December 1973

https://flashbak.com/portland-gas-crisis-1970s-479450/

I love an origin story... this one has a 64 Bug, a 54 trailer, a multi generation farm, a mom n pop gas station, tractors, and a roadside fruit stand!

Early in their marriage in 1971, John and Renee Linn, who lived in Kansas, decided to pursue their dreams to live out their lives on a farm. 

For years they had driven through the Midwest farmlands admiring the scenery and longing for a healthy life working together as a family. With their minds made up, these recent college graduates bundled up their newborn son Justin, packed their books and student loans into a '64 VW bug and headed for Denver.

 They were determined to make enough money to buy into their version of the American dream.

Unable to find a job in a bad national economy, John borrowed $750 to put a down payment on a service station where he not only sold gas at the height of the oil crisis but specialized in foreign car repair. There was plenty of work — often 110 hours a week! The couple began to plan in earnest for a farm by deciding that in five years they would leave Denver with their family and a nest egg.

In 1977 they got their farm on California's Central Coast (north of Morro Bay, south of San Simeon), moved a little (8' x 32') 1952 trailer onto the farm and moved in. They refurbished an old well on the property, learned to run trenchers, drive tractors, plant fruit trees, and build water systems and fences.  

Then they set up a fruit and produce stand in 1979 where they sold the olallieberry, a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry that was relatively unheard of at the time. 

The farm is now run by the 3rd generation

Renee's olallieberry pie was a hit and ultimately served as one of the reasons why the couple opened Linn's Restaurant in Cambria's East Village in 1989. 

It has a collection of cycles!

“I began the bike collection because of a man named Wesley Hatakeyama. He suggested, since I had all the upper space on our restaurant walls and since I am a lifelong cycling enthusiast, that I decorate with some bikes, the first five of which he would give me. Cycling has always been something that sets my mind straight and allows me to push my body and mind to new heights as I tackle the hardest climbs or just enjoy perfect downhill and flat rides with a good tailwind. Many people are cycling enthusiasts like me. I am creating the collection to commemorate what will soon be 100 years of cycling innovation.”

Furthermore, in no small way, Aaron has succeeded in bringing casual and serious cyclists to Cambria from places near and far.

Aaron Linn- Restaurant General Manager/Co-Owner

https://www.thetakeout.com/1941696/best-diners-pacific-coast-highway-road-trip/
https://www.linnseats.com/history

https://www.linnseats.com/the-bikes

I was just told about a great trick used during the OPEC oil crisis gas rations times, when gas stations would only fill you up if you had less than a 1/4 tank....

 one guy with a dual tank truck installed a resistor in the fuel tank level indicator wiring behind the dash, and when he went to a gas station, would flip a hidden switch, so it would show the attendant on the gas gauge that barely any fuel was in the truck... then fuel up one of the tanks, or top off them both, tank the truck home, siphon the gas out to a holding tank (like the 5 hundred gallon natural gas tanks many houses had) and then take the truck to different gas station to refill. 

Many gas stations only would allow vehicles with license plates that had some even or odd number in the sequence to fill up on certain days. Hey, I wasn't old enough to go to school! I don't know the many methods for only allowing a very few people to get gas, but, I do remember waiting in the non air conditioned car for 15-30 minutes every time mom had to gas up in 1974-75ish. I even remember the station she went to. I was 3 or 4. It was next to the laundromat she went to... it's ridiculous what your brain holds onto and makes available... never the answers to the trigonometry test in high school... nope.