“”Cupertino to Palo Alto””
We grew up just North of Palo Alto. We remember bicycling through orange groves in San José. Cupertino was a lovely, quiet area. We were so proud when Reagan was our Governor. We did not always have enough money, but we had each other. Trips to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Sometimes, even though we didn’t have money for the Santa Cruz rides, we just played in the water and sand.
Later on, when I was studying archeology, I learned that the Native Americans believed that they lived in Heaven. They believed that they must have done well in a previous life to earn such an existence. Archeologists estimated that each person only had to ‘work’ about 20 hours a week to feed themselves. With all the game to hunt, and the ocean / San Francisco Bay full of food, life was good. The natural air conditioning of the coastal winds and fog blowing into the Peninsula South Bay made it ideal.
I remember when they built Hwy 280. It has long, banked curves, and there were so few cars, some people drove like it was a European autobahn. Later on, every time a house was sold, the developer would scrape the house, and build four houses where one stood before.
In 1976, it was cold enough that it snowed, and the snow remained on the ground for a few days. I have photos of the snow-covered hills above the Stanford Linear Accelerator.
Amazing times.