Valencia Elementary School

Interview with Carolyn Swift

Carolyn Swift is a local historian and Executive Director of the Capitola History Museum. When attending Valencia, her name was Carolyn Heebner and the school's name was Aptos Elementary. She attended Linscott School in Watsonville for the kindergarten and first grades. Her family then moved to La Selva Beach and she then attended Valencia School for second through eighth grades, between 1956 and 1962. Carolyn graduated in June, 1962.

Ms Swift remembers “Old Bus One” and frequent emergency bus evacuations on San Andreas Road when the old bus overheated. She remembers some favorite teachers. She has acquired many photographs of Aptos and Valencia and schools.

Aptos Elementary Class of 1962
That's Carolyn in the back row center with the white blouse and dark scarf.

Carolyn recalls the classes were crowded and in double sessions. Some of her friends attneded the same school and grade but at a different time of day so she sometimes couldn't see her friends when she wanted. Also, the cut out P.E. because of the overcrowding.

Did you know that the Disney's 1968 movie "Herbie the Love Bug" was based on a book by and a screenplay written by a Valencia teacher? Carolyn reports that Valencia teacher Gordon Buford was teaching at Valencia in the 1960's when he wrote a book called "Car-Boy-Girl". Disney saw the book and decided to make a movie out of it. In 1969, "The Love Bug" came out in theaters. Click here for a photo of teacher Gordon Buford and an article about how he came up with the idea for the Love Bug.

Carolyn Swift interview. She was interviewed on Saturday, April 5, 2003 at the Capitola History Museum. You can listen to an audio recording of her interview with Molly Smith by clicking on one of the links below. These are large files. When downloaded it is a 37 minute interview. .It is available as either a wav (47,957 kb) , Real Audio (39,985 kb) or a Windows Media file.. You can listen to the entire twenty-eight minute interview with Mr. Paddon as either a wav file a Real Audio file or a Windows Media file by clicking on the link. If you have Windows Media Player on your computer, that may be the shortest download. See our Media Page for more information.

Carolyn was the first interview for this project. She was extremely helpful and interested in being an active member of our school history. She identified some great resources.

Thanks Carolyn!