A NEW exhibit titled "137 Years of Los Gatos Area Schools," opening today (Sept. 11) at Forbes Mill Museum, offers photographs, history and memorabilia about the community's close to 50 schools, including many of the past. The 137-year-old Lexington School is the oldest survivor, with Lakeside School, dating from 1881, probably rating second. Forbes Mill curator Mary Foster has obtained information about most of the schools and the exhibit includes map locations, clothing, school books, scrapbooks, yearbooks and graduation pictures.
"The first downtown Los Gatos schools were in private homes," Foster said.
There will be a reception at Forbes Mill on Sunday, Sept. 15 at
2 p.m. "We especially urge attendance by former teachers and school personnel," Foster said. Anyone who comes across any artifacts connected with local schools can still add them to the exhibit.
IMPORTANT note for seniors: The date for flu shots at the Neighborhood Center, 208 E. Main St., is Friday, Oct. 18. (The date in this space last week was incorrect.) Hours for the shots given by the Santa Clara County Health Department are 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. and the cost is $5.
A REUNION dinner for former Los Gatos Night Ball players, back in the 1940s and early 50s, will be Sept. 24 at the Villa Felice, instead of the 22nd as previously announced. For information call John Boitano, 354-0154, or Mike Furla, 356-3767. Teams sponsored by local businesses played baseball behind Los Gatos High School.
LOS GATOS Lions Club was still gathering information on attendance at the Aug. 25 Town Picnic, but Lion Paul Mahoney said there was an "approximate 15 to 20 per-cent increase in the number of meals served compared to last year," and attendance was appreciably greater. Picnic funds go for Lions charities.
'WHERE were you when the lights went out?" That's a question members of the Los Gatos High School Class of 1966 should be able to answer. Some 130 classmates attended a reunion here Aug. 9-10. "We were at the Los Gatos Opera House Saturday when the big blackout occurred," said Ken Barker. "We all went over to C. B. Hannegan's. Chris Benson of Hannegan's was in our class." To which Benson adds: "It looked as if Providence likes barbecue because for some reason, maybe because we're on a different grid, our lights were on."
Class members credited Devon Brown of Los Gatos, along with Captain Duino Giordano of the LGPD with organizing the reunion. "When we hadn't raised enough money, Diane Carlisle said she'd swallow a goldfish for pledges," said Benson, "and she did." The reunion wound up with a picnic at Vasona Park.
APPARENTLY it runs in the family: Don Worn of Los Gatos is a veteran bicyclist who has made some long-distance bike trips, including one from Los Gatos across the country to his alma mater, Cornell University at Ithaca, N.Y. Another local cyclist, his daughter Mary Worn, was a strong finisher in an Ironman Race Aug. 25 in Penticton, British Columbia. It was her first entry in an Ironman, and she completed the combination 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26-mile marathon run in less than 13 hours. There were 1,700 men and women starters in the race. Mary Worn is a partner in Hands on for Health, 301 University Ave., a massage therapy business.
A CALIFORNIA delegate to the Democratic National Convention, Los Gatos inventor Charles Walton was impressed by the quality of the speeches, giving especially high marks to Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Tipper Gore and Jesse Jackson, as well, of course, as the President himself. "A lot of the speakers didn't get on CNN," Walton said, naming, for instance, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer.
"My wife Ann and I had a boat trip with 40 or 50 other delegates on Lake Michigan for a view of Chicago. The city was much improved, cleaned up and beautiful." The balloon drop that climaxed the nomination of Bill Clinton "was 8 feet deep; you couldn't see the other delegates," he said. "I wish my Republican friends could have been there."
The Waltons attended a California delegation party at the Field Museum, a dinner for Bill Clinton and various hospitality events. Longtime Democrat Walton agrees with polls that at the moment make a Clinton victory appear likely. That, anyway, is what the media seem to be saying.
TWO Los Gatos actors, Ada McDaniel and Grainne O'Flynn, are in the cast of Big Maggie, a play by Irish playwright John B. Keane presented by the Mostly Irish Theatre Company at The Stage, 490 S. First St., San Jose. Four extra performances are scheduled for Sept. 13 and 14 and Sept 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. For ticket information call 264-8673 or 283-7142. McDaniel formerly appeared with the Los Gatos Theater Project at Old Town.
SHORT courses in music and bridge are being offered by The Terraces of Los Gatos this month in conjunction with West Valley College. A three-part class in music appreciation will be held on Thursdays, beginning Sept. 12, from 7 to 9 p.m., to Sept. 26, with emphasis on Chopin. The cost is $35. An eight-week course in bridge for intermediate and beginning players is on Mondays, starting Sept. 30, for $58. Classes will be at The Terraces, 800 Blossom Hill Rd. For information, call Scott Sebastian, 356-1006, ext. 108. To register, contact West Valley College at 741-2096. .
A CELEBRATION of the life of conductor-composer George Barati will be held Sept. 15 at 2 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 900 High St., Santa Cruz. The Soquel resident, former executive director of Montalvo Center for the Arts, died June 22 after a fall on a downtown Los Gatos street.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, September 11, 1996.
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