OC LIVE : ‘Grandpa’s Garage’ Is Privy to 100-Year-Old La Habra’s Earliest Days : The Holes Story

Willets J. Hole is a big name in La Habra history, but more on him later. Right now, a different hole is catching kids’ attention at “Grandpa’s Garage,” the new interactive history exhibit at the Children’s Museum at La Habra.

Two holes, actually. They’re the business end of a full-size reproduction privy that sits smack in the middle of the gallery.

Authentic down to the crescent moon cutout on the door and the cornhusks and catalog pages (pre-Charmin hygiene aids) inside, the privy joins a genuine 1800s spring wagon, antique farm and household tools, a miniature citrus “grove,” period photographs and turn-of-the-century-style clothing in teaching youngsters what it was like to live in this 100-year-old community when it was in its babyhood (La Habra marks its birth date by the founding of its first post office in 1896).

Created by Carrie Wictor-Gonzales, the museum’s exhibit coordinator, with input from 90-year-old La Habra native Wilbur Proud, “Grandpa’s Garage” continues through June 16.

In late spring, the museum will host two Saturday events in conjunction with the exhibit: the Lola Montes Dancers on April 27 and frontier storyteller Jim Cogan on May 4 (both free with museum admission). There also will be a free Arts Festival Day on April 20 with period music, dance and art activities.

When they weren’t clambering aboard the wagon or fishing for frogs in an imitation pond, kindergartners from Santa Ana’s Maranatha Christian Academy spent a lot of their gallery visit checking out the outhouse. Most of them initially were clueless as to its purpose (the holes, in case you were wondering, are painted on, making at least that part of the exhibit, thankfully, noninteractive). But once privy to the privy’s use, their responses were pretty much universal.

“Ewwwww,” exclaimed Marshall “Dukie” Nunes, 6, pulling a broad-brimmed farmer’s hat down over his face.

“It must have been a hard time to live,” added 5-year-old Jamie Campbell, gazing at the privy, “because there are lizards in there!” (Don’t worry, they’re plastic, part of a look-and-find activity.)

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Wictor-Gonzales’ husband, Robert Gonzales, built the outhouse using donated lumber and the recollections of a museum staff member whose family farm had a privy when she was a child.

Outhouses--apart from being a naturally integral part of life in early La Habra, and often the first things settlers would build on their property--were a great source of entertainment, according to exhibit consultant Proud.

He remembers that pranksters always were moving someone or other’s outhouse to a barn or front yard or to the middle of a street. The blacksmith’s ended up in the intersection of what is now La Habra and Harbor boulevards every Halloween.

Frog fishing was another popular pastime among La Habra’s youth, says Wictor-Gonzales, whose own roots stretch back to the Rowland family, namesakes of the Rowland Heights area.

“I talked with several longtime residents, and they all remember hearing the frogs sing at night. Branches of the Little Coyote Creek were all over, and, when it rained, they would fill up and create these ponds where frogs would lay their eggs.” Robert Gonzales remembers catching frogs in these ponds as late as the 1960s (visitors to “Grandpa’s Garage” will have to be content with catching plastic frogs).

Citrus was one of the area’s earliest leading industries. According to Esther Cramer’s “La Habra: The Pass Through the Hills,” the La Habra Citrus Assn. had 1,400 acres in production and shipped out almost 500 railroad cars of packed fruit.

In the exhibit, youngsters can pick Velcro-backed lemons and oranges from plywood trees, then size them using vintage growers’ tools.

Old photographs sprinkled throughout the exhibit include several portraits of early settlers. The aforementioned Willets J. Hole, a wealthy merchant and speculator considered by many to be the community’s founding father, is represented by a photograph of his young daughter Agnes astride her mule in front of the family’s sprawling Victorian mansion.

Most of the area’s early residents, of course, were not so well off. Another photo shows a family of seven posed in front of a clapboard cottage not much bigger than the museum gallery.

Vintage tools ranging from a Peter Wright Patent anvil (identical to one in an accompanying antique photograph) to a life-sized wooden horse (originally a saddle-maker’s model that later was used as a prop at 20th Century Fox) also are on view. A small kitchen area is stocked with a wooden butter mold, a cider press and other household implements for hands-on play.

“A hundred years ago, this area was prime farmland,” says Wictor-Gonzales. “People were rushing here to start a new life. It was a rugged existence and a lot of work. Almost anything worthwhile is, and that’s something we need to pass on to our kids.”

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* What: “Grandpa’s Garage.”

* When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays, through June 16.

* Where: The Children’s Museum at La Habra, 301 S. Euclid St.

* Whereabouts: From the Orange (57) Freeway, take the Lambert exit and go west. Turn right onto Euclid. The museum is between Lambert and La Habra Boulevard.

* Wherewithal: Admission is $4; children under 2 get in free.

* Where to call: (310) 905-9793.