Bottle Village Stuff

  

Have a look at The Wall Street Journal! (Oct 21 2008) Read about something else besides the comatose economy...Yes, Bottle Village and our financial ills do have something in common. We both need an infusion of $$! 

Featuring the dazzling photographs of our very own Kathy LaForce, and a delightful narrative by Arnie Cooper of Santa Barbara CA, once again Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village has put Simi Valley in the International Spotlight ! 

 Here's hoping for the trickle-down effect— Bottle Village can bring fame and fortune to Simi Valley !

Thanks to Waste Management, Bottle Village now has curbside trash pick-up ! Grandma had her own way of "waste management" didn't she? Certainly, she was the Diva of the Dump, and truly embraced the 3R's of Trash... Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle ! Ahead of her time, she did it all and created Bottle Village!And now it's up to us to add a few more R's... As in "Restore-Re-Open Bottle Village!"

Early on, Waste Management (GI Rubbish back then) helped Preserve Bottle Village in significant ways— it's a fascinating story.(see below)

Is Grandma chuckling about curbside trash pick-up? Of Waste Management's lending a hand to Preserve Bottle Village, she would say, "Help like that is hard to find"    

For two years, Katherine and Drew have been "The Partners in Grime" at BV. Weeding, sweeping, raking and generally keeping Grandma's Place spiffed up for visitors. When Katherine lived across the street from BV, she would drag her own Green Can across Cochran St. to BV. We never did get a video of those little escapades! Drew hauled bags home.

Now, is that dedication or what? If you'd like to volunteer, drop us a note on the contact us page  

Sometimes the weeds and debris become unmanageable and it's time for the hardcore "Weed Warriors"...

Aaron Landworth of Landesign West in Santa Monica and his crew, volunteered their time and made it look so easy . In less than a day, BV was transformed from an overgrown jungle to the overly beautiful, sparkly gem that it is. Thank you Aaron, we appreciate your help!

Check out the website for To Each His Home , Bilyana Dimitrova's new book. She's  a photographer living in New York City, whose Bottle Village photographs are featured in the children's book Bottle Houses: The Creative World of Grandma Prisbrey. She's a big fan of BV— donated her photographs for the children's book and is donating 10 copies of her new book to Preserve Bottle Village!

To Each His Home is about eight Artist's Homes and since all of us think Grandma Prisbrey was an artist, and her "home" was Bottle Village, cheers to Bilyana for including Grandma in her book! The 20 page section about BV features an insightful interview with Joanne Johnson and her longtime involvement with Preserve Bottle Village.

The French filmmakers who planned to feature Bottle Village in their documentary series about Visionary/Folk Art Environments ran out of production funds in San Francisco and had to cancel their trip to the Los Angeles area. No Watts Towers, no Bottle Village. so sad.....

The question remains..... Why would anyone trek all the way from France to Simi Valley? Despite what others think, for one reason only... to see the enchanting Bottle Village— the place that put Simi Valley on the global map!

Attention FACEBOOKers!

Bottle Village has a fan page on Facebook! If you're already a member of Facebook, search for

"Bottle Village in Simi Valley"

Join in the fun and become "a Fan"! If you're hopelessly cyberphobic, it's never too late to start something new (hint, hint...Remember Grandma didn't start building Bottle Village until she was almost 60!)

FACEBOOK is both A MAZE and AMAZING! They will not share your personal information.

Kudos to Debbie Dennert (Deborah Dennert-Frederick on Facebook) for creating a place where the BV fans and followers can connect through cyberspace.

Ventura County Fair --

August 2009--

Bottle Village exhibit awarded Blue Ribbon- FIRST PLACE!

LA Times columnist Steve Harvey  visited Bottle Village 30 some years ago. He got to wondering...and decided to do an update. "A Treasure Trove of Trash Withers in Simi Valley" was published on Sunday Nov 23, 2008— the day of Bottle Village's Open House!!— (Well, Imagine That!)

Synchronicity.

As Jerry Dunphy used to say "From the Desert to the Sea..." Inspired by Steve's article, they came to Bottle Village. From Laguna Beach and Santa Barbara. From Mojave and San Bernadino. From Venice and Ventura.

Hundreds of happy people trekked out to Simi Valley, for 4 hours on a Sunday afternoon— to see Bottle Village! More on that amazing day

here. 

Thanks Steve, for wondering about Bottle Village. Steve's "Only in LA" (my very own fave column..ever..is now a blog)

The Book is Out!

The Ventura County Star's book project, Capture Ventura County  

is available. We're sorry Kathy's photo didn't make it in the book— but it's on the DVD, which is included when you buy the book.

July 2008 

BV is Front Page News!

The Ventura County Star recently featured a thorough and revealing front page article, by Anna Bakalis, including some interesting quotes from the local Politicos. A few weeks later, an excellent Editorial  and a great cartoon by Steve Greenberg. Now who could that be in Steve's cartoon? Steve has a blog for his archived cartoons— he also has some very nice things to say about Bottle Village. Then.... a few days later, a wonderful Guest Opinion piece by Larry Janss. Larry has been a long time supporter of Bottle Village. You might recognize his last name... The Janss Family is well-known in Thousand Oaks (a neighboring community of Simi Valley) and was instrumental in its formation.

Check Out the Showcase website about Bottle Village Beautiful archival images of BV in its heyday and some sad pictures of the devastation after the 1994 EQ. Lots of history and info too! Ross just completed a redo of the whole site— has that funky, "Grandma feel", don't you think?

Without Ross, and his web wizardry, Bottle Village would not have its well-known presence on the web. It's been #1 on Google since the day Google was born. Does anybody remember DogPile or AltaVista?

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 Bottle Houses: The Creative World of Grandma Prisbrey

Written by Melissa Slaymaker and illustrated by Julie Paschkis, it was published in 2004, and continues to be BVs best and most far reaching PR tool— generating interest and bringing visitors.

Bottle Houses has tremendous potential for VOLUNTEERS using it for educational programming—

*** Schedule a little fundraising activity for Preserve Bottle Village within your own circle of friends. Read Bottle Houses and talk about the importance of Recycling. Do an art project using recycled materials— there's tons of ideas at MakeArtNotTrash Talk about the importance of saving Historical Landmarks. Pass around a "Funky Grandma Hat" or a special decorated bottle on behalf of Preserve Bottle Village and send along your donation to:

Preserve Bottle Village

PO Box 1412

Simi Valley CA 93062

Let us know about your success and I'll put your story on the BV CyberDoers page.... 

 

And if you're a Scout Leader... In May 2007 the Brownies did a "Try-it" patch— "Listen to the Past."

 

The world of Scouting has  many opportunies to help Bottle Village! Some years ago, Cub Scout Pack 3661-Den 2 collected quarters— I still have that precious jar.....

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Simi Valley, CA Updated Saturday, November 07, 2009 12:51 AM Clear 54°F High: 72°F Low: 49°F Wind: 0 mph Humidity: 82% MSN Weather Data provided by WDT

This page was last modified on August 18, 2009

The Irony of Grandma's Stuff

Years ago, when Grandma's part of town was called Santa Susana, and there was no City of Simi Valley, there still was a dump— a place where locals dumped their trash. Back then, nobody had to drink their water from plastic bottles, there were no plastic trash bags, all the soda and beer came in glass bottles, and most people buried or burned their household garbage at home.

The country dump was full of stuff. Good stuff , if you had a keen eye, a fervent imagination, and a passion for collecting. Country dumps were often social gathering places too— you could swap stories and swap stuff. Maybe that's how "Swap Meets" started.

Grandma Prisbrey drove her Studebaker Pick-Up Truck to the dump almost everyday. Not to throw away her stuff— oh no. Grandma "mined" the dump, its yield as good as gold to her way of thinking. 

She'd set her jaw a certain way, shake her head and say, "Well, what some people throw away, I could wear to church." 

to be continued........