I was born in Redwood City, California in 1948 as were my mother and father before me. I am a fifth generation Californian my great great grandfather having jumped a Russian whaling ship in San Francisco two years before the gold rush in 1846.
I've lived in San Carlos, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Santa Clara and even Santa Cruz for a very short period of time.
I remember it a perfect place to grow up when the El Camino was a two lane road with orchards on each side between the metropolitan areas of Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara. Orchards where pears and prunes where I would go pick fruit to make extra money in summer.
I remember nothing but orchards and string bean fields all around the San Jose airport. We used to make fun about people who lived in Milpitas because it was so far out in the sticks.
First place I lived was this house in San Carlos.
Two bedroom, single bath, one car garage and I do remember my bedroom window was at the far right corner of the house.
My grandfather was was the developer who built these homes and this particular one he sold for $9,000.
Today it is valued at $1.7 million. Who can afford to live there?
First house my parents purchased was a four bedroom, two bath home in Santa Clara for $29,900 in 1960.
My family was in two states... California and South Dakota. My grandmother on my mothers side moved from South Dakota to Palo Alto when she was a young girl around 1910.
Today with the exception of one aunt who is 95 and two cousins everyone has left the golden state. It seems that Arizona and Idaho got the great majority of the refugees.
Every three to five years we go visit the few relatives we have left and like anyone we drive around looking at the homes we used to live in. I can hardly recognize it anymore. It's like a foreign land.