Jim Martino was the fourth child of Natale, who bought a house with 100 acres and began farming in the Springhill Valley in 1919. Jim, who helped operate the farm after finishing high school, says that his father won many prizes for his pears and other fruit. Jim also remembers that his father would leave at 3 AM in his Model T truck to get his fruit to the market in Oakland. In the 1940s it became harder to make a living farming fruits and vegetables, so the family begun selling off their land. After returning from service in World War II, Jim working in construction on many of the homes built on property that had formerly been part of their farm.
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