Saturday, Jun. 07, 2008

Museum Notes: Help us celebrate 25 years

This Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m., the Merced County Courthouse Museum will hold an open house to celebrate its 25th anniversary. We will take our visitors to all the hidden treasures of the building. In addition to many off-limit areas, visitors will also get a backstage tour of the museum office, registrar's office, textile room, artifact storage room and archives, not to mention the secret place where the original county jail was.

This event is free to the public. Anniversary cakes, ice cream and drinks will be served. Entertainment will be provided by Bigler Sound and Performance. Children can participate in activities to learn about the history of Merced County. Also Eugene William Lee, a Merced County native, will be signing his newly released memoir, "Cressey: Land of Sand and Stars."

Cressey, an agricultural community near Livingston, is known for its abundance of sand. In fact, the sand for the beach at Lake Yosemite was hauled from the Merced River at Cressey. To Eugene, the memory of his carefree childhood was to have his feet in the sand and his head in the stars and spending his day with his best friend, Luther Jueneman. Just six months apart in age, Eugene and Luther did everything together and became known as "the Cressey twins."

In describing growing up in Cressey from the Great Depression to World War II, he writes, "Life in Cressey was reduced to bare essentials. Hard work for long hours, simple relaxation -- all centered around family and community." The long hours Eugene spent were in his father's Cressey Pioneer Garage. Established in 1925, the garage was one of the four socioeconomic institutions of Cressey (The other three being Cressey Grammar School, County Library and Cressey Store).

It was at his father's garage that Eugene met people from every sector of life from Japanese farmers with tractors in need of repair, to housewives with burned-out irons, to boys with bent bicycle wheels. This exposure along with his experience in the Cressey Grammar School enabled him to see how Cressey, a community made of Japanese, Mexican, Portuguese and Anglo Saxons, was united by their common experience, their love for each other and their loyalty to our country.

Eugene painfully recounts the relocation and internment of Japanese-American families during World War II. To young Eugene, this experience was confusing and puzzling, not knowing what lay ahead for his Japanese counterparts as they were being bused out of Cressey. His feeling in those days was like everyone else, putting his faith and trust in the government with unquestionable obedience.

Maturing during the war years, Eugene felt his future was to become a mechanical engineer in the military. His quest for military service took an unexpected turn as he heard God's calling in his senior year. He left Cressey in the summer of 1945 and began a new chapter in his life.

As described by Roger Hoskins, staff writer of The Modesto Bee, "The book is well-written. The anecdotes are terrific. The stories are excellent. Very people oriented." This is the first book written about Cressey by a Merced County native. Please come and meet the author at this book-signing event during our 25th anniversary celebration.

Sarah Lim is director of Merced County Courthouse Museum. She may be contacted at (209) 723-2401 or info@mercedmuseum.org.