Hueneme (see my other page) and provides more suburban ameniites. The Malls, car dealers, theaters, chain outlets etc. are mostly in Oxnard. If you are driving through on Hiway 1 you should take the trouble to go down Oxnard Blvd (currently there is a by-pass to 101 on Rose Blvd) through the center of town. It is worth noteing the transition from ocean marsh, to commercial farm, to light industry, to old downtown, to newer business, and finally, as you approach hiway 101, you hit the Malls, and typical California Suburbia.