Louie Ochoa came from Mexico in 1914 and worked as a maintenance man at the Hollister Ranch in the 1920's and 1930's. Louie and his son Tony moved into a house in Bullito Canyon where the road comes out at the bottom of the eucalyptus trees. Tony describes it as having been at the south end of the orchard, down below the chicken coop and granary. Its proximity to the barn must have been an advantage, because Mr. Hollister expected everybody to assemble there at 6:30 each morning. The cowboys would then saddle up and the maintenance crew would get their instructions for the day.

"I was just a little kid," J.J. Hollister says, "but I used to tag along and watch these guys. My grandfather would take me around. He was showing them how to get their cattle guard work into shape, and he said to Louie, 'Now this is what I want you do. And he grabbed the shovel and was digging furiously at a particular place, because that was where he needed a hole. And after a burst of energy for about ten or fifteen minutes, he'd say, 'Now, Louie, take this, get it going. I've got to go make a phone call.' Or two or three. And then he'd take off."

" So one time I asked Louie, I said: 'Can you work that hard all day, Louie?' "

"He says, 'Jimmie, your grandfather, you know, he can go fast like that because he has to take the phone. But me, I have to take it easy, I hope, because I go all day.' "

Tony Ochoa chuckles, remembering this story. "They were practical men," he says. "They had to pace themselves. I'd sit there watching with my knees bent, elbows resting. They'd let me help sometimes, just to be nice. Then when I was fourteen, they gave me my first real job, and boy, did they work me! There was no tolerance for laziness or shirking."

Another time, according to Tony, it started to rain while the men were gathered at the barn. Louie looked out while the cowboys were saddling up, and in his slightly broken English said, "Oh, Mr. Hollister, more rain, more rest."

Hollister looked at him sternly. "What did you say, Louie?"

And Louie said, "Mr. Hollister, I said, more rain, more grass."

"Good man, Louis, good man," said Hollister. And he showed Louie off as one of the better men on the ranch.

"I can see it all so clearly in my mind," says Tony. "The houses, the barn, the road to the beach. If I were an artist, I'd draw it for you. Things have changed, but the essence is there, and the feelings are the same. Once you're involved with the ranch, it's in your soul. I can't explain it. You either know what I mean, or you don't."