Way Back When: Nuts to Schoolwork!

Schoolkids were needed to harvest walnuts and beans in the fields and orchards at harvest time (Image: Wikimedia)

By Betsy J. Green

September is harvest time and it was time for the kids in Carpinteria to get to work – picking beans and walnuts back in 1919. “Harvest Closes School in Valley … The Carpinteria school closed Friday for a term of three weeks during the bean and walnut harvest … It is believed that by the help of the Carpinteria pupils and those coming here with their parents from Santa Barbara that both beans and walnuts will be harvested on schedule time.”

Betsy’s Way Back When book — 1918 — is now available in local bookstores and at Amazon.com. This is the fifth book in her series of the history of Santa Barbara, one year at a time. Learn more at betsyjgreen.com​