Growing up in Adelaide, Vicki Silva’s childhood was that of an idyllic country kid. With deep family roots in the region tucked away in oak trees and green hills, her childhood days were filled with horseback riding, working on her family’s dairy farm, and one-room schoolhouses.
“We didn’t have much but we were happy,” said Vicki who now spends her time volunteering countless hours into the community that raised her.
Her family’s roots began in Adelaide with her great-grandfather, Otto Wyss, who came to California from Switzerland in the 1870s to work in Adelaide’s Mercury mines. Otto worked as a surveyor and mapmaker for the mines, began a homestead there and that she says, is where it all started.
“They were prolific letter writers,” Vicki says of her great-grandparents. “And, of course, everything was in German because they were from the German part of Switzerland.”
Vicki explains that Otto was the only one in his family to make the trek to America, and because of that, they consider him a hero. Relatives back in Switzerland collected all of Otto’s letters and published them in a book. Luckily, Vicki’s family was able to get it translated from German to English, giving them an insight into the family’s journey, trials, and tribulations. All her family she says are buried in the Adelaide Cemetery.
“We are so fortunate how we live these days; especially when you know how rough it was back then,” says Vicki, reflecting on her family’s story. “I’m very blessed to know my history.”
Vicki attended a one-room schoolhouse where she and friend Jim Irving were the only two first-graders in the school of about 12 students.
“The school that I went to was down below the mines. It was called the Sunderland School, and it’s no longer there. But it was on property that my family owned,” she explains.
Growing up, Vicki’s father had a dairy farm for a few years.
So naturally, like any other farm kid, there were chores to be done, “And so that was our job before we went to school,” she said. “In the morning, we go out and milk the cow and feed the baby calves.”
But summers were especially special for Vicki, “My older sister and I had horses, and we would just, especially in the summertime, get on our horses and spend hours out riding around the countryside, sort of, you know, free spirits,” she recalled.
By fifth grade, Vicki and her family had moved into town, and she had started attending Georgia Brown Elementary School. Moving into town was to give Vicki and her siblings some socialization, as her mother said, but many weekends were still spent back at the Adelaide ranch where her dad went on to raise beef cattle. She then attended Paso Robles schools and graduated from Paso Robles High School.
After high school, went to Fresno State for a year, but the summer after graduating high school she met the love of her life, Russ Silva.
“To my parents’ dismay, when I came home for summer after the first year of college, we decided we were gonna get married,” says Vicki. “My parents were not happy with me. Because I was the good student in the family who was expected to graduate from college.”
She adds, “But, they came to love my husband.”
Vicki and her husband met doing what most teenagers did back in those days in Paso Robles on a Friday or Saturday night — cruise Spring Street down to Foster Freeze and everyone meet at the parking lot where Mechanics Bank now sits and just hang out.
Her husband was raised on his parent’s dairy in a town outside of Hanford and came over to the Central Coast to attend Cal Poly when he and Vicki met.
“I was 19, and he was 21 when we got married. But, you know, it worked out,” says Vicki. “I hate to say this, but it love at first sight.”
The two had a lot of fun together, raising two children, snow skiing, and going to the lake. Unfortunately, Russ died about 20 years ago due to a long-term illness. But the two have wonderful grandchildren and children thriving because of them.
After having her two children and buying their first home, Vicki started her real estate career — it was fitting, considering her grandmother was the first woman commercial broker in California. Now, Vicki is celebrating over 50 years in real estate.
Throughout it all, Vicki has dedicated so much of her time back to the community. She was one of the Paso Robles Rotary Club’s first women to join the club and served as the first woman Rotarian President from 2006-2007. She has also been the Roblan of the Year, Realtor of the Year, active at Saint Rose Catholic Church and School, past Pioneer Day Chairman, past president of the Paso Robles Board of Realtors, and Cuesta College Honored Alumni.
Reflecting on how much Paso Robles has grown since her childhood ranch days, Vicki says it ‘s “Mostly good because I feel like most people that have moved here are are good people that like Paso Robles, and they want the lifestyle that we have. I think we’re blessed. I tell people … this is the last best place in California. And it really is.”
And overall, Vicki says, “I feel very blessed. I still have my health, and I’ve got a great family and great friends and lots of good clients who have become friends.”
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