I think this kind of festivity is important in bringing people together, and it has a long history here in Saratoga and in neighboring towns. Los Gatos, for instance, had a colorful tradition of community pageants, and there was even a pageant ground set against the hillside near the present Civic Center. Later, there was a Fiesta de Los Gatos, and I don't know what became of that. Campbell had Old Settlers Day, which used to feature a parade and program.

Saratoga's landmark event, of course, was the annual Blossom Festival, which celebrated the valley-wide blooming of fruit orchards. The first intervention was World War II. Then, when housing developments and shopping centers replaced the orchards, the festival lost its blossoms and hence its meaning. There were later celebrations, such as Blossom-Time Chip-In Day and even a blossomless Blossom Festival, but I think the Chamber of Commerce has hit on the formula here.

There's another observance worthy of celebration coming up, and that's next year's 50th anniversary of Saratoga's incorporation as a city. I understand that city officials and other interested parties are planning quite an event, or series of events, and that's good. Incorporation didn't come easily, and its achievement deserves some kind of special observance.

Still on the subject of anniversaries, the city of Saratoga's golden one coincides with the centennial of the great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. Commemoration of disasters is not unheard of. Just recently we have seen a solemn observance marking the fourth anniversary of the outrageous 9-11 tragedy wreaked on the people of New York City.

So how do you commemorate an earthquake? All right, you practitioners of sick humor go ahead and state the obvious: you celebrate one epic earthquake by having another. The irony here is that another earthquake is exactly what might happen. One agency that knows about these things, in this case the U.S. Geological Survey, says that there is a 62 percent chance that a 6.7 or greater magnitude quake will occur before 2032.

The numbers pertain to the Richter scale that measures intensity. The San Francisco quake, for example, had an intensity of 8.3. The Loma Prieta quake of 1989 had an intensity of 7.1. In the 1906 San Francisco disaster, fire pretty well took care of what the earthquake didn't, and I remember hearing my mother, who was attending Mills College in Oakland at the time, telling of how the students looked across the bay at night, watching the flames and glow and hearing at least one of her friends comment, "There goes our house."

Earthquakes, of course, are not confined to a single area. In 1906, there was considerable damage in San Jose. I understand that here in Saratoga, some ranchers lost their water tanks--the kind mounted 20 or so feet above the ground--but I think that was the most serious loss. Two-story structures, including church steeples, seem to have survived.

Now, of course, awareness of our earthquake potential has been sharpened by the incredible destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and areas of the Gulf Coast. Many newspaper writers have harped on the theme: hurricanes there, earthquakes here. In a worst case scenario along our regional earthquake faults, I would visualize Saratoga as the kind of refugee center we see serving the hurricane victims.

Meanwhile, we are being advised as to what kind of emergency stores every household should have.

Shucks, I'd rather be looking forward to a Blossom Festival.