Just A Car Guy: Edward Chavez (1917–2004) was a recognized master of scratch building within the model-making community. Fascinated by aviation from an early age in San Antonio, his model commissions expanded from private aircraft owners to professional work for the Piper Aircraft Company.

Interested in aviation since his childhood in Texas, Chavez served as a B-24 gunner in World War II.

After the war, he joined the U.S. Postal Service and, while in the military reserve, was commissioned to construct aircraft recognition models in 1947.

He later served as a captain in the Korean War and was awarded both the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star.

In 1961, the Nut Tree Restaurant in Vacaville, California, contracted Chavez to build display models of famous aircraft after seeing models he had made at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum

So, my immediate curiosity was " What the hell was the Nut Tree?"

It all began in 1855 when pioneer Josiah Allison came from Iowa to California in search of gold but instead discovered his knack for farming.

Allison staked out 225 acres of land in Vacaville, and was doing so well in the farming business he convinced his brother-in-law, Alpha Brown, to move his family there too.

During the Brown family’s move out to California via covered wagon, Sallie Fox, Brown’s step-daughter, picked up some black walnuts that had dropped from a tree along the trail and carried them in the pocket of her gingham pinafore (sleeveless apron).

Their covered wagon caravan was attacked at some point, Sallie was wounded by an arrow and Alpha was killed. Once the remaining family arrived in Vacaville, Sallie planted the nuts throughout Allison’s property in 1859 and over time one particular tree grew very tall and strong

The seed eventually grew into the tree that provided shade for the first iteration of the Nut Tree, a roadside fruit stand that opened on July 3, 1921, a bad crop year due to a harsh frost, under the walnut tree the farmer's ancestor had planted in Vacaville Ca (location, location, location) on the family’s 135-acre plot along what was then US Highway 40 (now Interstate 80).

In it's 2nd year, it served 900 cars a day, they then set up a diner, and by 1949 were serving 1000 meals a day

They began expanding their offerings, adding oft-requested items like ice cream and chewing gum. Thirsty drivers started stopping for water, so they also kept a bucket of ice cold water on hand. “Whenever a thirsty-looking person approached the stand, he was offered a well-filled cup even before he asked for it,” Power said. “We beat him to it.”

To get drivers to slow down (in a 35 mph zone?) they put up signs in both directions farther down the road, alerting drivers to the upcoming Nut Tree stand. A few years after its grand opening, the Los Angeles Times called it “one of the most unique and profitable fruit marketing stands in the country.”

Due to its free pineapple appetizer, the Nut Tree grew to be the 2nd or 3rd largest importer of pineapples from Hawaii in 1950.

“For many years, the Nut Tree was the second-largest [buyer] of pineapple from Hawaii,” says Kassis. (Pike’s Place Market in Seattle was the largest pineapple purchaser.) “And eventually, the Nut Tree became the quality standard for Dole. Their fruit was [internally graded] green, green-ripe, ripe and the Nut Tree.”

They had pineapples for their famous appetizer, and it was always free because the fruit symbolized hospitality, and they supported the idea that you always exceed expectations (Ever heard of Zig Ziglar and the phrase "give them the pickle"?)

Nut Tree invented Marshmallow sauce, and put it on fruit dishes, most famously, the free pineapple slices

Poisoned by decades of car exhaust, Sallie Fox’s walnut tree was regrettably felled in 1951.

In 1953, they hired graphic artist Don Birrell (age 28), as the museum’s rookie director, shortly after he graduated from the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles (which eventually became CalArts, the Disney-backed school that has long produced many of its Imagineers)

Chouinard, Dean Batchelor went there, as well as Bruce Meyers (Meyers Manx) and I've posted a couple artists as well, for their INCREDIBLE art https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=Chouinard

The aviary keeper Bill Toone—who earned a master’s degree in avian biology from UC Davis and went on to become the youngest-ever curator of birds at the San Diego Zoo

The Nut Tree gift shop, which was the first Herman Miller furniture dealer in Northern California, sold everything from Eames chairs to Dansk plates

Charles Moore, a founding architect of the iconic modernist Sea Ranch enclave on the Sonoma Coast famously admired the lighthearted vernacular of Disneyland’s exaggerated edifices, and wrote of the Nut Tree with equal fondness in a 1965 essay published in Yale’s architecture journal Perspecta.

“It offers the traveler a gift of great importance. It is an offering of urbanity, of sophistication and chic, a kind of foretaste, for those bound west, of the urban joys of San Francisco.”

In 1978, the San Francisco Chronicle called the roadside attraction an “oasis of taste”—a metaphorical achievement earned by coming a long way from its literal seed of origin.

When Gov. George Deukmejian hosted an extravagant lunch at the State Capitol for Queen Elizabeth II in 1983, he requested catering by the Nut Tree restaurant, one of his personal favorites.

In 1961, the Nut Tree Restaurant commissioned Chavez to build display models of renowned aircraft. Beginning in 1962, Chavez produced numerous models for the restaurant over twenty-seven years

In 1974 the family relinquished control to a management organization, and the writing was on the wall, the restaurant closed in 1996 because of lawsuits stemming from millions in losses of the 2nd gen or management, and the 3rd generation (17 siblings and cousins all working the family business), and after 2 years of court nonsense, the settlement resulted in a sale of the property 2 weeks later, and poof, it's nothing but history now.

In WWII, Ed Jr. learned to fly and service aircraft, and when he returned from his tour of duty, he bought a private plane.

“The idea for a Nut Tree airport simply grew from there,” says Kassis.

When the airport was built in 1955, the landing strip was just dirt. But once pilots began to enjoy the experience of flying into the Nut Tree, lights were installed, the runway was paved and a taxiway was added. It had 25000 travelers a year

The Nut Tree landing strip, described as one of the most innovative private airports in the nation, became a model in the industry and was featured in international magazines including a two-page spread in the October 1960 issue of Saturday Evening Post.

Events began to transpire—the first Cessna air show took place in 1960, for example, and in 1982, astronaut Neil Armstrong was the guest speaker at the final (25th annual) Rotary Fly-In.

Chuck Yeager was also a keynote speaker at one of the Fly-Ins—he was a buddy of Ed Jr.’s and would stop by the Nut Tree on his way to San Francisco from his home in Grass Valley.

(Other celebs that stopped in, included Bing Crosby, Shirley Temple, Richard Nixon, the Reagans, and Walt Disney)