Do not park on Highway 29 (the freeway) to
get to this cache. You will need to park on Westlake Road (pictured
above) to get to this cache.
In the 1950’s and 60’s an annual event took place
along this road, called the “Fruit Exchange”. It was an
event that involved young high school students from rivaling Upper
Lake and Lakeport High Schools. It was a Halloween ritual, where
students started by scavenging for whatever they could find in the
way of old tomatoes, pears, or whatever rotten produce they could
find, for a good old fashioned food fight.
At a pre-chosen time these students would leave their respective
high schools, in the back of pickups or whatever vehicles they
could find, head towards each other, and wherever they converged on
the road is where the food fight took place. There was no set
place. It was just known that each school was headed toward the
other, and when they met, the food would fly!
It was always evident the next day where the Fruit Exchange had
taken place. Fruit & vegetables would be seen strewn all over
the road.
Since memories are fading fast of this past time event, this is
our attempt to keep the memories alive. Hopefully this will be a
simple way to keep the memories alive, and the story of this unique
event will not be lost forever!
To make this a little
more fun ,we threw in some fake fruits & veggies. Please leave
them in the cache so the next cachers may also enjoy the fun!
There are also some other exchange items, so please have fun in the
usual geocaching manner of take something & leave
something!
If you
know of someone who participated in the fruit exchanges or of
someone who might have some pictures, we would love to talk to
them!