Part I in the Rambling Raw Milk Series
Few towns are much smaller than Pixley, California. Pixley's claim to fame is that it is the headquarters of the Cal-Bean co-op, provides a gas station or two for those traveling Central California's Highway 99, had an honors-system gas station until about thirty years ago, and just narrowly escaped educating my father who lived in Teviston, a community just south of Pixley. Teviston is one of those few places smaller than Pixley. Teviston, in fact, is one of those places that do not make conventional maps.
As we drive through Pixley a time or two a week, we usually do not take notice. But Thursday, January 11th, I took the exit off of Highway 99 in Teviston, saw the old family estate, and drove north to Pixley to get a close-up look at the Milk is Milk billboard that got tagged sometime between December 15th and 19th.
I wanted a close-up look of the billboard and I wondered if I would face a "No trespassing" sign between the main road and the billboard. I decided that with my preschooler in the car with me, I would remain law-abiding.
Billboard Close Up
As it turns out, the day did not offer me any difficult decisions. The road to the billboard could not have been more accessible. Paving would have been nice, but the county did provide me with an "End" sign on that dirt road. The End sign is there apparently to keep people from driving through the fence and onto the Highway 99 by accident.
When I got close to the billboard, I saw that the billboard offered no challenge for a person with a can of spray paint or a bucket of latex. Those billboard companies make billboard maintenance and tagging very easy by providing you with a comfortable platform to stand on. The platform was only six or so feet off the ground, making it very easy for anyone with any kind of upper body strength to pull themselves up. An out-of-shape person could have hopped on their car and onto the platform.
I took a few pictures and headed back to the main road.
As I got to the main road, I noticed a local farmer making note of my presence.
"Perhaps he thinks I'm lost," I decided.
I headed into Pixley, passed the decomposing location of the former honor-system gas station and the Cal-Bean co-op. I noted the location of another old family estate and of a good Mexican restaurant. I headed to preschool.
Billboard is Noticed
What I did not realize is that possibly on that same day, Alex Avery, director of research for the Milk is Milk campaign, was only just informed that the billboard had been tagged. He issued a press release the next day. In the press release Avery states that "We have reported the defacement to the billboard company, as well as to the local police."
I wondered if the farmer I saw as I left the area of the billboard had been asked to keep a look-out for unscrupulous characters in the area of the billboard.
At first I thought "ah-ha, preschool moms sure do get away with a lot these days!"
My second thought was "Pixley doesn't have a police department."
Pixley Doesn't Have a Police Department
Indeed, Pixley is such a small town that it is not incorporated as a city and falls under the authority of the county sheriff's department.
I wondered how I might get information from the county sheriff's department about this crime.
And then I thought "Oh, ask Scott."
Scott is a deputy in another area of the county, overseeing all of the communities competing with Pixley for "small town" status. The winner may actually be the community I live in. Few people would even call it a "town."
Somehow over the years, this little burg has managed to have a live-in county sheriff's deputy. Back in the 1980s, a deputy named Mike came over to shoot a rattle snake sunning on a rock outside our house. Another came by in the 1990s to intimidate a ne'er-do-well out of our house.
Scott is the deputy now and is best known for almost arresting my three-year-old son.
The alarm at the local school went off one sleepy weekend and the school's superintendent/principal/teacher and a volunteer deputy showed up to find my three-year old son and my husband looking rather sheepish. My son had tripped the alarm.
The next week we walked into the post office, ran into Deputy Scott, and Postmaster Dean said "that's the boy who broke into the school."
My three-year-old son responded, unprompted, "I plead the fifth."
And now you know why I am trying to be a good example to him by not passing "No trespassing" signs. He needs some good examples. But I digress.
Back to the point that Pixley has no police. The investigation of the billboard is a county matter. And when it's a county matter, the go-to person here is Deputy Scott.
Scott surely has many opinions of the miscreants here in Tulare County. Some of those opinions may even be stated on the record. I'll give him a call.
Next in the series:
