Post by NZBC on Sept 1, 2007 21:34:14 GMT 12
www.santacruzpl.org/history/culdiv/golden2.shtml
Climbing Golden Mountain
by Geoffrey Dunn
Aside from performing tasks as day laborers, many Chinese men worked in the laundry business. In 1880 there were already 19 Chinese laundries in the county, employing 70 workers full time. Ten were located in downtown Santa Cruz.
Because most white males felt laundry work beneath their dignity, the Chinese were able to enter the wash house business with a minimum of resistance. Chinese laundries were labor intensive and required little initial investment. They rapidly became the foundation of the Chinese economy.
On entering a Chinese laundry, Otto recalled in one of his historical columns,"One saw a long ironing board against the wall on each side, with six or seven men ironing ... At the side of each was a sauce bowl filled with water set on top of a starch box. The Chinese, wearing white cotton blouses, would bend over to fill their mouths with water and then spray it over the clothes to dampen them." Rocks behind the wash houses were used for beating the clothes.
Chinese gardeners provided the Santa Cruz community with a large supply of its fresh fruits and vegetables. In 1885 the Santa Cruz Surf reported 125 "soil cultivators" in the city earning $20 a month. One large Chinese garden was located at the Blackburn Ranch near Chestnut and West Sycamore Streets, and another off King Street above what is now Mission Hill Junior High
Climbing Golden Mountain
by Geoffrey Dunn
Aside from performing tasks as day laborers, many Chinese men worked in the laundry business. In 1880 there were already 19 Chinese laundries in the county, employing 70 workers full time. Ten were located in downtown Santa Cruz.
Because most white males felt laundry work beneath their dignity, the Chinese were able to enter the wash house business with a minimum of resistance. Chinese laundries were labor intensive and required little initial investment. They rapidly became the foundation of the Chinese economy.
On entering a Chinese laundry, Otto recalled in one of his historical columns,"One saw a long ironing board against the wall on each side, with six or seven men ironing ... At the side of each was a sauce bowl filled with water set on top of a starch box. The Chinese, wearing white cotton blouses, would bend over to fill their mouths with water and then spray it over the clothes to dampen them." Rocks behind the wash houses were used for beating the clothes.
Chinese gardeners provided the Santa Cruz community with a large supply of its fresh fruits and vegetables. In 1885 the Santa Cruz Surf reported 125 "soil cultivators" in the city earning $20 a month. One large Chinese garden was located at the Blackburn Ranch near Chestnut and West Sycamore Streets, and another off King Street above what is now Mission Hill Junior High