Toni Francis - The Early Years 1976.zip

In the 80's I was told was like the 70's only more people. It started when high tech (ie computers) hit the area. Shockley lab the real birth of silcon valley is still on San Antonio road as a furniture store. but others are not Fairchild, Atari, National Semi, Intel ... All these parts but no real use until the computer, more jobs more people.The house prices went up, $450,000. These were new, and under the daily Navy P-3 airplane landing routes (4 propellers). Who knew those daily landings for about an hour would go away along with the base. 20 planes about 2 minutes apart, talk about noise pollution. Yes there were also the yearly Navy air shows. The only other big event was the art and wine festival and a chinatown. Maybe if we had renamed it "Peking buisness district" it would still be there. Shoreline made us known in the area as thousands came to listen to music. But so did Thousands of Deadhead fans, noise complaints and traffic jams. We are lucky some parts of the old town remain and we have " a downtown area " unlike Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Cupertino. We tried to be a Palo Alto, thats why people eat in parking spaces on Castro street! Did we grow up OK?

Toni Francis - The early years 1976.zip

I was a Mt. View renter in Mountain View from '73 through '85 then returned to Florida.Thanks to all your memories of place & business names I had forgotten. Here are some more ... the memories may be too personal... but I see them as a testament to how comfortable Mountain View was to live in... I truly felt at home.First I rented in a duplex on Sierra Vista:Sold my 1958 VW bus, painted Rustoleum orange with yellow roof, with an engine that had died forever on the highest point of Hwy 17, to teenagers across the street who cut out the back end for surf boards and replaced the engine. Still had the bumper sticker "Can't read? Write now for free help" that Herb Caen's column had mentioned when I had lived in Santa Cruz.Dreamed of a jet in a small group colliding with a tree, a few days before the Blue Angels had their first (?) fatality. Never dreamed of planes before or since, despite having been a sky diver and knowing well of the Blue Angels.I see from maps now there is a pocket park on Sierra Vista by Middlefield. There was a nursing home across the street from us. "Our" red painted wood duplex and the big empty field inside the block disappeared when the block "went condo" (in '76?). Lived the rest of the time near Castro Street:Ken's House of Pancakes' German Babies soufflé pancakes with powdered sugar & lemon wedges.The El Camino foreign auto repair/sales where Fred Stengle sold me a rebuilt forest green 1966 MGB for $2,000, and the foreign auto repair guys west of there on Miramonte who later kept it running (re-rebuilding it piece by piece).Being wakened one Sunday morning each year by a strange sound - drums, cornets, and clarinets of a Portuguese fraternal band marching down Castro Street to St. Joseph's Church and marching back after a church service, with a parade of small children costumed as friars passing out miniature loaves of bread, teenage girls trudging along in formal gowns or robes, accompanied by proud mothers. Mountain View Library with great new book selections inside the entrance... usually getting no farther than that to stop and read. Near San Antonio & Middlefield the pay-to-play indoor racquet ball courts for just a few years, and next to it, I think, was a pay-to-play woodworking shop.Chuck's Cellar on El Camino near San Antonio. The live music downstairs... John Stewart of "California Bloodlines", Crystal Pistol (3 girls, violin & guitars)...Getting a traffic citation for making a u-turn in front of the Post Office (considered in the business district although 1 block east of Castro and seemingly behind the actual business on the street.Registering a complaint with the City of MV when my landlord (1904 Bates house at California & View Street - next to the little home in the orchard tower) planned to cut down his 2 story tall Australian Pine (Casuarina equisetifolia ) because it dropped too much "mess." The tree reminded me of home (Florida beaches... now it's illegal to grow them in my Florida city). Turned out there was a mistake and the permit was supposed to be to have been issued for his small pepper tree instead. MV was specifically preserving the Casuarins - had a special one in a ramp right-of-way (Central Expressway and...El Monte?). The persimmon tree in "our" front yard and the people who would drive up and try to strip the fruit. The tulip tree next to it, with bare branches I filled with lights at Christmas while blaring my record of Bach's "Magnificat." A plant nearby that sprang from nothing each year and was spectacular. Little violets that filled the back shady patio if the landlord was slow to mow. Taking Amtrak to San Jose train station by dropping off my bags at the Amtrak shelter, driving back home, and walking back the 2 blocks to catch the train. Or, taking a local bus home from San Francisco Airport, down El Camino to my street (View), and rolling the bag home.Blue Sky Cafe - vegetarian restaurant in a wooden cottage west of Castro. Aikido lessons in a hot second floor dojo above Castro Street.Poking around the unrestored Rengsdorff house in that surreal setting all sky and wet/flat lands, pre-development and amplitheater.Mountain View near Castro was a wonderful place to live.

Reading all the comments brought back fond memories - I grew up in Mtn View in the late 60's, early 70's, in the neighborhood that is bordered by 101, Middlefield Road, Shoreline (Sterling), and Moffit. My parents still live there, and I visit them often.We had a wonderful wholesale bakery in that neighborhood, where you could buy a big bag of shortbread cookies for a $1. they were the "reject" cookies, but as kids, we didn't care if it was missing a corner or had a funky shape, as long as the cookie was warm and melted in your mouth.Does anyone remember the name of this bakery? If you grew up in that neighborhood, you would remember the smell of those cookies! Is this bakery still in existance? No one in my family can remember the name of this bakery! Even our long time neighbors can't recall the name. It's driving us all crazy. When I was pregnant a few years back, I had a sudden craving for these cookies from my childhood! Does anyone know what bakery I'm talking about?

I worked at GTE Government Systems (formerly GTE Sylvania, formerly Electronic Defense Laboratories) from 1983 to 1990. It once comprised 7 buildings, of which only two still stand. The others were demolished in the 1990s for the present-day Whisman Station development. GTE's greatly reduced operation was moved to Santa Clara a few years ago. I don't know who occupies the site now. Across the street on Evelyn (which was a dirt road in places) was Ferry-Morse, but HP more recently occupied the site.I think Rotten Robbie's is still on the corner of Whisman and Middlefield, maybe even the Wagon Wheel restaurant next to it.I lived in a complex of yellow apartment builings on Montecito Ave. That street seems relatively unchanged. My wife was on-call as a dietitian at the nursing home there in the early 80s. You could still find "cowboys" in the Rengstorff-Rock St-Middlefield area 20 years ago but they are long gone.The Camino Medical Group building at El Camino and 85 is on the site of the defunct Emporium-Capwell store.A Palo Alto Co-op store was on the corner of San Antonio and El Camino. This was a hippie/environmentalist type of grocery store. It's was a PayLess the last time I noticed.There was actually a gun shop (Eddy's) on Castro and El Camino which first moved across the street then finally went out of business about 6 or 7 years ago. When I lived on Park Dr I used to walk over on Saturday mornings. Try to find a gun shop in Mountain View today.Well at least Clark's burgers is still around!

This is a great thread. I have another memory I haven't seen mentioned yet: a restaurant called Woody's that was on Middlefield (or Old Middlefield?) not too far from San Antonio. That's the closest address my childhood brain can come up with.Woody's was a real old-school place, with all the breakfast dishes or sandwiches available for ordering written on tiny chalkboards behind the counter. My dad and I used to go there for breakfast, back around 1980 or so.As a kid I lived mostly in extreme south Palo Alto, but I was oriented more toward Mountain View than anything to the north: Mayfield Mall with its music store and Consumers Distributing catalog store; the San Antonio Center with the Menu Tree, the Time Zone arcade, and the Sears with the candy counter.I also remember the 50s holdout restaurant Linda's, farther down El Camino (at Escuela, evidently). Someone mentioned it closed in about 1980, but I say it hung on a few years longer than that, maybe till about 1985. I remember the big white-and-red sign very well.I also remember the spooky old house standing alone somewhere along Shoreline, even after the golf course was set up. It's not still there, is it?

I worked at the Sav-Mor food store on Calderon an Church for about 5 years, along with my Brother. My Family knew the people who owed the big spooky looking house across the street. I graduated from Mtn. View High in 78 and remember all the places mentioned. One was missed ( or was not that important) The Akron store on El Camino and San Antonio, the Wherehouse replaced it. Also the Time Zone Arcade. I spent many a quarter there playing air hockey and the Night Driver video game. 041b061a72