Growing Up in San Jose, CA from 1968 - Part 1

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My intent is to write what life was like in San Jose, California from the time we moved into a new house on Shelly Court.

Moving In

Much has changed, much has not. Some places that were nearly inaccessible are now easily entered and enjoyed.

When we first moved to San Jose, California from San Mateo, California it was a big change. San Mateo is a lot cooler than San Jose and there were salt water canals, called lagoons which came all the way through Foster City, which is in on San Francisco Bay to San Mateo very near our house.

Though mother did not know it, Farris Dalgoff, Bobby Moore, and sometimes Peter or Paul Macintosh who lived next door went with us though they were teenagers. Paul was more likely to go than Peter who was near high school graduation.

What we would do is build rafts and play Tom Sawyer or pirates. Ah, yes there could be sharks in there but they were small and sometimes we fished. A lot of times, we used the raft to get from balls that went over the fence of the school or the community recreation center next to the school. Sometimes we gave the balls back and sometimes we did not.

We had a huge collections of balls. A lot of things we found in the lagoons. Fortunately, my uncle who was seven years old than me and Peter made the raft fairly, secretly. Sometimes they took girls for rides on the raft. My Mom didn't know anything about it nor did Mrs. Macintosh.

Farris taught Bobby and me about comic books. We read Mad, Superman, Batman inside a fort had in his backyard.

Then after falling in love with water sports we moved to San Jose.

One of the first things was walking down Blossom Avenue from Santa Teresa Boulevard to the foothill at the west end, known as cardboard hill.

Take a piece of cardboard with you and slide down the grassy hill like a sled on snow. The grass was like dried straw in the heat. There were no houses back then behind ours all the way to cardboard hill. There were orchards of apricots and other fruits, like nectarines.
It was incredibly fun and suicidal because sometimes one would hit a rock.

Oh well we were kids, rarely did pain thwart us. No one was ever injured badly enough they couldn't walk home without help. An ambulance was never called as far as I know.

There was a drainage creek at the "top" of cardboard hill at an elevation of 120 feet but the actual crest of the Santa Teresa Foothills was hundreds of feet higher. Nowadays, those hills are a wildlife preserve. At that time, they were a cattle ranch or series of ranches. The foothills went for a very long distance.

There was a creek behind our house. It was fenced in by an eight foot cycle fence topped by three strands of barbed wire at the top. Nevertheless, we were experts at scaling it. There were frogs, tadpoles, minnows. All sorts of water insects. The sides were steep but there roads on both sides inside the fence. There were birds, even ducks, geese, and herons. Sometimes there were snapping turtles in there.

There were also water plants like cattails, a few water lilies, lily pads, other sorts of plants. Every so often, the city would clean out the creek of all plants and things. We found a lot of spare bicycle parts and other things in there.

Frogs, tadpoles, minnows, snakes, there were muskrats would hide out in the tunnels that went under the streets.

After enough time all grew back, even the creatures. It was fun. I had two younger brothers. Scott Williams who lived next door. Richard Jeffries who lived on Maree Court, next court south. Other kids I knew from school. The Mizell Brothers, and Maestas.

We had a lot of fun doing these things at the time it was Dickinson Elementary on Shawnee. Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Celine for fourth grade and Mr. Kirkpatrick and Mrs. Bonacini for fifth. I will talk about them later.
Looks the name is changed to Challenger.

Generally, the water was a few to six inches deep. However, if it rained heavy, for a couple of days the water might be 12 feet deep with waves and an absolutely powerful current. We were prepared with an inflatable raft. This was frowned upon, naturally, by the authorities. But the gates were always locked so we rafted away down stream. It was rare that happened. The water rose that high.

About a mile down, there were ramps that gently slipped down to bottom of the creek. Miss that, which never did miss the ramp and it long, long ways until we got out.

Then we'd deflate raft, roll it up and carry it back home.

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