"Now, fellas, we've got a chance to put Fallbrook on the map. Our avocado growers need help. What's it going to take to promote this wonderful fruit?" In 1962, Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce then-President Sherman Loudermilk might have said those very words to local businessmen and farmers hunkered down over coffee cups and lemon pie at Harrison's Pharmacy soda fountain counter, now the Art & Cultural Center.

At a time when avocados were grown on three- and four-acre farms and the harvest scant, grocery stores were reluctant to sell the green gold fruit, so the Avocado Advisory Board launched an ad campaign seeking to “compete with soup and soap and convince the housewife she must have avocados on her dinner table.” Ever optimistic, the chamber’s businessmen and farmers took on the challenge to help the emerging avocado industry draw attention the green gold fruit. Thus emerged the first Avocado Festival.

“Avocado Capital of the World” slogan first used

Later, Loudermilk’s Avocado Festival committee, comprised of Steve Wachtin, Bill Borden, Bill Bolen and Bill Karn, met at the home of Bert Clark to brainstorm; their plans were grand and glorious for a population of less than 7,000 residents. They set October 1 to mark the debut of the three-day event. But growers couldn’t wait ten months for the publicity, so in February, Loudermilk announced festival activities would kick off by selecting an Avocado Festival Queen. In May, Lynette Smith won the honor, and to publicize her appearances Fallbrook’s new slogan “The Avocado Capital of the World,” created by the chamber in April, was blazoned everywhere. Throughout the summer, the Avocado Festival became an umbrella for a community-wide cleanup day, a poolside dinner dance in July and a box social at Live Oak Park in August.

Although fall marked the festival date until the 1980s, it is now set in April to coincide with peak production from the local groves, says Carol Eastman, event coordinator for the chamber. The festival still occurred in the fall when she and George Archibald, who chairs the event, became involved and realized few avocados existed. Farmers begin harvesting in January.

Local organizations participate to raise funds for their goals

The 1962 chamber also decided any financial proceeds would go to the Boy’s Club (as it was known then). Local organizations were encouraged to participate to raise money for their own goals and get involved in the pre-festival events, too. They jumped at the chance and over the years have become an integral part of the Avocado Festival. This year, 25 local civic, business, religious and sports organizations like the Masonic Lodge, Soroptimist, Fallbrook Hospital, Fallbrook Irrigation, Zion Lutheran and St. John’s Episcopal and the Fallbrook High School Warriors Football Boosters will have booths. They see the Avocado Festival as their primary fundraising event for the year. “It’s a lot easier than sitting in front of a market selling baked goods,” says Dick Goodlake from St. John’s. He claims it’s one way of achieving the same results in one day’s time. Their members will sell t-shirts, cookies, root beer floats — and avocados! The money they raise goes to their building fund. The chamber’s proceeds r
oll back into their community programs, like the Christmas Parade.

First Avocado festival a three-day event

By the time the 1962 Avocado Festival took place, Fallbrook was jumping. On Thursday, October 3, visitors mingled with residents hunting for bargains at the Big Dollar Days Street Sale and they cheered local business owners striding two miles down Main Street in the Businessmen’s Walking Contest. On Friday, October 4, families gathered for the Youngster’s Show Off Parade, and on Saturday, October 5, the main event started with a pancake breakfast. Later, local dignitaries gathered at the train station on Alvarado to welcome a Santa Fe train full of special visitors from Los Angeles invited by the Fallbrook Board of Realtors. During the day these travelers also toured Fallbrook and were treated to a barbeque.

Throughout that bright October Saturday, over 5,000 festival-goers inspected an Art Mart, farm display, garden club exhibit and book fair. They watched a square dance exhibition; listened to folk singers; entered their babies in a diaper derby; took in a Little League managers exhibition game; saw a pigeon flight competition; ate avocado dip provided by the growers co-op, Calavo Growers Inc.; toured a packing house; cheered a 100-entry parade with its queen; then ended the day with a street dance. How did the tiny community of Fallbrook with its small band of chamber volunteers pull this off? Carol Eastman attributes their success to a simpler life. “We are now so encumbered by logistics; legal restrictions, permits, crowd control and traffic,” she says. By 2005 standards, it’s hard to imagine even holding a parade the same day, yet by 1965 the Avocado Festival Parade swelled to seven bands, four marching teams, over a dozen floats and 40 equestrian units and its Grand Marshal was Hollywood star Elean
or Powell. That year, Avocado Festival Queen Janet Glasgow and Chamber President Harry Davis visited Los Angeles to present Mayor Sam Yorty with a box of avocados. They were hosted by radio station KABC, flew in the KMPC radio airwatch helicopter, were interviewed on KFI radio’s early morning farm show and released a racing pigeon named “Fallbrook” owned by resident Stewart Havers.

Attendance grows yearly

By 1967, festival attendance grew to 10,000 and the now popular train from Los Angeles earned a nickname: the Avocado Flyer. By the early 1970s access to Fallbrook by car replaced rail travel, ending train service between Oceanside and Fallbrook. Soon after, the railway station on Alvarado was razed, and finally in 1982 the railroad tracks were removed.

Today, freeway access on either side of Fallbrook makes getting to the Avocado Festival easier, and although population growth clogs access roads with traffic, reaching the festival site is a reward for the wait.

Something for everyone at the 2005 festival

Visitors this year will discover a festival every bit as exciting as its predecessors. Now 350 booths line Main Street. Kids will find toys of every shape and color. Gardeners can select plants and garden art. For people seeking home decor, there’s art, accessories, kitchen spices, bath and spa selections. Stunning casual clothes and a variety of hats, sunglasses, avocado-themed t-shirts and apparel tempt everyone. Then, there’s the food: Bamber’s Holy guacamole, deep fried avocados; barbeque, hamburgers and hot dogs, sausages, Philly cheese steaks; Chinese, Greek, Mexican and Thai cuisine; ice cream and cookies, chocolate dipped fruit, funnel cakes, shaved ice, roasted almonds, popcorn and cold drinks of every kind — including beer.

Focus on the avocado and Fallbrook’s bountiful agriculture includes a farmer’s market and exhibition area situated on East Alvarado featuring avocados by the pound, by the tree or individual piece and cherimoyas, citrus, strawberries, macadamia nuts, herbs, cut flowers and nursery plants of all types. On West Alvarado visitors will find educational grove, farm and garden displays presented by the California Avocado Commission and Calavo Growers, Inc., McDaniel Fruit Company, California Rare Fruit Growers, Cherimoya Growers, Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, Fallbrook Public Utility District and the San Diego Department of Public Works watershed.

For entertainment, check out the results of the professional and amateur chefs entries: salsa and guacamole for the professionals and for the amateurs, salsa, guacamole, avocado-based dish and fruit dishes made with fruit grown in Fallbrook. Kids can race homemade or made-on-the-spot avocado cars in the Avocado 500; enter a creatively “dressed” or decorated avocado competition; participate in the Little Ambassador contest to represent the festival all day; climb a wall; get dizzy in a ride; and cheer their pals at the Fallbrook Elementary School District Exhibition. Adults seeking lively music can rock out to Blue Zone or Heidi and the Hurricanes or get down reggae style with Shocks of Mighty. More adventuresome visitors can tour Del Rey Avocado Company’s packing house, marvel at the collections in the Gem & Mineral Museum, get up close to vintage aircraft at the Fallbrook Airpark or learn about early Fallbrook at the Historical Museum.

Originally published in The Village News, April 14, 2005.
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