Cerf Trips to Ukiah

After Aaron Cerf left Ukiah and moved his family back to the Bay Area, family members continued to visit Ukiah. Adele Rosenberg, who was married to Al Rosenberg, Aaron's grandson, recalled, "I'll never forget the first time I went to Ukiah. Al and I were engaged, and Cerf and Ida [Al's brother was Cerf Rosenberg and his wife was Ida] had made reservations for one of the watering holes in Hopland [just south of Ukiah] to go up there for a long weekend over like the 4th of July. They wanted Al and I to go along. My mother said that unless she went along to chaperone us, I couldn't go. That was the old standards. Then we rode up to Ukiah so I could see Ukiah. They still had the wooden sidewalks, and the Indians were still sitting on the curbs. It was like an old, old pioneer town. This was 1924. It was a very small town."

Aaron's daughter, Felice Cerf Hofman, died in 1919, leaving behind a daughter, also named Felice, who was still a little girl. Felice Cerf Hofman's husband, Louie Hofman, then married a cousin of the Cerfs on the Levy side named Nannette Lobe. Adele remembered, "Louie and Nannette got married and lived in Ukiah. Everybody used to go up there to visit. They would take their summer vacations in Ukiah, and Ukiah is very hot in the summertime. But the house they owned had a basement which was a rarity in California. They would spend the days downstairs in the basement. That was the coolest spot. And then the boys would go out hunting and fishing."

Adele continued, "Every year we used to go up to Ukiah for Nannette's birthday [after her husband, Louie, had died]. We would stay in a motel. One year we did stay with Felice [the daughter]. Felice had moved there after her divorce. One of Nannette's friends owned a place on Blue Lake. That's where the party was every year. And we'd all ride over to Blue Lake to this party. Blue Lake is an extension of Clear Lake. It's up just above it. It's a very pretty lake, and it wasn't too far from Ukiah."

Blue Lake, Mendocino County, California

"In the younger days the Cerfs used to go hunting and fishing," Adele said. "They all did that. They used to go up to Ukiah, up to the different lakes around there or the river and fish for trout. They all were outdoor people."

Archie and Lucien Cerf at their campsite on Blue Lake

Leo Rosenberg Alexander, Aaron's grandson, remembers going to Ukiah. "The family used to go up to Ukiah on school vacations." Later, when he worked at the Clarion Men's Clothing Store with his uncles, Leo joined the shooting and hunting trips, but he recalled they never talked about work or their families. Leo told one story about a trip they took.

"Archie [Aaron's son] and I drove up after work on Saturday night at 10:00 and camped out in a squatter's area up in the hills out near Napa, up in the mountains. There was a squatter there, and we were after deer. He took us out as a guide early in the morning. He goes along and he opens his parka and takes out some matches. There was a rat nest. He sets fire to that. Archie didn't say anything and I said, 'What's going on?' Here was a squatter and he sets fire to a rat nest up in the mountains. And he goes on to another one and sets another one. And sets another one. And all the wind is coming from the west. And he kept on going down to some city--I forget the name of it--down in the valley. He set the whole thing on fire. And we walked back. I was afraid to say anything. By morning here comes a marshal. I kept still and Archie kept still. He asked the squatter, 'How about the fire? All of a sudden the fire starts here and goes on and on.' The squatter didn't say a word. The squatter was there because he was trying to take over the land. I don't know how Archie knew about this man. He was also acting as a guide for the hunters. This was a fire just like they had over in Berkeley, but it was in the hills. The squatter set the fire because he wanted to burn that so with a new crop coming up from the fence the deer would come up to wherever they are. And this marshal didn't stay very long because he knew he couldn't make any headway. As soon as he left, I said, 'Let's go.' We packed up in five minutes, and we were gone. I didn't want to be involved in it, and Archie didn't want to be involved in it."

References:

Interview with Adele Rosenberg, March 28-29, 1992, San Mateo, California.

Interview with Leo Rosenberg Alexander, December 22, 1991, Watsonville, California.

Photos from Leo Rosenberg Alexander's photo album.