When her nephews asked her how the family kept their milk cold, she replied with a matter-of-fact shrug, "Well, you'd just put it in a big pan, put it on the porch, and hope for the best."

Vargas celebrated her 100th birthday on March 5. With it, Campbell celebrates 100 years of a rich oral history.

Vargas' family helped build Campbell--literally. Vargas' father, James Burns, was one of the city's first plumbers, and her brother Jack carried on the family tradition. Her family outfitted the Ainsley House with plumbing and rubbed elbows with Sarah Winchester, the enigmatic widow who built the fabled Winchester House, which was within Campbell's boundaries at the time.

Growing up, Vargas and her siblings would tag along with their father as he went to work on their neighbors' plumbing, including the Winchester home.

"I met her, but I didn't know her too well," Vargas says. "She had dozens of end tables. There were little tables all over the place."

Michael Burns, James' grandson and Vargas' nephew, says he remembers his father talking about Winchester riding through town in her black buggy and wearing a black veil.

Much like Orchard City, Vargas has maintained strong ties to the past without losing sight of the present or the future. Her sharp memory and lively wit make her a vibrant storyteller, able to evoke the smells of the orchards and dusty roads that cut through the blossoming, turn-of-the-century town.

Through Vargas and her family, a large part of the city's past remains alive.

James, Vargas' father, came from Massachusetts to Campbell with his wife in 1902. He set up one of Campbell's first plumbing businesses in the back of C.H. Whitman's Hardware store in the downtown.

Michael recalls hearing stories about the early days of his grandfather's business.

"He had a horse-drawn wagon with a pipe vice," Michael, 65, says. "He would go out to the outskirts of town to plumb a new house, and in the afternoons he could direct the horse into town. He would just go to sleep, and the horse knew where to go. It would just pull into the stable by itself."

Although her father's presence in town may have been apparent in those days, Edna and her siblings were absent from the Campbell scene for a couple of years.

Different Times

Vargas' mother died in 1913, when Vargas was just 7 years old. With a business to run, her father could not take care of his six children, Edna, Mildred, Jack, Bob, Matthew and Gladys. Vargas remembers being sent to a children's home in Gilroy that was run by the Rebeccas, the female counterpart to the Oddfellows Society.

"That's when I thought I was Cinderella," Vargas says. "It was great. I loved being there with all the kids."

But the separation was not easy for her father. James would ride his motorcycle every other weekend to Gilroy to visit his children, all the while building a home for them on Third Street, between Rincon Avenue and Orchard City Drive. When he remarried in 1915 and was able to bring the children back to Campbell, the new house was a complete surprise.

"I thought it was the Stroms' house, and I thought, what the heck are we doing here?" Vargas recalls.

The Stroms were another early Campbell family. Olaf Strom helped build a gymnasium for Campbell Union High School in the early 1920s.

As Vargas grew, so did her father's business and in 1938, James built his own plumbing shop, J.G. Burns Plumbing, at the corner of Campbell Avenue and Third Street. His son Jack--Michael's father--took over the business in 1944 when James retired.

Along with plumbing, Jack also did sheet metal work.

Michael says his father would make "smudge pots," which were used to light grease fires in the orchards. The heavy smoke would protect the orchards from frost.

Michael's brother Richard, 63, tells the story of how their father only kept the business for four years. His customers remembered him mostly as James Burns' little boy and tried to pay him accordingly.

"He would go out and do some work for the little old ladies, and they'd give him a piece of pie as payment, like he was still a kid," Richard says.

The sons note that, later in life after their father retired, he remained active in the community. One of his roles was working as a docent for the Campbell Museum. Jack's continued commitment to the city earned him the honor of being named Citizen of the Year in 1980.

Jack died in 1999 at age 92, but local historian and Campbell Mayor Jeanette Watson is grateful to her friend, whose knowledge helped her compile information for her book, Campbell the Orchard City.

"Plumbers always got into the back door, so to speak," Watson says.

"I would sit down with Jack and Frank Blaine, a descendant of the Campbell family, and talk to them about certain events."

She adds, "It was interesting to hear their perspectives on the same event, since Frank was viewing things from, what I would say, in the front door and Jack from the back door."

Vargas and her nephews share their stories of growing up in Campbell as if it were yesterday.

"There was no Safeway," Vargas says. "You'd walk to the bakery and the meat market, and the vegetable wagon would come around, and you'd know everybody in town."

She remembers picking up milk from the dairy that stood where SummerWinds Nursery now is located on Winchester Boulevard. And she remembers seeing people steer down Campbell Avenue in rowboats after the disastrous flood of 1911.

Vargas knows her stories date her, but she has no problem making light of her age. She shares one story just to prove that point.

"I remember when my father wrapped me up and took me outside," she says. "He said, 'Look, that's Halley's Comet--look at it because you'll never see it again.'

"And I did see it again," she adds.

Vargas married Tom Fellmeth in 1927, but her husband died in 1945 during a hunting trip on Mount Hamilton. He never returned home, and his body was found on the mountain a month later under suspicious circumstances. Though it was never determined what happened, the Burns family suspects Fellmeth may have been the victim of a robbery. Vargas married Joe Vargas in 1958. She was widowed again in 1972.

Richard and Michael recall growing up in a Campbell covered with orchards and ranches.

"In the summer you could always tell when they were dehydrating the prunes because you could smell it," Richard says.

Michael adds all the children in town would take part in harvesting the orchards.

"Every summer, it was picking prunes and apricots," he says. "That was a part of summer life growing up in Campbell."

There was still time for fun, even with all the harvesting.

Richard and Michael say one of the spots in Campbell they remember most from their childhood is the old theater in the downtown. It was originally home to the Campbell Growers Bank. Today it is the Gaslighter Theater.

"They'd have a western serial that they'd continue the next Saturday," Richard says.

"And a cartoon, which was a highlight--not like they are today," Michael adds.

Today Campbell continues to be as much a part of the Burns' family history as the Burnses are a part of Campbell's. Edna now lives in Wesley Manor on Winchester Boulevard, and Michael and Richard Burns still own the house they grew up in, on Alice Avenue.

"It was the only home we ever knew," Richard says. "We've talked about whether we should sell it or rent it, but when it's sold, it's going to be a tough one to let go."

He adds that Campbell will probably always be his home.

"If I moved, I don't know where I'd go," he says.

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