Vidalia to Visalia

I accidentally picked up a bag of Vidalia onions. Every time I look at the bag, I think of Visalia and Rosa. We worked together at Candlewick in Lemoore, CA. When people talked down to her, she said, “I’m not a country hick, I’m from the big city.” New people always asked, San Francisco, Los Angeles? And Rosa said, “No Visalia.” Most new people had never heard of it. At the time it’s population was 12,500. I lived in Armona, an area too small to be a town. It didn’t even have RFD. We had to actually go to the post office to get our mail.

My little family left a small town in Georgia to live in an even smaller place, but eventually came back to another small town in Georgia. Vidalia onions were well known here, but no one had ever heard of Visalia and few knew where the San Joaquin Valley was until Sons of Anarchy became a TV show.

Life offers connections in everything and so many wonderful memories.