War raged in the South Pacific and the European theater in the years following the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. But in the small town of Los Gatos thousands of miles away from the fighting, life went on pretty much as usual.

Peerless Stages still pulled in and out of the tile-covered bus station on N. Santa Cruz Avenue; visitors called ELgato 4-2540 to make reservations for a stay at the elegant Hotel Lyndon; and rail travelers loaded into trains at the Los Gatos station as they joined riders from San Jose for the trip over the hill to Santa Cruz.

In war as in peace, life goes on in typical small-town America.

But nothing was normal during the years of World War II. And even a quiet American hometown nestled in the shadows of the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains could not escape the ugliness of war.

It was September 1941 when the news of the first Los Gatos "war" casualty reached home. Cpl. Hamilton White died on Sept. 14 of that year during military maneuvers in Jonesboro, La., three months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

"His flag-draped casket surrounded by an honor color guard of World War veteran members of the Los Gatos post of the American Legion, funeral services were held for Corporal Hamilton White in Melvin mortuary chapel last Saturday afternoon," wrote the Los Gatos Times on Sept. 26, 1941.

White's death marked the first local casualty of World War II; it would just be the first of many to follow.

The war also marked the beginning of changing times in America. The postwar era brought with it an economic and population boom felt from coast to coast, and Los Gatos shared in that growth. The small town of the prewar era would grow up and see many changes through the 1940s and '50s—the construction of Lexington Dam, the development of the "Little Village," the opening of a new freeway through town and over the hill to Santa Cruz and the end of the railroad.

But it all started with war.

World War II

"WAR!"—the headline screamed from the front page of the newspaper. Four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor had pushed the United States into war with the Empire of Japan, the United States declared war on Germany and Italy.

The patriotism of 1940 and '41, while still strong, was tested by the realities of war.

Headlines in early 1941 that heralded local boys going off to serve were replaced less than a year later by those lamenting local soldiers taken prisoner, lost in action and killed.

The first four Los Gatos men called "draft volunteers" left town by train in 1940, and by 1944 the Los Gatos Times reported that more than 500 Los Gatos High School graduates were serving in the war.

Headlines like "Townfolk Urged To Open Homes To Soldiers," "Yoo-Hoo The Boys And Be Proud Of It" and "Seeing The Boys Off To Camp" gave way to "Blackout!," "Remove Enemy Aliens" and, worst of all, "Local Boys Give Lives For Country."

There were 19-year-old Eugene Katt, 17-year-old Glen Calvert and 18-year-old Emmett Cleveland, all Los Gatos boys who were killed at Pearl Harbor. Ralph Kirkbride, David Criswell, Ray Alford, Kenneth Kretsinger, Charles Edwards, Francis Hoffman, Henry Lawrence Beecroft, Brian Smith, Leonard Hoover ... sadly, the list goes on and on.

Too many Los Gatos boys paid the supreme sacrifice, but for the Jones family on Daves Avenue the sacrifice was almost too much to bear. William and Geraldine Jones lost both of their sons—21-year-old Robert in 1943 and 21-year-old Neal in 1945, both pilots—to wartime deaths. William "Billy" Jones went on to establish the Billy Jones Railroad on his property at the corner of Daves Avenue and Winchester Boulevard, where thousands of children would ride the rails around his property, their squeals of delight masking the sadness of his own "children" lost.

The Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad runs today in Oak Meadow and Vasona parks as a tribute to the man who began the operation of the narrow-gauge railroad for children more than half a century ago.

But all news from the war front wasn't bad. Col. Marc J. Logie of Los Gatos was hailed as a hero after commanding a regiment that overtook the enemy on Kwajalein Island, and local boys Bud Weltz and Allen Panighetti each survived the sinking of the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Hornet.

On the homefront, the call came to buy war bonds, for gas and food rationing, for scrap drives, for women's silk and nylon hosiery and for local volunteers to help harvest the prune crops with so many men away from home. Even the World War I cannon that had stood as a monument in Memorial Park was turned over to the scrap drive.

Tom Brokaw called it The Greatest Generation in his book of the same name that commemorated the 50th anniversary of D-Day. In Los Gatos, it only marked the beginning of great changes ahead.

Highway 17

One of the biggest changes of the era was the construction of the Highway 17 freeway—then Route 5—that provided a dual benefit for Los Gatos. It allowed traffic to bypass downtown Los Gatos on the trip to Santa Cruz, but it also made Los Gatos more accessible to the rest of the Santa Clara Valley.

The road to Santa Cruz became easier, then easier yet, during the period of the 1940s and '50s.

A "modern" highway over the hill had opened in 1939, providing a more direct route over the Santa Cruz Mountains from Los Gatos to the coast. But in 1940 the section of roadway became complete with the dedication and opening of the final 1.8 miles of the Los Gatos­Santa Cruz highway.

The three-lane roadway included a center passing lane, called the "suicide lane." And with the final link opened, Los Gatos had a direct connection to the coast.

Direct, yes. Efficient, maybe not. Lines of automobiles would back up down Santa Cruz and San Jose avenues in town in drivers' efforts to get on the new highway over the hill. So bad was the traffic jam that Herb Caen wrote in the San Francisco Examiner in 1954, "Los Gatos is the gateway to Santa Cruz. Early on Saturday morning, the cards begin inching along Santa Cruz Ave., bumper to bumper, heading for the ocean 20 miles away ... A few at a time, they squeeze through the green light at the old Lyndon Hotel ... Then the army of cars breaks out with a whoop and holler into the magnificent four-lane highway that sweeps through the mountains to the sea. But it's a long, hard fight to get through the Los Gatos bottleneck on a summer weekend."

It would be only a few years later when Route 5 would be constructed through town, allowing motorists to bypass the downtown on the trip to the coast.

And the new freeway also brought growth and new business to town.

"Highway building will mean more trade, and more shops are expected to boom in its wake," wrote the San Jose Mercury-News on June 27, 1954.

There were indeed more shops coming. Realtor Effie Walton came up with the idea of creating a "Little Village" on N. Santa Cruz Avenue at the site of the old Hunt Brothers Cannery and the town's old cemetery.

The 5-Spot Drive-In that opened in the 1930s on the corner of Santa Cruz Avenue and Los Gatos­Saratoga Avenue was torn down in the 1950s, and the Little Village was born across the street from Northgate Drug Store. The unique buildings remain today, home to a string of businesses that stretch for a block down N. Santa Cruz.

The construction of Route 5 also made it necessary for the town to replace the Main Street Bridge. The original wooden structure had been torn down in 1902 and replaced by a more "modern" structure. But the Los Gatos Daily Times reported on Sept. 23, 1954, that a new bridge would be built.

During the construction period, a temporary "detour bridge" was constructed. The two-lane, paved wooden bridge allowed traffic to pass while the new bridge was being built. The new structure opened on Aug. 24, 1955.

The new freeway would spell the end of Memorial Park and the Municipal Swimming Pool located under the Main Street Bridge. The park had served as a gathering place for townspeople for more than half a century, and the pool had been a popular watering hole since the 1920s.

With Memorial Park now gone, the town needed a new recreation facility. In 1954, land once used as the town's old sewer farm was deemed clean enough for the construction of a park, and Oak Meadow Park would open on that site in 1958.

Changes downtown

The times were changing in many ways during the era—most of all, in transportation.

Trains that had connected Los Gatos to Santa Cruz had made their final run in 1939 after heavy storms in the winter of 1939­40 forced the railroad to abandon the line because of irreparable damage to the track and tunnels in the Los Gatos canyon.

Los Gatos travelers could still connect with the coast by rail, but only by taking the more circuitous and less scenic route through Watsonville.

Passenger trains would continue to run through Los Gatos, stopping at the station at Main Street and Santa Cruz Avenue across from Hotel Lyndon, until 1959, when the ceremonial pulling of the spike marked the end of the line.

"The rails are to be torn up between Los Gatos and Vasona Junction, at a point were the valley meets the hills," wrote Dick Barrett in "Share it with Barrett" on Jan. 23, 1959, in the San Jose Evening News.

Bus travel was also a popular mode of transportation at the time, and travelers could catch a Greyhound bus or Peerless stage at the tile-covered station on Santa Cruz Avenue. Buses would roar through a tunnel in the building that opened onto the avenue—red and green lights on a sign out front would warn pedestrians if a bus was coming out over the sidewalk or if they could pass safely.

There were also a couple of devastating fires in town. The first, on July 5, 1943, destroyed two buildings on E. Main Street and damaged the red brick Rex Hotel in what was called the biggest blaze since the great fire of 1901.

The fire covered the same area that had been ravaged by fire in 1891. Buildings that had survived the fire 52 years earlier were lost in this blaze.

Fireman Ralph Fanning was injured while fighting the fire when he drove an axe into his foot while cutting a hole through the roof of one of the buildings.

Just over a decade later, the Sewall Brown & Co. processing plant at Vasona Junction was destroyed by fire. Five units responded to the fire on Sept. 20, 1955, but the 53-year-old wooden stucture that was filled with 2,000 tons of apricot pits was lost, reported the Los Gatos Times-Observer.

Loss of town leaders

The war certainly took its toll in the first half of the decade of the 1940s, but all who were lost in town during this period were not casualties of war. A venerable who's who of Los Gatos filled the obit pages of the Times during the decades of the '40s and '50s, including town pioneers, educators and town leaders.

J.D. Farwell was one of them. A Los Gatos pioneer, Farwell had played a leading role in the organization of the Los Gatos Ice, Gas and Electric Company in 1903—a company that was later purchased by PG&E.

Farwell died in 1943. Dying the same year was Dr. Robert Gober, who had practiced in town for 58 years before his retirement in 1935.

Charles Erskine Scott Wood, the builder of "The Cats" estate, died in 1944, one month before his 92nd birthday, and Hiland L. Baggerly, called the "dean of Santa Clara County newspaper publishers," died in August of the same year. Lee Darnel died in 1946 after serving 18 years as the Los Gatos postmaster.

Death came to educators Louise Van Meter and Doug Helm and to youth leader Sewall S. Brown. Van Meter, for whom the elementary school on Los Gatos Boulevard is named, died in 1948 at age 80, and Helm, for whom the football field at Los Gatos High School is named, died in 1953 of a heart attack at age 51. Brown, a longtime leader of Los Gatos youth activities, died in 1952.

George S. McMurtry was a real native son. He was born in 1865 in Lexington and became the town's first treasurer after Los Gatos was incorporated in 1887. He died on July 28, 1950.

Famed author Ruth Comfort Mitchell Young died at home in her bathtub of heart failure in 1954; former police Chief Lyman Feathers—who was famous for creating "Feathers Hotel," where the transient unemployed could get a bed, dinner and breakfast during the Great Depression—died of a heart attack at age 54 in 195; and former mayor and Green's Drug Store founder George Green died at age 84 in 1956.

Literary classic

Comfort Mitchell wasn't the only literary great in the area in the period. John Steinbeck had arrived in Los Gatos in 1936, and it was here—in a small house on Greenwood Lane in what is now Monte Sereno—that he penned his classic The Grapes of Wrath.

Steinbeck worked from May to October in 1938, writing the book by hand, which was later typed by his first wife, Carol Henning, according to a newspaper account written for the Los Gatos Weekly by the late Robert Aldrich.

"In his Los Gatos years, Steinbeck did not mingle much with, nor take much interest in, local people," wrote Aldrich. "He did enjoy an occasional drink at the Lyndon Hotel Bar or visiting friends."

Steinbeck's Grapes, published in April of 1939, was so controversial in its day that Los Gatos author Ruth Comfort Mitchell wrote Of Human Kindness to present the other side of the issue of the conflict between ranchers and migrant workers.

Prior to The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck finished writing the critically acclaimed Of Mice and Men in Los Gatos, an accomplishment made even more impressive because of the appetite of his dog.

"His puppy had literally eaten half of the only original, handwritten copy of Of Mice and Men," wrote Kathryn Morgan, a Los Gatos High School teacher and town planning commissioner, in 1998. "Steinbeck later wrote about the incident, 'I was pretty mad. But the poor fellow may have been acting critically.' He rewrote it from memory."

Following the success of The Grapes of Wrath, the Steinbecks moved to a ranch house on Brush Road. They lived there until 1941 and divorced in 1943.

Los Gatos had its share of cultural icons in town during the period. Along with Steinbeck and Ruth Comfort Mitchell, there were famed violinist Yehudi Menuhin, ballerina Nana-Ruth Goliner (who appeared on the cover of Life magazine on March 20, 1944) and the "beat generation's" Neal Cassady.

The era of the 1940s and '50s was a period that began with war and ended with prosperity. In that way, Los Gatos was no different than the rest of small-town America as "The Greatest Generation" made its mark on a nation.

Aug. 23­24, 1940—"Trail Days" were held to celebrate the completion of the last 1.8 miles of the "splendid multiple-lane modern highway all the way from Los Gatos to Santa Cruz." Pageants, festivals and parades have long been a part of the culture of Los Gatos, and the tradition continues each year with the Los Gatos Children's Holiday Parade.

Jan. 2, 1942—Yehudi Menuhin presented a "gift concert" in his hometown of Los Gatos for soldiers stationed here. The concert took place at the Los Gatos High School auditorium, before a capacity crowd of 850 service men and about 200 civilians. On July 4, the town picnic in Memorial Park was a "silent celebration" (no fireworks) in honor of Los Gatans serving in WWII. That year, the first Los Gatos salvage drive resulted in a "Victory Salvage Heap," with the metal to be used for planes, tanks and ships.

June 30, 1944—The Los Gatos Times reported that more than 500 graduates of Los Gatos High School were now serving in the war.

June 9, 1950—The Centennial Commission designated Forbes Mill as State Historical Landmark No. 458.

Jan. 29, 1952—Lexington Dam was completed, capturing the waters of Los Gatos Creek. California Governor Goodwin Knight was the speaker at the dedication ceremony held four years later, in 1956, at the Alma Forestry Station.

1952—Olivia de Havilland visits an assembly at Los Gatos High School, where she presents a cup, named in her honor, for dramatic reading.

August 1954—The new Los Gatos Library opened, located in the former American Legion War Memorial Building on Main Street. The Los Gatos Carnegie Library, opened in 1903, had been torn down.

August 1954—The new Oak Meadow park site, formerly the old town sewer farm, was given a "clean bill of health" by the county health department. The park would open to the community in 1958.

Aug. 5, 1954—The Los Gatos Daily Times reported that "State gets Town Park Possession" through the process of eminent domain, setting the stage for the opening of Route 5, or Highway 17, through Los Gatos. The freeway marked the end of the popular Memorial Park beneath the Main Street Bridge.

September 1954—The Municipal Swimming Pool in Memorial Park closed after one last swim meet was held on Labor Day weekend. The pool had served Los Gatans for more than a quarter-century, but had to make way for the new highway. Highway 17 would open in 1957.

Aug. 24, 1955—Two lanes of the new Main Street Bridge opened. The first car across the bridge was a Model A, loaded down with a crew of workmen who helped build it. The bridge project—begun in October of 1954 with the construction of a semicircular, paved wooden "detour bridge"—was completed in September.

1957—An F4D Skyray jet fighter plane crashed on National Avenue, near Los Gatos. The plane's pilot had parachuted to safety. No one was killed or injured.

Jan. 25, 1959—Railroad service ends in Los Gatos with a ceremonial pulling of the spike.

A three-day event at Borders Books and Music in Old Town on Aug. 13­15 will raise much-needed funds for the Los Gatos History Project.

Called "Hooked on Los Gatos" and organized by local authors Ira and Barbara Spector, the event will include booksignings, presentations and live music at the bookstore at 50 University Ave.

During the three-day weekend, 15 percent from purchases accompanied by a special voucher will be donated to Friends of the Library for the history project. The event is co-sponsored by Borders, the Los Gatos Museum Association, Village Printers, Friends of the Los Gatos Library, the Spectors and the Los Gatos Weekly-Times.

Library Director Peggy Conaway said that the history project is being run on donations alone and that the funds would help pay for a staff position and other related materials and equipment.

The Spectors, who wrote a book about their experiences renting a villa on the French Riviera, will be signing books during the weekend, along with local authors Marco Zecchin and Dick Lake. The authors will give presentations at 7 p.m. on each night of the fundraiser. Conaway will give a presentation based on her forthcoming book, a pictorial history of Los Gatos.

Vouchers are available at various locations throughout the town and in the Weekly-Times.