by Library Docent Volunteer Andy Ludlum
Moorpark had gone all out for Ventura’s massive 1926 Fourth of July parade. A Moorpark Enterprise columnist sat in an open touring car decorated with flags, bunting, and flowers. Two large signs in red, blue, and black lettering read: “California Apricot Exhibit,” “June 21–24,” and “Moorpark, the Home of the Apricot.” The columnist called the experience “astonishing and nearly unbelievable” and joked: “Never saw so many people before in all my life, and so many people never saw me before. Oft times I have done things to show myself off as a prune, they say, but Monday was the only time I have ever had the opportunity of trying to be an apricot.”
Ventura’s celebration marked the nation’s Sesquicentennial, the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It was the largest and most dramatic patriotic event Ventura had ever staged and remains a landmark civic occasion to this day.
Read the Story: Museum of Ventura County