Snake Road. Is there two?

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oldschool
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Snake Road. Is there two?

Post by oldschool » Wed Aug 28, 2013 3:46 am

When I was growing up we used to haul produce into Fresno at the produce places on G Street. I remember my father saying as we got into West Fresno around West and Jenson, or West and Church that we were on Snake Road. I remember after West and Church the road was real curvy and it was by a canal. When you got to Fruit and California, on the right was Holland's Country Club, and the Creole Kitchen. There were also Meat Packing places around there too.

In the 1970's the band Redbone, Lolly Vegas, and Pat Vegas were from Fresno. They had a song called Jerico. The song opened with: Theres a neighborhood on the edge of Fresno. Down by the Old Snake Road and City Dump. Years after I moved to the Sacramento area I had a band and we called it "The Snake Road Band" It sounded cool. We never played anywhere, and we fizzeled out. A few years before moving to Arizona, I find out there is many bands called The Snake Road Band. About four years ago I type Snake Road, and get that it is Barton Road near Sanger. Also near a river. It is on a list of Haunted places. Is this true? I am curious about this. Any information would be great.

oldschool

sjvalleydave
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Re: Snake Road. Is there two???

Post by sjvalleydave » Wed Aug 28, 2013 1:20 pm

If you live out near Sanger, they definitely use the term Snake Road. It is near the Kings River south of Highway 180.

mkw
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Re: Snake Road. Is there two???

Post by mkw » Fri Sep 06, 2013 1:59 pm

I grew up blocks away from the " old snake road " referenced in the Redbone song- it was near Church and Fruit on the West Side of Fresno. You can do a Google maps satellite view of the area around that intersection and see remnants of the long gone road in the serpentine dirt streak extending in the grassy open area from there down to Florence Avenue. The old shanties, populated with blacks who came to the area to pick cotton locally after WW2 are also long gone. It wasn't until I was older that I figured out their weird accents were Cajun and that also explains the arcordian music I often heard from within those wood boxes they lived in. They also congregated west of Thorne Avenue between Whitesbridge Road and Highway 99. The referenced "city dump" later became Hyde Park, named after former mayor Floyd Hyde , who became a DC policy wonk.

prattdana
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Re: Snake Road. Is there two???

Post by prattdana » Thu Jan 15, 2015 11:20 pm

I so remember a party I went to on Snake Road. My father had a black gentleman that worked for him and he and his wife Buelah invited us out for the 4th of July and I never had a better time in my life. I had never heard the kind of music they were playing before ( I was only about 5) and the folks taught me dance to the accordion. Thanks to an earlier post here I realize it was Cajun music. I think my family and one another family were the only white folks there. I still remember how much fun we had. When I mentioned it to my brother he told me about the song by Redbone and that is was by one of the dumps and that the houses I remembered so fondly were really just shanties. It sure didnt feel that way to me. I often wondered what became of all the folks out there as the road is gone now.

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