An offer from the Cleveland Ballet stopped her in her college tracks—she was headed for NYU—and she joined the ballet company instead. When the Cleveland Ballet joined forces with San Jose, she returned to California.

Duffy studied at San Jose Dance Theater and at Santa Cruz Ballet Theater.

In the summers during her school years, she attended ballet schools—the likes of the Joffrey, American Ballet Theater and the San Francisco Ballet.

The ballerina attended St. Francis High School in Mountain View, graduating in 2000. When her folks, William and Cathryn, moved to Florida, she elected to stay on in Los Gatos. That was her senior year in high school, and she was 16. She lived with family friends Nancy and John Ottoboni.

While living in Los Gatos she worked at Willow Street Wood-Fired Pizza. Now she lives in San Jose and has an outside job at Chili's in Mountain View. If a waitress goes en pointe there you'll know her.

TRY THIS ANGLE: Now is the time to get acquainted—or reacquainted—with the epic work of Wallace Stegner. For its second townwide read, the library chose Stegner's Angle of Repose. The idea is to get the whole town talking about one book for a specified period—in this case, Angle of Repose through April and May, culminating in a Friends of the Los Gatos Public Library forum on May 16. The event will feature state librarian Dr. Kevin Starr, a personal friend of Stegner's, speaking about the famed author. Stegner lived in Los Altos, founded the Stanford Creative Writing Program and was considered the preeminent author of his time.

Last year's read was John Steinbeck, but we can't always find someone who lived in our town. Books are available free at the library, at Peet's Coffee and at the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company. Friends of the Los Gatos Public Library furnishes the copies. Read it and return it so others can read it, too.

HISTORY BROUGHT ALIVE: The San Jose History Museum offers presentations called "Portraits of the Past" that feature enactments of people prominent in local history. Names that may only have been a street name to you are brought alive as models dress in period costumes to present historically accurate mini-dramas.

Locals active in the program are Judy Kuechler, model; Anne Louise Heighho, accompanist; Kathy Cusick, stage manager; and Hal Silverstein of Saratoga, model. Vignettes are tailored to the audience. The next gig is the Commonwealth Club's 100th anniversary.

Sometimes fashions for each decade are presented, such as speakeasy days. The scriptwriters are Julie Pifer, Joanne Renk and Charlotte Carter. It's one way to meet Jane Stanford, Charlie Parker, Sen. Phelan or Julia Morgan. The contact number is 408.358.4913.

HOLIDAY CIRCLE: The Los Gatos group known as the Holiday Circle is still going strong, 50 years later, though none of the founding members are still active in the group. However, 25 of the founding members have been located and were invited to the anniversary doings held at Rinconada Country Club.

The group was started in '53 by Kedi Ness and was composed of couples in their 30s who were the movers and shakers of town in that era. So popular did it prove that there was a waiting list to get in.

About 75 couples was denoted as the limit. Attrition by death or mobility has taken its toll, yet the group still numbers 65 couples. Four dinner dances are held yearly. Standout parties have included a Sadie Hawkins Day dance and a costume party where one couple came as an organ grinder and monkey.

WARM P.O.: Noticed how friendly and welcoming the counter post office workers are? Was there a recent postal campaign designed to foster feel-goodism? Obviously we haven't lost all of the warmth and cohesiveness of a small town.

I heard a worker assuring a man whose son was at the war front that the package he was sending would get there in short order. After the man left, the worker announced with awe to his colleagues that a hometown boy was in the thick of things.

At another counter a woman was asked about her youngster's health. At my section, an astute young man was confident about my chances of winning a play competition. No wonder I left in a better mood than when I entered.

Incidentally, do you know the short story by Eudora Welty called "Why I Live at the P.O."? I'm betting that's why there's a software program called Eudora.

PAN AMERICAN: Pan American Round Table's spring luncheon will be held at Michael's Restaurant in Mountain View May 4, 11 a.m.­3 p.m., with music and a raffle included. The contact is 408.741.0908.

Got a tip for Main Street? Send email to maryanncook@earthlink.net.