Potluck picnic June 26 will celebrate Fallbrook's past and present

The Fallbrook Historical Society invites all Fallbrook residents, (young and old, newcomers, old timers and everyone in between), to their annual Community Picnic on Sunday, June 26 at S. Hill Ave. and Rockycrest Road. Besides the usual potluck lunch and raffle, this year’s gathering will feature the grand opening of the group’s newest exhibit space, The Barn (aka The Donald J. Rivers Interpretive Center).

The grounds will open at 11 a.m. and the Rainbow Girls will help serve the food at noon. All residents are welcome to bring a dish to share and to visit with friends and neighbors over lunch. Plates, napkins, cups, utensils, and beverages will be provided.

According to a newspaper clipping from The Enterprise in 1978, this annual event started out as the Old Timers Picnic in 1958 at Live Oak Park; attendees had to be residents of 30 years or longer. Now, the Fallbrook High School Alumni Association has a table at the picnic every year. However, historical society members want to share Fallbrook’s past with all of its current residents, no matter how long they have lived here.

Judy Gillespie, the society’s co-chair for publicity, said that the group has spent four years preparing the interior of the Barn for exhibits relating mainly to the area’s agricultural past. Items on display include a collection of barbed wire (samples of more than 100 different kinds), equipment from the Story family’s dairy, and the recently donated Burdick Avocado Grove records (from1959 to 1990), as well as some antique looms, quilts and sewing machines.

After the picnic, at about 2 p.m., the society’s main museum and the historic Pittenger House will also be open for visitors.

For anyone who has visited the museum before and thinks they have already seen it all, there are a few new things to be discovered there. Right inside the doorway is a new exhibit displaying specimens and artifacts donated by the Jerald Hindorff estate, including a collection of rose rocks. Several mannequins were also recently donated to the museum and now wear period clothing, including a 50-year old Fallbrook High drum major uniform.

Long-time popular exhibits include a model train that runs around a miniature version of old-time Fallbrook. Gillespie, who is also docent chairperson for the museum, said that the children who tour the museum especially like the old-fashion schoolhouse area, “They like to play school there.”

Over at the historic Pittenger House, the kitchen is getting a retro-remodel with help from the Live Oak Questers club, taking its look back to the era of William Pittenger who built the house in 1895. Gillespie said that the Sleeping Indian Questers club has also helped in restoring other parts of the home to its original appearance.

The Fallbrook Historical Society’s Community picnic offers residents a look back in time at Fallbrook’s past, and a chance to make new memories of a good time with old and new friends.